Batman returns! Leadership by crisis and the moral entrepreneurship of Donald J Trump: A dramaturgical perspective

In this paper I distinguish between ‘leadership through crisis’, using leadership to analyse, make sense of and respond to crisis, and ‘leadership by crisis’, using the construction and construal of crisis as the basis for the exercise of leadership. Using the framing of the multidisciplinary ‘moral entrepreneur’ literature, I examine the role of President Donald J Trump as a moral entrepreneur who leads by crisis in construing and constructing crises (moral panics) and persuading society to develop or enforce rules consistent with his own ardently held beliefs. I argue that Trump’s leadership by crisis draws on and is legitimated by three contextual factors: the ideology of entrepreneurialism; the structure (social media platforms) and content (hype and bullshit) of the messaging around moral panics; and the image of the superhero, specifically Batman, in popular culture which provided cultural legitimation for Trump’s presidency. The paper concludes with the argument that leadership is a performance and draws on Turner’s discussion of dramaturgy to identify directions for further research on the leadership implications of moral entrepreneurship as a social drama.