KU expert in presidential rhetoric can comment on Trump Iran speech

LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas expert in presidential rhetoric will be watching President Donald Trump’s televised address to the nation April 1 about the ongoing war with Iran with trepidation. Robert Rowland is available to journalists to comment about it before or after Trump's speech, expected to take place at 8 p.m. today.

Rowland is a KU professor of communication studies and author of the 2021 book “The Rhetoric of Donald Trump: Nationalist Populism and American Democracy.” He has written extensively, too, about the rhetorical legacies of presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.

“It appears he may be about to announce the reverse of what Colin Powell told George W. Bush was the ‘Pottery Barn rule — you break it, you own it’ in relation to the invasion of Iraq,” Rowland said. “It appears that Trump is about to tell our allies in NATO and East Asia, ‘We broke it. You own it.’”