Donald Trump's Social Media Voice is Shaped by Their Tone and Sentiment

Bourg, J. (2017, November 23). Trump rage-tweets at reporter who slammed his twitter rage. Daily Beast. Retrieved from https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-rage-tweets-at-reporter-who-slammed-his-twitter-rage

In this article, Bourg details a report about Donald Trump’s rage on Twitter. According to the author, a reporter from the Washington Post called Greg Sargent had posted a link to his latest article on Twitter that criticized Trump’s insistent rage-tweeting against prominent African-American personalities. Sargent had indirectly suggested that Trump’s angry tweets diminished his credibility as the president of the United States and would jeopardize his chances of being re-elected. However, Trump responded to Sargent’s tweet with an angry tone indicating in all caps his infamous slogan “make America great again,” followed by the exclamation point. Although Trump’s tweet seemed to support Sargent’s sentiment unintentionally, the emotional and language tones of the context suggest otherwise. His tweet expressed anger and a sense of confidence in what he was constantly saying. Because of these mixed signals, the tweet did not generate high rates of engagement in comparison to some of his tweets, in which the tone corresponds to the sentiment expressed. This article is useful as it illustrates how tone and sentiment influence a leader’s social media voice.  

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