President Lee Jae-myung has grown noticeably busier of late. He explains housing policy himself, rebuts controversies over personnel appointments, and speaks out on rifts within his own political camp. His main stage is the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. Critics keep warning that his heavy use of social media is amplifying political risk unnecessarily, but the president's determination to communicate directly with the public is unmistakable.
Lee has used social media to reach the public since his days as mayor of Seongnam. Yet as his posting has intensified alongside a slide in his approval ratings, so have complaints and concerns — that he is micromanaging everything, that his engagement is selective. What is clear is the sense of urgency underlying it all: that without stepping forward himself, Lee cannot revive his approval ratings or regain governing momentum.
After taking office in June last year, Lee had largely confined himself to relatively polished messages. That changed sharply in January. He posted 65 times on X that month, including eight posts referring to housing policy, or 12.3% of the total. The share alone may not look large, but it marks a clear shift considering that none of his 43 posts in December 2025 mentioned housing at all.
The turning point came after his New Year's press conference on the 21st. On the 25th, Lee posted on X: "Not all single-home owners are alike. If we must revise the tax code, wouldn't it be fairer to treat homes that are lived in differently from those that are not?" He followed with four more housing-related messages the same day. One possible reading is that he judged the legislative and public-relations support from the National Assembly and his presidential staff to be inadequate after the policy announcement.
Approval Ratings Slide Reignites Social Media Push
Counting reposts, his monthly output ran to 72 in February, 90 in March, 58 in April, 56 in May, 78 in June and 84 in July. Then it plunged to 37 in August — down 56% from July and the lowest level this year. Observers read the pullback as a response to concerns about "message overload" from a president who weighs in personally on every issue, at a time when his approval ratings had continued falling since the local elections. But his output exploded to 112 posts in September.
The renewed surge began around his seventh press conference since taking office, held on the 18th. That day he struck a humble note on his sagging approval ratings, saying the fault was "entirely my own shortcomings," and sought to reassure his base, asking supporters to "set aside any suspicion that we are retreating from reform."
Even so, when figures including Rhyu Si-min, a former lawmaker of the Uri Party, accused the president of having "deceived the public," and Gyeonggi Governor Choo Mi-ae pushed back against his appointment powers, Lee appeared to conclude that direct communication was the only card left to persuade the public and restore governing momentum — and to go all in. From Sept. 1 to 18, an 18-day stretch, he posted 58 times. Over the equivalent 18 days from Sept. 19 to Oct. 6, that figure jumped 52.5% to 93.
He made this thinking explicit on social media on the 30th of last month. "The harder things get, and the more distorted the attacks become, the more we must communicate directly with the public and lean on them," Lee wrote. He added that social media was the very tool that had shielded him from political isolation and carried him to his current office.
Direct communication from a president is not something to be judged only negatively. Conveying policy to the public without distortion and clarifying the direction of government are important presidential roles. It also lets him gauge public reaction directly, without going through the established press or the political establishment. The problem is what role cabinet members, presidential aides and ruling party politicians are left to play as the president's direct communication becomes routine.
No One to Fight Lee's Battles?
Political circles have offered a steady stream of diagnoses in recent weeks that Lee lacks both human resources and political allies. The argument is that within his own faction, the middle layer of leadership capable of mediating political conflict and persuading public opinion on his behalf is thin. The fact that it took 23 days to name a successor after former presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik offered to resign is read in the same light. Candidates with political backgrounds were floated, but the president's final choice was Lim Kwang-hyun, a former National Tax Service commissioner who came up through the economic bureaucracy.
The posts of justice minister and national police commissioner also remain vacant. Some analysts see the president's unrestrained social media activity as another facet of a micromanaging style of rule in which he handles every issue of state alone.
Still, a shortage of talent cannot explain everything. It is worth asking whether the president fights alone because there is no one else, or whether others fail to play their part because of the way he fights alone. When the president's thinking can be made public directly through social media at any moment, it may not be easy for a minister or a ruling party politician to speak out on conviction.
Consider what happens when someone defends the president on their own reading of a situation, only for the president to put out a message hours later with different logic or a different direction. They could be left carrying the political burden of having been out of step with him. For cabinet members and presidential aides who find that prospect uncomfortable, waiting for Lee's position becomes the safest choice. The likelihood grows that they will do no more than restate or repeat the president's message once it arrives.
The people who should be actively supporting the administration turn passive instead, and the more they do, the more the president concludes that no one will step up for him and responds directly again — creating a vicious cycle.
No Political Allies for the President?
A Structural Problem That Keeps Them Silent
This cycle could in particular obstruct the expansion toward the political center that Lee has emphasized. Winning over new supporters takes time, and results are not guaranteed. The cost — a backlash from his existing base — must be paid immediately. Bearing that requires political allies and aides who can share the president's political burden and persuade different social groups. What matters is not people who think exactly as the president does, but people who sometimes voice different views while sharing joint responsibility for governing.
Past presidents also wrestled with the question of sharing power. Former President Roh Moo-hyun granted prime ministers Goh Kun and Lee Hae-chan substantial authority over appointments and policy coordination. Dispersing power does not always succeed, of course. It carries the risk of blurring where responsibility lies among the president, the prime minister and their aides. Even so, a president who attends to everything personally runs into the limits of running a complex government.
Lee rose to the presidency by way of the Seongnam mayor's office and the Gyeonggi governorship. Strong drive and blunt, direct messaging have long been his political assets. But local administration and national governance are not the same. A president's influence depends not only on how loudly he raises his own voice, but also on how much room he opens for others to act on their own judgment.
In the end, what Lee needs is not to post less for its own sake. It is to distinguish between what the president must explain himself and what ministers, aides and the ruling party should be held responsible for. The president should set the broad direction of government, while the work of persuasion and conflict management on specifics falls to those given the authority to do it.
Giving a Voice to Those Who Can Share
Responsibility Is Also Communication
The moment a president's political allies come to mean merely those who are close or those who are loyal, his ability to govern is bound to weaken. A true political ally is someone who voices views different from the president's while sharing responsibility for whether the administration succeeds or fails.
Even granting that a president cannot pass to anyone else the responsibility that comes with final decisions, that does not mean he must shoulder every political argument alone. Whether Lee truly has no one, or whether he has people who find it hard to step forward, deserves careful thought. Finding a voice for those who can share responsibility with him is also communication the president needs to undertake.
