Power, Ideology, and Hegemony in Political Speech: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Donald Trump’s Pro-Israel speech at the Knesset

Abstract

In the contemporary geopolitical landscape, political speeches serve as powerful instruments of ideological construction. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) allows researchers to unfold the ways in which ideology, bias, and political favoritism are often strategically embedded and concealed within linguistic structures. The paper uses Norman Fairclough three dimensions model of Critical Discourse Analysis to analyze and identify the ideological meanings of Trump’s speech to the Israeli Knesset on 13th October 2025. The analysis is based on all three concepts of the model of Fairclough: textual elements, discursive activities and sociocultural contexts to examine in which the speech establishes a pro-Israel narrative. The research is also concerned with marginalization of Palestinian views. At the textual level, biblical allusions and evaluative lexical choices construct Israel as a morally victimized and civilized nation, while Palestinians are embodied as violent and subhuman. Palestinian misery is largely unacknowledged or marginalized in the discourse. On the discursive practice level, speech is presented in a highly symbolic political space and spread throughout the world, which increases its power in terms of ideology. Trump incorporates the hegemonic discourse of Israel about the conflict and compromises the state power by positioning peace and military action as the goods of his personal leadership. On the sociocultural level, the discourse justifies US Israeli hegemony, legitimizes pre-emptive military violence and the Islamophobic and us versus them worldviews. The study employes the qualitative data analysis to examine Power, Ideology, and Hegemony in Political Speech. The findings of the study indicate that there is an ideological contradiction where militarization and providing arms are put forward as a way of peace. Altogether, the research shows the functioning of political discourse as a power mechanism that perpetuates the existing inequality and creates the perception of the Israel Palestine conflict in society