Comparing and Contrasting George Washington and Donald Trump

George Washington, the first president of the United States, and Donald Trump, the most recent president of the United States, have some similarities and differences. They each show the qualities of a leader through their characteristics and their actions. These qualities include authoritative characteristics, their use of strategies and tactics, and their commitment while president. George Washington and Donald Trump both have very authoritative characteristics. In 1778, George Washington took control during the battle at Monmouth in New Jersey. This left the American troops dumbfounded because having a new leader came to them as a surprise. Washington knew all of the characteristics of a military leader, such as strategy, operations, tactics (Stazesky). After the battle, he was seen as a leadership genius. Washington was going to do everything he could in order to get a government controlled by the people, in a republican and independent government.

Donald Trump does portray authoritative habits through his actions as well. Even before Donald Trump became president, he made his intentions very clear stating he will only rely on the United States' allies. He states his goals and purposes in an authoritative way. In most of his actions, he uses his power and authority to carry them out.

Even though both of these United States presidents use(d) strategies and tactics, they were used in specifically different ways. For example, although technology was not anywhere near advanced during Washington's presidency, the use of ciphers and codes were of great significance during the Revolutionary War. With more knowledge than anyone else in this time period, Washington centralized intelligence operations, created spy rings, emphasized use of codes and invisible ink, and employed various other espionage tactics (Velie). The point of these ciphers, codes, and invisible ink was to guarantee that if the letters using these tricks were to be found, they would not be understood by outside people. Trump's attempts at using tactics tend to take more of a negative approach. For instance, when he was first introduced to the Chinese president, he complimented him and stated him to be a great man. However, when the Chinese president declined the offer to perform Trump's tasks, Trump used a backlash strategy on the foreign leader and changed their negotiating positions abruptly. Another example of strategy use is Trump's America First approach, which inevitably states that America is the most powerful country in the world, and will remain powerful against any possible rival in the future (Chellaney).

Both presidents really committed to becoming president, and followed through with their promises. George Washington had the idea that the military should be willing to change based on control of the non-military citizen, which means the government or congress could make decisions for them and they had to follow through with them. He made this clear in innumerable letters, orders, addresses and especially by his actions... (Stazesky). His commitment to this idea shows he has the qualities of a successful leader. One of the main reasons Donald Trump was elected president was because he was already showing commitment before the election. Most people voted for him because he was committed to rebuilding our country and disrupting the political status quo that had failed to deliver results (Donald J. Trump.). After his election, Trump showed his commitment through his actions, and by bringing all different Americans together. Although George Washington and Donald Trump are two very different people, in some ways they possess the same leadership skills and qualities, such as authoritative characteristics, their use of strategies and tactics, and their commitment while president. They have different ways of carrying these skills out, however they both use the same strategies to show leadership.

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