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"Trump's inability to think into the future, and to judge risk and reward."
Link to tweet
“The Confidence Man” - A Netflix documentary airing Friday on the life and times and grift of President Trump.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-scam-victims-speak-in-netflixs-dirty-money
The episode opens with the voice of director Fisher Stevens. “Do you think Donald Trump is really a good businessman?” he asks. “Donald Trump, in the scope of American business life, really shouldn’t be understood as someone in the tradition of John Rockefeller, Steve Jobs, or Henry Ford,” O’Brien responds. “He’s P.T. Barnum.”
It’s a damning assessment, and one that sets the stage for everything that follows. For instance, in light of the suit that Trump filed against O’Brien, take what gossip columnist A.J. Benza has to say about the president. Apparently he was happy to let Benza write whatever he wanted, so long as he was described as a “billionaire.” It’s always been about branding and image, to the point that the truth seems to have never really mattered.
The episode opens with the voice of director Fisher Stevens. “Do you think Donald Trump is really a good businessman?” he asks. “Donald Trump, in the scope of American business life, really shouldn’t be understood as someone in the tradition of John Rockefeller, Steve Jobs, or Henry Ford,” O’Brien responds. “He’s P.T. Barnum.”
It’s a damning assessment, and one that sets the stage for everything that follows. For instance, in light of the suit that Trump filed against O’Brien, take what gossip columnist A.J. Benza has to say about the president. Apparently he was happy to let Benza write whatever he wanted, so long as he was described as a “billionaire.” It’s always been about branding and image, to the point that the truth seems to have never really mattered.
...Every single one of Trump’s tanked endeavors seems to come down to an inability to think into the future, and to judge risk and reward. One of the more striking segments recounts how, during his presidential campaign, people on his team reached out to the Kremlin for political favors in the interest of building a Trump Moscow, as well as pointing out Trump’s relatively lenient outlooks on controversial figures like the Philippines’ demagogue president Rodrigo Duterte, seemingly based on having Trump properties in the according countries.
“Donald Trump, in the scope of American business life, really shouldn’t be understood as someone in the tradition of John Rockefeller, Steve Jobs, or Henry Ford. He’s P.T. Barnum.”
— Journalist Tim O’Brien
Despite all this, Trump’s projected brand remains the same. The more time that passes, however, and the more the curtain is pulled back, the more it becomes apparent that this is a brand born out of, in the words of journalist Adam Davidson, “willful blindness.”
“Donald Trump, in the scope of American business life, really shouldn’t be understood as someone in the tradition of John Rockefeller, Steve Jobs, or Henry Ford. He’s P.T. Barnum.”
— Journalist Tim O’Brien
Despite all this, Trump’s projected brand remains the same. The more time that passes, however, and the more the curtain is pulled back, the more it becomes apparent that this is a brand born out of, in the words of journalist Adam Davidson, “willful blindness.”
21 replies
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So nice to see you here 
Backatcha!
Thank you!
