Most of the political affairs in the United States are conducted by professional political teams, and the job of the country’s President is to make up the decisions. Under such framework, the personality of the President plays a huge role in it, hence determines the political outcomes.

For instance, Harry Truman was a President known for his friendliness and humility. His cautious and decisiveness also meant that he could be tough when handling difficult challenges in the face of the precarious international situations, like the first launch of atomic bomb in history.

On the surface, Jimmy Carter appeared to be an honest and simple person, yet he was also rigid and stubborn. He was not easy to compromise, and he liked to act on his own intuition, even if this intuition was not exactly extraordinary. He was very sensitive to the surrounding situations. As a former farm owner, he had the desire to control but lacked flexibility. He was serious about pushing peace agendas and managed to achieve some, yet he was not really unsuccessful politically. The failure of the U.S. special forces in Iran caused him to step down.

Bill Clinton on the other hand, was efficient, yet when he encountered difficult problems and challenges, he would be hesitant and often attempted to evade them. Clinton was confident of himself, even when his confidence exceeded his actual capability. More often than not he would not want to try his luck, which could make him appeared to be anticlimactic.

George W. Bush was another President from the West. He was a straight-forward and honest person, close to being an idealist, and he really believed in what he said. He was very adaptable to changes, like those from the West. He was also the kind of President who dared to declare war in a short period of time.

Barrack Obama was highly intelligent, and perhaps one of the most intelligent Presidents of the United States. He was also very imaginative, creative and honest, though he was not known to be overly hard-working. The teams working for him must had faced much difficulty, as Obama was almost certainly a person who liked to think independently. He will never be a truly retired President, because he will always have his own opinions on many things.

Donald Trump on the other hand, was more interesting. As much has been said about him, we will not elaborate here. He was not a bellicose President. In fact, he was also the only modern American President who had never waged a war.

Finally, concerning the current President Joe Biden, he is the type of person who wants to maintain his own prestige and dignity at all costs. His comprehensive abilities are average; he was not from the best university, and he is not as intelligent as Obama. For this reason, he is the kind of person who is highly dependent on the expert teams, though he would want to project the results as his own efforts. Because of this, some parties might seize this personality trait and use it for their own end.

Due to the institutional characteristics of the American society, it was the personalities, not the capabilities of these Presidents, that played a crucial role at critical moments. This is because there are already many professional teams in the United States that provide their services. The rest mainly depends on the Presidents’ personalities in decision-making. As long we understand the personality of an American President and what he would actually do, we will be able to estimate the possible outcomes.