Donald Trump's business failures: a comprehensive guide Trump likes to say that he's qualified to be President because he's a super-successful businessman (the MOST successful, believe me. OK?) Putting aside the fact that being a success in business and qualified to be President are two completely different things (I wouldn't vote for Vince McMahon or Ron Popiel either)... it turns out Trump isn't really all that successful. This has been out there for some time, at least in piecemeal fashion. But here's an article that runs down the overview pretty well. The "money quote:" "Trump’s many misrepresentations of his successes and his failures matter—a lot. As a man who has never held so much as a city council seat, there is little voters can examine to determine if he is competent to hold office. He has no voting record and presents few details about specific policies. Instead, he sells himself as qualified to run the country because he is a businessman who knows how to get things done, and his financial dealings are the only part of his background available to assess his competence to lead the country. And while Trump has had a few successes in business, most of his ventures have been disasters." This won't, of course, matter to his supporters. But it's all part of the steady drip-drip-drip of "wait a minute - this guy has no business being President" that is currently engulfing undecideds and may not have them undecided for too much longer. When the #1 justification for your candidacy goes out the window...
While I am no friend of Trump (quite the opposite, I assure you), the article is very one-sided. It does a good job of pointing out all of Trump's egregious failures, many of which disqualify him from being a free citizen of the U.S., let alone its president. However, the focus solely on his failures will cause this article to be deemed biased and thus ignored by those who are in most need of learning the facts presented in this article. Shame....
I dunno. Trump's claim is that he's not only successful, but the most successful. Unambiguously the best. Minor setbacks at best, and huge success after huge success after huge success almost always. And we should choose him because he always wins. And if we pick him, we'll win so much we will be sick of winning. He's the smartest, the most astute, and always makes the right decisions. That is clearly not the case. In fact, if not for Daddy bailing him out time after time, we probably never even would have heard of him.
(1) Don't know about you, but I've written them off. and ... (2) Which non-failures do you think should be focused on? Can't think of any. Even as a businessman, the guy is a disaster. Word sloshing about the rumorsphere is that a passel of prominent Republicans are going to disavow his sorry butt in the next day or two, now that he's un-endorsed Paul Ryan and John McCain. (Oh yeah, that's the one that moves them to action.) If only ...
I saw a very astute piece by a Republican who said that what could really start the flood (or at least a mini-flood) of Republicans disowning Trump is the fact that primary season is coming to a close (some states don't hold their primaries till August or even early September). In this theory, Republican officials worried about being "primaried" by those farther to their right have been holding their tongues, wary of ticking off the base and rabid Trump supporters. Once the primaries are over, that worry goes away, plus they now have to appeal to a general electorate, which is different from the GOP primary electorate. The redder the district, the less true that is. But for those in even somewhat purple districts, or state-wide officials like Senators and Governors, the calculations change once the primaries are over. True, it might not be "profiles in courage" for these guys to disown Trump after the primaries. But it may turn the trickle of disowning into something more of steady stream.
In looking at successes, I think his major success has been building a brand. He can license the use of his name on hotels and condos and golf resorts and some people are willing to pay for the association. In this story, we see time and again that where he goes, some people with money will follow, and that's what branding is all about. He is successful as a self-promoter, clearly, and often times that translates into cash. He was able to leverage his image as a great businessman into his role in The Apprentice, which more than anything has lead him straight to victory at the RNC.
