Donald Trump had repeatedly proclaimed that his success over the last 40 years of Business provides him the skill set, and leadership required to make America Great Again. However, his lack of fellow CEO/Business Surrogates leads you to believe otherwise. Trump has presented a Challenger Strategy over the campaign against the Political Establishment as a whole. His plan is to gather the country’s most successful Leaders of Industry and jump start the economy. These claims would be more believable if he had some Leaders of Industry as Surrogates coming to his defense.
Andrew Kirell from The Daily Beast describes Trump’s Surrogates as, “The Trumpkins”.
Katrina Pierson, Scottie Nell Hughes, Kayleigh McEnany, and Jeffrey Lord. These surrogates have a political or PR background that won’t miss the opportunity to hit the airwaves of Radio and News Media to defend, deflect, or spin Trump’s latest gaffes. CNN personality S.E. Cupp said of Jeffery Lord last year could apply just as easily to the rest of his highly skilled, dogged fellow Trumpkins: “I don’t envy Jeffrey having to carry Donald Trump’s decidedly fetid water every day. It’s not an enviable job and he does it very well.” S.E. Cupp’s complement is a badge of honor for a political Surrogate earning their way through the ranks at the cost of their morals, but not a CEO that has to return to his corporate life the next day.
What Trump does not have is surrogates that are his equal in the Business World. Business Surrogates that can attest to the achievement he claims, and how Trump will replicate that as President. Surrogates that could explain the reason that Trump’s most recent leaked Tax Document for 1995 showing a $916 Million Dollar loss can be turned into a positive due to certain tax loopholes. Carl Icahn, a very successful business magnate, is a name Trump regularly mention as a Leader of Industry that he will lean on for Trade Deals. Unfortunately, Carl isn’t available to speak on Trump’s behalf as a surrogate during the campaign. The absence of successful business leaders as surrogates at the very least brings his business ethics, or work relationships among his peers into question.
You’ve definitely made an interesting point about his surrogates being mostly PR professionals as opposed to fellow businessmen – I hadn’t thought about it that way previously!
It makes a lot of sense, though; Trump runs his campaign like a media machine that seldom addresses the numerous fact-checks that have been presented to stand in conflict with the claims he has made regarding past accomplishments and statements made about a wide variety of issues. As such, I think it is only right that his surrogacy is comprised of mostly PR specialists who can cover up his plethora of missteps as opposed to businessmen on par with his stated net worth and level of success who can attest to his professional success. At this point, Trump’s business acumen stands to be brought into question due to the fact that he won’t release his tax returns, and those that actually have been released through one channel or another show tremendous losses that contradict everything he’s ever said about the results of his endeavors.
It will be interesting to see if the nature of his surrogates’ careers will affect his campaign in any way going forward. If recent history has anything to show for it, though, Trump’s supporters seemingly couldn’t care less about whether or not he is actually as legitimate a success as he says he is – as long as he states his point in the simplest and loudest rhetorical manner possible.