> Obama ... was, by far, the most charismatic President we've had in modern times
Watching old Obama speeches, I find him mostly run-of-the-mill. Trump, whether or not you like him, is far more charismatic - his success is built on his charisma. Also, look up Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan speeches, by maybe that isn't what you mean by 'modern times'.
I don't like Trump, and I rank his emission of word-shaped noises somewhere between picking random items from autocomplete suggestions, and my pre-ChatGPT experiments with GPT-3 models.
Charisma is a different axis to all of that.
A lot of people, for reasons I cannot even empathise with, demonstrably like him. One could even describe their response as "idolising" him. (Where does one draw the line between "a cult of personality" and "apotheosis" anyway?)
I work with a small university psychology department, and one of our recently-retired faculty made a several-decade study of charisma, particularly among political leaders.
Her primary theory is that it is built out of a combination of formidable and approachable traits/behaviors. Naturally, there is a fair amount of personal variability in what we perceive as "formidable" and "approachable", so what seems charismatic will vary from person to person; it's not fully objective.
But her theory is that this is why you can have people who are, objectively, more repugnant still read as charismatic, and people who are very pleasant read as less charismatic: the latter may be very approachable, but they don't have enough formidability to synthesize that into charisma, while the former add just enough approachability that they can.
Compared to Trump, Bush was more charismatic. Apart from the inability to reliably form coherent sentences or speak with any intellect showing, Trump is so consistent in spleens and weird mannerisms, literally every person exposed to it can imitate it recognizably as parody. He's a caricature.
People talk about Trump because he/his team excels at distraction through outrage. He's not charismatic, he's dopaminergic.
Dude, I am European. I only watch what's been forced onto me. But yes, I've listened to a few long form interviews as a challenge to myself. Not all of it, because it's unbearable deflective and unorganized, honestly. The longer he speaks the worse it gets.
I mean, even his supporters are constantly trying to "decipher" his messaging. He is constantly failing to recite basic facts correctly, and I don't mean the general lies, but you know stuff like basic geography/history knowledge and stuff. He doesn't come off as primary education pilled.
But sure, it's all fake news. He'll make the US great again and all. Any day now.
I wonder if you would challenge yourself the same with Mamdani or Obama, or somewhat unrelated: Hunter Biden.....
Also Trump is a great comparison to Obama. Obama spoke very well, but did little to nothing, people hated him.
Trump is nearly opposite, he doesn't speak as well clearly. But his actions are stronger, and thats what the voters want. They don't want a smoother talker that tells you what you want to hear and does nothing.
> Trump, whether or not you like him, is far more charismatic
Really? Maybe a decade ago, but now? He cannot keep a coherent thought for more than a few seconds, so every speech is a fucking rambling mess. Even subtitles cannot help make sense of it most of the time.
> - his success is built on his charisma
Bullshitter sales people can be very charming at times, I will give you that.
Watching old Obama speeches, I find him mostly run-of-the-mill. Trump, whether or not you like him, is far more charismatic - his success is built on his charisma. Also, look up Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan speeches, by maybe that isn't what you mean by 'modern times'.