Over the past few months, Donald Trump has been saying in multiple interviews and TV Shows he has been thinking about running for President in 2012 because he loves his country. He's even used his own TV shows such as Apprentice and Donald Trump's Fabulous World of Golf to talk about his possible campaign.What puzzles me about this multi-billionaire entrepreneur, who has his name on businesses from casinos to golf courses to water bottles, is the "two headed" approach about his "possible" Presidential Bid. One side, it does it seem he loves this country and wants to save it from the huge issues we face that could easily collapse us. The other side makes it seem his "bid" is just a stint to keep his name (and more importantly his brand) in our minds and to raise the ratings of his TV shows in a magnificent advertising/PR stint. I will approach this issue three ways from the good, the bad, and the mysterious (you thought I was going to say ugly instead of mysterious didn't you????).
First, The Good
Donald Trump is a capitalist and it has been awhile since we have had a true capitalist in the White House. He understands the economy just as well as anyone else on Earth and knows how to rescue a business after it has gone bankrupt multiple times. Maybe he could do the same for our country. With him having little to no political experience, this will also help him when Americans feel it's being in politics long enough that corrupts people and gets them "out of touch" with the average person.
On The Issues
He also gets it on some issues when no one else in Washington does. When it comes to our image in the World, he claims "We're no longer respected." Looking at the new superpower, China, he's not afraid to share his opinion saying "They are not our friend...[Chinese people have] told me very, very distinctly that they cannot believe how stupid our representatives are in the United States. They cannot believe that they can continue to take all our jobs...through the manipulation of the currency, of their currency, they make it almost impossible for our great companies to compete." He explains further, "China should have a currency which is a much higher value relative to the dollar and other things. What they’re doing is keeping it low, artificially low. And I mean seriously artificial. I don’t just mean a little bit low. I mean major low...The fact is that the Chinese are taking advantage of our country."
He gets it. China is making it impossible for America to compete with Chinese prices even though our quality is much better than Chinese manufacturing. His solution?
Trump said, "I would tell China that if you don’t straighten out your manipulation of the currency — and I mean fast; I mean really fast — we are going to tax your products 25%. Now, what that will do is two things. Number one: Immediately will start doing our own manufacturing. We don’t have to make toys that are coated with lead paint in China. We can make good toys in Alabama and North Carolina."
He also has a very interesting and unique opinion on America having troops in developed countries such as South Korea, "Now, two months ago when bombs started getting lobbed [into South Korea] by North Korea and we send this incredible aircraft carrier, the George Washington and 17 destroyers heading right to North Korea, all of a sudden [South Korea] announce that they are friends of our country. It’s a lot of crap. They make billions of dollars of, let’s call it profit, off the United States...billions of dollars. Why aren’t they paying for protection? We protect South Korea [and they should pay for that]."
The last issue Donald Trump has strong opinions about is OPEC, which sets the standards of the amount of oil production and the cost of the oil per barrel. On Opec, Trump says, "OPEC has got a monopoly... they have 12 men, in this case all men, they sit around the table, any time there’s a minor incident in the world they raise the price of oil because, you know, they figure, well, nobody’s gonna call. When oil goes over $[1]40 a barrel it’s almost impossible for our country to do well. That’s what it is. You look at oil, we’re up to a hundred now, we’re heading up, they keep raising it, when oil goes over $[1]40, watch what happens. And the stock market is gonna end up being a big Ponzi scheme because the only thing that’s doing well in this country is the stock market"
On these issues, he gets it. It is also why in a recent poll he is tied for second place with 17% of Republican primary voters in a field of GOP candidates.
The Bad
Memo to anyone planning on running for President. It may not be a good idea to have a Roast on national television, such as on Comedy Central, as comedians totally rip you apart and there is nothing more unprofessional than Mike "The Situation" from MTV's Jersey Shore trying to poke fun at a possible President of the United States. The roast has some quotes that could easily rival Tina Fey's "I can see Russia from my House" moment on SNL. The roast screams he is doing the "Presidential Bid" purely for PR purposes for his show and his brand.
Trump has to stop claiming he is a republican. He is however, a capitalist, which he should use to his advantage. The reason why he is not a republican is because anyone "right of center" would never donate $50,000 to a campaign for political office to someone like Rahm Emmanuel, the former chief of staff of President Obama and now the Mayor of Chicago.
A republican would never claim in 2007 that Nancy Pelosi, when she was Speaker of the House, as "The Best" and also claim, "I get along with everybody. I'm very proud of that," Trump also said, "I get along with all of these people." George W. Bush thought he got along with "both sides" as Governor of Texas and thought he could do the same in Washington, look how well that worked for him.
Is this a Democrat whose heart has changed? After all, the "gold standard" person of Conservatism was a flaming liberal before he switched parties. Maybe Trump did the same as Ronald Reagan, but continue to read on which makes me think otherwise.
The Issues
Besides the issues I labeled above, does anyone know his opinion on Abortion, Gay Marriage, The 2nd Amendment, or other issues that probably won't be changed during a Presidency, but, is the sole issue for a sizable amount of people when they vote? He is also going to have to share his opinion on many other issues that he may not care too much about, but, they have to be addressed.
His image could hurt him. As Americans struggle, can people who see a wealthy boss who's most known for "firing people" on his show and has the intro of "Money, Money, Money.........Money" showing greed and giving him the appearance of being a jerk going to help him? He may have to try and change his image before primary season.
The Mysterious
Two issues make this whole bid mysterious. One is his recent status of now being the most famous "Birther." They are people who doubt/don't think President Obama was born in Hawaii because he has not shown his Birth Certificate (Obama did show a Certificate of Live Birth, which is different) and since he has no proof of being born in the United States (or should solid proof arise he was born in a different country) he cannot be President of the United States.
Trump has recently claimed that he has investigators in Hawaii, and they cannot believe the evidence they have so far that indicate Obama may have been born in Kenya or Indonesia. Before this claim, Trump thought Obama may have been scared to show his Birth Certificate because it may have had something on it he didn't want the American People to know, such as him being a Muslim. Now he has gone one step further and is almost claiming he has enough evidence that would make the Watergate Scandal look like a slow news day.
The other mysterious issue is how long has he been planning the Presidential Bid??? It has just been reported by RadarOnline that Trump2012.com was registered by Donald Trump back in 2004. How could someone who "recently" (as in the past 3 years) is "deeply concerned" about his country and have a Presidential campaign website registered over two presidential election cycles ago? Meanwhile since he registered that site, he has been campaigning for liberal democrats and now claims to always have been a republican?
Whatever your opinion of Donald Trump is, he will certainly (albeit probably briefly) change the political landscape should he decide to be ambitious and run for President of the United States. Trump claims he will announce his decision before or during the month of June.
-Christian N.
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