Will President Trump take up the bully pulpit to try to push through the Republican health care overhaul? (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo)

As the first major piece of legislation during President Trump's short tenure starts making its way through Congress, political observers and reporters are again buzzing about how Trump will use his “bully pulpit” to push through Republicans' effort to repeal and replace former President Obama's signature health care law.

The phrase, coined by Theodore Roosevelt and used to signal the power of the presidency to shape public opinion, seems to be getting extra attention in the early weeks of the Trump era. Not only does Trump have a massive social-media following and a fondness for campaign-style rallies -- which he's expected to use to sell the repeal-and-replace legislation to supporters in coming weeks -- but his use of social media to browbeat individual companies has some drawing parallels to his century-ago predecessor.

But the original meaning of the phrase, according to historians, is often misunderstood, and the "bully pulpit" may not be as powerful as it once was, or even seems. And while it may invite some comparisons between the 26th and 45th presidents — both brash, wealthy New Yorkers who had difficult relationships with their parties’ establishment — the similarities in their leadership are in other ways quite limited, historians say. Read more about the evolution of the phrase, how its power has changed, and what Trump may find if he aims to use it at OnLeadership here.

More on leadership from Washington: 

*Preet Bharara shunned politics. His end was tinged by them. (The New York Times)

*During his political rise, Stephen Bannon was a man with no fixed address (The Washington Post)

*Tillerson leads from State Dept. shadows as White House steps in (The New York Times)

*The myth of Trump's loyalty (The Atlantic)

*Trump lets key offices gather dust amid 'slowest transition in decades' (The New York Times)