Jennifer Mercieca, Ph.D.

mercieca@tamu.edu

Texas A&M University-College Station

Country: United States (Texas)

Website


Social Media:

X: jenmercieca

About Me:

Dr. Jennifer Mercieca is an historian of American political rhetoric. She is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University.

She writes about American political discourse, especially as it relates to citizenship, democracy, and the presidency. Jennifer has published two books about political rhetoric: Founding Fictions (University of Alabama Press, 2010) and The Rhetoric of Heroic Expectations: Establishing the Obama Presidency (Texas A&M University Press, 2014). Her third book is about Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign: Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump should be available February, 2020. She has written about Trump’s rhetoric for USA Today, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, and other major media outlets. She has also been interviewed about Trump’s rhetoric by the BBC World News, NPR's All Things Considered, The New York Times, Australia's ABC Radio, Slate, and many other outlets throughout the United States and Worldwide. Her articles about rhetoric, Trump, and the 2016 election were read over 250,000 times during the election. In 2016 she was invited to deliver a TedX Talk: “Be a Citizen, Not a Partisan.”

She is a 2016 recipient of the Texas A&M Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching, the highest award given to faculty for teaching at Texas A&M University.

Research Interests

American Presidency And Executive Politics

Political Communication

Political Participation

Political Theory

Freedom Of Speech

Presidential Rhetoric

Propaganda

Democracy

Demagoguery

Fascism And Populism

Authoritarianism

Countries of Interest

United States

My Research:

I examine political rhetoric within its historical context. My approach is grounded in the humanities.

Publications:

Books Written:

(2020) Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump, Texas A&M University Press

A demagogue is an uncontrollable leader. Trump ran for president as someone who could not be controlled, he ran as a self-professed demagogue. How and why did America elect a demagogue for president? I explain how Trump consistently used six rhetorical strategies throughout his campaign to win power and why it worked. Trump attacked American democracy by appealing to distrust, polarization, and frustration.

(2014) The Rhetoric of Heroic Expectations: Establishing the Obama Presidency, Texas A&M University Press

Why do we think of the President of the United States as a hero? How do our heroic expectations for the president affect his or her ability to lead?

(2010) Founding Fictions, University of Alabama Press

Why do Americans think that they have a democracy when the Founders thought that they had made a republic? Does it matter? This is a history of how the first two generations of Americans thought about American citizenship and American democracy. It explains how and why political parties emerged as a way to provide stability for a ruling elite.

Media Appearances:

TV Appearances:

(2017) Vice News

7 Public Speaking Tips from Donald Trump

Radio Appearances:

(2017) NPR--All Things Considered

Trump Inauguration episode.

Newspaper Quotes:

(2015) New York Times

NYT special investigation of Trump's rhetoric,

Other:

(2016) Washington Post (via The Conversation)

One of a series of articles I wrote about Trump's demagogic rhetoric during the 2016 election.