Smith 1

Spencer Charles Smith

Professor Adam Padgett
English 102
April 4th 2016
The Explanation for Trump
President Barrack Obama, Youre 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 havent 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 Trumps
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

Comment [AP1]: Okay, so this makes me think that the

paper is more about the behaviors of the person (removed
from the content of his message) rather than the person
himself and the content of his message, if that makes sense.

what he has done in the past. Trumps 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 [AP2]: You could do a really interesting

rhetorical analysis on his speech. (im just noting his use of
repetition.)

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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 doesnt include any of the benefits Trump received from his
familys connections and joining his fathers real estate business after he graduated from college,
and it doesnt 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 hasnt 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

Comment [AP3]: Okay, this is interesting. But is this

true? Im really asking, because i dont know. Is there
anyone who, perhaps, greatly undervalues his net worth
(who has credibility of course)?

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

Comment [AP4]: Like who, for example?

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 [AP5]: I mentioned a rhetorical analysis

before, but i think that is what this is: a rhetorical analysis of
his campaign. You talking about ethos here, right? I think it
is fine to do that, but if youre going to do it, use some of
that vocabulary.

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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]: Getting a little redundant here. But,

this could be a place for disagreement. Some people do not
agree with you here.

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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.

Comment [AP7]: This is an interesting audience analysis.

Although i might take issue with saying Americans. This is
more of a people thing, right? People are usually on the
look out for entertainment.

(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 candidates 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 [AP8]: Okay, so how much are you attributing

to technology here? I guess i need to see a stronger
connection between email and the political climate.

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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

Comment [AP9]: Should probably block quote this.

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 dont 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

Comment [AP10]: So this seems to suggest that there is

a problem with the rise of Donald trump? Is this a fair
assumption? Consider if you want to leave this suggestion
or not, it really depends on the kind of argument you want
to make.

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 1940s 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 armys 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 [AP11]: Just like Hitler.

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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,
My initial read on this is that you are doing a rhetorical analysis of his campaign, which is
totally fine. The political climate is the rhetorical situation. If you choose to go in this direction,
Id say go all rhetorical, really embrace what youre doing. But youll have to answer: why is it
important to write on this? In other words, as Ive mentioned before, whats the point in
pointing all of this out? Who do you imagine your audience to be? There are a bunch of
points/claims you make that need synthesis. The email bit is a good example, you go on to
explain yourself later, but I still feel like there are lots of disconnects. Try to keep your reader
oriented to the primary purpose of the piece. Also, yes, this is super choppy, but you dont need
me to tell you that.

Comment [AP12]: Okay, so whats the point in pointing

this out?

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