Stephen Krupin wrote one to two speeches per week for President Obama, working also for John Kerry and Harry Reid. He contrasts Obama's proactive messaging strategy with the reactive scramble that followed Trump's election, and argues Trump's Twitter use created inconsistent messaging that undermined his own advisors and credibility.
Stephen Krupin has served as a top speechwriter to President of the United States Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and has written for and coached dozens of speakers in politics, business, philanthropy, advocacy, and academia. We asked him a few questions.
Well, so how many speeches did you write for President Obama during his term?
Oh, uh, A few dozen. I wrote about probably 1 or 2 a week. So what does go into writing a speech? A lot goes into writing a speech. Thinking about what you want to say and why you want to say it to that audience at that time and how it fits into your larger goals of what you're trying to communicate and achieve. And thinking every time about how can you make that speech a speech that only you could give to only that audience at only that moment.
How do you think the White House message has changed since President Trump was elected?
It's changed a lot since President Trump was elected in that it is not really proactive in driving a message every day or every week like we tried to do in the White House. They're playing a lot of defense. They're being very reactive, and it's very hard to be a successful policy operation when you're always responding rather than Being proactive.
Do you think President Trump's use of Twitter as a use of quick communication, how he's also used usually rash comments, do you think this is undermining his own presidency?
Absolutely. I think that first of all it makes the communication coming out of the White House inconsistent. Sometimes he undermines his own advisors and allies in Congress. But most importantly, he's dishonest, and so he lacks that credibility that you need Well, thank you for being, for being with us today. Watch me talk about politics on DCTV.
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