Post 23: Is President Trump a Good Leader According to Machiavelli?

Machiavelli's view of a good leader was much different from the standards of humanity during his time period, where he believed that the prince (leader) should be the sole authority that determines every aspect of the state and to serve the public policy with his best interest. Overall, Machiavelli's views of a good leader are mostly reasonable and compare to the standards we hold and expect of our own presidents, and other leaders of the country, government, communities, etc., so Machiavelli's ideas and expectations are reasonable. 

Machiavelli would view President Trump as a well-standing public leader because Trump complies fairly with Machiavelli's rules and beliefs of what a good leader should be like. When Machiavelli states: "Therefore, a prince who has a strong city, and had not made himself odious, will not be attacked, or if any one should attack he will only be driven off with disgrace..." (246) this complies with Trump and his actions with our current military because Machiavelli is basically saying that a leader's military should be commendable and strong, and whether it is or is not, this falls upon how other leaders, and also those whom you rule, will view you; a leader does not want to be viewed weak in Machiavelli's eyes, but instead "feared, and not hated." The military of the US happens to be the strongest in the world, and Trump has used that to his advantage to plant attacks upon those countries who think less of us and want us to become weak; however, Trump has made us strong and "feared" by fighting back and not letting enemies attack without us biting back. In my opinion, this is a good aspect of President Trump, because the US has been ran over and bullied for too long. 

The quote "...that is, whether a prince has such power that, in case of need, he can support himself with his own resources, or whether he has always need of the assistance of others" (246) from Machiavelli explains that a country should be abundant with resources and supplies and should be most independent with little help from other countries. Although the US is dependent upon resources from other countries, I think that the US isn't completely dependent on supplies from other areas, but we choose to align and trade with other countries to get the best and so we can receive alliances and more trademark, and vice versa for other countries as well. Trading with other countries keeps our country safe in the long run, and it isn't President Trump's fault that we are dependent upon resources from other places because all of this happened before his term began. 

However, another view of Machiavelli is, "...it is necessary wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong" (248) and this basically means that as a leader, one must admit to where they are wrong in order to prosper as a nation together. A president should be able to own up to his/her mistakes and apologize for them in order to gain the trust and respect from their people. President Trump does not do this, nor does he apologize for his faults, but the things he does wrong are not necessarily wrong for the country, but wrong socially, such as bashing others on social media. This does not affect the country in any way, but it does affect Trump's relationship with his people, and this is important to have strongly. This is one thing that Machiavelli would criticize Trump for, but it wouldn't be too threatening for a leader's role.