The Effectiveness of Trump’s Leadership

In the analysis in the past 4 years of Donald Trump’s presidency, I believe he was an effective President. Firstly, when the name Donald Trump is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is that Trump is a ‘power-hungry’ individual. He also yields a lot of power especially being the leader of the free world, as President of the United States. Further, he has used this power to create influence to push many of his wishes for policies from his agenda/platform.This, in turn, has given Trump much credibility for the positive actions he’s taken as President, most decisions in which the American people have taken notice to. And, along with the American people taking notice, this set-up has created and given President Trump a follower base and has enhanced this follower base overtime as well. This is due to the fact that these Americans have not only become satisfied with President Trump’s performance, but have become motivated by his leadership to vote for him for a second term, in which he broke his own 2016 record in terms of number of votes. Therefore, Donald Trump was an effective President the past 4 years as he used his power and influence to push his policies to help the American people, which in turn had created a large followership of Americans to vote for him.

Firstly, Donald Trump had begun his rise to power back before the 2016 election. This all had begun with a simple phrase of “Make America Great Again”, and sure enough the phrase became catchy and simple, and had enhanced his influence and relation towards the American people. This phrase can relate to influence tactics, which refers to one person changing another’s beliefs or values. Further, by implementing these influence tactics, Donald Trump had given himself power he may or may not have anticipated to have come into the 2016 election as well as the past 4 years. Through the definition of power, which is defined as “the capacity to produce effects on others or the potential to influence others”, we can see the terms of power and influence do indeed signal some correlation with one another. Now, with the implementation of both his power and influence, Trump has been able to push through very positive policies that have helped the American people remarkably throughout his 4 years. This could be through his works for the African American community, whether it be through record federal funding of HCBUs, or the historically lowest African American unemployment rate, or gaining support from the Latino community because of his immigration policies, and the list can go on. However, in a more in-depth analysis of Donald Trump, he has said some inappropriate and vulgar language, and as well for some of his immature Twitter tweets. One would think that these negative statements have driven most if not all of Donald Trump’s followers away. However, this is the reason I believe he lost the 2020 election, but to keep the majority and even somewhat expand his follower base is absolutely impressive all things considered. Through this, I believe the phrase ‘actions speak louder than words’, and this has most certainly resonated with his followers/supporters. 

Through Donald Trump creating his original power and influence before the 2016 election as well as his first couple years as President, he has also been able to utilize the Action-Observation-Reflection (AOR) Model. As we all know Trump has made some bold statements, whether it be Twitter or in a press conference at the White House, he has been very affirmative in his decision-making process, albeit most of them time it has been seemingly spontaneous, which based on one’s interpretation of one of Donald Trump’s statements can be ambiguous and seen from many different perspectives, which creates many different experiences for the viewer/interpreter. However, although some may view his statements as negative, the big picture many people seem to forget is his positive actions throughout his Presidency. Through the quick decision making, this has given him an edge in dealing with COVID-19, as well as being a contributor in developing Operation Warp Speed. However one may view Donald Trump, it is clear his stress management is very sufficient, he does not seem to crack under pressure and is not afraid to call someone out if he thinks they are wrong or out of order. Through not only calling individuals out, but through his Twitter (which he is the first President to use Twitter on such a frequent basis) as well as his press conferences, his communication is very clear and effective, which is substantiated transparency for the American people. The transparency also helps not only his followers remain calm in chaotic times (as we are in as of now), but even for his non-supporters, in which he clearly paints a direct line to where he is headed, whether it be policy and overall decision-making, so there is some sort of outline to follow.

Now that Donald Trump is nearing the concluding of his Presidency and although he did indeed lose to President-elect Joe Biden, Trump has done an exceptional job with creating, maintaining, and growing his following. A model to follow from is within the textbook “Leadership:Enhancing the Lessons of Experience” and a look at the model on page 333 of the model Relationships among Leadership, Job Satisfaction, and Performance. For the most part, Donald Trump has kept the American people on the Follower Job Satisfaction---> Organizational citizenship behaviors----> Follower performance, so on and so forth, however the model also portrays just how much the difference between his supporters and non-supporters does indeed exist. On the contrary his non-supporters go from Follower job satisfaction to either Follower turnover and Follower retaliation, which we have seen both through violent protests and individuals speaking out saying they are voting for President-elect Joe Biden when they voted for Donald Trump back in 2016. However, regardless of the individuals who are pro or anti-Trump, Donald Trump has performed for the American people with very positive economic policies (some of which are aforementioned within this submission) have clearly spoken to most Americans and further have given them enough satisfaction from Trump’s performance overall, which have given them that boost of motivation and confidence to not only call themselves Trump supporters but to make a historic voting turnout in the 2020 election (in comparison to number of votes for Donald Trump in 2016 election). 

These are the critical reasons why Donald Trump was an effective President over the past 4 years. He had successfully executed his first presidential campaign very well, which gave him a very sufficient launching pad to not only get voted into office, but to implement his policies within his platform and gave him significant influence in doing so. And, in relation to his performance, his followers have clearly taken notice. Furthermore, his communication with the American people has been extraordinary, especially by making it easily public and available, especially through such means as Twitter. His effectiveness being President, was created by the building blocks of his power and influence, which had created his credibility and led to a large following base, which I believe can follow him well towards the end of his presidency and beyond.