This question has arisen a lot regarding the Trump presidency. While Trump does show flashes of effective leadership, he also has a lot of bad publicity surrounding his name for a variety of reasons. There are many different arguments to be made regarding this topic. For example, in The Case for Trump, Hanson argues that most of Trumps actions are not unprecedented or un-presidential and have been done by other presidents. Many of President Trump’s actions have received scrutiny because the media is largely pitted against Trump. Additionally, there has been a blurring of the lines between the public and private sphere, and many details regarding Trump’s life as a celebrity before presidency have been brought into public light. As history has shown, there is no correlation between morality and effective leadership. Although Trump has shown effective leadership, he definitely has not been a great person in office. I think it is obviously preferred that good leaders should be good people, but this is not a necessity for good leadership.
While I do agree with you that many media outlets are out to target against Trump, it is mainly the people’s confirmation bias’s that draw them to listen and follow certain media sites that well either be for or against a story. I also think that your statement about it being preferred that good leaders are good people, no one wants to follow the orders of their buddy, they want someone who is confident and who they know will support them through anything. This is often the case with actions speak louder than words, meaning the less you say and the more you do, the more effective you will be and more likely to win the approval of the people over. Sometimes the people need a not so great person, moral wise, in office to tell them what to do.
I agree with your statement that you believe good leaders should be good morally, but they do not have to be good people to be good leaders. We can look at many past presidents and see that they have made bad, immoral decisions in their private sphere, but could still be considered good presidents. Although this does not excuse the actions of Trump nor the other past presidents who have acted immorally, because they are often in the limelight and provide an example to many people not only in the United States but globally. I agree with your statement, “there is no correlation between morality and effective leadership,” as we see that presidents such as Trump can be considered effective leaders, but can also be argued to be immoral, but one does not correlate with the other. A good leader does not need to be good morally, and vice versa, although it is preferable as they often provide an example to those that they lead.
Your statements are well justified and I think your point about higher morality being prefered is essential for any modern president and needs to be elaborated on. While we do have evidence that previous presidents have made very questionable moral decisions for either the sake of the American goals or in spite of there better policies for the country and have continued to remain effective, it needs to be said that all moral tradeoffs should not be excused completely especially when their goals have little good doing relating to the executive position. The best example of this is a president like Jackson who made questionable moral decisions for the sake of the counrty versus a President like Nixon who made questionable moral decisions in spite of other