How do presidential responses shape policy narratives and address criticism? A critical discourse analysis of Indonesian interviews (2025–2026)

Research has produced wide-ranging studies on political rhetoric‚ campaign rhetoric‚ and political news‚ while political interviews and answer management are established fields of study within the discipline․ However‚ how policy narratives are formulated‚ criticism is managed‚ and authority is constructed in long-form presidential responses in Indonesia remains underexplored․ This qualitative study used critical discourse analysis to analyze the verbatim transcripts of three videos of two interview events with President Prabowo Subianto in 2025 and 2026․ Using the extracted response as the unit of analysis‚ framing analysis examines the selection and emphasis of issue elements and the definition of policy problems‚ narrative analysis identifies the configurations of responses‚ and legitimation concepts are used to analyze authority․ The findings presented here identify the frames of policy necessity and legitimacy‚ the strategies of acknowledgment‚ reframing‚ redirection‚ epistemic qualification‚ and closure‚ and the moral‚ national‚ planned‚ disciplinary‚ and epistemic performances of authority․ While these findings present some textual strategies‚ they cannot speak to their effects on audience reception․ The data suggest that the presidential interview response acts as a situated site of negotiation where policy meaning‚ critique‚ and authority are shaped․