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"This is a thought-provoking book on the notion of border. By relying on Anderson's notion of 'imagined community', Demata successfully explain how the border is an ideological construct. To do so, he explores Donald Trump's aesthetic conceptualisation of "The Wall" as a commodity and of Democrats' appeal to security and moral values. While different constructions can be found, Demata convincingly shows how the notion of 'border' is exploited in political discourse for legitimising the existence of a (differently-constructed) nation".

Laura Filardo-Llamas, Senior Lecturer in English Linguistics, Universidad de Valladolid

"This book contains an extensive case study about ‘Trump’s beautiful wall’, promoted and branded as unique, as protecting the US from so-called illegal immigration. Borders are contested in this case; on the one hand, ‘closed borders’ are promoted, on the other, ‘open borders’, with a range of different arguments, some of which are necessarily fallacious. However, both sides promise security and border management. Theoretically and methodologically, this book is an outstanding example of context-dependent qualitative discourse-historical analysis which allows tracing Trump’s propaganda step-by -step, both visually and textually. Such differentiated and detailed case studies allow understanding and explaining the success of far-right ethno-nationalist populist body- and border politics, integrated into a populist politics of fear. A must-read for scholars and graduate students alike".

Ruth Wodak, Distinguished Professor and Chair in Discourse Studies, Lancaster University/University Vienna

"As populist and neoliberal discourses contend to define a post-global world, Demata reminds us how borders—including the plights of those attempting to
cross them—can serve as symbols of social order as well as proxies for political struggle. Although brief, his study offers important insights into how the recontextualisation of political discourses, namely, of family values, the aesthetics of exclusion, and the neoliberal ethics of modernity, contribute to ideological discursive formation and contemporary political language."

Chris Featherman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Language in Society 52 (2023)

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