The president of the United States has a lot of influence. Trump has increased it.
President Donald Trump has set an interesting precedent. It will be impossible for any future president to be able to communicate in only traditional ways. Trump's use of social media has changed the expectations of American citizens. Gone are the days of formal political statements, and press releases. From now on, Americans will demand direct instant responses to a much wider range of topics from our presidents.
Before Trump, Americans expected the president to voice his opinions on political matters. The means by which presidents communicated was mostly through television, radio, and formal announcements. These messages would sometimes take days, weeks, or even months of writing and editing until finally being released. The more controversial the topic, the longer the statement might take. This was done to make sure that the statement would correctly reflect the political views of the president while being as respectful as possible to those that might disagree.
But now…
Instantaneous, unfiltered, and often times irrelevant to politics, Trump tells the whole world the first thing that comes to his mind. No topic is off limits, no individual is exempt, and no language is too coarse. Regardless of whether or not you support Trump's opinions, we must all except the fact that this is a radical, fundamental shift in the way that we as American people communicate with our President.
This change is not specific to Trump. While he might be the first president to use social media as a primary form of communication, he will certainly not be the last. It is impossible for the future president, whoever that might be, too not use social media as a means to instantly communicate with the American populace. We, the American people, and the rest of the world all expect it now. Groups and individuals will be far too impatient to wait for a formal address to be written, proofread, edited, and delivered. If any tragedy, controversy, or other noteworthy event were to take place, we would demand an immediate response from whoever sits in the oval office.
Time is not the only factor that has changed. The topics that we will want statements on has broadened immensely. We will no longer seek the president just for his stance regarding foreign military affairs or international trade. We are going to seek opinions regarding business leaders, the media, sports, celebrities, everything. Silence will be interpreted and misinterpreted by both political parties. When a statement is given, it will be taken out of context and used to polarize the nation.
While it is easy to state that this is all negative change, we must take into consideration that not all of this is new. Political statements, no matter how well refined, have always been twisted around. American politics has been two-sided long before Trump even thought about running for president.
What factors have changed, time and topic. From now on, Americans will demand direct instant responses to a much wider range of topics from our presidents.
Sources:
- http://thefederalist.com/2017/04/11/trump-americas-first-social-media-president-thats-not-good-thing/
- https://hbr.org/2017/03/what-trump-understands-about-using-social-media-to-drive-attention
- http://www.npr.org/2016/11/18/502306687/commander-in-tweet-trumps-social-media-use-and-presidential-media-avoidance
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