Re: Trump's Struggle
no, no NO!
Have you ever KNOWN an 'authoritarian' manager? They have certain common characteristics:
a) must be involved in the minutiae, i.e. "micromanagers" [Trump is a 'delegator', big time]
b) The "I love me" wall filled with accomplishments and trophies. If Trump has a trophy room, I dont know about it, although I saw a funny comic that had a single stuffed elephant head with the caption "the establishment"... [I suppose you could count the buildings with 'Trump' on them, but they're more "accomplishments" than trophies]
c) No sense of humor about himself - Trump sometimes jokes about himself, even in a 'state of the union' address. I think if you told a Trump joke that wasn't "pandering to the perception" he'd laugh at it. But don't you DARE criticize Obama or Mrs. Clinton!!! [you get "racist, sexist, misogynist" etc. accusations thrown at you for DARING to criticize!]. Trump would be the guy to put a lampshade on his head at a party, and parade around as a parody of himself for laughs.
d) 'power motivated' - it's about having control (over others), and NOT about getting the job done. I think in Trump's case he's motivated to 'get the job done', aka 'achievement' motivation. Reagan was very similar.
Back when I was in the Navy they had this leadership school where they discussed management style. They did this movie with 3 CPOs in it. CPO number 1 was a delegator, and his immediate subordinate ran the division, whereas the CPO gave approval and got assistance from higher ranking people as needed. This is "a delegator". Then there was the 'authoritarian' CPO, who spent a lot of time yelling at people and telling them YOU ALL HAVE TO STAY UNTIL WE'RE DONE and things like that, the classic bad attitude authoritarian dictator. Then there was the 3rd CPO, "Chief Chuckles", who got along with his subordinates because he was "affiliation motivated" and wanted to be liked [nevermind his department was screwed over because of his incompetence].
SO that illustrated 3 management styles: delegator [the good one, like Trump], authoritarian [definitely Obama and Mrs. Clinton], and 'affiliator' (ineffective and incompetent). The delegator is 'achievement' motivated [get it done]. The authoritarian is 'power' motivated [_I_ am in charge, do it _MY_ way]. And the 'affiliator' just wants to be everyone's drinking buddy, "affiliation" motivation [or similar].
Trump isn't a dictator, because he's not "power motivated". Although you MIGHT make the case that ANY politician at 'President' level would have to have an ego the size of the state of New York, that doesn't seem to be Trump's motive. He wants to DO something, and spells out what that is, and then DELEGATES making it happen to others that he trusts.
Anyway, this is basic psychology applied to management styles. I know it's not the "anti-Trump" pandering to the perception, but it's pretty well known among those who do management training stuff. It seems to have been common knowledge back in the 80's.