While Ronald Reagan was known as “The Great Communicator,” Donald Trump’s rhetoric is lamented by almost everyone.  However, similarities abound between their two communication styles.

Both relied on their previous work in media to inform their communication.  Reagan made use of his experience in radio by learning to draw his audience in with metaphoric language that enabled him to reach his listeners on a deep level.  He also made excellent use of his experience on television.  Trump drew extensively from his experiences as a celebrity and host of The Apprentice prior to running for president in developing his public persona on the campaign trail. 

Both used humor to help their appeal.  Reagan’s was “self-deprecating” and made him seem more relatable, as when he said, “It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?”  Trump uses it to deflect criticism, such as when he responded, “Only Rosie O’Donnell!” when Megyn Kelly confronted him at a debate about his past misogynistic remarks about women, drawing laughs and gasps from the crowd.

Both were excellent at boiling things down and making them simple.  Ken Khachigian, Ronald Reagan’s speechwriter, likened him to “America’s Teacher,” while Trump was judged to speak at a fourth-grade level by the Boston Globe.  These two demonstrate that the most effective political speech often sounds simple — and that’s what makes it sophisticated.

Both saw themselves as outsiders, not politicians.  A colleague of Reagan was once quoted as saying, “It is Reagan’s genius that he convinced himself and others that he was not really a politician, which inspired trust in him.”  Trump has proudly declared, “I’m not a politician” and used his outsider status to win the presidency.

Both benefited from soundbites.  Famous soundbites from Reagan include “There you go again,” which effectively discredited Jimmy Carter’s attack on Reagan’s record.  Reagan also said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”  This phrase would become synonymous with the ending of the Cold War.  Famous soundbites from Trump include “Make America Great Again,” his campaign slogan, and “crooked Hillary,” which branded his opponent, Hillary Clinton, as a criminal.  

Both knew how to ask a soundbite thought-provoking question.  Reagan famously asked, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?,” swaying many voters to his cause.  When speaking at a rally in Lansing, Michigan in 2016, Trump posed the question to undecided black voters to get them to vote Republican: “What do you have to lose?”  In nearby Detroit, about 76,000 voters, thought to be mostly black, stayed home in 2016 on Election Day, costing Hillary Clinton the state of Michigan.

Both benefited from being underestimated.  Just as this was a “secret weapon” for Reagan, Trump deliberately works to be underestimated, and he could not have won in 2016 without the arrogance he brought out in Hillary Clinton.  She famously didn’t campaign enough in Michigan and Wisconsin, both of which she lost.         

Both had a unique ability to connect with their supporters and make them feel heard and represented.  Reagan’s abilities were premised on his interpersonal effectiveness, ingenuity, and sincerity.  Trump has an extraordinary ability to anticipate what people will think and tactically manipulate his adversaries.  Both have demonstrated extremely high emotional intelligence and commanded great respect among their supporters for their abilities.

Both were leaders who sat on different points in history, at different phases of the left’s execution of its goal to turn the country into a socialist nation.  In Reagan’s day, the media, while perfectly hostile to him and his agenda, still sought to maintain at least an image of professionalism and neutrality.  However, in the age of Trump, an all-out war has broken out between Trump and his adversaries, including the mainstream media (also known as the propaganda arm of the Democrat party).  Both sides are currently trying to destroy each other in an obvious way, and neither side will rest until the war is over. 

Reagan’s communication style would therefore not get him as far in today’s media environment, given where technology was in his day versus Trump’s.  Reagan commanded large audiences with television, in speeches through which he could reach millions directly and showcase his emotional intelligence.  Trump, with such a hostile media establishment, does not have that luxury.  Whereas Reagan had televised addresses in which he could “teach” directly from the Oval Office, Trump has had Twitter (now known as X) as his primary means of communication to reach the vast majority of citizens directly, other than in debates.  Many of the people he needed to reach weren’t even paying attention to his Twitter feed, but rather were hearing about his tweets through the news.  Consequently, Trump largely must reach people through inflammatory soundbites, knowing that the media will transmit his message only if they believe they are damaging him in doing so.  Everything Trump says is conveyed by a media establishment that is actively seeking to destroy him, yet much of our country still expects a communication style that simply could not have led a Republican presidential candidate to victory in 2016.

In some ways, a comparison between Reagan’s and Trump’s communication styles is humorous.  Reagan’s empathy is often credited for his successful oratorial prowess, whereas Trump’s rhetoric sometimes seems to lack empathy altogether.  Further, Reagan’s humble rhetoric could be downright poetic, as when he said in his farewell address, “I wasn’t a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn’t spring full bloom from my brow; they came from the heart of a great nation — from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries.”  Trump, by contrast, posted an image of himself as the fifth president on Mount Rushmore and likes to recite the lyrics of a song titled “The Snake,” originally written in 1963 by Oscar Brown, a civil rights activist.  This song is about a woman who rescues and nurses back to health a dangerous snake who then fatally bites her.  Trump recites these lyrics to make a point about the difference between compassion and naïveté in the context of the debate about whether to take in Syrian refugees and illegal aliens, who could include terrorists and criminals.  Both presidents made meaningful points, albeit in very different ways. 

This is not to imply that Trump lacks empathy.  Trump has demonstrated huge empathy for people who have been treated unfairly, as he demonstrated when he pardoned Alice Marie Johnson, who had received a draconian sentence for a first-time non-violent drug offense in 1996.  He also commuted the sentence of Kodak Black, a rapper who had campaigned against him in 2016 and had received a harsh punishment for lying on federal forms when buying firearms.

The chief difference between the communication styles of Reagan and Trump, however, is that whereas Reagan’s empathetic rhetoric circumvented the media and his adversaries to achieve his goals, Trump employs those avenues to achieve his.  In September 2016, Trump said at a rally, “Our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape that they’ve ever been ... ever, ever, ever.”  President Obama responded, “We will educate him,” bringing up the history of slavery and segregation in our nation’s history.  This soundbite line was no doubt read as hyperbole by black swing voters as a point about how hard it was to be black in that day.  Obama, to whom these voters would be looking when making their decision about whether to turn out for Hillary, responded by effectively saying, “It was worse before” — a terrible response.  Trump had set Obama up to discredit his own message by appearing out of touch with these voters.  One can only conclude that this whole exchange was entirely deliberate by Trump.

The battle between capitalism and socialism has reached its peak in the age of Trump.  Trump intends to reverse the trend of socialism rising in this country, such that someday, it will be gone and never come back.  Indeed, Trump has declared that “America will never be a socialist country.”  That said, Reagan should not be judged negatively for not doing more to expose the media the way Trump has.  Reagan’s communication style would not accomplish Trump’s goals today, and Trump’s would not have achieved Reagan’s goals then.  In Reagan’s day, left-wing ideology was not as entrenched in U.S. society as it is today, and he could not have yet defeated socialism.  A big part of what Trump has been doing is intentionally bringing out the absurdity and injustice of socialism for the nation to see, but this can work only if the country is as close to becoming socialist as it is today.  Had Reagan used Trump’s tactics, he would have simply lost his election.  Both were perfectly suited to govern when they did. 

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.