An Aristotelian Interpretation of Ivanka Trump’s Speech

This paper conducts an Aristotelian rhetorical analysis of Ivanka Trump’s 2016 Republican National Convention speech. By applying the classical triad of ethos, pathos and logos, together with the modern notions of rhetorical voice and distance, the study identifies the principal stylistic and argumentative strategies that rendered the address persuasive to a national audience. Three strengths are highlighted: (1) lexically simple yet affectively powerful language that exploits parallelism and concrete illustration; (2) the speaker’s strategic construction of credibility through situated and invented ethos—personal memories, business credentials and ostensibly non-partisan stance; and (3) a carefully narrowed rhetorical distance achieved via first- and second-person pronouns and present-tense narration, fostering immediacy and affinity. The findings suggest that Ivanka Trump’s speech succeeds because it translates corporate celebrity into intimate, trustworthy and data-enhanced political narrative, thereby exemplifying the continued relevance of Aristotelian rhetoric in contemporary campaign discourse.