Many of Donald Trump’s tweets are controversial and cause his popularity to fluctuate constantly. Over time, Trump’s social media presence became larger after he announced his campaign for president. Figure 2 illustrates how Trump’s 2015 comments cause a change in his Republican nomination polling.
Figure 2:
At the beginning of his campaign, Trump’s popularity was only at 5% of the national average but almost 6 months later it increased to 30%. Even with racist and sexist tweets, Trump still managed to continually increase the number of his supporters through his presence on Twitter and at his rallies. All of these quoted comments merely extend from his tweets. The largest percent increase caused by a comment was when Trump said, “Think of
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It’s one of the greatest thefts of in the history of the world” on August 25, 2015. This quote influences Trump’s reputation because of the correlation between American’s anger with unemployment and Donald Trump’s promise that if elected, he will solve this issue. Although Trump’s popularity increased over time, after certain comments, the Trump campaign saw a decrease in his Republican nomination pollings. For example, after his comment about the silent majority on September 14, 2015, Trump’s popularity decreased from 30% down to about 23%. Although the comment is not the sole reason, it contributes to the decrease in polling numbers. Another example of Trump’s polls increasing was during the Democratic Debate in October 2015. Even though Donald Trump is a Republican candidate, his live tweeting produced a lot of attention and led to the increase of 60,000 followers …show more content…
Before becoming the 2016 Republican Presidential Nominee, Trump was successful in both business and on television. In 2004, Trump became a reality TV star on his show The Apprentice. People know his name which helps Trump gain popularity during the election. Once voters can recognize the Trump name, decision heuristics, or mental shortcuts come into play. In politics, voters tend to vote for the candidate they are most familiar with. Trump uses his background as a reality star to his advantage and gains popularity that way. A 2005 study by the psychologist Alexander Todorov proves that politically uninvolved voters tend to vote for the candidate that looks the most competent. Two physical attributes that viewers associate with competence are a square jaw and an intense stare. Donald Trump possesses both of these attributes. This study concludes that Donald Trump’s name and appearance influences his supporters more than his political
Donald J. Trump, is known to many as the orange man who wags his finger down a long table of celebrities firing them left and right every Sunday night on NBC. To others he is known as the billionaire tycoon, who graces our headlines for remarkably insensitive or oddball remarks. All (not even possibly Mr. Trump himself), at least until now, viewed him as a possible candidate for the next President of the United States. But as polls indicate, and citizens across the country (both moderate and conservative) vote in favor of Trump, he may very well be sitting in the oval office come January 20th, 2017. Whether this strikes fear in your heart, or tremendous hope is beside the matter, no one can deny the fervor and mania Trump
Gelman, Andrew and Gary King, “Why Are America Presidential Election Campaign Polls So Variable When Votes Are So Predictable?” 1993. PDF.
Repeatedly Donald Trump is witnessed at the Grand Old Party Debates, press conferences and even during his Tweet expressions, displaying the very demeanor that is disturbing to many voters. As stated by columnist John Hawkins and on the Blog Website townhall.com, he characterizes the following comments as Donald Trump's best quotes. "I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct. I've been challenged by so many people, and I don't frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn't have time either." (Hawkins, 2015, para.
Donald Trump can be appreciated for his cunning business savvy and an ability to at various times throughout his career, make it big. By co-creating this reality show with Mark Burnett, not only has he capitalized on the public's desire to fantasize about (and for a precious few, compete for) achieving a high-profile, financially lucrative career as a business mogul, he has also brought to the mainstream audience a heated, emotional and stimulating debate about something that we all seem to have an opinion on: what it takes to be a great leader.
In this paper, I consider the growing role of social media in presidential politics during the current era. The research questions the extent of the political impact of social media on the president and his communication with the public. It is necessary thus to examine the properties that make social media an attractive tool to use, the different ways the president interacts with social media, and both benefits and limitations of using social media as a platform for communication. As a result, it is essential to make conclusions regarding the nature of the relationship between social media and the presidential politics.
In the last three decades, polls became an important instrument for the media, especially television networks, to determine who wins and who loses the election. Caprini conducted a study about the impact of the early prediction of a winner in the 1980 presidential race by the television networks. He observed that, shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern standard time, NBC announced that, according to its analysis of exit poll data, Ronald Reagan was to be the next president of the United States (Caprini, 1984, p. 866). That early call was controversial because the polls in many states were still open at the time and, in some of th...
Donald Trump has been nearly immune to criticism. The only time Trump ever suffered significantly in the polls was when Hillary ultimately secured the requisite number of delegates to push Bernie Sanders out, to become the presumptive Democratic nominee. With former Sanders supporters beginning to coalesce around Hillary, she managed to get a bump in the polls following a stinging speech attacking Trump. To make matters worse, Trump flapped his mouth, attacking the judge presiding over the Trump University case. Trump proceeded to make what were perceived as racist comments regarding the judge because his parents were of Mexican descent.
“David Robinson, who performed a statistical analysis of the President-elect's Twitter account in August, said Mr. Trump's tendency to tweet like an "entertainer" meant he was able to garner the “interest" of the American people, which in turn boosted his chances of election success”(Independent.co.uk 1). His appeal to emotion has personally benefited himself to the point where he remained a key subject of interest throughout the entire election. Whether or not he was favored, he was the most focused on topic for the widespread media.
The researchers present findings that indicate that a politician’s popularity in the voting booth may be related to the frequency with which the candidate is talked about on social media. The researchers goes on to discuss how further research may conclude that social media has a bigger impact on voting outcomes than traditional forms of media, and how that could potentially shape the future of voting.
Since Donald Trump won the Presidential election, there has been a dramatic uptick in incidents of racist and xenophobic harassment across the country. The Southern Poverty Law Center has reported that there were 437 incidents of intimidation between the election, on November 8th, and November 14th, targeting blacks and other people of color and ethnicities. One woman in Colorado told the S.P.L.C. that her twelve-year-old daughter was approached by a boy who said, “Now that Trump is President, I’m going to shoot you and all the blacks I can find.” At a school in Washington State, students chanted “build a wall” in a cafeteria. (Alexis 1). In the time of his presidency, Trump has repeatedly been asked to condemn white-nationalist supporters, such as David Duke, and the violence inspired by his campaign, and his responses have been notably halfhearted. On Sunday, in an interview on “60 Minutes,” he said that he had not heard about much racial abuse since the election, and added, “If it helps, I will say this … stop it.” (CNN Politics 1). That same day, he named Steve Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart, the right-wing news site with strong connections to white nationalism, as his senior counselor and chief strategist. (Alexis
Washington D.C. From their perspective, Donald Trump was that outsider who said what needed to be said without fear out political backlash. To them, Trump was that businessman who came from the outside to rescue them from these drastic social changes that occurred and would rejuvenate postmodern ideals. Donald Trump was followed by the people who believed in his causes. Their support resulted in high voter turnout, vast political rally presence, and grassroots support.
The focus of this analysis will be on Mr. Trump’s use of social media sites, namely Twitter. Mr. Trump has a twitter feed that according to Amber Phillips of the Washington Post, “Trump tweets, at minimum, 10 times a day, nearly every day. On Oct. 31 — a typical day in Trump 's campaign — he tweeted 59 times.” (Phillips). Therefore, Donald uses Twitter quite often. He uses it throught the day everyday as a way of keeping his name in the public’s eye. The message and success of such Twitter posts will be discussed
Social media including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Flicker, internet websites, and blogs are becoming mainstream attracting a younger more technology savvy voter. Many candidates in the last elections learned to use these mediums so not to overlook tech savvy voters and learned how to use these to their advantage. Candidates took to the internet to raise awareness, state views, and even successfully raised donations. Social media was able to provide instant feedback on the standing of a candidate often days or weeks sooner than a more traditional poll.
To truly understand how people with hardly any political experience can step right into the spotlight and win an election, one must first understand what goes into a political campaign. The first step for a want-to-be politician is to declare their entrance into the election. Many people want this to take place at a large press conference. This is a step in the election process where celebrities have a major advantage. Even if a celebrity announces their entrance into an election in their basement, they will still get massive amounts of press coverage. It is a big deal for celebrities to do something like this, especially when they have no political background. For example, when Arnold Schwarzenegger declared his entrance into the race for the governorship of California, he was the lead story on news shows all over the country for the next week. If this was just ordinary politician letting the world know that they were running for this position, they would only receive a quick mention on the news and only in the state of California. By having their name all over the news, the celebrity is getting the voting public to at least know they are running for a certain position.
"How Obama Won the Social Media Battle in the 2012 Presidential Campaign." Pamela Rutledge Media Psychology Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.