Do you understand?

Politics aside, Donald Trump's ability to hold the attention of an audience and indeed a nation, is undeniable.

It's true!

It's true!

It's a quality that anyone who has done public speaking, be it to a stadium, or a boardroom, would be envious of.

We talked to experts to learn seven of the rhetorical tactics Trump uses that make it so hard to take your eyes and ears off of him.

The usual so-called "experts."

If you notice, that's my notes for this speech.

We've gotta go free form.

The single most important thing about Donald trump, from which a lot of other things follow, is most of the time, he speaks spontaneously.

I like it better without the teleprompter.

I don't want a teleprompter.

I don't want it, right?

Maybe when you run for president, you shouldn't be allowed to use a teleprompter because you find out what you're getting.

Even when someone has prepared his speech for him, he very often breaks into spontaneous digressions.

So his speeches are very much like the ordinary discourse that the rest of us engage in all the time.

I refuse to say it was a scam tonight.

This way they can't report that I said it.

Paralipsis is a way of saying the thing that you say you're not going to say.

So, a colloquially, it's "I'm not saying, I'm just saying."

I will not say he's low energy.

I will not say it.

I won't tell you what he did because he actually grabbed one by the shirt, but I won't say that.

I won't say that they all said he's our favorite, but they did.

He's our favorite.

It allows him to say the thing while he's denying that he will say it so that he can't be held accountable.

It also creates this intimacy.

You know, the crowd and Trump are connected because he's told you what he really thinks.

America first, remember that.

America first.

America first.

America first.

He hardly ever uses filled pauses.

There's almost no ums and ahs, and the lack of filled pauses does project a sense of confidence.

On the other hand, he repeats himself a lot.

Make America great again.

We're going to make America great again.

Look at this tremendous sea of love.

I call it a sea of love.

I call it extreme vetting.

I call it extreme, extreme vetting.

These two things are related.

He's able to stall for time without having a lot of dead air.

There's lots of repetitions, which is almost liturgical.

So, you know, it works.

They like it live.

Some night I'd like to have it not so live so we could really talk, folks.

He absolutely takes advantage of ambiguity.

It allows everybody in the audience to fill in the blank for him.

How do you make them pay for the wall, as you said?

So easy!

Will a politician be able to do it?

Absolutely not.

We know what we have to do, and we'll do it.

So, don't worry about it.

Don't worry about me.

And I'm gonna do the right thing, whatever it is.

Trump allows you to fill in the blank through that ambiguity.

You help him to persuade you that he agrees with you, that he's already got the right answer, which is the answer that you know to be the right answer.

You know, you're not allowed to use hairspray anymore because it affects the ozone, you know that, right?

Hairspray is not like it used to be.

It used to be real good.

When he talks about politics, you get the impression that it's a well-rehearsed peeve.

People are fed up.

They're fed up with incompetence, they're fed up with stupid leaders, they're fed up with stupid people.

Our airports are like third-world countries, our schools are a disaster.

Our roads are collapsing all over the country—we are a mess!

By the way, I don't like this mic!

These people.

This mic is terrible!

Everybody likes to complain.

Donald Trump complains about lots and lots of things, and some of the things he complains about are gonna strike a chord with almost everybody.

Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, "Get that son of a bitch off the field right now?"

Out!

"He's fired! He's fired!"

Rhetorical theory would say that the way that you create identification with people is through pointing to an enemy and polarizing people.

I think Islam hates us.

Countless Americans are killed by illegal immigrants because our government won't do its job.

We can't continue to allow China to rape our country, and that's what they're doing.

He needs to create someone that we're against in order to motivate those people to act, right?

Which is, to support him.

I always hear about "The Elite." You know, the elite, they're elite?

I think, you know what, I think we're the elites.

They're not the elites.

He's always talking about his beautiful people, his followers who are never going to desert him.

Those are appeals to the crowd.

The wisdom of the crowd knows more than these elite, corrupt, establishment, politicians, or the media.

There's an unbelievable love in these rooms.

All the same.

I love you, too!

I love you, too.

I love you!

Stand up!

Who said that?

He often does engage the audience as though they were in conversation with him.

What do you like better, "Made in the USA" or "Made in America"?

Which is better, "Person of the Year" or "Man of the Year?"

Okay, wait, let's do a pledge, everybody—who likes me in this room?

"I'm popular" appeals are something he routinely does to make himself be popular, seem popular.

But also to reaffirm the loyalty of his followers.

Do you make the same commitment that you will absolutely accept the result of this election?

I will tell you at the time.

I will keep you in suspense.

How is it that Trump has been able to keep us on edge, keep us all interested?

And my best answer for that is that he is the modern day PT Barnum.

We need PT Barnum a little bit because we have to build up the image of our country.

If you knew anything about PT Barnum, he was a master at attracting attention, and he did that by making audiences curious.

Think about how many times he's given us a cliffhanger.

What's he gonna do next?

Maybe it's the calm before the storm.

What storm, Mr. President?

You'll find out.

Something's gonna happen, we'll find out, stay tuned.

Stay tuned.

Stay tuned.

We can't turn away because he has got us so curious to find out what happens next.