<![CDATA[Hedges and boosters are interactional resources used to modulate the force of statements, express degrees of certainty, and construct rhetorical stance in political discourse. This study examines the frequency, linguistic forms, and rhetorical functions of hedges and boosters in two speeches on reciprocal tariff policies: Donald Trump’s speech on April 2, 2025, and Ursula von der Leyen’s speech on April 3, 2025. The data were obtained from publicly available official or institutional transcripts, namely Roll Call Fact-based for Trump’s speech and the European Commission’s Press Corner for von der Leyen’s speech. After cleaning, the complete transcripts contained 13,192 words. The study combines quantitative frequency analysis with qualitative contextual interpretation through comparative discourse analysis, drawing on Hyland’s framework of interactional metadiscourse. The results show that Trump used 60 hedges and 284 boosters, whereas von der Leyen used 40 hedges and 54 boosters. Although the normalized frequencies of hedges were broadly comparable, Trump used boosters substantially more frequently than von der Leyen. These findings suggest that the rhetorical functions of hedges and boosters vary according to rhetorical context, institutional position, and communicative purpose. The study contributes to research on political metadiscourse by proposing a context-sensitive approach that combines normalized frequency analysis with contextual interpretation. The findings indicate differences between the two political leaders rather than general gender-based differences.]]>
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