The American presidency is organized largely in reference to norms, or informal institutions. Though unofficial and unwritten, many presidential and political norms support good governance, facilitating interbranch relations, connecting the presidency with the public, and sustaining democracy by constraining presidential behavior. Most presidents conform to these norms most of the time. However, some presidents, under some circumstances strategically violate norms. This three-paper dissertation provides a framework to explain both presidential conformity and presidential disobedience. The animating characteristics underpinning the three papers included in this dissertation is a conception of presidential norms as technologies—tools that presidents exploit for political gain and a recognition of the public's centrality in maintaining presidential and political norms. As such, the dissertation is particularly interested in the conditions under which norm violations will be tolerated or even rewarded by the public. The first paper draws on research in political psychology, populism, and presidential appeals to examine President Trump's outrageous behavior and its effect on the public. Using a series of original experiments, I find support for my expectation that Trump's outrageous behavior is a politically advantageous public relations strategy. My results show that Trump's outrageous behavior increases his support among self-identified Independents. However, contrary to popular conception, the results do not support claims that racial resentment or affinity for populism makes individuals more amenable to Trump's outrageous behavior. Through a series of original surveys and survey experiments deployed to nationally representative samples of Americans eligible to vote in the United States, the second paper investigates public attitudes toward a novel battery of presidential norms and examines the extent to which partisan and policy concerns affect American attitudes toward them. I find widespread public support for almost every norm in the battery. However, by dividing presidential norms into two sub-categories—what I call structural norms and presentation norms—the results also show that important political constituencies value the two types of presidential norms differentially. I further assess how partisanship affects public attitudes toward presidential norms in a series of nationally representative survey experiments. The experimental findings suggest that Americans evaluate presidential norms and presidential norm violations with a partisan lens. What explains the appeal of Trumpism? While recent public opinion research finds widespread public support for political and presidential norms, norm-violating political styles are increasingly prevalent in American politics. Former President Donald Trump's political brand is founded on norm violation. In the third paper, I contend Trump uses strategic norm violations to beckon disaffected Americans to his political base. Conceptualizing Trump's norm violations as a type of costly signaling, this paper assesses Trump's January 6 "Save America" rally to deconstruct the mechanisms that lead some constituencies to reward Trump for his norm violations instead of recoiling, contrary to expectation. I argue that the vociferous condemnation Trump's violations elicit from mainstream political elites, far from discrediting, for many, validates his movement.