Pragmatic issues and implications of Trump’s calling ‘Chinese and Wuhan Virus’

Donald Trump is known as a controversial and divisive figure through his sharp utterances. With the advancement of technology, linguistic phenomena travel faster than ever and this could have serious consequences for the lives of people across the border. In early 2020, while the world has been trying to put all the endeavors to combat the coronavirus and not putting too much attention to the pandemic origin, Trump repeatedly mentioned “Chinese virus” and ‘Wuhan virus’. Being aware that such a short statement could bring a disproportionately huge impact on society, particularly Asian-Americans and/or Asians, this qualitative research aims to discuss pragmatic issues that appear in Donald Trump’s public statements and the implications for society. The analysis shows that Trump’s racist statements encompass 4 linguistic features which include speech acts, reference, strategic maneuvering, and implicatures. His statements flouted two of four basic facets in respect of the nature of any conversation, namely the facets of quality and manner. Concerning the social implications, the use of racist terms is not only corrosive for the global audience, but it specifically scores racial slurs and physical abuse towards Asian Americans