--- title: Donald Trump: Watch Him Talk About 'Us' and 'Them' description: President Trump likes to talk about "us" and "them," but how he does it is a dramatic shift from his predecessors. canonical: https://time.com/4914655/donald-trump-us-them-rhetoric/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-24T19:08:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:09:14.035Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch Donald Trump Talk About 'Us' and 'Them' og:description: A dramatic change from how his predecessors talked. og:url: https://time.com/4914655/donald-trump-us-them-rhetoric/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67496557c03817ea/6988daf2196cf423ef0419b1/gettyimages-837974348.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Donald Trump Talk About 'Us' and 'Them' twitter:description: A dramatic change from how his predecessors talked. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67496557c03817ea/6988daf2196cf423ef0419b1/gettyimages-837974348.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Donald Trump Talk About 'Us' and 'Them' by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Aug 24, 2017 7:08 PM UTC  US President Donald Trump speaks to the American Legion national convention on August 23, 2017 in Reno, Nevada. / AFP PHOTO / Nicholas Kamm (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images) US President Donald Trump speaks to the American Legion national convention on August 23, 2017 in Reno, Nevada. / AFP PHOTO / Nicholas Kamm (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)NICHOLAS KAMM—AFP/Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Aug 24, 2017 7:08 PM UTC President Trump likes to talk about “us” and “them.” In speeches and interviews, Trump frequently uses collective pronouns to talk about the United States versus other countries, especially China and Mexico, as well as to address his supporters. That’s not uncommon. A [2013 study](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0077952) of candidates for Australian prime minister since 1901 found that the winners used “we” and “us” more frequently than their unsuccessful opponents in 80% of elections. But how Trump defines those terms is unusual, at least in American politics. In several notable instances, Trump has [used “we” to refer to men](http://www.npr.org/2016/05/10/477423028/is-donald-trump-playing-the-man-card), used “us” and “them” when [discussing Islam and America](http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/09/politics/donald-trump-islam-hates-us/index.html) and talked about taking down Confederate statues as [“trying to take away our history.”](http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/347589-trump-on-removing-confederate-statues-theyre-trying-to-take-away-our) Watch this video to see how Trump’s use of “us” and “them” differs from his predecessors. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4914655/donald-trump-us-them-rhetoric/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4914655/donald-trump-us-them-rhetoric/"},"headline":"Watch Donald Trump Talk About 'Us' and 'Them'","datePublished":"2017-08-24T19:08:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:09:14.035Z","description":"\"They’re trying to take away our history\"","url":"https://time.com/4914655/donald-trump-us-them-rhetoric/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","Islam"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67496557c03817ea/6988daf2196cf423ef0419b1/gettyimages-837974348.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67496557c03817ea/6988daf2196cf423ef0419b1/gettyimages-837974348.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP","caption":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP","creditText":"NICHOLAS KAMM—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4914655/donald-trump-us-them-rhetoric/","name":"Watch Donald Trump Talk About 'Us' and 'Them'"}}]}] ```