THE RHETORICAL RISE OF THE “MITO” AND “TROPICAL TRUMP”: HOW BOLSONARO USED A TRUMP PERSONA AND US IMAGERY IN HIS RHETORICAL APPEALS

In the elections of 2018, Brazilians chose Jair Messias Bolsonaro, the first Far-Right candidate, to be the future President of Brazil. In a 28-year political trajectory, he changed political parties eight times. The constant change demonstrates his ability to use rhetorical devices and adapt to new appeals. The researcher of this work outlined Bolsonaro’s rhetorical rise, tested his rhetorical personae, “mito” and “Tropical Trump” based on the work of Ware in Linkugel (1982). No other foreign candidate mirrored Trump as much as he did. Bolsonaro also used US imagery in videos, borrowing images and terminologies found in the US culture. By analyzing his rhetorical strategies, the researcher identified Bolsonaro’s representative anecdote in his appeals that led to his rhetorical motivation as outlined by Burke’s dramatism.