On the conventionalization of impoliteness formulae: The case of Trump’s fake news insult

Insults are a well-recognized form of conventionalized impoliteness, yet little research explores their proliferation and conventionalization. This study analyzes Trump’s initial use of fake news as an insult during and after a 2017 press conference, followed by a diachronic examination of his usage of it on X (then Twitter) through January 2021. Through these two case studies, fake news is shown to have rapidly evolved into a conventionalized insult that can be used as a personalized negative assertion (e.g., “You are fake news!”) and as third-person negative references either as a stand-alone insult (e.g., “He is fake news!”) or as part of pejorative nicknames (e.g., “Fake News CNN”). Its spread was driven not only by Trump’s notoriety but also by the media’s amplification of it that inadvertently reinforced its use among Trump, his supporters, and others.