Unnaming Power: ‘No. 47’ and the Rhetoric of Presidential Resistance in American Political Discourse
Jo Coghlan
Language shapes political power, not merely through what is articulated, but through strategic silences, absences, and subtle refusals. Recent American political discourse has witnessed a notable rhetorical intervention in the deliberate refusal to directly name Donald Trump, instead referring to him exclusively as ‘No. 47’ (the 47th President of the U.S). This phenomenon marks a departure from overt criticism, substituting a numerical label to reduce a figure synonymous with spectacle, branding, and populist charisma to an anonymous, bureaucratic entity. This act of rhetorical displacement does more than mock or satirise; it seeks to symbolically disrupts the very means by which Trump’s persona acquires discursive potency.
Central to understanding the significance of this linguistic tuen is Michel Foucault’s conception of discourse and power. According to Foucault, naming serves as an essential mechanism for integrating individuals within dominant frameworks of knowledge, visibility, and control. To name is to confer identity, status, and recognition; conversely, to refuse or evade naming represents resistance against dominant discursive practices. Thus, protestors and commentators employing ‘No. 47’ challenge the core mechanisms through which political legitimacy is discursively constructed, positioning Trump as a functionary rather than a sovereign individual, thus diminishing his charismatic appeal and symbolic authority.
Similarly, Judith Butler’s insights into the performativity of speech further elucidate this rhetorical strategy. For Butler, naming is never purely descriptive; rather, it performatively constitutes and legitimises the subject. Names carry within them not only recognition but also the power to affirm or deny political subjectivity. In this light, substituting Trump’s name with ‘No. 47’ constitutes an intentional act of misrecognition. It denies him the full ontological validation traditionally granted to the president through naming, transforming his identity into an impersonal numerical signifier. This discursive shift strategically diminishes the charismatic authority that emerges precisely from personal naming and public recognition.
The practice of numerical substitution in contemporary protest linguistics resonates broadly within digital activism, where euphemisms, memes, hashtags, and other coded forms of speech frequently challenge political legitimacy. Terms such as ‘45,’ ‘Cheeto-in-Chief,’ and diverse emoji substitutions exemplify how linguistic innovation can evade censorship and disrupt political messaging. Yet, ‘No. 47’ differs notably through its sober and institutionalised tone. Its numeric form evokes bureaucratic depersonalisation and even the dehumanisation associated with incarceration or authoritarian regimes. Consequently, its adoption as a mode of resistance represents not only satirical commentary but also a semiotic critique of authoritarian practices and charismatic political identities.
Visual representations of ‘No. 47’ during rallies held in major cities such as Washington D.C., New York, and Los Angeles in the lead-up to the 2024 primaries further underscore this dynamic. Protest signage employing minimalist aesthetics; boldly printed numerals, starkly monochrome visuals, and barcode symbolism, consciously evokes the aesthetics associated with state surveillance and institutional bureaucracy. This visual strategy amplifies Foucauldian themes of control, discipline, and institutional power. By doing so, these images invert traditional mechanisms of authority, rendering Trump not as a charismatic sovereign but rather as a numbered, categorised, and controlled entity.
Digital manifestations of this strategy appeared prominently through the hashtag #No47, which gained substantial traction across social media platforms during the 2024 election. Online activists quickly adopted and disseminated this numeric designation, pairing it with phrases such as ‘He’s just a number’ or ‘No name. No throne.’ Digital memes took this depersonalisation further, employing visuals reminiscent of Cold War-era bureaucratic paraphernalia—grey, anonymous numbers, file codes, and bureaucratic labels—to symbolically dehumanise and delegitimise. Memes like ‘No. 47: Coming to Ruin Everything Again’ or ‘404 Error: Leader Not Found’ operated on multiple semiotic levels, simultaneously humorous, subversive, and eerily chilling. Such cultural artefacts reflect Butler’s concept that refusal to name constitutes an active disruption of political performativity, undermining the subject’s ability to fully manifest political legitimacy.
These digital and visual articulations of resistance demonstrate the multifaceted function of naming (or its strategic refusal) within political discourse. The rhetorical transformation of Trump’s identity into the numerical designation of ‘No. 47’ serves multiple purposes simultaneously. It represents a deliberate withdrawal of recognition, strategically displacing political charisma. It also acts as an ideological intervention against the performative nature of populist politics, implicitly criticising the cult of personality that characterises Trump’s public image. Moreover, it demonstrates how language and symbolic imagery operate as significant sites of ideological struggle, where naming conventions not only reflect but actively constitute the limits and possibilities of political agency and discourse.
The emergence of ‘No. 47’ as a discursive phenomenon underscores the evolving nature of political resistance and its interaction with language. In an era increasingly defined by spectacle-driven populism and digital media, the refusal to name represents a subtle yet powerful weapon in the arsenal of political opposition. By appropriating bureaucratic codes and anonymous numeric designations, activists are seeking to disrupt the mechanisms by which populist figures acquire and maintain symbolic power.
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