AUTHORITARIAN POPULISM IN DONALD TRUMP’S POST CEASEFIRE RHETORIC ON PAKISTAN AND INDIA: A FAIRCLOUGH’S 3D ANALYSIS OF TRUMP’S POST CONFLICT STATEMENTS

Abstract

This study aims to critically investigate authoritarian populist strategies being employed by Donald Trump’s ceasefire statements referencing India and Pakistan’s armed conflict of May 2025. The data is qualitative, and it consists of all the ceasefire-oriented statements of Trump delivered in May and June 2025. The study has been conducted analytically, employing Fairclough’s 3D model of CDA and the analysis has been conducted at three different levels, micro level, meso level and macro level analysis. The findings of the study indicate repeated use of textual strategies which add to in discourses. A repeated use of personal pronouns, skillful use of vivid imagery and alarming metaphors are being employed to brand his intervention urgent and crucial, the findings indicate centralization of power in himself and depict his persona capable of compelling the South Asian neighbors to stop the war. The finding also indicates the repeated attempts of hiding the agencies of Pakistan and India, an authoritarian populist strategy of portraying others as less important or the cause of problems. The study concludes that language plays key role in perpetuating authoritarian populism in conflict-based discourses, and it unpacks the strategies employed by the powerful leaders to claim success in securing peace. The study contributes to the broader debates on populism, authoritarian populism and the leveraging of trade as a disciplinary tool.