To Tweet or not to Tweet: An Objective Analysis of President Trump's Linguistic Communication

“We will drain the swamp…We will build a great wall…We will make America Great again”. These are the words of our 45th President, Donald Trump. Undoubtedly, these words, and many more, have generated a wave of... [ view full abstract ]

“We will drain the swamp…We will build a great wall…We will make America Great again”. These are the words of our 45^th President, Donald Trump. Undoubtedly, these words, and many more, have generated a wave of controversy surrounding President Trump and his administration. For some, he is said to be a hero for saving small-town inland American, but for others, his actions are said to be unconventional and at times, unconstitutional. The goal of this study was to shed light on this man we call President by objectively analyzing his many forms of linguistic communication. The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program was used to analyze President Trump’s tweets, press conferences, and interviews prior to and since holding office. The program analyzes linguistic content on multiple dimensions, including basic sentence structure, grammatical accuracy, types of words, and how those words relate to various psychological constructs, including neuroticism, compassion, dominance, authenticity, and clout. The results from these analyses can be used to inform not only the American people, but citizens of the world.