Presidential rhetoric expert can comment on Trump’s acceptance speech at 2024 Republican National Convention

LAWRENCE — An expert on Donald Trump’s rhetoric will be shocked if, in the wake of the July 13 assassination attempt, the former U.S. president moderates his tone in his acceptance speech Thursday night at the Republican National Convention.

“To expect anything but the pugnacity of his immediate ‘fight, fight’ response would be shocking and most welcome,” said Robin Rowland, University of Kansas professor of communication studies.

Rowland is available to journalists this week before the speech to comment upon the stakes or immediately after Trump speaks to analyze his remarks.

Rowland is one of the nation’s leading experts on presidential rhetoric and author of the 2021 book “The Rhetoric of Donald Trump: Nationalist Populism and American Democracy” (University of Kansas Press).

The KU researcher has specialized in the rhetorical legacies of presidents, calling the leading lights of each party — Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama — “once in a generation” communicators who raised the sights of their fellow citizens to lofty national ideals. Trump, conversely, he has called “a master at creating fear and hatred of others.”

Rowland also is the author of “Reagan at Westminster: Foreshadowing the End of the Cold War” (2010, Texas A&M University Press).