"These cameras won't show the crowds": Intradiscursive intertextuality in Trumpian discourse's crowd size conspiracy theory

This chapter uses a linguistically-based critical discourse analytic framework to identify, isolate, and contextualize the discursive strategies involved in the construction of conspiracy theories in former US President Donald Trump’s campaign-style rally speeches. Unlike simple falsehoods, conspiracy theories are discursively constructed, repeated, and must involve (specific or vague) accusations about certain agents acting against another party surreptitiously. This chapter analyzes the discursive strategies Trump uses to construct the “crowd size” conspiracy theory: the oft-repeated claim in Trumpian discourse that Trump’s opponents (especially the media) routinely manipulate, mask, and underestimate the number of Trump’s supporters who come to see him at events. Five discursive strategies are identified: the iconization of stock phrases, the repetition of numbers, insults, intertextuality, and recursivity. I also demonstrate how the application of these strategies is necessarily intradiscursively intertextual, i.e., characterized by repetition and reference across both speech genre (campaign rallies) and discursive context (Trumpian discourse) more broadly.