During his first presidential term, Trump topped the news flow for several years in a row – and now he has regained that position. Between January 1 and July 31 this year, the president was mentioned in over 125,000 Swedish news articles and segments, according to a survey conducted by the media analysis company Retriever on behalf of TT.
In comparison, the Swedish party leaders were mentioned in around 51,000 articles and segments together. Among the party leaders, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (The Moderate Party) topped the list with over 25,000 articles.
According to Marie Grusell, media researcher at the University of Gothenburg, this is not so surprising – generally, what happens in the superpower USA gets a lot of attention in Sweden. Trump's domestic policy measures and attempts to act as a peace broker in Ukraine put him in the spotlight, while his frequent outbursts on social media create headlines.
As a person, he is very polarizing – it's either black or white with Trump. He is unfiltered and says what he thinks and believes. He is not like a Swedish "lagom-politician", she says.
Provoking
Whether Trump is mainly skilled in media logic or if his personality has the greatest impact can be discussed, but Grusell believes that there is a thought behind what he does.
He often has one-liners that evoke provocative feelings, he knows that and uses them. It's rare to get long answers from Trump. You can almost say that it has become snippetized and that is a danger in politics.
For Swedish politicians, it also becomes more difficult to compete for media space.
Swedish politics is diminished by the fact that we get to take part in so much American politics. Then there is the effect that some politicians try to do like Trump and speak in the same way.
Dig deeper
Since Trump this time is more aware of his powers, while we in Sweden often have difficulty understanding American domestic politics, Marie Grusell believes that it is even more important for the media to deepen the image and not just stop at the quick outbursts.
I think it's hard to keep up with today, but absolutely, one should do in-depth investigations into almost all of his decisions. Then he is an expert at saying things that make you turn your gaze. That's probably his strategic strength, he makes a statement and then maybe something that should have been investigated more is released.
1. Ulf Kristersson (The Moderate Party): 25,383 articles/news segments
2. Magdalena Andersson (S): 9,299
3. Johan Pehrsson/Simona Mohamsson (The Liberals): 8,107
4. Ebba Busch (KD): 7,032
5. Jimmie Åkesson (SD): 5,774
6. Muharrem Demirok/Anna-Karin Hatt (C): 4,801
7. Nooshi Dadgostar (V): 3,507
8. Daniel Helldén/Amanda Lind (Green party): 2,175
Applies to publications in editorial media, both web-based and printed newspapers, as well as broadcast media's news broadcasts during the period January 1–July 31, 2025. The party leaders are often mentioned in the same article, which is why the total sum becomes higher than 51,000.
For the Center Party and The Liberals, the party leader change has been taken into account in the searches, so that they do not overlap each other.
Source: Retriever
The media analysis company Retriever has, at the request of TT, investigated how many articles and segments have been published about US President Donald Trump and the party leaders of the Swedish Riksdag parties during the period January 1–July 31, 2025.
The basis for this is searches in the Media Archive, which includes articles and segments from printed media, web-based media (open and locked sources) and radio and TV broadcasts. The measurement includes media with a responsible publisher and only news segments.
Source: Retriever
