A Historic First

Abstract

This chapter examines the nature, processes, and effects of Donald Trump's social media uses, Twitter in particular, to cyberbully individuals, groups, and organizations. Trump's discourse constitutes his role as a “cyberbully” and the “targets” of his attacks. Trump's social media discourse also illustrates how power, intimidation, and aggression are contextually situated within the relationship between the president and the public. The president's social media messages—which for historically marginalized groups such as women, nonwhites, and nonwhite immigrants constitute their everyday lived experiences—additionally function to preserve communication systems that keep those groups in marginalized positions within a white supremacist ideological framework. As a result, this discursive environment creates a form of “presidential cyberbullying” where the most influential person in the United States, and the world, consistently employs a modern communication technology not to uplift and unite, but to attack and aggress many of the people whom he is charged with serving.