Introduction

Donald J. Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency for the Republican Party in his hometown, New York City. At Trump Tower, he stated that the U.S. is in serious trouble because it does not achieve victories anymore. Two minutes into his speech, he began making references to Mexico and the southern U.S. border, arguing that Mexico is beating the U.S. at the border and that Mexico is also killing the U.S. economically. The presidential candidate said that Mexico does not send its best people to the U.S. In his view, Mexico sends people who already have many problems, and they bring those problems with them to the U.S. For Trump, “They [Mexicans] are bringing drugs, they are bringing crime, they are rapists, and some, I assume, are good people” (^{Trump, 2015: 3’56’’}). The Republican candidate believed that the U.S. was not adequately protected because, according to him, no one seemed to know what was happening on the border. Trump planned to rapidly put a stop to this situation, proposing the idea of building a wall on the southern border and promising that Mexico would pay for it. In a matter of minutes, Trump’s remarks about Mexico and the southern border focused the attention of the entire nation on this geographical region, which became the center of his presidential-campaign political rhetoric.

A few months later, in September 2015, Cable News Network/ Opinion Research Corporation (CNN/ORC) International conducted a national poll the results of which indicated that the slight majority (52 percent) were indeed in favor of building Trump’s wall; a slight minority (47 percent) opposed it; and very few (1 percent) had no opinion on the matter. However, two months prior to election day, those opinions changed in the opposite direction, with a slight majority of voters opposing (58 percent) the construction of the wall along the Mexican border, a slight minority (41 percent) favoring it, and a miniscule faction (1 percent) with no opinion, according to the ^{CNN/ORC International September 2016} poll. Furthermore, a minority of respondents (15 percent) believed that Trump would be unlikely to get Mexico to pay for the wall, and the majority (59 percent)¹ thought it not at all likely that he would be able to do so. Also, the majority of respondents (66 percent)² thought Trump should not attempt to deport all the people currently living undocumented in the U.S. In fact, a majority of participants (51 percent)³ stated that his priority should be to develop a plan to allow those in the U.S. without proper documentation but with jobs to become legal residents. According to most respondents (53 percent),⁴ Trump’s next priority should be to develop a plan to stop immigrants from entering the country undocumented. Less than two weeks before election day, a public opinion poll of registered voters conducted by the Pew Research Center documented that those surveyed thought that Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, would do a better job on the issue of immigration (55 percent) than Trump (42 percent) because Clinton had more respect for immigrants (71 percent) than Trump (30 percent). According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Southwest Border Migration 2019 Report (^{U.S. CBP, 2019}), during the 2016 presidential electoral period, a total of 553 378 individuals were detained, representing an increase (24 percent) from the previous year 2015 (444 859). It also shows a decrease (25 percent) in 2017 from the 2016 total (415 517) and, relative to 2016, a decrease (6 percent) in 2018 (521 090).

The U.S.-Mexico international border begins in the west at the Pacific Ocean and ends in the east at the Gulf of Mexico. It is 1 954 miles (3 144 km) long, substantially shorter than the U.S.-Canada border, which is 5 525 miles (8 890 km) long. During the administration of President Bill Clinton, a 580-mile (933 km) border wall between the U.S. and Mexico was approved, running from Tijuana, Baja California/ San Isidro, California to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua/El Paso, Texas. This wall was built as part of three governmental operations in border states: Gatekeeper in California, Hold-the-Line in Texas, and Safeguard in Arizona. Those operations were conducted to safeguard U.S. territory when Mexico was undergoing a severe economic crisis, which led to the devaluation of its currency, the peso, against the U.S. dollar in December 1994. Earlier that same year, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed under Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, went into effect on January 1, 1994.

This article examines Trump’s border agenda in great detail by identifying the issues related to this region as well as its issue positions. The authors examined Trump’s official campaign website (https://www.donaldjtrump.com) along with other digital media venues such as Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump/), Twitter (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump), and his political ads posted on his YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAql2DyGU2un1Ei2nMYsqOA) account, used to disseminate Trump’s candidate-generated messages. The Republican candidate used digital and social media as a public relations tool to create engagement with his “Make American Great Again” movement and to gain attention from the media and voters. When Trump initiated his presidential campaign, he already knew how to attract large audiences and how to keep their attention. Above all, he knew how to directly communicate his ideas to voters without the need of intermediaries such as journalists.

Agenda-setting theory is the theoretical framework of this research focusing on the agenda-building effect. This investigation identifies Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border agenda disseminated through his official campaign website, his first-100-day contract, his official political TV ads, and his tweets. A greater similarity between any two communication venues for a given issue will indicate significant effectiveness in the political communication process because the same overall message would have been clearly transmitted even though in the different communication venues the target audiences were different. Also, this article goes one step further, incorporating a novel approach by measuring not only the candidate-generated issues, but the solutions that the Republican candidate proposed for resolving those problems. The aim of this research is to obtain a more comprehensive perspective on Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border agenda by measuring the agenda-building effect of his issues and issue positions to more deeply understand his political communication dynamic.

Theoretical Framework

Agenda-setting theory explains relationships among the mass media, the public, and policymakers, providing an understanding of the degree of similarities or differences in their connections as well as the direction of influence (^{McCombs and Shaw, 1972}). This research examines the policymaker’s perspective by focusing on how political candidates create their own public image as well as their political agendas. Typically, politician-generated agendas examine various political-communication persuasive messages to influence the media and public’s perceptions of a particular candidate or issue (^{Cobb et al., 1976}). All political candidates produce public relations materials that can be classified as traditional (such as press releases, press conferences, speeches, personal interviews with the media, TV ads, radio ads, newspaper ads) and new media (such as online ads, websites, social networking sites -Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and apps, among others). The agenda-building process investigates how each of those public relations tools was used to establish the candidate’s agenda and compares those tools to determine if they created/disseminated the same political message during a particular time period.

The agenda-building process takes place when those favorable messages help construct a specific issue, issue positions, and/or candidate’s personal attributes, which are disseminated through a variety of traditional and new media platforms to voters. The agenda-building effect is the dynamic process in which candidate-generated political messages inform voters of the most important problems that the nation is facing, which must be immediately resolved through the solutions that they propose. This investigation examines the agenda-building process of Trump’s issues and issue positions generated during the 2016 presidential election. In particular, this study examines those issues that focus on the U.S.-Mexican border as a problem region, and Trump’s solutions to those border problems.

Regarding the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the U.S.-Mexico border, ^{Heuman and González (2018)} claim that Trump’s candidacy in 2015 marked the beginning of a new era of discrimination: “Old racism is the overt color-centered expression and new racism is the attitude of colorblindness” (327); it is a new reconstruction of white superiority. Colorblindness, as ^{Crenshaw (1998)} describes it, means that discrimination practices are not based on race, but consist of not seeing race. Heuman and González believe that Trump uses the new and old racism discourses in his tweets. They investigated the Trump administration’s statements regarding the U.S.-Mexico border, Mexicans, and immigrants, portraying them as dangerous and burdens to the United States. They content-analyzed 175 tweets published by Trump between June 2015 and April 2018 and examined Trump’s speeches about immigration. Their outcomes indicated that Trump’s rhetoric presents immigrants as demons: “Trump essentializes Mexico’s ‘people’ as deviant and dangerous and a threat to a weakened nation state” (2018: 335). Heuman and González’s results indicated that for Trump the term “wall” allows him to create a physical barrier between nations dividing the greatness of the U.S. (economic prosperity, safety, victory) and Latin America’s shortcomings. Also, their outcomes indicate that Trump’s persistent rhetoric about the idea that Mexico will pay for the wall allows for the notion of its subservience to U.S. demands. Likewise, Heuman and González found that “Trump’s rhetoric to position (im)migrants as pollutants impeding the progress of ‘Make America Great Again’ within the U.S. culture and economy” (337). They argue that Trump describes immigrants as being hyper-sexed animals who invade our nation and abuse our social-benefits system by living off of it without making any economic contribution to it.

In a similar study, ^{Richardson (2017)} claims that disgust is a mode for affective politics, such as in the case of Trump’s political success by using disgust as one of his primary affective drivers. His outcomes determined that Trump’s nostalgia for the past demands a removal/ejection of those factors that marked the change opposing the good life that he and his supporters enjoyed. Richardson argues that disgust is central to the politics of grievance: “It is an effective structuring of the relation between people, institutions, economies, and social cultural norms. It arises from weakness and the perception of lost agency” (749). That is, grievance is an emotional structure held together by disgust that must be wiped away. Therefore, those cities that have the least contact with immigrants are the ones that develop the strongest anti-immigrant sentiments: “Figuring Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals and Muslims as terrorists is not solely about amplifying fear, but also generating disgust . . . their difference and thus their capacity to contaminate, to cross over” (^{Richardson, 2017: 748}). For Richardson, Trump’s language of ejection such as “build the wall,” “Mexicans are rapists,” “Mexicans bring drugs,” among others, focuses on the sentiment of disgust toward difference.

In a separate study, ^{Ogan, Pennington, Venger and Metz (2018)} examined the issue of immigration during the 2016 U.S. presidential election focusing on news coverage and policy framing. They content-analyzed several news media outlets across the nation: five national (two newspapers, two television stations, and one online site), two regional (newspapers only), and four covering communities with a large immigrant populations, from the opening of the Republican National Convention (July 18, 2016) to election day (November 8, 2016). As expected by Ogan et al., the results determined that the major theme source in the news media was Trump or his family/representatives. “Statements about the proposed wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, attacks against the immigrants or refugees themselves, plans for keeping Muslim terrorists out of the country, and angry comments about the illegal [undocumented] status of millions of people living in the United States appeared in Trump-sponsored stories” (^{Ogan et al., 2018: 367}). Overall, the news treatment by journalists/ columnists was balanced/neutral (48 percent), followed by positive (36 percent), and negative (16 percent). Ogan et al. argue that their study documented that “by choosing to highlight the inflammatory rhetoric of Trump on the issue of immigration and refugees, journalists during the 2016 U.S. presidential election helped perpetuate an understanding of immigrants as people to be feared and as threats to [U.S.] America” (2018: 367). According to ^{Lopez, Bialik, and Radford (2017)}, the U.S. has the largest immigrant population in the world, with 43.2 million in 2015. Also, ^{Connor and Lopez (2016)} noted that one-fifth of the world’s immigrants lived in this country in 2015. ^{Roediger (2006)} states that in U.S. history, anyone immigrating to this country has been seen as a threat because this social dynamic creates fear and anxiety.

According to ^{Schubert (2017)}, a connection exists between politics and entertainment, such as the ethnic stereotypes of Mexico in the U.S. entertainment industry and Trump’s campaign rhetoric regarding Mexico. Through the lens of critical discourse analysis, Schubert compared and contrasted the Mexican stereotypes presented in one TV series, Breaking Bad, and three feature films, Traffic, Savages, and Counselor, with Trump’s campaign speeches, public debates, and interviews conducted between June 16, 2015, and April 27, 2016, focusing on his description of Mexico. His results determined that in Breaking Bad, the traditional Mexican stereotype of the bandido (^{Ramírez Berg, 2002}) was personified by Tuco Salamanca, a drug distributor for Walter White. “Tuco thoroughly embodies the negative stereotype of the violent Mexican drug dealer, as it is likewise perpetuated by Donald Trump[’s rhetoric]” (^{Schubert, 2017: 46}). Also, the silent stereotype (^{Ramírez Berg, 2002}) was exemplified by the twin brothers Leonel and Marco Salamanca, who communicate only nonverbally. These stoic, emotionless killing-machine, deeply religious individuals are devoted to the Mexican deity of Santa Muerte: “Mexicans are ultimately dehumanized, so that empathy on the viewers’ side is evoked. Conclusively, protective initiatives against Mexican citizens appear advisable, such as the wall propounded by Trump” (^{Schubert, 2017: 47}).

Schubert’s outcomes indicated that, in Traffic, two characters directly fit Trump’s descriptions about Mexicans. The Mexican cartel boss, Don Eladio, who is very eloquent and superficially charming, but unpredictable and two-faced, represents the devious, impenetrable Mexican leader who cannot be trusted. Mexican General Salazar, who secretly works for the Juárez Cartel, constantly uses pretexts and evades responsibility. Both characters “through their treacherous behavior . . . are likewise close to the prototype of the bandit category extending it to higher social classes” (^{Schubert, 2017: 48}). Schubert’s results demonstrated that in the movie Savages, two characters, Lado and Elena Sánchez, represent the moral depravity that Trump attributes to Mexicans in his campaign rhetoric. Lado, a sicario (hit man) for the Baja Cartel, enjoys his victims’ fear when they try to respond to his enforced demands by offering him money. Similarly, Elena is a wealthy and sophisticated woman who is the leader of the Baja Cartel.

Finally, Schubert found an example of Trump’s rhetoric toward the end of the film Counselor when the main character, Counselor, receives a phone call from his boss ordering him to kill his own girlfriend. In that phone call, Counselor’s boss uses the personal history of Spanish poet Antonio Machado to explain his instructions to him: “This scene portrays Mexican cartel leaders as merciless, insidious, and deviant in their communicative behavior and moral standards. This appearance contributes to the stereotype of the untrustworthy Mexican boss who is likewise constructed by Trump” (^{Schubert, 2017: 49}). In short, Schubert states that Trump’s rhetoric about Mexican people is a repetition of the stereotypes that the U.S. entertainment industry had already established in several movies as the average description of those individuals.

At the beginning of the general election period, Trump accepted an invitation from Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to visit Mexico on August 31, 2016. The night prior to his trip to Mexico, Trump used his Twitter account to announce his official visit to the Aztec nation. The Mexican government had not made any official announcement whatsoever, so Twitter quickly became the medium to receive/be informed about this international event. A group of Mexican scholars, ^{Meneses, Martín del Campo, and Rueda Zárate (2018)}, using a combination of computational methods, was able to determine transnational conversational patterns on Twitter used during four consecutive days (one day before Trump’s visit, the day of his visit, and two days after his visit). Their outcomes indicated that the visit was the subject of multilingual conversations including French, German, and Arabic on Twitter, but the interactions in English (50 percent) and Spanish (44 percent) dominated. The afternoon of Trump’s visit to Mexico marked the moment with the highest traffic when the flow of messages reached four tweets per second “confirming that the news-style environment in controversial events is articulated in a hybrid way -on social networks and traditional media” (2018: 42).

After a closed-door meeting between Peña Nieto and Trump, the two held an international press conference. The Mexican presidency prohibited the members of the Mexican press from asking questions during the conference. However, the U.S. journalists interrupted Peña Nieto’s remarks to ask him if he had discussed with Trump who would pay for the wall. Before the Mexican president could react to answer the question, the Republican candidate quickly stated that they had spoken about the wall, but not who would pay for it. Peña Nieto received severe criticism on Twitter for not responding to Trump’s statement: “This situation caused a drop in his popularity since 75 percent of Mexicans considered the visit to be unfavorable for Mexico” (^{Meneses, Martín del Campo, and Zárate, 2018: 43}). A few hours later, Peña Nieto sent a tweet to Trump to clarify that Mexico would not pay for the wall. However, in Arizona, Trump declared, in a campaign event, that Mexico would pay for the wall. After Trump’s speech, the Mexican president sent out a second tweet repeating that Mexico would not pay for the wall; Peña Nieto was using Twitter, not diplomacy, to resolve this matter.

Another Mexican researcher, Mónica Verea, examined the anti-immigrant and anti-Mexican policies and attitudes adopted by the Trump administration during its first 18 months in office: “Trump’s violent rhetoric, hate speech, and continual bullying of Mexico and of Mexicans have caused irreparable damage to our already deteriorated bilateral relationship” (2018: 2). Her outcomes indicated that, with regard to the U.S.-Mexico border, the Trump administration observes eight practices: 1) President Trump issued the Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements executive order on January 25, 2017, to efficiently monitor the flow of undocumented immigrants and human trafficking; 2) “He [Trump] has repeatedly harassed and threatened the Mexican government, demanding it pay for the wall, despite this exigence being denied multiple times since it violates the good neighbor principle” (6); 3) Trump proposed sending 4 000 troops to the border to address the crisis situation until the wall is built; 4) He proposed to hire 5 000 additional border patrol agents, representing a 25-percent increase in the force; 5) The Trump administration has proposed to return undocumented immigrants to the border check point where they entered the U.S., regardless of their country of origin; 6) Immigrants who are awaiting legal proceedings in the United States should wait for their court day in Mexico. “The Mexican government must continue to demand that the people returned to its territory should exclusively be Mexicans” (18); 7) In April 2018, the Zero-Tolerance Policy went into effect, which separates undocumented families; while the parents were prosecuted, their children were placed in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services. Two months later, in June 2018, Trump reversed this policy, signing an executive order requiring that families must remain together; and, lastly, 8) Trump’s executive order limiting refugee admissions to 45 000 people annually.

This study continues the examination of Trump’s presidential campaign by focusing on the agenda-building effect between a variety of candidate-generated messages disseminated in traditional and new media platforms. In addition, it expands the agenda-building body of knowledge by identifying the candidate-generated messages related to a particular region, the U.S.-Mexico border. It presents Trump’s issues as well as the issue positions that he proposes to resolve those problems. The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the agenda-building effect between Trump’s political communication agendas distributed to voters through multiple media venues.

Six research questions guided this investigation: 1) What was the agenda-building effect of the issue of the economy through Trump’s candidate-generated website, 100-day contract, TV ads, and Twitter? 2) What was the agenda-building effect of the issue of foreign policy through Trump’s candidate-generated website, 100-day contract, TV ads, and Twitter? 3) What was the agenda-building effect of the issue of immigration through Trump’s candidate-generated website, 100-day contract, TV ads, and Twitter? 4) What was the agenda-building effect of the issue of regulations through Trump’s candidate-generated website, 100-day contract, TV ads, and Twitter? 5) What was the agenda-building effect of the issue of taxes through Trump’s candidate-generated website, 100-day contract, TV ads, and Twitter? and, 6) What was the agenda-building effect of the issue of trade through Trump’s candidate-generated website, 100-day contract, TV ads, and Twitter? The research design of this study to address these questions is presented in the next section.

Methodology

The time frame for this analysis was from Labor Day (September 5, 2016) to election day (November 8, 2016), except for the TV ads and Twitter, which had a different time frame: from November 5, 2015 (the day when ^{Trump’s first campaign ad was launched after announcing his run for president on June 15, 2015}) to election day. This study is based on a combination of methodological approaches in order to develop all the agendas required to measure the flow of information between the candidate-generated messages distributed through several communication platforms. The study was conducted according to the date when the venue was released to the public by the presidential candidate. The starting point was Trump’s political ads, followed by his tweets, then his official campaign website, and finally his first 100-day contract. First, a content analysis was conducted to create Trump’s TV ads and Twitter agendas. Second, a textual analysis was conducted to determine the issue positions featured on his website and his 100-day contract. Finally, the Spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficient ρ (rho) was calculated to assess the degree of correlation of each issue between its issue positions disseminated to voters by various communication venues.

The formula used to calculate the correlation coefficient is ρ =∑ixi-x-yi-y-∑ixi-x-2∑iyi-y-2, where x _i and y _i refer to the i ^th rank of the issue positions and x- and ӯ are the mean ranks from the two communication platforms being compared; for example, TV ads (x) and Twitter (y), TV ads (x) and website (y), etc. This formula was used because there were tied ranks in all cases. A correlation coefficient of +1 would indicate perfect agreement; a correlation coefficient of 0, no agreement; and a correlation coefficient of -1 would indicate perfect inverse agreement. A positive correlation between agendas suggests that as the ranking of issue positions in one agenda increases, the ranking of the corresponding issue positions in the other agenda also increases. Conversely, a negative correlation between agendas suggests that as the ranking of issue positions in one agenda increases, the ranking of the corresponding issue positions in the other agenda decreases. All agendas were measured against each other to assess the similarities and to identify the transfer of issue positions between each pair of agendas. The intercoder reliability was measured using the coefficient of reliability. The intercoder rate was .92 for the website, .94 for the 100-day contract, .93 for television advertising, and .94 for Twitter.

To establish “Trump’s television ads agenda” all 29 political ads found in his YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAql2DyGU2un1Ei2nMYsqOA) were content analyzed.⁵ Only political ads with the official candidate’s approval statement of “I am Donald Trump and I approve this message” were examined. The unit of analysis was every statement that Trump presented regarding issues/problems or his issue positions/solutions in his television spots. Please note that due to television production characteristics, several issues as well as issue positions could be presented in a single ad. Also, a single issue might be mentioned in the spot, but several issue positions could be described in the same ad. The ranking of every issue/problem and its issue positions/solutions was determined by the number of repetitions that each of them showed in Trump’s TV ads.

As part of Trump’s political communication strategy, he used the Internet, particularly his official campaign website (https://www.donaldjtrump.com), to disseminate his candidate-generated messages. To create “Trump’s Website Agenda,” a textual analysis of his website focusing on Trump’s “policies” tab (https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies) was conducted. There, the Republican candidate presented 16 issues: childcare, cleaning up corruption and special interests in D.C., the Constitution and the second amendment, cyber security, the economy, education, energy, foreign policy and defeating ISIS, health care, immigration, infrastructure, national defense, regulations, a tax plan, trade, and veterans. Sometimes, these issues contained links to other tabs that presented a specific plan; those were not coded. However, if a plan was displayed in its entirety on the “policies” tab, then it was coded. Each of these issues was examined in great detail to identify those that directly related to the U.S.-Mexico border. Researchers were able to identify six issues whose issue positions directly related to the border: the economy, foreign policy, immigration, regulations, taxes, and trade. The unit of analysis was every idea/vision/issue position that Trump proposed to address regarding each of the six issues at hand. The rationale was that each issue described a problem that the presidential candidate considered important to solve, and each issue position represented his proposal to resolve a particular problem.

In addition, on Trump’s website in the same “policies” tab where the list of issues was displayed, another important document was found, his 100-Day Contract (https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies), released on October 22, 2016. It was the contract between the Republican candidate and U.S. voters, revealing Trump’s action plan for his first 100-days in office. This two-page document was textually analyzed to identify the list of issues presented in the contract to establish “Trump’s 100-Day Agenda.” Each issue position was demarcated as every vision/idea/proposal presented by the Republican candidate to solve a problem related to the issue at hand.

Trump’s political communication strategy included social media such as Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/teamtrumpofficial/) and, his favorite, Twitter (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump). Throughout his political campaign, he used Twitter constantly to disseminate his campaign messages. In fact, Trump considers Twitter his personal newspaper; as he said November 10, 2012, in a tweet, “I love Twitter . . . It’s like owning your own newspaper -without the losses” (^{Trump, 2012}). This social media venue had been his favorite for many years before his presidential campaign. During the campaign, his Twitter account became his official direct personal voice, bypassing his campaign communications staff and the press, creating a direct line of communication between himself and the voters. To determine “Trump’s Twitter Agenda,” the authors used the online database Trump Twitter Archive, located at http://www.trumptwitterarchive.com/, to identify the Republican candidate’s tweets. The authors searched for tweets using the following 23 key words and phrases: destruction of factories, economy, economic growth, foreign policy, jobs, international commerce, immigration, Mexico, NAFTA, refugees, regulations, tax plan, taxes, tax reduction, trade, TPP, sanctuary cities, social security, southern border, U.S.-Mexico border, visas, wall, and the World Trade Organization-WTO. A total of 652 tweets resulted from the search and were content-analyzed. Outcomes indicated that 55 percent of them were text only; 24 percent had text and tags such as # and @; 10 percent presented text and a link; 8 percent contained a combination of text, tag, and link; and 3 percent presented text and a link to a campaign event. As with the TV ads agenda, the ranking of every issue position in “Trump’s Twitter Agenda” was determined by the frequency of repetition of issues as well as its issue positions presented in the content of each tweet. These research results are presented in the next section.

Agenda-Building Effect of Trump-Generated Agendas

The Republican candidate presented 16 issues as his political platform.⁶ The authors identified six of them (economy, foreign policy, immigration, regulations, taxes, and trade) as being related to the U.S.-Mexico border. Each of those border issues as well as their issue positions were converted into a research question and the results are presented in this section. Please note that the transfer of positions within each issue may imply different terminology to describe it, but the overarching idea was the same.

Economy

The first research question inquired about the issue of the economy and the agenda-building effect among Trump’s political communication venues (see Table 1). A total of seven issue positions regarding the economic problem were identified in Trump’s TV ads agenda,⁷ Trump’s Twitter agenda, and Trump’s website agenda. No issue positions regarding the economy were found in Trump’s 100-day agenda. The political communication agenda that presented all seven issue positions was Twitter. TV ads presented four issue positions, and the website featured three solutions related to the economy. Consequently, Trump’s most successful political communication strategy regarding the issue of economy was Twitter.

The top solution proposed by Trump on Twitter was to stop the destruction of factories, a 300 000-job loss, and jobs escaping to Mexico and China, with 30 percent. This same solution ranked third on the TV ads agenda, with 5 percent, and was not featured on the website agenda. The second place on Twitter was to create a new pro-growth tax plan to put the U.S. first, with 27 percent. This same issue position ranked at the top of the website agenda and second on the TV ads agenda. The third rank on the Twitter agenda was to create new jobs, jobs for everybody to put people back to work, with 19 percent. This same solution ranked at the top of the TV ads agenda and third on the website agenda. Trump’s plans to increase national economic growth from 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent on average per year ranked fourth on his Twitter agenda, with 12 percent. This solution ranked second on his website agenda and was not featured on his TV ads agenda. Ranking fifth on the Twitter agenda was the worst economic numbers since the Great Depression, with 6 percent; it was not featured on his other two agendas. Finally, the last two items on Trump’s Twitter agenda presented a tie between two possible solutions: one was to save Social Security, with 3 percent; this same issue position ranked third on his TV ads agenda, with 5 percent, and was not featured on his website agenda; the second was to increase the federal minimum wage, with 3 percent. This solution was not present on his TV ads agenda nor on his website agenda (^{Trump, 2016b}).

Two of those issue positions were directly related to the U.S.-Mexico border. These were jobs fleeing to Mexico and his pro-growth tax plan to put [U.S.] America first. The flow of information started on the TV ads agenda with four solutions. All of them transferred over to the Twitter agenda, where two more solutions were added. Then, out of those seven solutions only three were moved over to the website agenda. After identifying the candidate-generated issue positions, the Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient (rho) was calculated to assess the degree of correlation between each pair of agendas. Outcomes indicated a positive correlation between Trump’s TV ads agenda and Trump’s Twitter agenda (rho = +0.538), indicating a moderate association. Another positive correlation was also found between Trump’s Twitter agenda and Trump’s website agenda (rho = +0.457), documenting a moderate relationship. Lastly, another positive correlation was observed between Trump’s TV ads agenda and Trump’s website agenda (rho = +0.392), also indicating a moderate connection.

Foreign Policy

The second research question inquired about the issue of foreign policy and the agenda-building effect among Trump’s communication venues (see Table 2). This problem involved 14 solutions identified in Trump’s TV ads agenda,⁸ Trump’s Twitter agenda, and his website agenda. No issue positions regarding foreign policy were found in his 100-day agenda. Trump’s Twitter agenda was the most effective political communication tool in disseminating all 14 issue positions regarding the problem of foreign policy.

The top issue position on Trump’s Twitter agenda was to work with the U.S.’s Arab and Middle East allies to fight against ISIS by military coalition operations, to cut off their funding, expand intelligence sharing and cyber warfare, and disrupt and disable their propaganda and recruiting, with 23 percent. This solution ranked second on both his TV ads agenda, with 17 percent, and the website agenda, with 18 percent. The second issue position ranking on Trump’s Twitter agenda was to submit a new budget to rebuild the military and enhance and improve intelligence and cyber capabilities, with 13 percent. This solution ranked sixth on his website agenda, with 8 percent. The solution that ranked third on Trump’s Twitter agenda was to ensure security procedures and refugee policy, taking into account the security of the [U.S.] American people, with 10 percent; this issue position was also presented on his website agenda, with 8 percent, ranking in sixth place. Trump’s Twitter agenda showed a tie between the fourth and fifth places. The presidential candidate plans to defeat the ideology of radical Islamic terrorism rated 8 percent. This issue position ranked at the top of his TV ads agenda and tenth on his website agenda. Also, the Republican candidate plans to renegotiate the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 8 percent; this solution was not featured on the other two agendas.

Issue positions registered another tie for sixth and seventh place on Trump’s Twitter agenda. Trump plans to achieve peace through strength with less conflict and more common ground, with 6 percent; this solution also ranked eighth on his website agenda, with 6 percent. Also, the Republican candidate plans to grow diplomatic relations with Canada, with 6 percent; this issue position was not featured on the other two agendas. On Trump’s Twitter agenda, the eighth through twelfth positions tied. The presidential candidate plans to end the current strategy of nation building and regime change received 4 percent; this solution ranked eighth on his website agenda, with 6 percent. Trump plans to establish new screening procedures and enforce our immigration laws to keep terrorists out of the U.S., with 4 percent; this issue position ranked fifth on his website agenda, with 9 percent. The Republican runner would like to strengthen diplomatic relationships with Russia, 4 percent; this solution was not featured on the other two agendas. Trump would like to advance U.S. core national interest by promoting regional stability and produce an easing of tensions in the world, with 4 percent; this solution ranked fourth on his website agenda, with 10 percent.

The last two issue positions on Trump’s Twitter agenda tied. Likewise, Trump plans to establish a commission on radical Islam to identify and explain to the [U.S.] American public the core convictions and beliefs of this religion to identify warning signs of radicalizations, with 4 percent; this issue position ranked at the top of his website agenda, with 21 percent. In addition, the presidential candidate plans to implement a temporary immigration suspension from the most dangerous and volatile regions of the world that have a history of exporting terrorism, with 2 percent. This same solution ranked third on both his TV ads agenda, with 5 percent, and his website agenda, with 11 percent). Trump would also like to expand diplomatic relations with Mexico, with 2 percent; this solution was not featured on the other two agendas (^{Trump, 2016c}).

Five of those issue positions were directly related to the U.S.-Mexico border. Those were to end the strategy of nation building; refugee policies take into consideration the security of Americans; temporary suspension of immigration from volatile and terrorism nations; establish new screening procedures; and diplomatic relations with Mexico. The flow of information started with the TV ads agenda with three solutions. All of them transferred to the Twitter agenda where 11 additional solutions were introduced. Then, out of those 14 issue positions, 10 were moved over to the website agenda. After identifying the candidate-generated issue positions, the Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient (rho) was calculated to assess the degree of correlation between each pair of agendas. Outcomes determined three positive correlations. Those were between Trump’s TV ads agenda and Trump’s website agenda (rho = +0.282), indicating a low association. Also, another positive correlation was found between Trump’s TV ads agenda and Trump’s Twitter agenda (rho = +0.210), again documenting a low relationship. Finally, another positive correlation was observed between Trump’s Twitter agenda and Trump’s website agenda (rho = +0.018), indicating a weak connection.

Immigration

The most controversial issue of Trump’s presidential campaign regarding the U.S.-Mexico border was immigration. The third research question inquired into immigration and the agenda-building effect among Trump’s communication venues (see Table 3). This issue presented 17 issue positions on Trump’s TV ads agenda,⁹ his Twitter agenda, his website agenda, and his 100-day agenda. The most effective political communication tool was Trump’s 100-day agenda, which disseminated 16 issue positions regarding immigration.

The top solution in Trump’s 100-day agenda was the End Illegal Immigration Act, proposing a two-year mandatory federal prison sentence for undocumented immigrants re-entering the U.S.; a 5-year mandatory federal prison sentence for illegally re-entering for those with felony convictions, misdemeanors, or two or more deportations; reforms to visa rules to enhance penalties for overstaying; and beginning to remove two million criminal undocumented immigrants from the country, with 20 percent. This same issue position also ranked at the top of his website agenda, with 36 percent, and second on his TV ads agenda, with 29 percent. The second and third positions presented a tie in Trump’s 100-day agenda. The presidential candidate plans to build an impenetrable physical wall on the southern border that Mexico will pay for; strong borders to stop immigrants, drugs and money, with 8 percent. This solution ranked at the top of his Twitter agenda, with 62 percent, but in third place on both his TV ads agenda, with 18 percent, and his website agenda, with 14 percent. The Republican candidate plans to restore the Community Safety Act, which creates a task force on violent crime and increases funding to law enforcement agencies to dismantle criminal gangs, with 8 percent. This solution also ranked in second place on his website agenda, with 15 percent, and third on his Twitter agenda, with 9 percent.

On Trump’s 100-day agenda, five issue positions tied in the fourth through eighth positions on the list. The Republican nominee would like to establish new immigration controls to boost wages and to ensure that open jobs are offered to American workers first, with 7 percent; this solution ranked eighth on his Twitter agenda, with 1 percent. Likewise, the presidential candidate plans to protect the economic well-being of lawful immigrants already living in the U.S. by curbing uncontrolled foreign worker admissions, with 7 percent. Once again, this issue position ranked eighth on his Twitter agenda, with 1 percent. Similarly, Trump wants to detain anyone who illegally crosses the border until they are removed from our country, with 7 percent; this solution also ranked eighth on his Twitter agenda, with 1 percent. In addition, the New Yorker plans to ensure that a biometric entry-exit visa tracking system is fully implemented at all land, air, and sea ports, with 7 percent; this issue position was not featured on the other three agendas. Correspondingly, the Republican candidate plans to reform legal immigration to serve the best interests of America and keeping immigration levels within historic norms, with 7 percent; this solution ranked at the top of his TV ads agenda, with 53 percent, and second on his Twitter agenda, with 15 percent (^{Trump, 2016d}).

The issue position of guaranteeing that all people coming into our country will undergo extreme vetting, with 5 percent, ranked ninth on Trump’s 100-day agenda, but fourth, with 9 percent, on his website agenda. The next three items on Trump’s 100-day agenda were tied, ranking in eleventh place. The presidential candidate would like people admitted to the U.S. to support its people and cultural values, with 4 percent, but ranked sixth, with 7 percent, on his website agenda. Trump plans to cancel visas to foreign countries that will not take their citizens back, with 4 percent, but holds the fifth position on his Twitter agenda, with 3 percent, and sixth, with 7 percent, on his website agenda. Also, the Republican candidate would like to temporarily suspend immigration from regions that export terrorism and where safe vetting cannot presently be ensured, with 4 percent, but ranks sixth on his website agenda, with 7 percent.

Next on Trump’s 100-day agenda come three items that tied at the fourteenth position, with 3 percent each. The Republican candidate plans to prioritize the jobs, wages, and security of the American people; this solution was not featured on the other three agendas. Likewise, Trump would like to end sanctuary cities by canceling all federal funding to them; this issue position ranked sixth on his Twitter agenda, with 2 percent, as well as holding eighth place, with 5 percent, on his website agenda. Similarly, the presidential nominee was raising awareness by reminding voters that federal law prohibits the employment of undocumented immigrants; this solution was not featured on the other three agendas. Finally, on Trump’s 100-day agenda holding the sixteenth places comes the solution of tripling the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, with 2 percent; this issue position was not featured in the other three agendas. The last item in Trump’s 100-day agenda, ranked seventeenth, was no amnesty/no benefits to undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. This solution was only present on his Twitter agenda, ranking fourth, with 6 percent (^{Trump, 2016a}).

In short, immigration was the most controversial issue of Trump’s presidential campaign. Fourteen of those seventeen issue positions were directly related to the U.S.-Mexico border. Those included establishing new immigration controls to ensure that open jobs are offered to American workers first; people admitted to this country should support its cultural values; the End Illegal Immigration Act; build a wall that Mexico will pay for; every person who illegally crosses the U.S. border will be detained and removed from the country; passing the Restoring Community Safety Act; cancel federal funding for sanctuary cities; triple the number of ICE agents; suspend immigration from terror regions; cancel visas to foreign countries that will not accept their citizens back; biometric entry-exit visas; federal law prohibiting the employment of illegal immigrants; and no amnesty or benefits to illegal immigrants who are already in this country.

The flow of information started on Trump’s TV ads agenda with three solutions. All of them transferred over to his Twitter agenda, where six additional solutions were incorporated. Then, out of those positions, eight were echoed on his website agenda and transferred to his 100-day agenda. After identifying the candidate-generated issue positions, the Spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficient (rho) was calculated to assess the degree of correlation between each pair of agendas. Outcomes determined six positive correlations. Those were between Trump’s TV ads agenda and Trump’s 100-day agenda (rho = +0.545), indicating a moderate association. Similarly, another positive correlation was found between Trump’s website agenda and Trump’s 100-day agenda (rho = +0.449), also documenting a moderate relationship. Likewise, a positive correlation was observed between Trump’s TV ads agenda and Trump’s Twitter agenda (rho = +0.344), indicating a low connection. Also, a positive correlation was documented between Trump’s TV ads agenda and his website agenda (rho = +0.300), indicating a low correlation. A positive correlation was also identified between Trump’s Twitter agenda and his 100-day agenda (rho = +0.272), again indicating a low association. Finally, a positive correlation was observed between his Twitter agenda and his website agenda (rho = +0.089), indicating another low relationship.

Regulations

The fourth research question asked about the issue of regulations and the agenda-building effect among the various Trump communication venues (see Table 4). A total of seven issue positions regarding the regulations problem were identified on Trump’s Twitter agenda and his 100-day agenda. No issue positions regarding regulations were found on his TV ads agenda nor on the website agenda. Trump’s political communication agenda that presented all seven issue positions was his 100-day agenda and only one solution was featured on his Twitter agenda. Subsequently, Trump’s most successful political communication strategy regarding the issue of regulations was his 100-day agenda.

Two solutions topped his 100-day agenda with a tie. The presidential candidate envisions asking all department heads to submit a list of every wasteful and unnecessary regulation that kills jobs and eliminate them, with 22 percent; and ending radical regulations that force jobs out of our communities and inner cities as well as stopping punishing Americans for working and doing business in the U.S, with 22 percent. The third ranking position on Trump’s 100-day agenda also presented a tie, proposing to eliminate America’s most intrusive regulations like the Waters of the U.S. Rule, stop the Clean Power Plan, with 14 percent, and issuing a temporary moratorium on new agency regulations that are not compelled by Congress or public safety, with 14 percent. In the fifth place ranked the solution of reforming the entire regulatory code to ensure that we keep jobs and wealth in America, with 12 percent; this was the only issue position present on Trump’s Twitter agenda, with 100 percent, ranking at the top. Next, ranking sixth on his 100-day agenda was the solution to decrease the size of the agency after a thorough review, with 8 percent. Lastly, ranking seventh on the list was to immediately cancel all illegal and overreaching executive orders, with 7 percent (^{Trump, 2016e}).

Two of those issue positions were directly related to the U.S.-Mexico border: reform the regulatory code to keep jobs in America and to stop punishing Americans for working and doing business in the U.S. The flow of information started at Trump’s Twitter agenda with one solution, which transferred over to his 100-day agenda, where another six issue positions were incorporated. After identifying the candidate-generated issue positions, the Spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficient (rho) was calculated to assess the degree of correlation between the agendas. Outcomes indicated a negative correlation between Trump’s Twitter agenda and Trump’s 100-day agenda (rho = -0.208), indicating a low inverse association.

Tax Plan

The fifth research question addressed the issue of the tax plan and the agenda-building effect among Trump’s communication venues (see Table 5). A total of four issue positions regarding the tax plan problem were identified on Trump’s TV ads agenda,¹⁰ his website agenda, and his 100-day agenda. No issue positions regarding the tax plan were found on his Twitter agenda. Trump’s political communication agenda that presented all four issue positions was his 100-day agenda. Consequently, Trump’s most successful political communication strategy regarding the issue of tax plan was his 100-day agenda.

The top solution proposed by Trump on his 100-day agenda was to reduce the cost of childcare by allowing families to fully deduct the average cost of childcare from their taxes, including stay-at-home parents, with 31 percent. This same issue position ranked second on his TV ads agenda, with 29 percent, and was not featured on his website agenda. The second ranking issue position on Trump’s 100-day agenda was to reduce taxes across the board with his Middle-Class Tax Relief and Simplification Act, which states that middle-class families with two children will get a 35-percent tax cut, with 27 percent. This solution ranked at the top of both his TV ads agenda, with 42 percent, and his website agenda, with 57 percent. The third and fourth items on his 100-day agenda tied. Trump plans to lower business rates to 15 percent as well as requesting that American corporate money overseas be brought back to the U.S. at a 10-percent rate, with 21 percent. This same solution ranked second on his website agenda, with 43 percent, and was not featured on his TV ads agenda (^{Trump, 2016a}). Also, the presidential candidate would like to eliminate special interest loopholes and make our business tax rate more competitive to keep jobs in America, with 21 percent; this solution ranked second on his TV ads agenda and was not included on his website agenda (^{Trump, 2016f}).

Two of those issue positions were directly related to the U.S.-Mexico border: American corporate money overseas brought back, with 10 percent, and to make the business tax rate more competitive to keep jobs in the U.S. The flow of information started at Trump’s TV ads agenda with three solutions, only one of which transferred over to his website agenda, where another solution was incorporated. All three solutions featured in his TV ads as well as the solution from his website were transferred to his 100-day agenda. After identifying the candidate-generated issue positions, the Spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficient (rho) was calculated to assess the degree of correlation between each pair of agendas. Results indicated a positive correlation between Trump’s TV ads agenda and his 100-day agenda (rho = +0.500), indicating moderate correlation between the two. Another positive correlation was documented between the TV ads agenda and the website agenda (rho = +0.333), indicating a low association. Finally, outcomes determined a negative correlation between Trump’s website agenda and his 100-day agenda (rho = -0.056), indicating a low inverse degree of interdependence.

Trade

The last research question inquired about the issue of trade and the agenda-building effect among Trump’s communication venues (see Table 6). Outcomes identified nine issue positions regarding the issue of trade disseminated in the TV ads agenda,¹¹ his Twitter agenda, his website agenda, and his 100-day agenda. Consequently, Trump’s most successful political communication strategy regarding the issue of trade was his Twitter agenda.

The top issue solution on Trump’s Twitter agenda was to appoint tough, smart trade negotiators to fight on behalf of U.S. workers, with 32 percent. This solution ranked low, in sixth place, on his 100-day agenda, with 8 percent, and was not featured in his TV ads and website agendas. The second ranking solution was to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, with 21 percent. This issue ranked third on his TV ads agenda, with 20 percent; fifth on his website agenda, with 5 percent; and eighth on his 100-day agenda, with 8 percent. The third most important solution on Trump’s Twitter agenda was to negotiate fair trade deals that created U.S. American jobs, increase U.S. wages, and reduce the U.S. trade deficit, with 19 percent. This solution ranked at the top of Trump’s TV ads agenda, with 40 percent, fifth on his 100-day agenda, with 9 percent, but was not present on his website agenda. The fourth issue position on Trump’s Twitter agenda was to renegotiate NAFTA to get a better deal for our workers, and, if they don’t agree to a renegotiation, withdraw from the deal under Article 2205; eliminate Mexico’s one-sided backdoor tariff through the value-added tax (VAT); and end sweatshops in Mexico that undercut U.S. workers, with 18 percent. This issue position ranked at the top of the other three agendas. The fifth place on Trump’s Twitter agenda was the proposal to use every lawful presidential power to remedy trade disputes if China does not stop its illegal activities, with 4 percent; this same issue position ranked fourth on the 100-day agenda, with 10 percent (^{Trump, 2016g}).

The sixth and seventh issue positions in Trump’s Twitter agenda tied. The Republican candidate plans to ask the Secretary of the Treasury to label China as a currency manipulator, with 2 percent; this same solution ranked fourth on his website agenda, with 8 percent, and seventh on his 100-day agenda, with 6 percent (^{Trump, 2016a}). Also, Trump would instruct the U.S. trade representative to bring trade cases against China in this country and at the World Trade Organization (WTO), with 2 percent; this issue position ranked third on his 100-day agenda, with 11 percent. The eighth and ninth issue positions on the Twitter agenda also tied. The presidential candidate would like to ask the Secretary of Commerce to identify all foreign trading abuses and violations of trade agreements and direct all appropriate agencies to use every tool under U.S. and international law to end these abuses, with 1 percent. This same issue position ranked second on two agendas: his website, with 34 percent, and his 100-day agenda, with 24 percent. Trump proposes the End of Offshoring Act, which establishes tariffs to discourage companies from relocating to other countries, with 1 percent; this solution ranked third on his website agenda, with 12 percent.

Three of those issue positions were directly related to the U.S.-Mexico border: asking the Secretary of Commerce to identify every violation of the trade agreement, renegotiate NAFTA, and the End of Offshoring Act. The flow of information started at Trump’s TV ads agenda with three solutions, all of which transferred to his Twitter agenda. Six other issue positions were added as part of his Twitter agenda. Five positions moved over to Trump’s website agenda, and eight transferred over to his 100-day agenda. After identifying the candidate-generated issue positions, the Spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficient (rho) was calculated to assess the degree of correlation between each pair of agendas. The outcomes documented four positive correlations. The first one was between Trump’s TV ads agenda and his Twitter agenda (rho = +0.512), indicating a moderate correlation between the two. The second positive correlation was observed between Trump’s TV ads agenda and his 100-day agenda (rho = +0.189), indicating a low association. The third positive correlation was found between Trump’s website agenda and his 100-day agenda (rho = +0.174), again indicating a low correlation between the two. The fourth positive correlation was documented between Trump’s TV ads agenda and his website agenda (rho = +0.156), again indicating a low connection. Lastly, the results revealed two negative correlations, between Trump’s Twitter agenda and his 100-day agenda (rho = -0.092), indicating a low inverse correlation, and between Trump’s Twitter agenda and his website agenda (rho = -0.461), documenting a moderate inverse interdependence.

Overall, the highest number of solutions presented by Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign were disseminated via his Twitter agenda and his 100-Day agenda. On Twitter, Trump disseminated all seven issue positions regarding the economy. Likewise, he presented all 14 solutions concerning foreign policy. Similarly, the Republican candidate distributed all nine of his issue positions regarding trade. On the 100-day agenda, Trump presented all four issue positions in relation to his tax plan, and he also circulated all seven of his solutions regarding regulations. However, regarding immigration, he presented 16 of the 17 solutions on his 100-Day agenda. Therefore, Trump’s most successful political communication strategies to disseminate to U.S. voters the highest number of issue positions/solutions regarding his issues/problems were his Twitter agenda and his first-100-day agenda. The number of issue positions disseminated to voters by each political venue indicates the possible solutions that were presented to resolve a problem or an issue. The agenda-building effect, in turn, measures how similar or different those lists of issue positions were between agendas.

The agenda-building effect was measured between issue positions presented on Trump’s agendas for every one of the six issues analyzed in this study. Some of the issues presented a combination of moderate and low positive correlations, indicating the strength of the correlations between agendas, while others documented moderate and low negative correlations. The strongest degree of interdependence was observed in immigration between Trump’s TV ads agenda and his 100-Day agenda, and in the issue of economy between Trump’s TV ads agenda and his Twitter agenda. In both instances, the message sent to voters on those political communication venues was very similar. For instance, three agenda-building-effect examinations were conducted regarding the economy, in which all three resulted in a moderate degree of interdependence. The three agenda-building-effect outcomes concerning foreign policy documented that all of them were positive correlations, with two of them exhibiting a low relationship between agendas, and the third a weak relationship.

Another set of three agenda-building inspections were preformed to evaluate the issue of the tax plan; two show positive correlations, one moderate and one low, but the other was a low negative correlation. Only one agenda-building effect was registered for regulations documenting a low negative correlation between agendas, implying that the agendas were independent of each other. The issues of trade and immigration presented the highest number of agenda-building effect examinations. Trade presented six measurements between their agendas; four of them presented positive correlations, one with a moderate and three with low associations. In terms of immigration, six agenda-building tests were also conducted in which all degrees of interdependence were positive; two presented a moderate association and four had a low correlation.

Trump’s U.S.-Mexico Border Agenda

In summary, the authors identified in Trump’s political communication messages a total of six issues that directly influence the U.S.-Mexico border: the economy, foreign policy, immigration, regulations, taxes, and trade. For instance, outcomes show that from the issue of the economy, two issue positions were directly related to the border. The first states that Trump wants to create a new pro-growth tax plan with a put-America-first trade policy because Americans lost 300 000 jobs, which fled to Mexico and China. The second establishes that the U.S. is facing the destruction of factories. Regarding foreign policy, results show five issue positions directly related to the border. Trump would like to end the current strategy of nation building and regime change to consider the security of the U.S. by ensuring that our security procedures and refugee policy benefit them. Also, Trump wants to establish new screening procedures at our borders and enforce our immigration laws such as temporarily suspending immigration from the most dangerous regions of the world that have a history of exporting terrorism. He wants to establish a diplomatic relationship with Mexico.

The most complex of Trump’s issues was immigration, which presented the highest number of issue positions directly related to the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump plans to construct a wall on the southern border that Mexico will pay for, and that will secure our borders, stopping illegal immigration, drugs, and money. Also, he would like to establish new immigration controls to ensure that open jobs are offered first to U.S. workers and to reform legal immigration to keep immigration levels low. The Republican candidate planned to select immigrants based on their ability to be financially self-sufficient and their adaptability to U.S. culture supporting American values, institutions, and people. Trump wants to protect the lawful immigrants who already live in the U.S. by curbing uncontrolled foreign-worker admissions because federal law prohibits the employment of undocumented immigrants.

Trump also wants to triple the number of ICE agents on the border, conduct joint operations at the federal, state, and local levels to detain criminal aliens, pass the End Illegal Immigration Act by detaining anyone who illegally crosses the border until they are removed from the country, end illegal immigration to keep America safe, reinstate the Community Safety Act by creating a special taskforce to disintegrate criminal gangs, end sanctuary cities by cancelling all federal funding to them, temporarily suspend immigration of individuals coming from terrorist countries or from countries where safety screening cannot be ensured, and implement a biometric entry-exit visa inspection system for screenings at air, land, and sea ports. In addition, Trump plans to cancel visas to foreign nations who refuse to accept their immigrants back, cancel all benefits for undocumented immigrants already established in the U.S., and end the amnesty policy.

Two issue positions that directly relate to the border were found in the regulations issue. Trump would like to reform the entire regulatory code to ensure that jobs and wealth are kept in America. He plans to end regulations that force jobs out of our cities and stop punishing U.S. people for working and doing business in this country. Regarding Trump’s tax plan, two issue positions that directly relate to the U.S.-Mexico border were found. Trump plans to change the business tax rate to keep jobs in the United States and for U.S. companies to be more competitive. Trump’s idea suggests lowering taxes to 15 percent and cutting the tax rate on money that U.S. corporations bring back to America to 10 percent. Similarly, he wants business owners to receive tax cuts between 15 percent to 35 percent to expand their businesses and be able to create jobs, reopen their factories, and support small business. Finally, the issue of trade presented three issue positions related to the border. Trump plans to ask the Secretary of Commerce to identify every violation of trade agreements and end those abuses. He would like to renegotiate NAFTA to benefit U.S. workers by creating more jobs and increasing wages. Also, Trump wants to pass the End of Offshoring Act, establishing tariffs to discourage companies from relocating to other countries.

This research examined Trump’s candidate-generated political communication strategy distributed over various communication platforms such as his official campaign website, his first-100-day contract with the U.S. people, his political TV ads, his YouTube account, and his Twitter account. In those digital and social media platforms, the Republican candidate presented six issues relating to the U.S.-Mexico border. Each issue was analyzed to determine its particular issue positions. A total of 28 issue positions were identified, and collectively these positions are labeled “Trump’s U.S.-Mexico Border Agenda.” Outcomes determined that of the particular set of 28 issue positions relating to the border, two positions came from the economy, five from foreign policy, fourteen from immigration, two from regulations, two from taxes, and three from trade. Also, results documented that the most important issue related to the U.S.-Mexico border was immigration. Its top most recurrent issue positions were to build a wall on the border with Mexico to secure our borders, to stop immigrants, to end illegal immigration to keep the United States safe, to stop drugs, to stop money, and to build a wall that Mexico would pay for.

This study documents that the agenda-building effect can be observed and measured on issues/problems as well as on the issue positions/solutions to those problems. Also, it has determined that the agenda-building process can be observed in relation to the U.S.-Mexico border region during a presidential electoral campaign. Previous studies documented the directional influence from the media to political ads, from newspapers to TV newscasts, from political ads to the media, and from political ads to TV newscasts and newspapers. This research continues this conversation by expanding the body of knowledge of the agenda-building effect from the broader, national scope to the U.S.-Mexico border regional scope, detecting the issues that directly affect this region and the solutions to those problems, creating a new type of agenda that involves two steps: issues/problems and issue positions/solutions. Traditionally, the agenda-building effect examines only the issues, but rarely does it examine the issue positions associated with them.