The Spectacle of Power: Hybridisation and Digital Populism in White House Communication (2025)

Abstract

This article examines the institutional communication of the White House on X (formerly Twitter) during the first nine months of Donald Trump’s second presidency (January–October 2025). Through a mixed-methods approach that combines thematic, network, and lexical–discursive analysis, the study explores how the presidential account (@WhiteHouse) integrates informational, emotional, and performative dimensions within a hybrid media system. The dataset comprises 4297 tweets, analysed through Graphext, NodeXL/Gephi, and Sketch Engine. The findings reveal that audiovisual and symbolic content dominate over political or policy-related topics, while financial and technological actors occupy central positions in the network of mentions. Lexical analysis highlights three semantic nuclei —Trump, President, and America— that structure a moralised and affective narrative of leadership. The results reflect that White House communication operates as a hybrid and post-bureaucratic model, where political legitimacy increasingly depends on visibility and reputational association with market logics.