<b>AI-Enhanced and Appraisal Analysis of Conservative Political Discourse: Exploring Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation in Trump, Kirk, and Boebert’s Speeches</b>

This paper examines conservative political discourse themed on MAGA (Making American Great Again) in speeches of Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk and Lauren Boebert using Appraisal Theory (Martin & White, 2005). Using a dual methodology that includes an AI tools and manual coding, the study explores how Attitude, Engagement and Graduation are employed to form ideology, mobilize audiences and solidify collective identity. Results indicate Trump’s focus on negative Judgment and monoglossic authority; Kirk’s emphasis on grievance within an empowering message of heteroglossic engagement and metaphorical risks; and Boebert’s actively encouraged a positive Appreciation to build group solidarity.AI-supported analysis offers a quick, measurable indications of polarity, intensity and stance; manual coding captures the rhetorical nuance, contextual meaning and metaphorical depth. The approaches show how conservative discourses use evaluative language to argue, legitimate, and construct ideological worlds and contributed to its theoretical and empirical limitations and the strengths of AI-supported as well as human-centred analysis.