Personality of a Nation's Leaders

   Donald Trump, USA's 45th president.  Born June 14, 1946. A successful man in his own right.  Former Democrat who switched to Republican,  Net worth: 3.1 billion USD (2017) Forbes, Decided to not accept payment as president.  Education: Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (1968), , a builder of hotels.                                                                          

Nadene Goldfoot

Andrew Johnson was Lincoln's Vice President and the country's next president for 4 years.  They had worked as a team ready to show the country they were ready to repair the land after the Civil War's destruction.  Johnson had no vice president when he became president.  He had been only the VP on the ticket.  

We have a leader who won against the odds after running with 17 other candidates and we have Johnson who got the position  because Abe Lincoln had been assassinated. Both leaders are facing similar problems as president.  Johnson was president after the Civil War.  The country was in shambles.  Trump is president after 8 years of Obama and Democratic rule with a former president's wife, Hillary, waiting to take over.  These are not normal times.  

                                                                         

Danny Eskow, MA, born in Brooklyn, New York
Little Theater: Miami, Florida
An Extrovert

My husband had some personality traits of a nation’s leader.  He had to be the leader of any group he belonged to; Kiwanis, Masons,  Oregon State Union, etc.  He knew instinctively what to do to organize people.  Pride in accomplishment was his reward.  These are traits needed in presidents of countries.  The ability to make friends easily, to speak and make known your ideas is necessary.  Being able to make decisions wisely and follow through with them is another skill.

Psychologists such as Timothy A. Judge decided on 5 points needed to be a leader.  "Judge looked at the prevalence of what are commonly known as "Big Five" personality traits —

 1. openness to experience, 

2. conscientiousness,

 3. extroversion, 

4. agreeableness, 

 5. neuroticism 

"Neuroticism was not a strong predictor of leadership, meaning that highly neurotic people are not especially likely or unlikely to become leaders."  But-its a trait found in many leaders.  Maybe we're all neurotic to some degree.  

  Evidently, being a leader is not for shy people.  To face all kinds of people, one has to be slightly different in order not to crack up.  

                                                      

"The seven Trump International Hotel and Tower developments). Trump has generated more than $74 million in real estate licensing deals and has $823.3 million worth of real estate in joint ventures ."

    

Is Trump neurotic?  "Self-deprecating comedians and complainers wear their neuroticism as a badge of honor. In truth, the negatively biased are more prone to depression, anxiety, self-consciousness and hypochondria, to name just a few behavioral tripwires." 

Neuroticism is no fun for anyone. The good news: all personality traits, including emotional instability, exist on a continuum, in this case from the very neurotic to the implacably stable. If you can laugh at your hang-ups, you're probably not that neurotic to begin with.

These traits are found among different types of leaders.   Among his findings: Extroversion is the strongest predictor of leadership and agreeableness is the weakest."

I've noticed such traits being an elementary school teacher of children from pre-schoolers up to junior high.  Every class has had its leaders and its very shy children.  Donald Trump was known to be a handful, something I've seen in very bright boys in the neighborhood.  Those who yelled a lot and could be heard turned out to be the brightest of the lot, not a pleasant quality but one that surprised me.  

You can see that Obama had problems in this.  He held back in his dealings with the Senators.  He wasn’t outgoing and friendly with everyone.  

                                                                                

His best skill was oratorical to large groups.  The tone of his voice and his vocabulary was impressive.  His skill in decision- making was not. As far as I was concerned, Israel was not important to him, as he showed his feelings about her on his last day in office by not backing her at the UN.  I never accepted his choice of friends, either, before he became president.  His church was as anti-Semitic as it's leader.  That's what his sermons were like.  He rubbed shoulders with former law breakers in Chicago.  His ethics were certainly being tested.  On the other hand, he's had one wife and two lovely daughters and has been a great dad, something many of us can't say, and he's left-handed like me. For that very reason, he should be a creative person.  I guess he was creative  to have become President.  

                                                                          

                                                                           

Now we have a man at the helm who was not trained from the same schools as Obama.  He’s unique in that he came from a military academy as a child because he was sent by his father who was possibly having control problems with him, a very rich family, the real-estate business as well as television production, so he has a different field of skills to rely on. He graduated from a college who's emphasis was on making money.   It’s not hurting.  He’s made decisions and carrying them out without faltering.  He won the position from 18 candidates for the job, which shows he had something others didn’t.  Mainly, it’s his ability to stay at the top and organize.   This is not something all people are born with.  What stood out for me was that he was pro-Israel, however at least 17 other Republicans were, also this time.  I would have been happy with any one of them.  Others were even more knowledgeable about why they defended Israel.  

                                                                                   

Those still suffering from PTSD of the shock of losing this position refuse to accept that he won and is doing a good job in fulfilling his promises to his voters.  They’re calling out that he is mentally incapable.  Really?  He’s incapable of getting drunk at a party and making all kinds of errors in that condition because he doesn’t drink at all, never has, something we can’t say exactly for Bush, who was close to being an alcoholic.  They’re afraid to leave him with decisions about attacking other countries such as Iran and North Korea, our hot-spots of the present.  He’s not known for making rash decisions, and rashness doesn’t have an open door in the White House.  There are steps to be taken besides a button on the desk for your impulse to press.  We can’t trust anyone with that feeling.  There are provisos. 

                                                                                 

So far, he’s been right about a lot of matters that we, the vast population, have not been privy to.  He felt he was being spied on.  He was right.  He talked about draining the swamp.  It’s turning out to be swampier than even he had noticed.  People like the head of the CIA was not to be trusted.  No, we’ve been living in a utopia when the world is upside down like Alice in Wonderland’s world. 

                                                                                      

Trump thinks outside the box.  This is something that Hillary didn’t do. She was under the direction of Obama.   She had no imagination what the enemy could do and therefore didn’t make plans to defend others in possible dangerous positions.  If Obama didn’t get concerned, she didn’t either.   She just thought she was deserving for her turn.  He did by putting his time in electoral states, since those ere the ones that mattered in the end.  So if someone has a creative mind, and a unique personality, he shouldn’t be labeled as “crazy” and incapable when he’s doing the job better than others would have done.  One year is over.  The next three will show where we are going and how successful he has been.  It it’s anything like this year when he has been up against the worst group of all to work with; haters, plotters, schemers, name callers, and still come through with his goals, we’ll know he’s most capable. 

                                                                               

After Abraham Lincoln died and had started the Civil War, did Andrew Johnson, father of 6 children, have an easy time being President?  He took over from a Republican as a Democrat.  This 17th president was the first president to be impeached, something the Democrats of today are trying to do to Trump.  

                                                                           

The swamp includes a former good friend and advisor, Steve Bannon,  who's now
turned on him in a book.  Lies?  Most likely.  Each of us views our life a little
differently than others do.  We all have different motives, some altruistic, some selfish.
A good reminder to treat others as you want to be treated. The book, "Fire and Fury" by Michael Wolff misquotes people now denying comments..  One book about him that sounds reasonable is "Let Trump Be Trump" by Corey R. Lewandowski and David N. Bossie.  

Unlike Trump, Johnson's Reconstruction policies were too lenient for his cabinet whereas the Democrats of today think Trump's  too harsh, harsh about having a wall promised by preceding presidents, harsh about recognizing Jerusalem, harsh about being stricter about immigration policy, cutting goodies from the Democrats’ Obama health program.  Johnson vetoed Reconstruction acts and this embittered the Radical Republicans in Congress.  It led to his political downfall.  He finished his 4 year term which ended March 4^th, 1869.  Johnson died in Tennessee on July 31, 1875, 6 years later.  So Trump wasn’t the first to add groans and moans to the opposition party towards the helm of our country.  

Resource:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Johnson

Resource: http://www.businessinsider.com/big-five-personality-traits-predict-leadership-2016-12

My opinion piece in view of the terrible book that just came out about Trump. It just doesn't stop.