By David Robertson / 09.06.2017
Americans are watching the Peter Principle being lived out in the presidency of Donald Trump. For those who are not familiar with it, the Peter Principle is the observation that people tend to be promoted to a level at which they are incompetent.
I didn’t vote for Trump*, but once he was elected, I was willing to withhold judgment of his presidency until there was enough of his presidency to judge.
Currently, President Trump appears to me to be a lousy captain at the helm of the ship of State. Too many times, thus far, he has steered that ship in a way that rocks it needlessly. Sure, he has been on course a few times, but I am not confident in his ability to navigate well during the rest of his presidency.
Did anyone who voted for him know for certain how he would govern? No, they didn’t. The ones who wanted him to be the 2016 GOP presidential nominee were impressed by his track record as a businessman and by his bold talk. That fits the description of the Peter Principle as given by Wikipedia: “It states that the selection of a candidate for a position is based on the candidate’s performance in their current role, rather than on abilities relevant to the intended role.”
This is not to say that President Trump is stupid. There may still be genius behind his madness. After all, he figured out that he could be elected POTUS as long as Hillary Clinton was the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. Also, there is still plenty of time in his presidency for Trump to get his act together and do a better job as POTUS. For the nation’s sake, I hope that he does better.
Still, I am probably not the only person who is wondering why President Trump acts the way that he does. It is as if he were from a planet other than planet Earth.