No matter how much chaos and disruption U.S. President Donald Trump causes — to trade, business and even America's core alliances — his supporters regularly insist that Trump is a leader who gets things done. While Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton regards Trump as an "active, engaged and effective leader," former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich has gone so far as to describe Trump as "stunningly effective."
Given these accolades, I was curious about what the undergraduates in my course on leadership theory and practice think of Trump's effectiveness, so I organized a student debate.
One side was tasked with defending the motion that Trump is an "effective leader." They portrayed him as a decisive go-getter and marveled at his "chutzpah" in moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Among Trump's accomplishments, they pointed to the tax-reform legislation that he signed in December 2017, the airstrikes against Syrian chemical-weapons facilities in April 2018, the recent engagement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the evolution of trade policy toward China.