As could have been predicted, in his defensive/combative speech last Thursday about invoking a national emergency, President Trump scored a Narrative Index (BUT/AND x 100) of 30. He then stepped up the combativeness another level for the Q&A. But he’d better watch out — AOC is his narrative match.
TRUMP SLUGS AWAY AT REPORTERS AND FAKE NEWS. Almost nobody scores over 30 for the Narrative Index. It reflects his rage.
THE CAGED ANIMAL
President Donald Trump last Thursday gave a speech in the Rose Garden defending his decision to declare a state of emergency on the border. It was predictably combative, which means I would predict heavy use of the word “but” and a Narrative Index of over 30.
His speech scored exactly 30, but the Q&A — where the beast gets poked and prodded by the journalists bringing out even more combativeness — scored 36.
I put a high degree of confidence in those two numbers. Both texts were over 4,000 words. I usually say you need about 1,000 words to feel like the score is reliable.
I’ve also got his AF (AND Frequency – the percentage of all words that are the word “and”) scores above. There’s an established baseline of 2.5% for well edited material. His speech was a tiny bit flabby at 3.0%, but once he came under fire, his brain (or whatever reasonable facsimile that he possesses) tightened it up to 2.6%.
For comparison, speeches almost never score above 25 for the Narrative Index. Elizabeth Warren gave four speeches last fall that I was able to find the transcripts for and analyze using the Narrative Index (But/And x 100). Her scores were 17, 18, 21, 23.
Bernie Sanders State of the Union reply was 18. His speech in Burlington in November was 22.
Also, the two speeches I found for Amy Klobuchar (DNC speech and recent announcement of presidential candidacy) scored 14 and 15 for the NI, 3.5 and 3.4 for the AF (yawn).
But here’s a ray of hope … last fall, just after her election victory, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez scored a 38 in her very lengthy interview (over 4,000 words) with Jacobin Magazine with an AF of 2.0. And in a shorter interview with Chris Hayes of MSNBC she scored NI: 32, AF: 2.3.
Those are Trump level scores. She’s the real deal.