Pragmatic Study of Irony in the Political Cartoons of Donald Trump

Irony means the opposite meaning of what you intend, it is something that is different or opposite from what is expected. In political discourse, such as speeches, memes, cartoons, there are a number of Irony used to criticize someone or social and political issues that happen in society. This study investigates irony in Donald Trump's political cartoons in terms of forms, types and functions of irony by using pragmatic approach. Data of this study were taken from the websites LA Progressive, and Pinterest. The collected data were analyzed qualitatively based on the theories of irony and pragmatic (Cumings, 2005) (Strauss and Feiz, 2014), The results show (1) words and statements used in terms of verbal and situational irony, (2) each type of irony has different functions, such as oppositional, reinforcing, complicating, and ludic. The functions of the irony reflect the social and political conflicts between USA and other countries, the problems about race, religion, and woman. Positively, Irony in political cartoons can be regarded as an expressive and effective ways to amuse and to criticize people or social issues as long as it is used within the politeness framework.