Abstract
As the conditions for public deliberation are undergoing massive transitions, presidential rhetoric develops novel messaging tactics in order to remain visible and relevant in the multiple public spheres of present-day society. Recent work has demonstrated how the Obama and Trump administrations employ new digital platforms and how their communication interweaves with entertainment media formats. This article investigates an aspect of contemporary presidential rhetoric that so far has received far less attention: namely, its nonconventional use of fictionalized discourse. Drawing and elaborating on ongoing work in narrative theory on the rhetoric of fictionality, the aim of the article is to show how particular rhetorical practices, producing what I call metanoic reflexivity, have been employed by the Obama and Trump administrations. Metanoic reflexivity is a reading effect experienced when a rhetor's use of fictionality disrupts the audience's ascription of relevance to an act of communication.
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