President Donald Trump last night accomplished something that evaded former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, both celebrated speakers.
In giving a weighty yet conversational joint session address to Congress, Trump joined modern history’s “Great Communicators” club, according to America’s leading expert on former President Ronald Reagan.
Biographer Craig Shirley told Secrets that Trump’s address pushed past his previous speeches to a height other presidents haven’t hit since the Gipper’s days.
“To make a great speaker, there’s not one element. It takes a lot of things,” said the Reagan biographer.
“If you’re right in your ideas, and you’ve got the right opposition, if you have a moral firmness of ideas, and experience, and he has all of that now, you’ve got the recipe to produce a good or great speaker,” said the author of five acclaimed Reagan biographies.
Shirley said Reagan, John F. Kennedy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt had all of those traits, while Obama and Clinton didn’t, often delivering well-received speeches that were quickly forgotten because they lacked substance.
Best line of Trump’s speech tonight is right here. Well done. pic.twitter.com/mvxgf0YHEl
— MAZE (@mazemoore) March 5, 2025
“When FDR spoke, or when Kennedy spoke, or when Reagan spoke, or when Trump speaks, the American people have responded, ‘Let us march.’” said the author.
Like those former presidents, he said that Trump has mastered the stage. “Trump understands the bully pulpit like nobody since Reagan. Reagan would applaud the Trump administration,” he said.
Shirley, who is writing the authorized Trump 2024 comeback book, said that he has seen changes in the president since his first term that have made him a greater communicator. He cited experience, Trump’s overflowing agenda, and the self-confidence that the mandate election delivered.
He said that Trump’s battles in the first term with critics, courts, Congress and the media have steeled him to take his fight directly to Democrats as he did last night.
“He’s gone through trial by fire. Reagan went through trial by fire, too,” said Shirley.
He has also seen Trump’s humor grow along with his more conversational style of speaking, both of which draw in audiences.
#OnThisDay in 1988, President Reagan displays his trademark humor while speaking at the @GOP Republican National Convention in New Orleans. pic.twitter.com/dmyv1GujmL
— Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute (@RonaldReagan) August 14, 2024
“When you face an attack every day, you develop a thick hide, and with that, you get a sense of humor,” said the biographer and public relations executive.
“The ability to do a speech in a conversational way, the gift that Reagan had, and John Kennedy had, and FDR had, and Trump now has, is a real gift,” said Shirley.
And he said it makes a difference that the 45th and 47th president is term-limited. “He doesn’t have another term, so he can do whatever he wants in this term. It liberates you when you don’t have to face another election. You don’t have to trim your sails.”
Shirley added that he expects Trump to get better as he plows through his agenda.
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“The greatest danger to the Trump administration, and I think they understand this innately based on the first 35 days, is that their greatest enemy is standing still. Politics is motion, right? And they’ve been in motion now for 30-some-odd days, so they need to continue to stay in motion. A target in motion is a lot harder to hit than a target at rest,” he said.
And Shirley added, “The world is his oyster. There are so many things out there to act upon, so many good ideas.”
