The chapter investigates Trump’s populism from a media studies perspective, arguing that his use of Twitter belongs to a media practice solely oriented towards maxim­izing popularity—popular not in the sense of being favored or liked, rather in the sense that his tweets are getting noticed by many. This popu­larity on Twitter is measured as well as staged as rankings and continues to provide infor­mation on what is popular while vying for popularity.
The author examines a series of tweets that seek to assert, substantiate, or further enhance Trump’s popu­larity, which is then largely defined by Trump and his followers via Twitter rankings. The specific mechanisms of attention gene­ration via Twitter are then recon­structed and analyzed with a view to under­standing the spread of populism with the advent of social media. According to Werber’s thesis, only the close obser­vation of Trump’s media practice can fully account for the digital resonance strategies that led to his success.

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Werber, Niels (2025): “Donald Trump’s Media”, in: Lars Koch, Tobias Nanz, and Christina Rogers (edd.): The Great Disruptor. Trump, the Media, and the Politics of Degradation. Berlin/Heidelberg, p. 149–170. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-71155-2_7