The Real Trump

Over the past few days the media has been astir with speculation over “the real Donald Trump?” Is he a crude and vulgar boor who would cop a feel just because his superstar status allows him to get away with it? Should we chalk this up to mere “locker room banter” that shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Or maybe Donald Trump has improved and refined himself since he made those comments, even if he isn’t quite yet the paragon of gentility? Tump for his part claims that those comments, “don’t reflect who I am.”

The whole ado over this controversy has left me a bit nonplussed because I don’t need these “hot mic” comments to tell me about the character of Donald Trump. I think that the most damning evidence of Trump’s baseness is found in the record he is most proud of — his business. After the year long barrage of Trump’s claims of business acumen, a couple of weeks ago I asked myself, has he made one product that has made the world a better place? Have his legendary real estate deals ever served anything but his own personal interest?  I am not suggesting for a minute that a businessman ignore personal interest. However, there are so many examples of businesses that bring profit to their owners while simultaneously meeting a societal need or serving the common good. Yet in Donald Trump’s case, all I can see is a record of self-serving manipulation of commercial law that in many cases led to financial ruin for those who couldn’t protect themselves against Trump’s bullying tactics. Don’t get me wrong, most of us, and certainly most politicians have strong egos and are usually influenced by our own self interest. However, in Donald Trump’s case it seems to be extreme.

So when I see Trump’s use of indecency to draw attention to his campaign despite the damage done to the political process — to me its not an irrelevant side show, but a reflection of his very modus vivendi. When he seditiously insists that his investigators of Barak Obama’s birth status “have been studying it, and they cannot believe what they’re finding” only to admit without apology that Obama was born in the U.S. I say par for the course.

Based on Donald Trump’s public record of crude language, disregard for those around him and exploitation of the vulnerable, I would have been surprised if Donald Trump didn’t speak as offensively about women as the now infamous recording has shown.

Donald Trump’s smarts may be great for running his own business, but I for one can’t imagine hiring him to run mine. I would be too concerned that he would exploit the enterprise for his own interest at my expense. If you can’t hire the Trump to run your business, how can you elect him to govern your country? Despite all the flaws of the alternative candidates, I can’t see one whose drawbacks come close to Donald Trump’s even if he has made great deals for himself and even if he never groped anyone…