A Critical Discourse Analysis of Trump’s 2020 “Deal of the Century”: Marginalizing Palestinians and Its Ongoing Impact

Abstract

This study examines the ideological underpinnings and power dynamics embedded in the President Donald Trump’s 2020 “Deal of the Century” speech, with a specific focus on the marginalization of Palestinians through discourse. Adopting a qualitative interpretive approach, the research is grounded in Fairclough’s (1992) model of Critical Discourse Analysis, which enables a multi-level exploration of how language shapes and sustains social hierarchies. Through lexical, metaphor, and transitivity analyses, the study reveals how the speech constructs Palestinians as passive, irrational, or obstructive, while positively framing Israeli and American actors. These discursive strategies not only reinforce asymmetrical power relations but also work to delegitimize Palestinian political agency within a U.S.-centric peace narrative. The findings contribute to understanding how political discourse functions as a tool of ideological control and geopolitical positioning in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.