THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2016
“Understanding Donald Trump”
From The Washington Times, by Newt Gingrich
Donald Trump is a genuine phenomenon. He may or may not become the Republican nominee for president. He may or may not win the presidency even if he becomes the nominee. Yet it is clear that he is a phenomenon and that any history of the 2016 presidential race will have to spend a good bit of time analyzing Trump and his impact.
From the time he announced on June 16, Trump has dominated social and mainstream media. He dominates the conversation despite the lack of paid advertising. Trump says outrageous things and his supporters shrug it off. At every turn, his poll numbers continue to rise.
As a step toward understanding this amazing performance, I spent part of the Christmas break reading his first bestseller, The Art of the Deal. Written in 1987, this book is a classic among American business books and has influenced a generation of entrepreneurs. Trump wrote The Art of the Deal when he was 41 years old and having a successful run. The book’s popularity contributed to Time Magazine’s decision to feature Donald Trump on its cover in January 1989.
The portrait that emerges from this easy-to-read and remarkably interesting book is of an aggressive, ambitious person who is constantly pushing, constantly learning, and always seeking the next challenge. Reporters and analysts who are trying to understand Trump would be well served by slowing down and reading this nearly three-decade-old bestseller. They would discover that Donald Trump has developed a remarkable set of rules and principles that allow him to make decisions with incredible speed. Trump knows a lot, but what is amazing is how rapidly he figures out what he doesn’t know.
My favorite story is of the Wollman Skating Rink in New York’s Central Park. The Wollman Rink was a heavily used public skating rink which had fallen into disrepair in 1980. New York City tried for six years to fix it, spent $13 million, and the rink still was not ready to open. In June of 1986 Trump, who could see the rink from his apartment, finally got tired of the embarrassment and offered to fix the rink at his own expense. At first the city turned him down because its bureaucracy did not want to be embarrassed by someone fixing something they couldn’t fix. Trump kept pushing and finally out of embarrassment the city gave in.
The key part of the story is Trump’s reaction to being put in charge. He promptly recognized that he didn’t know anything about fixing a skating rink. He asked himself who built a lot of skating rinks. “Canadians!” he concluded. He found the best Canadian ice skating rink construction company. When the Canadians flew in to assess the situation, they were amazed at how bad the city had been at solving the problem. They assured Trump that this was an easy job.
Trump fixed the six year embarrassment two months ahead of schedule and nearly $800,000 under-budget. (The city did end up paying for the work, and Trump donated the profits to charity.) After reading this chapter you begin to think that maybe Donald Trump really could build a wall along our southern border for a lot less than our current government estimates.
The Art of the Deal is filled with stories like this — stories of common sense stories of calculated risk taking, and stories of innovation and marketing. Anyone who would like to better understand Donald Trump would be helped by reading this remarkable book. Another is his pledges and I have no way of knowing if he will make good on all of them but I do agree with all of them.
Trump is the only candidate that is serious about building “The Wall.” Two other important pledges Trump has made that no other candidate of either party has matched: First deportation of millions of illegal immigrants that are demanding and costing American taxpayers billions of dollars and second Closing 34 Muslim training Camps throughout our country. I WOULD LIKE TRUMP OR ANY OTHER CANDIDATES PLEDGE TO REINSTATE ANY AND ALL MILITARY OFFICERS DISCHARGED BECAUSE THEY DISAGREED WITH OBAMA OR HIS POLICIES!
Here is another that kind of wraps up my feelings about Trump— Raccoons in your basement! An interesting analogy. You’ve been on vacation for two weeks, you come home, and your basement is infested with raccoons. Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoons have overtaken your basement. You want them gone immediately so you hire a guy. A pro. You don’t care if the guy smells, you need those raccoon’s gone pronto and he’s the guy to do it! You don’t care if the guy swears, you don’t care if he’s an alcoholic, you don’t care how many times he’s been married, you don’t care if he voted for Obama, you don’t care if he has plumber’s crack. You simply want those raccoon’s gone! You want your problem fixed! He’s the guy. He’s the best. Period.
That’s why Trump. Yes he’s a bit of an ass, yes he’s an egomaniac, but you don’t care. The country is a mess because politicians suck, the Republican Party is two-faced and gutless, illegal immigrants are everywhere. You want it all fixed! You don’t care that Trump is crude, you don’t care that he insults people, you don’t care that he had been friendly with Hillary, you don’t care that he has changed positions, you don’t care that he’s been married three times, you don’t care that he fights with Megyn Kelly and Rosie O’Donnell, you don’t care that he doesn’t know the name of some Muslin terrorist. This country is weak, bankrupt, our enemies are making fun of us, we are being invaded by illegals, we are becoming a nation of victims where every Tom, Ricardo, and Hamad is a special interest group with special rights to a point where we don’t even recognize the country we were born and raised in.
“WE JUST WANT IT FIXED” and Trump is the only guy who seems to understand what the people want. You’re sick of politicians, sick of the DemocRAT Party, Republican Party, and sick of illegals. You just want this thing fixed. Trump may not be a saint, but doesn’t have any lobbyist money influencing him, he doesn’t have political correctness restraining him, all you know is that he has been very successful, a good negotiator, he has built a lot of things, and he’s also not a politician, so he’s not a cowardly politician.
And he says he’ll fix it. You don’t care if the guy has bad hair. You just want those damn raccoons gone. Out of your house! This one is more reason why we don’t want Hillary.
The Blower thinks this sums it up well: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are in a bar. Donald leans over, and with a smile on his face, says, “The media are really tearing you apart for That Scandal.”
Hillary: “You mean my lying about Benghazi?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean the massive voter fraud?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean the military not getting their votes counted?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Using my secret private server with classified material to Hide my Activities?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “The NSA monitoring our phone calls, emails and everything Else?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Using the Clinton Foundation as a cover for tax evasion, hiring cronies, and taking bribes from foreign countries?
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean the drones being operated in our own country without The Benefit of the law?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Giving 123 Technologies $300 Million, and right afterward it Declared Bankruptcy and was sold to the Chinese?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean arming the Muslim Brotherhood and hiring them in the White House?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Whitewater, Watergate committee, Vince Foster, commodity Deals?”
Trump: “No the other one:”
Hillary: “The IRS targeting conservatives?”
Trump: “No the other one:”
Hillary: “Turning Libya into chaos?”
Trump: “No the other one:”
Hillary: “Trashing Mubarak, one of our few Muslim friends?”
Trump: “No the other one:”
Hillary: “Turning our backs on Israel?”
Trump: “No the other one:”
Hillary: “The joke Iran Nuke deal?”
Trump: “No the other one:”
Hillary: “Leaving Iraq in chaos?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “The DOJ spying on the press?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean HHS Secretary Sibelius shaking down health insurance Executives?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Giving our cronies in SOLYNDRA $500 MILLION DOLLARS and three months later they declared bankruptcy and then the Chinese bought it?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “The NSA monitoring citizens?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “The State Department interfering with an Inspector General Investigation on departmental sexual misconduct?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Me, The IRS, Clapper and Holder all lying to Congress?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Threats to all of Bill’s former mistresses to keep them quiet”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You means taking the $145,000,000.00 from Putin for the Uranium Bribe?”
Trump : “ No the other one.”
Hillary: “I give up! … Oh wait, I think I’ve got it! When I stole the White House furniture, silverware and China when Bill left Office?”
Trump: “THAT’S IT! I almost forgot about that one.”
Everything above is true. Yet she still gets the DemocRAT votes. Could there be that many stupid people in this country? Does anyone understand this? I think we’re doomed!
