Donald Trump, President of the United States, or “The Donald”? I know we are all tired of hearing about the election, but the marketing and communication strategies used by the new president-elect stand out from many before him. Donald Trump has been a public figure for years now, and over the course of this election, we have seen his image change from businessman to politician. How do we separate these identities? One appeal to some voters this election was the shift that Trump brought by not being the typical politician running for the presidency, but a real estate mogul and even reality television personality who decided to change his career path. (Who remembers “The Apprentice”?)
Trump established himself as his own corporation through his real estate company, named the Trump Organization, owning golf courses, beauty pageants, and various other business ventures. He has been seen first and foremost as a businessman and many Americans have followed his business career for years. On this side, Donald Trump has promoted his corporate identity as being hardworking, entrepreneurial, grand, elegant, upper class, etc.
Fast forward to last year when Trump decided to run for President of the United States. He traded in this logo:
For this one:
At this point, Donald Trump had choices to make about what kind of identity to portray in the world of politics. While he remained as outspoken and blunt as ever, he had to create new aspects of his image. He has been known to have changing views throughout the years, but now he was forced to stick to one set of beliefs to run his campaign on. This included conservative, traditional views, tax cuts, stricter immigration policies, and reform of veteran care. Overall, you can see from his slogan that his political identity is that of improvement and restoration.
What similarities do you see between Donald Trump’s corporate identity and his political identity? What differences do you see? What do you think are positive and/or negative outcomes of these similarities or differences? Do you think that these identities match his policies and actions? Let us know what you think!
IMC Hawks Blog 
Loud and outspoken I think are perfect words to describe each of Trump’s identities. I believed he has stayed true to who he is as both a politician and businessman. I think positive outcomes of these identities is that he has translated Trump as a businessman to a politician in a semi effective manner. He did win the presidency although it was a rough one. I think that his use of rhetoric against Hillary Clinton was effective. The negative aspects of Trump as a harsh businessman into politics is his use of words in the wrong settings that have affected people’s view of who he actually is as a person.
The President-Elect Donald Trump did have to change his overall brand, while also separating his political and business careers throughout his campaign. He stayed true to himself with his rhetoric used throughout the campaign. I believe he was successful because he stayed true to this and even though saying things that would greatly upset people at times, he never came across as someone who we, the American people, would think is lying or making things up to further his political career. While separating his old and new identity he also combined them to his advantage using his business expertise to inspire the American people that he would build us back up like a business, making us strong throughout, much like a successful corporation.
This was a very good article and topic that I have heard about many times. President- Elect Donald Trump is soon to be in the white house whether people like it or not and in that case there is the transition of the “You’re Fired” Donald Mr. Donald J. Trump “POTUS”. There is no doubt that there was harsh rhetoric on his end while campaigning about debating but well all know that a cut-throat process. I’m not justifying anything he’s said but I do believe that he will compose himself in a far more presidential manner now that the election is over. He will be bombarded will the media about several people may not even given him a chance, but regardless the man is our president and I think we should just wait and see what he can do.