With women already serving as CEOs of some of our nation’s largest corporations, e.g., IBM and HP, and soon to be serving as CEO of the federal government, one might argue that the era of white male privilege is behind us. But on the other hand, Donald Trump seems to be getting a lot of press. Aside from the fact that he is a white guy, why would Americans care to hear about what he is doing/saying?
Trump is pretty rich, of course, but he would probably have been richer if he had taken the money he got from his successful dad and parked it in an S&P 500 index fund (analysis). And he has used the U.S. bankruptcy court system to skip out on paying back creditors four times (Forbes). We scold the Greeks for not paying their debts but we celebrate Trump despite his abuse of bondholders. We look for business tips from a guy who could have been richer by staying home, smoking dope, watching TV, and playing Xbox. Does Trump’s success prove the wisdom of the movie Being There?
Louise (the former housekeeper, watching Chance on television): It’s for sure a white man’s world in America. Look here: I raised that boy since he was the size of a piss-ant. And I’ll say right now, he never learned to read and write. No, sir. Had no brains at all. Was stuffed with rice pudding between th’ ears. Shortchanged by the Lord, and dumb as a jackass. Look at him now! Yes, sir, all you’ve gotta be is white in America, to get whatever you want. Gobbledy-gook!
Guide to estimating the fraud factor in whatever you hear about Trump:
- article from 2011 about how Donald Trump supposedly paid $100 million for a 20-year-old Boeing 757 (FAA registration; formerly belonged to Paul Allen)
- article from 2011 on how Fedex was buying 20-year-old 757s for $10 million
- article from 2014 on how you could buy “a used 757 already converted to VIP configuration … for as little as $20 million” or build one up with a fresh/custom interior for $28-35 million
[Separately, maybe Trump’s four bankruptcies support the idea that Greece shouldn’t keep begging for bailouts from the IMF and Europe. Stiff the fools who lent the cash, but keep the fun stuff that the cash paid for!]
Finally, could it be that Americans love watching Trump parade on TV because they say “That’s exactly what I would do if I had a rich dad”?
No, this is about the
“Angry White Men” who voted for Reagan.
They were former Democrat voters.
They lost their jobs to China and Mexico going
from Manufacturing to Service jobs.
Instead of blaming corporation and financial system for
loss of their jobs, they blame minorities.
These are the “black helicopters flying UN flags” crowd.
They repeat Waco conspiracy.
One World government of George Bush.
Just like Ross Perrot could tap into them. Donald Trump can do the same.
As long White Man runs the world. This will be rinse-n-repeat for a long time.
especially when Asia asks for its power back.
KKK was created because Blacks got freedom.
Entire education, prison, justice, suburbs were created because
Blacks got civil rights.
Now it is mexican/hispanics turn because they are #1 minority now.
Indians are the next model minority replacing jews. Fraught with dangers.
Whole bunch of shit gets thrown by US against other countries and econmies.
You just don’t hear it in the news.
Who is it that celebrates Trump? When you say “we”, do you include yourself? I follow US politics only incidentally, but I don’t see him being celebrated – I usually see him being mocked.
Fred Trump had five kids and some apartment buildings in Queens and Brooklyn. It’s probably not right that Trump was given a pile of money when he turned 25. Trump’s genius was buying buildings cheap and then getting zoning changes made to increase the value of the property. This is obvious from the book of his lawyer, George Ross. In the 1970s, there were plenty of cheap properties with a higher and better use that were prime targets for Trump’s zoning arbitrage. So Trump probably is something of a self-made real estate genius.
Trump is addressing issues that other Republican are afraid to discuss, and he is not backing down just because someone calls him a racist. That makes him more popular.
People do not care whether he is really the financial genius he pretends to be.
Trump will vanish as soon as he’s required to show the world his books. His boasts of being worth $10 Billion will be exposed as lies. When it comes to “put up or shut up” Trump will be very quiet.
Just remember that four years ago Herman Cain was the frontrunner.
Trump is giving the rest of the GOP a golden chance to show they have some guts. Someone should come right and put Trump in his place. Say there is no place for his ilk in the GOP and repudiate him on his strategy. Problem is that no one in the GOP has the guts do it. That is a much sadder fact than Trump in the lead.
I believe Donald Trump is taking on a role in American Republican politics similar to the role Vladmir Zhirinovsky serves in Russia link, link
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/isis-confused-by-trumps-hotel-analogies
Bryan: How could other Republicans “put Trump in his place” other than at the ballot box by getting more votes? Is there a law against calling oneself a “Republican” without approval from a central bureaucracy? Other Republicans can say “Don’t vote for Trump; I am a better candidate” but that is something they would be saying during an election campaign anyway, no?
bjk: I don’t think that your comment falsifies the analysis to which I linked. Can you cite any reference that contradicts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Trump ? (Dad owned 27,000 units of housing in NYC apparently; if we assume that each one would be worth $400,000 today that’s over $10 billion in total value.)
If Trump wants to see a Republican in the White House, he should run as a Democrat.
Donald Trump is the new Sarah Palin of American politics: a populist with no substance that pisses off the left.
Trump has contributed plenty of money to the Clintons. He’ll probably end up with a cabinet position.
This assuming (as Phillip suggests) that we continue the downward spiral in selecting our political class.
Trump is using the media of this country to push an agenda of idea, just the same way as Soros or the Koch brothers or anyone else with a ton of money can do. They report on him because that’s all they know how to do now: talk about controversial and inciting things.
To be fair, there’s some substance in what he says, just as there is some substance in what Bernie Sanders is saying. To just chalk it all up to racism is tiresome and lazy. The people who are interested in Trump are interested because he’s not just another Dem-Lite(TM) Republican, just like Bernie isn’t just another Rep-Lite(TM) Democrat to the political left in this country. This country is STARVING for REAL LEADERSHIP, and leadership means taking controversial positions, and defending them against tiresome and lazy counter-arguments.
Decisiveness and conviction inspires people (as long as the idea is passable). I’ve got $100 and 2-1 odds for anyone who thinks Hillary WON’T be president, but she’s the EPITOME of gutless pandering to the prevailing groupthink, and she inspires no one. She knows this, and has been rebuked for her ridiculously-bad attempts at showing herself the casual populist choice with her staged man-on-the-street encounters and scripted questions at her speeches. So she’s keeping her head down, and letting the media do her job for her. “It’s just time for a woman to be president” will carry the next election, and a thousand local news street interviews will drive this into the heads of Americans over the next year.
I think the answer is to finally just adopt a truly multi-party system, instead of this ridiculous high-school-government-textbook-case-study two-party system we have now, and let the less popular parties whither and die. Couple this with pluralistic voting, and the US might actually approach the democracy it presumes to be.
As a libertarian, it scares me that the US would suddenly tilt socialist with these moves (as Europe has with it’s political systems), but at least it would reflect the will of the general population, instead of just the personal interests of the so-called 1%.
Trump is surging to top:: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/poll-trump-surges-to-big-lead-in-gop-presidential-race/2015/07/20/efd2e0d0-2ef8-11e5-8f36-18d1d501920d_story.html
Husband mentioned that reporter during McCain discussion tried to ensnare Trump, and that Trump’s comments were more innocuous than the liberal press has led us to believe.
If Trump wins the nomination, at least it won’t be the Clinton dynasty vs. the Bush dynasty in a Hillary vs. Jeb race as Philip seems to have predicted in the past
Phil,
20/20 hindsight says Trump would have made more by investing in an S&P Index fund all those years ago. And even that could be challenged since you didn’t mention the tax ramifications of him turning all that real estate into cash.
Please tell me what the S&P is gonna look like versus the southern VA real estate market over the next 30 years. I have a bunch of stuff I could sell. 🙂
Separately, it should be noted that Trump never filed personal bankruptcy. It’s a world of difference.
Looks like Paul Allen finally turned a profit on an investment ….