Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

Spring 4-9-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

April 2026

Department

Public Administration

College Granting Degree

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Department Granting Degree

School of Public Administration

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Alka Sapat

Abstract

In this dissertation, I examine how U.S. presidents employ narrative strategies to shape environmental policymaking through both rhetorical and institutional mechanisms. Specifically, I investigate how Presidents Donald J. Trump and Joseph R. Biden constructed, communicated, and institutionalized environmental narratives during their first terms, highlighting the relationship between presidential narratives and executive orders. Using the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) and Richard Neustadt’s Presidential Power Theory (PPT), this study conceptualizes presidential narratives as both rhetorical tools and instruments of persuasion within institutional contexts. This synthesis advances the NPF by highlighting the role of institutional positions on narrative credibility, by emphasizing the roles of persuasion and repetition, and by emphasizing the importance of narrative alignment in narrators’ policy outputs. It also advances the PPT by identifying narrativ e mechanisms through which persuasion is operationalized. Using a qualitative abductive research design, this study analyzes formal presidential communications including State of the Union addresses, inaugural and nomination acceptance speeches, Economic Reports of the President to Congress, and executive orders alongside informal communications, specifically tweets from official and personal presidential accounts. Data were systematically coded using a dual NPFPPT codebook to identify narrative structures, strategies, and thematic patterns. The comparative analysis focuses on how formal and informal narratives align or diverge, how presidential persuasive styles are encoded narratively, and how narratives translate into executive orders. My findings reveal that both presidents used distinct narrative strategies reflecting their governing philosophies and institutional approaches. During his first term, Trump’s narratives emphasized economic resurgence, deregulation, and American energy dominance, framing the state as a barrier to prosperity. In contrast, Biden’s narratives centered on science, climate justice, and environmental equity, presenting executive action as a moral and institutional imperative. Across both cases, presidential narratives functioned as premeditated justifications for executive orders, transforming rhetorical framing into regulatory direction. By synthesizing the NPF and PPT, this dissertation contributes to scholarship on rhetorical presidency, executive policymaking, and interpretive policy analysis. It highlights the presidency as a narrative institution where narratives and authority converge, offering enhancement to both frameworks for understanding how rhetoric both reflects and produces policy outputs. As it relates to public service practitioners, this study suggests that consistent and repeated policy narratives are an important strategy in translating policy ideas into action as they help build familiarity and sustained attention.

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