Donald Trump started gaining popularity at the beginning of the election because he was different. He was the non-politician, he was the outsider, he was the businessman.

Now, as everything comes to an end, it seems that what America first recognized as a positive thing could actually just be a horrible negative. Maybe what was so different about Trump wasn’t his business career, but actually the fact that he never wanted to be a politician at all. Donald Trump has a lot of notches on his belt, is this the next one? Every good businessman knows that it is important to be a little bit selfish when making decisions. Is this philosophy going to apply to Trump’s America?

Trump and his supporters have long argued that being a good businessman is a qualification for being a good president. That just because Trump is successful, he will be able to handle the most important job in the world. That just because Trump has casinos and hotels galore, he is the better choice than any candidate with past political record. Maybe it’s about time to question this. Why were we so fast to accept this train of thought?

Part of being a good businessman is being selfish, thinking of how to make more money, and not worrying about the people who will get the short end of the deal. How would this turn out for America if Trump ran our country the way he runs a business?

 

The rhetoric this entire election has been focused on Trump’s qualifications to be president. Maybe it boils down to the fact that being a good business man makes one a good business man, nothing more. Maybe the rhetoric should flip on it’s head, and in turn become a discussion about how being a business man like Trump actually disqualifies one for President.

Donald Trump’s business record is long debated, and discussed often. But many people do not fully comprehend just how much “business” Trump has dabbled in.

Trump’s empire includes a lot more than just real estate, hotels and casinos. There are also the golf courses, the modeling agency, the fragrance line, Trump Jets LLC, an American TV production company, Trump Ice ( a bottled water company), and the Trump Organization (includes ownership over Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA pageants as well as home and clothing companies).

It is no secret that a portion of these business ventures have failed, and are no longer up and running. The fact remains however, that Trump does not have one niche; he is not rich from one particular thing. Instead, Donald Trump is listed as a trustee, president, chairman, or member for over 530 entities. 

So, what does this part of his business record mean for his role as a Presidential candidate? 

Looking at his past, there is an argument to be had this this election is less about winning/losing and more about just expanding his reach and exposure. Failure in previous ventures has not stopped Trump before.

A powerful narrative for the democrats to pick up would be the argument that Trump does not care about America, but rather just sees this election as another opportunity to put his name on something new.

 

 

If the Democrats could take this narrative and run with it, they could effectively undermine Trump’s own narrative that he cares about the country, and wants to “make it great again”. The rhetoric of Trump running for selfish motives, and not being fully invested in the future of the country could be enough to turn voters away from him.

There is narrative circling that Trump would be wealthier if he had simply taken his inheritance money and invested it in an index fund. While Trump certainly has more money floating around than most of us do, is his wealth actually that impressive considering what he started out with?

Trump’s wealth has grown about 300% since 1987, while other billionaires such as Warren Buffet and Bill Gates saw growths such as 2612% and 7173%, respectively in the same time period. While Trump’s wealth is nothing to laugh at, this does raise the question of whether or not his own narrative of his success as a businessmen should hold up. This information suggests that Trump is actually more conservative as a businessmen than he likes to brag about, and a recent report from the Associated Press stated that Trump made more of his money by “lending out his name to others rather than developing real estate himself.”

Now, there is most definitely an other side to this narrative. Finance and business, especially stocks and investing, is something that is hard to boil down into a simple storyline for the everyday American. That gives the Democrats an advantage with this narrative to grossly simplify and to water down the facts. Part of the other side of the argument is that you can’t put monetary value on name recognition, and building things that have your name on them. Even if Trump would have made more money by indexing, who is to say how much it was worth for him to establish buildings, schools, golf courses, and casinos with his brand. 

The truth of the narrative that Trump would be richer by basically letting the money sit away and touching it, and therefore not having the chance to mess up, is not what I am trying to prove or disprove here. What is interesting, is the way that the liberal media have taken this idea, and over simplified it until they had something really great to run with. They are using this narrative to make it seem like Trump couldn’t even manage to take the money that someone else worked hard for and handed to him (his father), and not mess up with it. This makes Trump seem like the exact opposite of a good businessmen, and in fact the exact opposite of someone that we would want to run our country.

One of the biggest questions through this election has been how and why Trump’s supporters continue to allow this rhetoric of his business record. It has been shot down time and time again, but this does not seem to phase his supporters.

Trump’s Sheep

Those who are supporting Trump, are blind to every mistake that he has made. This has been proven time and time again. They were not phased by his tax returns, and were not phased by his most recent video release scandal. The reason why these things simply cannot seem to hurt his campaign is that his voters truly do not care. They want Trump to be president because of his persona, his platform, and his unapologetic “stick it to the man” attitude.

Who Cares

If Trump supporters have not cared about any of his scandals, mistakes, or horribly worded outbursts on National television so far, why would they suddenly start to care that the rhetoric of his good business record is less that accurate? The rhetoric of him being a business man and not a politician serves as the mouthpiece for his followers, but the accuracy of the statements are not of much concern to them. Trump does have one thing going for him, and that is his loyal supporters. The rhetoric of his business record only exists to give those supporters something to grasp on to, and something to hold against Hillary, who is the definition of a career politician.

Donald Trump presents himself as an alternative to those whose entire professional lives have been spent inside the political realm. He would argue that current government disfunction is a result of these so called career politicians only working for their own self interest. Trump says that being a successful business man gives him an advantage, but some question if he is even qualified to call himself a good businessman.

On the Backs of the Middle Class

One of the arguments against Trump’s self proclamation that his business record alone qualifies him to lead our country, is that he has purposely used the middle class to get to where he is. Hundreds of small business owners who performed jobs for Trump have claimed that he just did not pay them. Some believe that it was his plan all along to hire these workers, claim unsatisfactory work and then withhold pay. He would then tell the workers [remember – small business owners] that they could either sue him or accept the smaller pay. It’s not hard to figure out which option they were forced to choose.

Bankruptcy?

Another sketchy part of Trump’s business record is the number of times that he has declared bankruptcy for his businesses.  Trump has actually declared bankruptcy six times, and he argues that this is actually a positive thing. Trump would tell you that he is smart for doing so because he used the bankruptcy to get richer (even though he was letting down workers and investors in the process). The legality of this is less of an issue than the morality of this. Some people wonder why someone who continues to harp on their great business record has resorted to shady and ethically questionably behavior multiple times in the past.

 

 

 

 

 

Bad Businessman 

The most important argument is that Trump is actually not even a extremely profitable businessman. Obviously Trump inherited a large amount of money, but did he actually do anything with it? Clinton’s people have coined the term “bad business that’s bad for you” because among other things, revenue from Trump’s casinos fell by 1% from 1997-2002, while his competitors experienced an 18% rise during the same time. Basically, a lot of people agree that because of this business failure and others including the aforementioned bankruptcy, Trump is not capable of running our nation.