The Trump Twitter Archive does not matter to many supporters of Trump. They do not care that the president repeats easily falsified information and is otherwise unpresidential. In fact, they see the use of Twitter as a way of subverting those criticisms. They see it as an opportunity for him to express himself spontaneously and in response to whatever is perceived as the crisis or issue of the day.
Trump’s preferred Twitter style reflects more closely the style of other Twitter users
A new study has found that Trump’s preferred style of Twitter communication is more like the style of other Twitter users than it is like Trump’s own. The study looked at 3,876 tweets, revealing that Trump relies heavily on Twitter as a means of communication. His tweets typically contain a single, short punchy statement accentuated by an exclamation point. Unlike other Twitter users, Trump appears to compose his own tweets and does not ask others for advice before posting. Furthermore, he did not spend any time editing or self-editing the tweets.
The majority of critics of Trump’s Twitter style have spent hours tracking his tweets, looking for contradictions that supposedly index Trump’s unreliability. Yet, Twitter users discourage such search, and their tweets are often in response to other users’ tweets. Trump’s tweets typically respond to immediate co-tweets, rather than to individual tweets that are indexed for their contradictions.
Trump tweets are a sign of spontaneity
Trump’s tweets are not spontaneous, but rather, a reflection of his linguistic ideology. The West Wing, in fact, drafts proposed tweets in advance, intentionally using questionable grammar and staccato syntax. They also use random words and capitalize them to emphasize their points. They often create tweets that are loosely connected.
Trump tweets are geared toward speaking on whatever is construed as the issue or crisis du jour
Many mainstream critics have spent hours tracking Trump’s statements on Twitter to find alleged contradictions that would make him seem unreliable. But the format of tweets is specifically geared toward speaking on whatever is construing as the issue or crisis du jour. A tweet can be as short as 140 characters and often contains an exclamation point to emphasize its punchiness. Despite this, it is clear that Trump composed the tweets himself and didn’t seek any counsel before sending them. He has also not spent any time editing and self-editing his tweets before posting them.
Politicians have long used new technologies to communicate their policies. Franklin Roosevelt had radio “fireside chats” and John Kennedy held news conferences on television. But while other leaders used new media to make their message more digestible, Twitter is a new phenomenon that has become the de facto presidential platform. A tweet can reach as many as 87 million people with a single click. Nevertheless, not all tweets are created equal. Here are some of the most significant tweets from Trump’s presidency and the themes they highlight.
Trump tweets are a generalized, invisible enemy
A generalized, invisible enemy is a constant threat to a nation’s security. These threats come in many different forms. Some are purely physical, such as viruses or dangerous foreign enemies. Others can be more abstract, such as news media, or the state itself. Regardless of its source, the phrase ‘invisible enemy’ has a great deal of emotional power.
The term “invisible enemy” was first used by President Donald Trump in a March 17 presser. In that presser, he used the term three times. Over the next eighteen days, he used the term at least once a day. And he repeatedly claimed that nobody had seen this coming.
While the term “invisible enemy” may seem rather ominous, it has an advantage for Trump. This is because it feeds into a key affect of Trump supporters: the sense of persecution. These people feel that progressive social values and political correctness are against their views. It’s a kind of “great silent majority” that Nixon spoke of during the Vietnam War. It was intended to support his policies on the war. And it works the same way with the right-wing politics of Trump.
As a result, Trump’s tweets are widely remediated by other social media users, formal media, and the media. He can control a news cycle for days, weeks, or even months. This enables him to establish media neighborhoods under his name and to crowd out competitors.
