This article explores how structural changes to the media environment, such as the development of social media, might enhance or impede presidents' public leadership efforts. We argue that characteristics of Twitter as a medium provide presidents with incentives to exploit these new opportunities and alter the content of presidential rhetoric. To test this claim about presidential rhetoric, we use text analysis tools to compare the readability, sentiment, and content of contemporary presidents' messages from press conferences and exchanges with reporters to tweets from the Barack Obama and Donald Trump presidencies. Our findings suggest that social media is being used by presidents in their public leadership efforts and that the medium of communication has a significant influence on the content of communication.