A listing of the American presidents who were great orators would surely include such prominent wordsmiths as Ronald Reagan, John Kennedy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The current resident of the White House, Donald Trump, hardly seems to belong in the company of those presidents, who displayed soaring rhetoric and dazzled the nation.

It might, however, be time to rethink the exclusion of Trump.

Of course, he has little of the charisma of JFK or the polish of Reagan. President Trump’s opponents consider his bold pronouncements to be unrefined, undiplomatic and clumsy. But he has succeeded in getting his Trumpian messages into the fabric of America. Trump might lack traditional oratorical style, but it is getting harder to question his functionality.

Trump has expanded his rhetorical field way beyond giving formal speeches standing behind a podium. His messaging turf includes social media, marathon rallies and impromptu give-and-take gaggles with reporters. He worked the drive-up window at McDonalds during last year’s election and handed out burgers recently to National Guardsmen and police in Washington. Basically, Trump floods the public sphere with messages and images. And his massive use of social media allows him to communicate directly to America without establishment media filters.

Even in the four years he was out of the White House, Trump maintained visibility and a voice on the national stage. Of course, the Democratic Party helped Trump stay in the public consciousness with multiple lawsuits and random outbursts about fascism. But throughout American history, virtually every other president who left the White House essentially inhabited a........

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