Smith

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Spencer Charles Smith

Professor Adam Padgett

English 102

April 4th 2016

The Explanation for Trump

President Barrack Obama, “You’re Fired!” exclaims, Billionaire Businessman

extraordinaire, Donald Trump who is leading the republican race for the coveted White House.

Trump has aspirations of taking his abrupt, abrasive business tactics to Washington D.C. to

“Make America Great Again”. A slogan that Trump has used as a rallying cry for supporters,

reaching people who haven’t entered a polling center for decades. Nearly ten months after

announcing his candidacy for President of the United States, Trump has had unheard political

support and backing from not only other politicians but from American citizens. Donald Trump’s

profound rise to political stardom has lead many to attempt to uncover the reasoning however his

successes beg the question is Trump political mastermind or just running a well-timed political

campaign? Americans continually growing distrust of the government and revolt against

politically correct language, has bode well for a loose lip, non-political candidate such as Donald

Trump leading to his unforeseen political stardom.

The man who is Donald Trump and his successes can only be determined by examining

what he has done in the past. Trump’s business career begins after graduating college where he

goes on to work for his father Fred Trump, a prominent real estate mogul in New York city with

a net worth of 200 million. Trump describes his introduction into the real estate market saying

that, “It has not been easy for me, it has not been easy for me. And you know I started off in

Brooklyn, my father gave me a small loan of a million dollars.” Although to some people this

Comment [AP1]: Okay,sothismakesmethinkthatthepaperismoreaboutthebehaviorsoftheperson(removedfromthecontentofhismessage)ratherthanthepersonhimselfandthecontentofhismessage,ifthatmakessense.

Comment [AP2]: Youcoulddoareallyinterestingrhetoricalanalysisonhisspeech.(i’mjustnotinghisuseofrepetition.)

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seems like a rather large loan for a father to give to his son, some believe that in fact it was much

larger than 1 million dollars, in fact Ana Swanson a political writer for The Washington Post

states that “The $1 million loan doesn’t include any of the benefits Trump received from his

family’s connections and joining his father’s real estate business after he graduated from college,

and it doesn’t count an estimated $40 million inheritance in 1974.” (Swanson, Ana) Although the

amount Trump states that he received an inheritance from his father does not include much of

what he was actually given but no one can argue that he hasn’t turned his inheritance into

billions of dollars. (While the actual net worth of Trump is in question nobody doubts his net

value of at least a billion dollars.)

Trumps access to a predefined business infrastructure designed at marketing to the

American people has not only provided Donald Trumps campaign with vital resources and talent

but with the proper industry knowledge to execute a well verse political campaign. Trump has

been able to a run a self-funded campaign, to take people from within the Trump organization

and use their talents for the benefits of his campaign. Trump has access to more that 22,450

employees that can use for his self-promotion as a political candidate.

Donald Trump has acted as if his campaign were a business which has provided him

success, instead of mass marketing, using his previous knowledge of markets and people to

attack with precision marketing. Not only has Trump used his assets from his business to run his

campaign but he has also treated his campaign as a business. Instead of simply self-funding the

campaign and giving his money to the campaign he has loaned the money to himself so that if he

does lose, he owes himself the money. This is a very strategic business move from a strategic

businessman.

Comment [AP3]: Okay,thisisinteresting.Butisthistrue?I’mreallyasking,becauseidon’tknow.Isthereanyonewho,perhaps,greatlyundervalueshisnetworth(whohascredibilityofcourse)?

Comment [AP4]: Likewho,forexample?

Comment [AP5]: Imentionedarhetoricalanalysisbefore,butithinkthatiswhatthisis:arhetoricalanalysisofhiscampaign.Youtalkingaboutethoshere,right?Ithinkitisfinetodothat,butifyou’regoingtodoit,usesomeofthatvocabulary.

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Donald Trump the fantastic business man he is correct about a lot of respect to the way

that the government operates. This is unusual for someone that is coming from a nonpolitical

position prior or political science major. Many citizens believe that having a nonpolitical

president is exactly what the country needs. William Mayer states in his piece entitled “Why

Trump - And How Far Can He Go?” that:

“We need to recruit and support more candidates for office who are ordinary

citizens rather than professional politicians and lawyers.” Yet in an NBC News/Wall

Street Journal poll taken just 1 month earlier, 35 percent said they would be “very

uncomfortable” with a presidential candidate who was “not a politician and [had] no

previous elected experience in government,” while another 35 percent said they would

have “some reservations” about such a candidate. Only 30 percent said they would be

either “enthusiastic” or “comfortable” with a president who was a political newcomer.”

(Mayer, William G.)

Mayer is introducing the idea that most of Americas reservations or not would be upset to

see a nonpolitical candidate take control of the oval office. This quite different from the

philosophies of elections past where a nonpolitical candidate had absolutely no chance of

winning the nomination much less the presidency.

This has to do with a change and development of new several ideas founded within

Americans. Mainly Americans have the development of technological innovations within human

interactions and news sources. The development of 24-hour news and a constant stream of

information had changed not only the way Americans receive information but also the way they

process it. This changed has been completely embodied by the American population changing

Comment [AP6]: Gettingalittleredundanthere.But,thiscouldbeaplacefordisagreement.Somepeopledonotagreewithyouhere.

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the landscape of American fundamentals including politics. Americans are constantly looking for

a source of entertainment and interaction because of their inability to not be doing something. A

drastic change that has been developing, correlating directly with the increase in technology.

(and they wonder why Americans have increasing case of ADD).

Many studies have researched the interaction of technology and its effects on political

campaigns and just society in general. Garrett Kelly and James Danziger review the effects of

technology on the 2008 campaign and the candidate’s ability to adapt to the changing wave of

media and media reception. They state,

“Email is the dominant Internet technology for expressing political ideas, as it is

for acquiring political information. About one-third (34%) of respondents used it during

the 2008 campaign, and more than one-fifth (21%) sent political information multiple

times. While most information shared this way was produced by others, it was

presumably extracted from online sources, thereby increasing the centrality of the

Internet to the circulation of political information.” (Garrett, R Kelly, and James N.

Danziger)

Kelly and Danziger solidify the ways in which media is increasingly affecting the United

States population. But not only on the United States population but on the United States political

system and the way it operates. This effect that technology has on our population is making

increasingly difficult for incumbent politicians and political candidates to have ‘the incumbent

effect’ over nonpolitical candidates.

So, what does all of this have to do with the political candidate Donald Trump and his

success within the polls you ask? The answer, everything. David Fasenfest and Naida Simon

Comment [AP7]: Thisisaninterestingaudienceanalysis.Althoughimighttakeissuewithsaying“Americans”.Thisismoreofa“people”thing,right?Peopleareusuallyonthelookoutforentertainment.

Comment [AP8]: Okay,sohowmuchareyouattributingtotechnologyhere?Iguessineedtoseeastrongerconnectionbetweenemailandthepoliticalclimate.

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make this connection in their academic essay "Dumbing and Numbing of the American

Electorate" asking, “Why are we so willing to be “entertained” by this political spectacle, by

politicians who represent corporate views of how the world does and should work” The two later

to go on to answer their question saying “We have to go past traditional tropes of false

consciousness or people acting against their own interests to understand what is going on… It is

certainly true that there is much to be discontented about in our current society. But we must

understand that the way this discontent is articulated is shaped by the way we frame both causes

and solutions.”(Fasenfest, David and Naida Simon) Americans are angry and rightfully so, and

they don’t know who to point the finger at, who to blame. Interestingly, though, Fanfest and

Simon suggest that Americans should look inwards towards themselves to provide the answer of

who to blame.

Many people and politicians are in an uproar about the success that a candidate such as

Donald Trump is having. Many Americans and different news outlets have compared the rise of

Trump to that of Hitler in the late 1930 and 1940’s in reconstructive Germany post World War 1.

Interestingly enough there are several different similarities between Hitler and Trump and the

way that they run their political campaigns. Hitler was notorious for making questionable

statements and deceleration similar to Donald Trump. (Article referencing Trump and Hitler)

Trump is notorious for making questionable statements and declarations not only on his

twitter page but in his political interviews and in republican debates. Also, interestingly enough

Hitler was also enthralled with the new technology of the time, building one of the most

technologically advanced army’s with one of the most advanced coding algorithms ever

invented. Trump shows this exact same interest with not only current day military technology but

with current day social technologies. Am I saying that Donald J Trump is going to be the Hitler

Comment [AP9]: Shouldprobablyblockquotethis.

Comment [AP10]: SothisseemstosuggestthatthereisaproblemwiththeriseofDonaldtrump?Isthisafairassumption?Considerifyouwanttoleavethissuggestionornot,itreallydependsonthekindofargumentyouwanttomake.

Comment [AP11]: JustlikeHitler.

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of the United States enslaving millions of American Muslims and removing all illegal aliens?

No, but simply making the point that Trump displays some of the same tendencies of that of the

most renowned fascist leader responsible for killing millions of people worldwide

Donald Trump overall effectively treats his political campaign the same way he would

treat another business that he owns. He uses all of his available assets from his prior businesses

to further his success as a republican political candidate for president. His success lies primarily

in his ability to access a merely untouched political market and use his prior marketing

knowledge and infrastructure to self-promote his abilities. Trump is taking incredible, unheard

advantage of the technology available to him not ever seen in politics prior to the 2016

presidential election. Trump is not a political mastermind but is taking advantage of a vulnerable

America with a well timed controversial political campaign. Trump brought the spectacle that is

reality television to the political world and is using it to his advantage.

Spencer,

Myinitialreadonthisisthatyouaredoingarhetoricalanalysisofhiscampaign,whichis

totallyfine.Thepoliticalclimateistherhetoricalsituation.Ifyouchoosetogointhisdirection,

I’dsaygoallrhetorical,reallyembracewhatyou’redoing.Butyou’llhavetoanswer:whyisit

importanttowriteonthis?Inotherwords,asI’vementionedbefore,what’sthepointin

pointingallofthisout?Whodoyouimagineyouraudiencetobe?Thereareabunchof

points/claimsyoumakethatneedsynthesis.Theemailbitisagoodexample,yougoonto

explainyourselflater,butIstillfeelliketherearelotsofdisconnects.Trytokeepyourreader

orientedtotheprimarypurposeofthepiece.Also,yes,thisissuperchoppy,butyoudon’tneed

metotellyouthat.

Comment [AP12]: Okay,sowhat’sthepointinpointingthisout?

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