Hyperbole, Repetition, and Metonymy in Donald J. Trump’s Davos 2026 Special Address: A Discourse-Stylistic Analysis

Abstract

This study presents a rigorous stylistic analysis of President Donald J. Trump’s Davos 2026 special address, concentrating on the use of metonymy, hyperbole, and repetition. Using the full speech transcript, we manually annotated instances of these devices according to standard definitions. Our findings show that Trump heavily employs hyperbolic exaggerations (e.g. “hottest country anywhere in the world”, “largest wave of mass migration in human history”) and repeated constructions (e.g. multiple “Instead of … we’re …” clauses) to emphasize his points, while using few metonymic phrases (e.g. “Washington and European capitals”, “White House” for the presidency). Scholarly sources note that such repetition builds cohesion and emotional intensity in political rhetoric, and that hyperbole amplifies key messages and arouses audience engagement. This analysis (summarized in Table 1) suggests that Trump’s use of these devices serves to spotlight his achievements and contrast them with opponents’, creating a persuasive and forceful speaking style.