A comparative study of critical discourse analyses of first speeches of Donald Trump and Mojtaba Khamenei after 2026 United States war with Iran

Abstract

The study investigates the first public addresses delivered by American President Donald Trump and Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei following the U.S. Iran war. It offers a rich text for examining how political leaders construct legitimacy and national identity after an armed conflict. This study applies Teun A. van Dijk's socio-cognitive approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) to find out the ideological and discursive strategies employed in these two speeches. It investigates how each leader constructs polarization in form of an in-group/out-group contrast (Us vs. Them) and legitimizes military and political decisions. After analyzing both the speeches separately, the study gives a comparative analysis of them to identify the difference of strategies employed by both the leaders. The data was analyzed using descriptive qualitative method. The speeches were sourced from the official websites. Findings show both leaders represented positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation but divergent cognitive frames. Trump's discourse is inclined toward nationalist and deterrence narrative, while Khamenei's discourse leans towards religious-ideological resistance and martyrdom framing. The study contributes to comparative political discourse analysis illustrating how socio-cognitive structures shape leadership rhetoric in times of acute geopolitical crisis, offering insight into the discursive construction of power, conflict, and legitimacy across culturally distinct political systems.