Rhetorical Analysis Of Trump And The Plutocrats

Joseph Epstein’s prejudices are fairly obvious in his article, “Trump and the Plutocrats Hubris.” His innate inevitable bias is reflected through his use of verbal irony, diction, and tone. He describes his childhood experiences with businesses and the notions of success in his conservative middle-class origins. He saw first hand the unspoken rules of economic prosperity in social environments, and applied them to the mindset of our President, Mr. Donald Trump, through literary devices.

Epstein uses verbal irony to portray his points. Multiple times, he will write a sentence that blatantly says the opposite of his intention deliberately. Epstein mocks the notion of, “money talking,” and questions his father’s business slogan, “you can’t argue

In the fourth paragraph, there are a series of rhetorical questions that represent the absurdity of the business culture. “What, I would ask my father, is better to argue with? How the success was achieved, what went into it, who suffered because of it?” These rhetorical questions leave the reader to ponder the true meaning of this paragraph. He strives to unmask the true nature of business, which is making money, not political statements. “A strong argument can be made, contra Trump, success in business is too narrow to transfer to another realm,” Epstein writes, utilizing the commas to draw the reader’s attention to Trump’s name. By using grammar in this way, he makes it very clear who he is referring to. He also uses active sentences to highlight his strong feelings. Epstein begins many sentences with “I”, creating a sense of important, personal interaction, and strength. “I am someone who finds it difficult to think about money for more than two minutes at a time. I cannot marshal concentration to even read the financial statements about my own investments...moneymaking seems a useful skill, but not much more,” these sentences add to his intention of debunking the myth that success merits an opinion on worldly matters. The tone of the piece is clear

He reflects on his childhood and his early observations of his father and his business friends. Epstein describes it as a, “philistine milieu,” or a closed minded environment, which is automatically a negative attitude. The name of the article, “Trump and the Plutocrats Hubris,” is full of Epstein's tone and uneasy feelings toward Trump and big business. He dislikes Trump for his hubris, “or arrogance,” and it is extremely clear throughout the entirety of the article. “I’ve not read ‘The Art of the Deal’, nor do I plan to do during this life,” and “will soon humble even so arrogant a man as our new president,” show Epstein’s bias against Trump. He thinks Trump is a man who thinks highly of himself simply because of his financial success, however, that does not give him justification to govern America. Epstein’s tone is further evident by his sarcastic comments like, “In business, the paramount common interests is obvious: money, profit all-around. In politics, it turns out, much more is usually entailed,” and “The guy’s [Trump] a multi billionaire, cleaned up in real estate, so why shouldn’t he know about the health care, immigration, life in the inner cities? Of if he doesn’t know, no reason why with a bit of quick study he can’t find out enough to put everything in order.” Epstein is against the arrogance of big business, and he holds none of his feelings