WHAT I LIKE & DISLIKE ABOUT DONALD J. TRUMP

The adventure of campaign politics continues in the US and it is coming down to two candidates left on both the key parties, the Republicans and the Democrats. After being outside of the US on a five-week tour and seeing/hearing US Politics through the media in Egypt, Indonesia and the Philippines as well as talking with people in each country, I was actually stunned by many of the things I heard. I shouldn’t be, traveling outside of the US most of the time during the past twenty-years, I thought I was pretty well adapted to the distortions. But I have not adapted well enough. During that time, I also conducted my first training in Political Coaching. Breakthrough Consulting and the University of Asia and the Pacific sponsored it in Manila Philippines. I think we had 15 Meta-Coaches present, preparing themselves— so watch out Philippines.

I expect the media everywhere to distort the news, spin it to fit the agenda of the media, to focus on the bad news, to use “gotta questions,” etc. I expect that when I’m in the US and when I travel. But this time I heard the news distorted in absolutely outrageous ways. Most of it was against Donald Trump. Now many years ago (early 1990s) when I studied and modeled “wealth creation” I studied the biographies of a dozen billionaires, Trump being one of them. Later he collaborated with Robert Kyosaki (“Rich Dad/ Poor Dad” and “Cash Flow Quadrants”) to write “We Want You Rich.” So when I mentioned entrepreneurs and recommended Trump, I got sighs and hummps. When I asked about that, I heard just how crazy the distortions had become. In the end, I had to say that “95% of what you have been hearing about him is just wrong. It’s not true at all.” That’s when several asked what I liked about Trump and someone else shouted out, “and what you dislike!”

I like him speaking his mind and stubbornly refusing to be “politically correct” (PC). Before this year, not being PC has been like kryptonite to anyone who was politically incorrect. But not so with Trump. He can touch on what is politically incorrect it without it destroying him to the dismay of the pundits who keep predicting his demise. Apparently I’m not the only one who likes him speaking his mind, speaking without a script, and speaking in the way that ordinary people speak. With him, there’s none of the calculated speech designed to offend none and say what everybody can be okay with. Of course, such speech is usually insipid, boring, and non-committal.

I like him for being an outsider to Washington. The career politicians of Washington are the problem along with their lobbyists who seem to own the political process in spite of the will expressed by the voters. By self-funding and by refusing political donations other than small donates of $10 and $25 from regular people, he owes no one any vote or favors. I like that. I think we need a person with a good business head on his shoulders and not these career politicians who don’t know what it is to work for a dollar, or how to run a business, or the challenges of hiring and firing and getting good people, and training and coaching people, and dealing with all of the government regulations and taxes. Most politicians don’t seem to understand.

I like him for putting women in positions of power since 1985. He put women into positions of senior managers in his companies, even CEOs. He was doing that long time before it became politically correct. Of course, this stands in contradistinction to what people are saying that he says about women. The difference is that his negative comments about particular women, just like his rough comments about particular men, and not about a category of people, but specific persons. And yes he can be crude about that (see what I don’t like about him, below). But the way he deals with women, the way he puts them in positions of power, is something that I appreciate.

I like his business acumen and practical ability to get things done. I began following Trump back in the early 1990, modeling him as an entrepreneur and wealth creator and the one thing that he has consistently done for 40 years is build magnificent buildings under budget and under the time frame. Today his brand stands for luxury and high quality. He knows how to create a team, hire the brightest and best, watch the numbers, and deliver what he promises.

Conversely, there are things that I do not like. I do not like his name calling and insults. I think I know why he does it, to play the media and get media attention. The downside of it is the way his opponents spin it and then label him with the worst of names, racist, women hater, etc. obviously, he used the name calling at first to get publicity and it worked for him. But there’s been too much of it, far too much.

I do not like his over-generalizing. Obviously, again, he used that at to say things that were very politically incorrect, like Mexico is sending rapists and the worst of people, to get the media to surround him and give him lots of air-time. What much of media and others failed to notice is that he said it once, got the media all stirred up and running to get his comments about that, and then he never said it again. The over-generalization worked to grab the media by the nose and do the marketing for him. But the downside is that people run with the over-generalizing. They run with the idea that he is a racist and ignore all of the facts and all of his statements to the contrary.

I do not like the way he gives people things to use against him. Because he doesn’t speak in politically correct terms, but off the cuff and sometimes in very rough language, it gives his opponents lots of things they can use against him, things that sound terrible like racist, sexist, etc. when that’s not the case.

I do not like the way he criticizes Megyn Kelly. For some reason, Trump has seemed to single out anchor-woman Megyn Kelly and created a fight with her about her reporting and the questions she asks. This has never made any sense to me. Even if she was asking some “gotta questions,” which I don’t think she did, but even if that was the case—a great many reporters do that. It certainly keeps him, and her, in the news— if that’s the purpose. Anyway, what’s the big deal? I think he should apologize and get on with it.