hese points have been made to argue that Donald Trump is using presidential communication for the benefit of himself and to solidify his support among his core base. Trump though does have a legion of followers that agree with him and would disagree with what this paper has argued. An example of a rebuttal that the Trump base would argue for is that the ‘fake news” that Trump points to do really have preconceived bias towards the Democrats and will only support them. This occurs not only in the newspapers, but on global television networks that he believes is biased against him. That reasoning is his explanation for only appearing and giving interviews to the networks he likes, such as Fox News, so he is able to converse without interruption. This reasoning continues when discussing the use of his preferred communication technology, Twitter. Arguments for the president when it comes to Twitter are that he doesn’t lash out against his opponents, but speaks the truth, which he is allowed to do as a citizen. Indeed, some see this “as a positive hallmark” (McKechnie 2) of the age because Trump is able to speak freely and not be controlled by his advisors. Rebuttals like this are clear and can be debated, but what cannot be debated is that the president focuses his use of social media towards his base and that he is not concerned about trying to broaden that base to any great degree. These rebuttals show that Trump just requires an audience, as he did when he was a reality-television star, which is not exactly presidential.

As is clear, Trump has flipped around the notion that presidential political communications are about reaching out beyond partisan boundaries to try and talk to be broadest group of the American public. Trump does not care if his presidential political communications generate a negative image of the president, which has certainly contributed to Trump having a historically low approval rating of 28% (Enten CNN.com). Modern presidents have almost unanimously acted in ways that are consistent with the concept of a rhetorical presidency by using new communications tools to create a stronger connection with the public. Obama was, in this regard, a typ