Critical Thinking and Trump's Success: A Philosophical Analysis

This essay delves into the complex relationship between Donald Trump's success as president and the principles of critical thinking. The paper examines various perspectives, exploring whether Trump's achievements can be attributed to, or are a result of the absence of, strong critical thinking skills. It analyzes arguments from both sides, considering criticisms of his rhetoric, use of ambiguous language, and reliance on potentially unreliable sources, as well as acknowledging his ability to navigate complex situations and achieve specific goals. The essay utilizes philosophical concepts to evaluate the evidence and provide a balanced assessment of the role critical thinking plays in his success.

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Philosophy
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Is Trump's success critical thinking's failure?
Critical thinking is a highly sought skill in each industry and workplace. Critical thinking
refers to the capability to evaluate and analyze information equitably with the aim of making a
reasoned judgement (Doyle, 2018). Besides, critical thinking allows an individual to engage in
both independent and reflective thinking. Therefore, an individual’s thinking skills are sharpened
hence promoting rational judgements. Also, critical thinking helps enhance or improve work
processes in social institutions (Critical Thinking, 2018). Various people also critique the aspect
of critical thinking since they believe it hinders creativity since specific logic must be followed.
This argument is however arguable since critical thinking allows individuals to think out of the
box and improve on ideas.
Critical thinking can also be a failure depending on the environment it is applied in. This
is because the environment may dictate the factors to be evaluated and analyzed in critical
thinking (College Success, 2018). Therefore, specific questions must be asked when analyzing a
particular issue. One, is the source of information accurate? Two, do multiple sources agree on a
specific issue or are there other perspectives to the issue? and lastly, is there personal biases that
may affect the consideration of the information provided? This means that the failure can be as a
result of a fallacy since some reasoning may be out of personal experiences or past experiences.
Therefore, wrong conclusions may affect the outcomes expected.
Trump's success in his presidential bid and administration can take two sides in terms of
critical thinking. One, Trump's success can be attributed to his critical thinking failure or
secondly Trump's success can be attributed to his critical thinking. To begin with, Trump’s
success has received a lot of criticism; however, this success can be attributed to Trump’s critical
thinking in terms of how he runs his administration. In the wake of the presidential elections in
America, many non-trump supporters, media houses and also intellectual individuals forecasted
that Trump would bring a massive failure to the American economy particularly due to his
policies and personality (Root, 2018). Many economists and Democrats rooted for Trump to fail
since according to them, he was not the best for the position of president. However, after some
months in the presidency, a lot of his critics began approving of his style of presidency.
Trump’s popularity is exploding and expanding upward, and according to the Gallup poll,
Trump received the highest approval in history since he beat Obama, Bill Clinton, JFK, and
Reagan voters from their parties. Besides, Trump credits to himself the falling unemployment

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and rising of stocks. Trump has created a perception around himself that is at odds with the
realities of his track record. He uses the bombs thrown at him to propel himself up the ladder.
For example, he disregards the experience of other politicians or partners, but he is able to
operate in his way and come to the top (Schein, 2018). This is because Trump has mastered a
skill that compensates him on his shortcomings. Besides, Donald Trump is a practitioner of hype,
and this is where his critics do not agree with him. However, Trump has a good ability in this
uncommon arena.
In Newt Gingrich book, “Trump’s America: The truth about our nation’s great
comeback,” Gingrich consistently emphasize that Trump is a dealmaker, tough negotiator, very
patient and sets huge goals in which he works relentlessly to achieve all of them (Gingrich,
2018). In addition, in his administration, President Trump has managed to accomplish more with
North Korea than other American presidents that came before him. His aggressiveness,
resolution, boldness, and flexibility has been instrumental in grasping tactical opportunities for
America according to Gingrich. Trump’s policies are said to fuel the American economy since
now America is the largest global crude oil producer after surpassing both Saudi Arabia and
Russia (Johnson, 2018). Business is now booming, and more companies are coming back from
overseas. More money is being committed to businesses since profitability is ensured and rising
every day.
To another degree, Trump's success can be attributed to his failure in critical thinking
since many critical thinkers perceive Donald Trump as a godsent example for them to teach
critical thinking. They perceive Trump as a manipulative rhetoric who works to promote fake
news and glaring fallacies (Sullivan, 2018). Besides, different arguments are laid down to
support the fact that president Donald Trump is not a critical thinker. To begin with, the
epidemic of falsehood closely associated with Donald Trump’s administration is wholesome. For
example, from the New York Times to the Washington Post, a lot of documentation on Trump’s
misstatements has been posted hence displaying a lot of practice concerning falsehood. The
misleading claims have raised questions on whether his groundless statements are just a way to
lie to the American people (Denzin & Giardina, 2018). For example, according to the
Washington Post, in the first 100 days of president Trump in the office, Trump had already
spoken about four hundred and two misleading claims on either foreign policy, immigration or
employment.

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Secondly, ambiguity is another aspect that demonstrates the lack of critical thinking in
Trump’s administration. In most of Trump’s statements, there is no clarity or objectivity. For
example, in some of his tweets, he uses ambiguous phrases to put across his desires. In addition,
Trump is an avid user of weasel words so as to appear vague hence insulating himself from
criticism concerning reasonableness (Sullivan, 2018). Thirdly, President Trump is at times in
support of conspiracy theories. Some theorists argue it’s because of his disclination to think
critically due to his reliance on dubious sources.
On the other hand, others argue it’s because of the narrowness of his education. For
example, President Trump is always on the lead to support the conspiracy theories of a talk-radio
host known as Alex Jones. In addition, Trump's reliance on Fox news demonstrates that the Tv
station is uncritically supportive of his presidency (Browne & Keeley, 2007). On the hand,
Trump labels the other media stations as distributing fake news. CNN is his favorite since it’s his
main target on fake news. Therefore, since Fox News and Alex Jones present news in his favor,
it is clear that Trump is duped by news from both media sources.
Lastly, Trump's fallacies have also been a distinctive way whereby Trump evades
criticism by alleging the misconduct to other people (Sullivan, 2018). His attacks on his critics
and rivals has often seemed vicious; therefore, media houses are on course to keep track of them.
For example, on the building of the wall, various enforcement of laws that Trump’s desires to
bring about may not be favorable. In addition, his attacks at times seem to be instances of spleen-
venting since the attacks are direct. For example, regarding his rival known as Carly Fiorina,
Trump attacked her on her physical appearance by notoriously saying, “Look at that face, would
anyone vote for that?” (Sullivan, 2018). This was degrading and insensible.
In conclusion, it’s not clear as to whether Trump’s success is attributed to critical
thinking since people have different opinions regarding his administration. His personality is
however daunting due to the way he expresses himself in situations. However, in my opinion, I
believe Trump’s success is accredited to his superb critical thinking skills since the results he has
brought forth display his ability to run America’s economy effectively.

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References
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Critical Thinking. (2018). What is critical thinking? Retrieved from
https://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/ct.php
Denzin, N. K., & Giardina, M. D. (2018). Introduction. In Qualitative Inquiry in the Public
Sphere (pp. 9-22). Routledge.
Doyle, A. (2018). Why Employers Value Critical Thinking. Retrieved from
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Gingrich, N. (2018). Trump has accomplished more than Clinton, Bush, and Obama combined –
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Schein, M. (2018). Trump Fails at Everything. So Why Does He Always End Up on Top?
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Sullivan, S. (2018). Donald Trump as a Critical-Thinking Teaching Assistant. Informal
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