Tweetstorms and processes of social (de)legitimation in the Trump administration

ABSTRACT:

Through this article, we argue that the processes of social (de)legitimation of certain language practices, themes, and perspectives found in the current U.S. President Donald Trump’s tweets strongly demonstrate the reflexivity condition of the actors from the most diverse social fields. Our main hypothesis is that Donald Trump’s tweets discussed widely in the American press and in the political arena are those that seek to legitimize anti-reflexive communicative practices based on the President’s personal authority. We observed the ‘tweetstorms’ performed by President Donald Trump during a period of 35 days and we categorized this production according to its topics. The results of such analysis show that although most of President Donald Trump’s tweets are not publicized by the American commercial media, and although his tweets perform prototypical functions, they do legitimize an anti-reflexive agenda.

Keywords:
Tweets; Donald Trump; Themes; Social reflexivity; Social legitimation