Authors: Brennan Schmidt, Amy Makin, & Madison Wilson
President Biden and his administration have been busy since the inauguration. The president has signed 29 executive orders over the last three weeks on issues ranging from climate change to the federal workforce to COVID-19 economic relief. The president’s three most recent executive orders address immigration. The Democratic Party has also been pushing for student loan forgiveness upwards of $50,000 per borrower. President Biden originally supported $10,000 of student loan forgiveness and is expected to address this request in coming days.
Social media has been buzzing over these executive orders. Between February 2-7, 2021, Twitter had 4.07M mentions of the following keywords: “Biden,” “plans,” “Joe Biden,” “Biden” and “plans,” “Biden” and “executive actions,” “president,” or “Biden Administration.” Conversation peaked around 6:00pm EST on February 2, 2021, with almost 900 thousand tweets about the president after signing executive orders on immigration, rejecting press photos while paying respect to fallen officer, Brian Sicknick, and providing a 1.3 billion dollar aid package to Puerto Rico for rebuilding from the 2017 hurricane and future hurricane preparation. Despite these actions, the hashtag #bidenlied was trending on Twitter. People were upset that his promises to forgive student loan debt and send additional stimulus checks were not yet delivered.
It is absolutely indefensible that Biden has yet to cancel one dollar of student loan debt. He could do it with a stroke of a pen, and he just hasn't.
— Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) February 3, 2021
In conjunction with that conversation, student loan debt and forgiveness were also trending topics on Reddit. Searching “Biden actions” brought up the r/Conservative, r/Biden_OnTheRecord, and r/politics subreddits. Several posts were made about President Biden supporting the idea of canceling $10,000 of debt per borrower and the pressure from the Democratic Party to forgive $50,000 of debt per borrower through executive action. Many users also discussed interest percentages, free secondary education, personal experiences with student loan debt, and the president’s approval rating.
Similar themes were found on Facebook, with 178k mentions of the president and over 1,300 uses of the #biden hashtag in conversation surrounding President Biden’s actions and new plans. Users again expressed mixed feelings – some calling the president a liar because of unkept promises, and others claiming he is doing a better job than Trump and expressing support for his quick action in office.
Conversation on TikTok has been relatively quiet since President Biden’s first day in office. The most popular TikTok posted with the #biden hashtag shows a news anchor dissenting the Christian argument against abortion because not everyone in the U.S. is Christian. This TikTok has 14.4 million views and 4.4 millions likes. The #biden hashtag has 7.7 billion views on TikTok, with tagged content from both those who support the president and those who do not. This pattern can be seen on all social media platforms.
What does this mean?
Talk of President Biden’s immigration executive orders was consistently discussed across social media platforms last week. This spurred side conversations about student loan forgiveness and other executive orders, with people expressing both positive and negative opinions on the matter. Some were upset about the president’s promises not being fulfilled, but the majority of people agreed that President Biden has done more in his first few weeks than most other presidents, including former President Trump. People are starting to question the president’s true intentions, as #bidenlied trended on Twitter. Support continues to fluctuate as President Biden signs more executive orders, but only time will tell how this work will affect his approval rating. One thing is for sure – President Biden has proved that he is ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work.
Full Analysis:
Purpose:
To view what people are saying about President Biden’s initial work in the White House.
Analysis Time Frame:
February 2-7, 2021.
Overall Trends:
4.07M mentions and 38.7B impressions on Twitter
Sentiment:
4% Positive
75% Neutral
17% Negative
Keyword Groups:
“Biden“
“plans“
“Joe Biden“
“Biden” and “plans“
“Biden” and “executive actions“
“president“
“Biden Administration“
Popular Words:
“Biden Administration” was the most used phrase, with over 176k occurrences. Much of the conversation was about the 20 million lost COVID-19 vaccines and the aid package given to Puerto Rico for hurricane damage.
“Executive Orders” was the second most use phrase, with over 74,797 occurrences. Conversations revolved around the president’s campaign promises and the executive orders aimed at reforming the U.S. immigration system.
“Stimulus Checks” was another top phrase, used 24,261 times. This phrase correlated with the #bidenlied hashtag, as people claimed the president broke promises regarding stimulus check amounts.
Top Influencers:
@CNN
@NYTimes
@bbcworld
@theeconomist
