Media, Law & Policy

Rhetoric at the UN, Similar to The Apprentice?

Sunday, October 1, 2017, By Sawyer Kamman

Kendall Phillips, professor of communication and rhetorical studies at Syracuse University, who is also teaching a class this semester on President Trump and popular culture, is available for comment on the recent speech by President Trump at the United Nations.

“It is interesting how similar Trump’s rhetoric as President is to the rhetoric he used during his television show, “The Apprentice.” Notice in the UN Speech, after setting up the difficult task of dealing with North Korea, he then sets the situation up as a challenge through which the UN will prove itself. At the end of his discussion of North Korea, Trump said: ‘That’s what the United Nations is for. Let’s see how they do.’”

“It sounds almost identical to the way he set up challenges for the contestants on the show. It is a very strange way of framing the work of the UN and it underscores his sense that the UN still needs to prove itself to him,” says Phillips.

Professor Phillips is available for interviews via email/phone/Skype/LTN studio. Please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, director of news and PR at Syracuse University, at ejmbuqe@syr.edu or 315.443.1897 or Keith Kobland, media manager at Syracuse University, at kkobland@syr.edu or 315.443.9038.