THE ANALYSIS OF SARCASM AS A POLITICAL CRITICISM IN DONALD TRUMP'S INSTAGRAM COMMENTS

Abstract

This study investigates sarcasm as a form of political criticism in the comments section of Donald Trump’s Instagram account. The research employs Lee and Katz’s (1998) typology of sarcasm propositional, illocutionary, and perlocutionary and Gibbs, Kreuz, & Glucksberg’s (2000) framework on pragmatic functions, including ridicule, humor, solidarity, indirect criticism, and social criticism. Data were collected from 50 comments on Trump’s posts between June 1–5, 2025. The qualitative descriptive method was used to classify sarcasm types and analyze their functions. The findings reveal that propositional sarcasm is the most dominant type (34 cases), followed by illocutionary sarcasm (12) and perlocutionary sarcasm (4). Sarcasm functions primarily as ridicule and attack, but also as humor, solidarity, indirect, and social criticism. The results highlight the role of sarcasm as both a rhetorical and pragmatic strategy in digital political discourse, reflecting how netizens employ irony to criticize authority while fostering group identity.