Search Comments

Trump Has Successfully Led Large Organizations

Posted: Friday, October 30, 2015 at 11:11 PM EST - Item ID: 41

Thanks for your article. I’m quite a fan of your writing and <em>The Atlantic</em>. I figured I’d take you up on your offer to discuss why I am voting for Donald Trump, if I get the opportunity. I live in New Jersey and usually by the time the primaries get around to me both tickets are decided. Still, I plan on voting for Trump if he is the Republican nominee and will likely pull the lever for him if he runs as an independent.

A bit about my background so you don’t think I’m some sort of fire breathing know-nothing. I am a 39-year-old who earns well into the six figures as a communications executive for a hospital. I have had a long career in journalism and public relations. I have been married to my first and only wife for 12 years; she’s a nurse at a local hospital. I have two boys, aged 10 and 8. One has ADHD (my 10 year old) and one has autism (my eight year old), so I’m plugged into the disabled community. I am a devout Christian and attend a local Methodist church in my area that typically has about 450 people on a <span data-term="goog_993994611" tabindex="0">Sunday</span> morning across two services. I’m white.

There was a time in my life where I was intimately familiar with politics and enjoyed engaging in all the arguments. I think my interest stopped right around 2008 because everything started to get really nasty. I read somewhere that family members weren’t speaking to each other over political disagreements. I have one brother. He voted for Obama; I voted for McCain. We disagree politically, but he’s the only brother I have and we love each other as brothers do. I cannot imagine our political preferences coming between us. It was also around this time that I started noticing political discourse going from intellectual to downright nasty at all levels, with people losing jobs over their political views in extreme cases.

Politically you could say I’m conservative, but the truth is I no longer care about the liberal vs. conservative arguments. What I want is a country that works and will continue to work for my kids and their kids. Our current elected leadership seems to have no other interest except defeating the opposition, and then when that happens, holding their position through excessive demonizing of their opponents.

So why do I support Trump? Because he’s an authentic leader. I think he’s just what the country needs right now to wake it out of its stupor. We’ve got serious problems, but we spend all our time shouting about whether gays should be allowed to marry. Neither liberals nor conservatives have solid ideas about how to move us forward, and the lack of civility in our discourse prevents them from working together. What results is a paralysis that might be amusing if there wasn’t so much to be done.

Why do I think Trump would be better?

He’s led large organizations before. There hasn’t been much examination of his business beyond his bankruptcies and the fact that he inherited large sums. However, by all accounts he leads an enormous, diversified organization that is worth billions. This requires leadership. Leadership, by the way, is different from knowledge. When you lead a large organization you set vision, goals and expect results. You do not know every detail of every level of your organization. You can’t. The world is too complicated. You delegate and empower. You can get information when you need it and the president has no shortage of people ready to educate him on issues.

He’s a negotiator. I think this part has been under-discussed, and is probably his greatest asset. He’s spent his whole life and career making deals and negotiating deals. In his own words, he negotiates to win. This is a skill, and it’s one that we should learn to value. The current presidential dichotomy has us either electing a liberal or conservative with clearly defined policy views that are not open for negotiation. How does that move us forward? We need to get creative and we need to negotiate.

I believe Donald Trump will be able to do that.

Let me now deal with what I think the main objections to his candidacy have been:

One, he has no political experience. While he doesn’t have any elective experience, it’s not true that he doesn’t have any political experience. He’s been leading a large organization and working with officials constantly; this requires political deftness that frankly might be better than what our current elected officials have to offer.

Two, he doesn’t have specific policy positions. This is a standard negotiating technique. You don’t show your hand publicly. Frankly, I like this better than electing a doctrinaire liberal or conservative who is going to Washington with predefined policy ideas that are rooted in solid philosophies and not open for debate.

Three, he’s a rude blowhard. There is some merit to this. It is abundantly clear that Trump loves the spotlight, and he does say things that make you shake your head and groan. He clearly loves attention, but while this is a flaw I’m not sure it’s a fatal one.

Take the Megyn Kelly flap. I think her question was misguided. It focused on his public statements. I would ask if he has ever been sued for sexual harassment by any of his employees. So far, no one has stepped forward to say that Trump was ever sexually inappropriate toward them, and if there were any out there I am sure they would have been found by now. When The Apprentice was in its first couple of hit seasons, one of the executives at the judging table was a woman. He’s also raised a daughter, Ivanka, who by all accounts is a solid business executive in her own right who loves her father. His woman problem is a bit overblown, I think.

And he did make a good point during the debate. We’ve got serious problems in this country; we shouldn’t be making a big deal over the prospective president’s tone.

Records 1 to 1 of 1