Means of conveying hortative meaning in utterances have been described in a wide range of works on theoretical grammar. The novelty of this paper lies in the analysis of hortative language in American political discourse, which is characterized by a high degree of manipulation. This manipulation is aimed at the alteration of public opinion by means of particular technics and linguistic means, which help an orator to convey precise political environment and it also carries out its main function - power struggle. This analysis seems particularly relevant in the context of growing importance of political communication, with the resolution of a host of sociopolitical issues dependent on accurate interpretation of such communication. This paper aims to identify verbal and non-verbal linguistic means of encoding hortative meaning in American political discourse. Hortative meaning has been studied in its connection with grammatical categories of the imperative mood and modality. The results show that hortative meaning may be expressed on three levels of language: lexical, grammatical, and syntactic. As political discourse not only reflects socio-political life of the country and contains some cultural elements, but it also can be used as a dangerous manipulation tool of public opinion, the authors of the article suggest that political discourse be studied by both politicians and their audience.