I’m sure that you’ll be as shocked as I was to learn that he probably greatly exaggerates it. This is a great end quote:
“A fellow asked me that once and I said, ‘I don’t know,” Nelson Bunker Hunt once told a congressional panel grilling him about his net worth. “But I do know people who know how much they are worth generally aren’t worth much.”
Similarly, people who are always bragging about how smart they are generally aren’t that bright.
“Similarly, people who are always bragging about how smart they are generally aren’t that bright.”
Yeah, I run into that daily. It’s embarrassingly common.
I’ve known people who bragged about how smart they were who were quite bright, and others who were not-so-much. I don’t think the two variables are highly correlated, directly or inversely. It has more to do with self-confidence than with brainpower.
By any measure, Trump is a really rich dude.
Yup. Even though people think he is a terrible failure, he has done pretty well for himself.
But his fixation on ceaselessly tossing out sky-high figures displays a routine neediness that’s cause for concern in a candidate for the presidency.
Neediness? Maybe the author doesn’t understand why Trump embellishes his net worth, if Trump even knows it at all.
It also is something you don’t see in a long line of wealthy businesspeople stretching from Rockefeller and Buffett through Gates and Zuckerberg — all of whom chose to do other things than brag about their riches.
None of these other things they do are/were running for President*, requiring them to sell their achievements to the general public. If someone was conversing with Buffet and told him that he is a terrible investor with a terrible track record, would Buffet respond with examples of his success?
Excellent point that Trump isn’t humble on the campaign trail though. Trump would probably be doing better if he took this author’s advice and talked down his achievements.
*That depends on what Rockefeller the author is talking about. I am not that familiar with intraparty politics during the 60’s and 70’s but if Rockefeller didn’t burnish his achievements maybe he should have? It seems like the author doesn’t like Trump, isn’t it a little self serving to want Trump to mimic people who weren’t elected President?
Even though people think he is a terrible failure, he has done pretty well for himself.
Unlike truly successful business people, often at others’ expense.
Can you give an example of this breed of “truly successful business people”? I think they are very rare, ’cause, I’ve not yet seen one that avoided stepping on someone’s toes along the way. I don’t have a problem with it, because the steppees would have been steppers in a heartbeat, if they could have managed it themselves.
I consider repeatedly declaring bankruptcy and leaving contractors holding the bag while generously compensating yourself beyond “stepping on someone’s toes.”
I think we have discussed this before. My take is A) the contractors would gladly have been the “steppers” given the chance, and B) I really do think this is more or less SOP in that business. It’s very cutthroat.
If Trump didn’t do anything illegal, then I see no basis for obloquy.
I disagree. I expect more than simply “not illegal.”
Well, I want a guy who will look out for me and my interests, and I don’t want another milquetoast who will give away the store with barely any resistance.
I don’t think you’re going to get either with Trump.
When you have a business and it goes under, there are always other people who are negatively impacted. Obviously, everyone prefers that businesses experience growth, make tons of money for everyone involved, and never close their doors.
That just doesn’t always happen.
The larger the endeavor is, the more people and groups involved, the more it sucks for everyone when things fall through.
A more effective argument is that Trump was unethical and operated outside the bounds of ethics other businesspeople follow but I don’t think that is a strong case.
You can find plenty of things to criticize about Rockefeller, Buffett, Gates, and Zuckerberg if you look into them. But, Trump is not in their lines of business, either. He is in a business where showmanship and hype are integral. I’ve known high flying real estate developers. They’re all the same. One foot on the summit and the other in the abyss. I’ve seen a couple plunge to the depths. It’s very risky business.
We’ll see whether braggadocio anent one’s wealth is a good idea, politically, in November. Based on the evidence of November 2012, though, it would be hard to make an affirmative case for “aw-shucks”-ing about one’s wealth as a categorically superior alternative. Mitt Romney deprecated his own fortune during the entire 2012 campaign and he lost.
I think he lost for the same reason Nelson Rockefeller never achieved the Presidency. Both Romney and Rockefeller were pretty obviously conflicted about their wealth and neither was anywhere near a good enough actor to hide said ambivalence.
Rockefeller probably had better reason than Romney never to bring the subject up. He inherited everything he had. Unlike Europe, where inherited wealth is much admired and the fondest hope of many is to achieve the life of an idle remittance man through a fortunate marriage, Americans have tended to admire only self-made wealth.
Both Nelson Rockefeller and Mitt Romney knew this. Both were the sons of wealthy fathers. Romney may well owe most of his fortune to his own efforts rather than his father’s estate, but that’s tough to explain convincingly to people who only know you as a 2nd-generation rich man. Romney’s father’s wealth was never much of an issue in his own political career because he had accumulated it on his own after rising from modest roots.
Donald Trump is, like Nelson Rockefeller and Mitt Romney, a scion of pre-existing wealth. Trump may benefit, relative to Romney, at least in part because that fact about him is, it would seem, appreciably less well-known. But, however successful Trump’s father was before him, his reknown was strictly local, whereas George Romney was a national figure.
So Trump has much more of the public status of a self-made man. One big reason for this is that Trump is not in the least ambivalent about his wealth; he straightforwardly revels in its trappings. This also decisively separates him from people such as the late Nelson Rockefeller and failed candidate Mitt Romney whose verbal and body languages both conveyed discomfort when the subject of their wealth came up.
Trump is rich. How much is a question for an accounting firm.
It really doesn’t matter how much he’s worth other than allowing him a certain amount of independence.
He seems to think it matters a great deal. He is very vain about it, even though he’s probably lying about it, as with much else.
So what if he thinks it does? He’s trying to sell himself (which is only natural and not a con as you might spin it.) BTW, I’ve never seen you spin so much. My attraction to your writing has always been that you have been spin free. Have I been fooled these last couple of decades?
Like many NYers, Trump is a bit insecure and trying to hide it. That isn’t really vanity.
So what if he thinks it does?
It’s an indicator of both his lack of adult values and his hidden insecurity. I’m sorry that you find unpleasant truths “spin.”
You haven’t proved. You’ve only accused. Millions of people disagree with you. When millions of people disagree with me I usually find that reason enough for self evaluation.
When I’m right it wouldn’t matter if every other human on the planet disagreed and I see some of that in you as well.
Ken, this is stupid.
Yes, millions of people have been conned. That’s what con men do. Abe Lincoln had a famous aphorism about it. You are one of the people who is capable of being fooled all of the time.
Millions of people have also not been conned. I’m with them. I’m not going to waste my time trying to dissuade you of your worship of a con man.
It’s an indicator of both his lack of adult values
He does come off as vain rather than just proud but he treats his family well, treats his staff well, instilled a good work ethic in his kids, has a good work ethic himself, and doesn’t drink. Those all seem like adult values, except the not drinking.
That he says he is so rich that he can’t be bought doesn’t seem like a lack of adult values, but it is probably another lie. It is the perfect position to take at this moment in time. It appeals to pretty much everyone, true or not.
The only other candidate that can make a similar claim is Sanders, but Sanders hates capitalism and wants to destroy it while Trump obviously doesn’t, although some of his trade policies might not have the desired outcome.
The sad thing is we agree 99% of the time. Trump has not conned me in the least. I am as fully aware of his faults as you are. The difference is I acknowledge he has qualities badly missing in more PC candidates. Qualities that when missing are an existential threat in today’s leftist world.
You can assert my ignorance but you seldom substantiate it. When you do it may escape your notice that I am good at not only acknowledging it but that my temperament is to actively find people that disagree with me as the best means of self improvement.
Since I’ve been doing this all my life I think it has served me well. You would be in great error to assume me stupid.
“Similarly, people who are always bragging about how smart they are generally aren’t that bright.”
Yeah yea, I knew that already……