Trump and State Theory: An Institutional Analysis

The article analyzes Donald Trump's presidency through the prism of state theory and Max Weber's sociology, moving away from evaluating the leader's personal traits toward examining institutional mechanisms. The author posits a thesis regarding the attempt to convert charismatic leadership into lasting administrative agency. A key issue is the process of the routinization of charisma—the transformation of personal political energy into procedures, personnel, and organizational structures. The text highlights the tension between a personalistic style of governance and legal-rational bureaucracy, while analyzing limitations resulting from constitutional frameworks (the 22nd Amendment). The goal is to understand whether Trumpism can create a reproducible political repertoire that survives its founder's biography and permanently transforms the state's institutional regime.