STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

Donald Trumps Hillary and Jeb! He May be Joke to those on the Left/Democrats but I can Assure you He could become our Next POTUS!

No Joking!

Donald Trump came out with a fury unbeknownst in modern times. He has elicited the comedic vitriol of the enfeebled Jay Leno and those who really think he is cannon fodder for some type of humor –at his expense, of course. Somehow I want to take him a lot more seriously than those who think he is a blustering buffoon or a self-caricature. His braggadocio has effectively covered a very shrewd, highly manipulative, sensitive businessman and showman.

I don’t know Donald Trump. I have never met him. Yet I have worked with five Presidents of the USG and he stands out in a way that reflects some characteristics of each president with whom I had worked.

Nixon was not comfortable in one on one encounters. He was basically shy as was George H. W. Bush. Both were tempered by the imperatives to pander for political favors and assume a façade of gratitude. Trump has no need to pander to anyone. He chooses his own friends and colleagues and demands a certain amount of respect and loyalty. That was true of Nixon, Bush Sr, and Reagan.

Like Jimmy Carter, Trump has appealed to the populist and the incompetency or corruption of his predecessors as a narrative that will allow him some justification for running for POTUS. Those who do not take him seriously now, will pay a very high price later. He, like Nixon, Bush Sr, Reagan –all demand an implicit loyalty that transcends practical quotidian concerns. Theirs is a loyalty for a lifetime to be called upon whenever they decide they might need you.

Like Nixon, Trump does not avoid risk and in particular the willingness to endure failure. I must admit in that sense, Trump is also very much like Obama who has been willing to risk all his political capital on Obamacare; the Iran Nuclear Treaty; and the opening of relationship with Cuba.

Trump is quite bold and at times offensive. His mode of operation is to basically come into an unknown scenario blazing away, hitting indiscriminately anyone or any issue that may stand in his way of progress as a serious candidate for the Presidency. Reagan was very much that way, except he used humor which could be quite biting and offensive, as a way to disarm his opponents. Reagan would mock them later on for taking themselves too seriously [ a bit of a sadistic streak].

Next we have Trump’s business ventures which may or may not be valued at $9 Billion. Whatever fraction of that number may be the real or presumed estimate is not for me to say. I do know from having visited his failed casinos as a managing director for Kidder Peabody [on his helicopter that was not properly certified to fly- no biggie!] his missing cash flows and discounted net worth was still sufficient to garner the attention of Wall Street to try and bail him out of one of his many bankruptcies. As a business man, I am always impressed by those entrepreneurs who have gone bankrupt and then return to the so-called coterie of ‘successful businessmen’. Nixon had always said that he measured a man by his ability to ‘get up from the floor’ and continue ‘to fight’. Nixon, like Trump and even Hillary Clinton can be evaluated on the basis of how they rebounded from disaster or failure.

As for his specific plans that he would like to implement as POTUS, Trump has said very little—and rightfully so. Like Reagan and Bush sr, specificity of implementation will come much later—probably after the Republican Debates. For Trump like Carter, Reagan, Obama, the grand illusions are out there to be articulated and debated endlessly while they concentrate on the other aspects of their respective careers.

Trump has the same affability as Bill Clinton and can deliver it with somewhat more gusto. For now, the American public wants to hear not words but affective emotions that will resonate with their underlying feelings—be it hope, anger or both. Trump has the political acumen of a Bill Clinton who can reach out and co-opt any adversary through bluffs, cajoling and endearments.

As someone who has been involved extensively in real estate transactions, I can assure you that as practitioner of motivating a matrix of skills and diversity of different types of people, Trump may have no equal. The one reason I never went into construction was the fact that I did not want to deal with the different zoning commissions and their particular peccadillos. It was tiresome and exhausting. However, Trump has made his basic livelihood as man overriding these minor problems and constructing all types of buildings all over the world.  In many cases, he sold his name as moniker for others to develop what they wanted to see built. Some were successes. Some were failures.

That combination of failures and successes is par for the course of an industry that has more sinusoidal waves inherent in its industrial fluctuations than a tidal wave in maelstrom.

Jeb Bush is nothing more than a pimple on the ass of Trump’s discomfort. He should never have run. And it serves Mr. Priebus [Chairman of RNC] that he best leave Trump alone; lest Trump break out of the staid, moribund Republican Party and run as an Independent. Over the past thirty years, the Republicans have shown an incredible inability to sense underlying emotional issues that resonate with Americans despite the highly publicized misbegotten and erroneous polls created by lackluster retreads of past campaigns.

Romney lost the election because he ran a very poor campaign-thanks to his inability to discern any reliable talent that was not vouchsafed for previously. I warned that Rich Williamson, his Campaign Manager, would never deliver a Presidency. I knew that because these guys had failed before, they didn’t have the fortitude nor the skill set to get elected. Trump must pick a political team that is chosen by him and not transferred from some other failing candidate. He must also learn to monitor his energy level and remember that this is a long race in which he must defeat an opponent –Hillary Clinton—who has known as many failures as he has. She will not give up. She could be the Nixon in a transgender mutation. She has his wily skills and quiet intellectual arrogance that will flash in moments of desperation.

Trump should remain in the race. If the Republicans give him a hard time, then he should leave the party and create a new Independent Movement. Now Americans will no longer vote accordingly to party lines. Instead, they are tired of party politics and will vote for the individual without admitting to others whom they had voted for.

It’s a new voting reality. Party politics are arcane and dying.

Religion, gun control and abortion will not be the future issues for him to worry about---it will be simply ---Trump versus Trump!
May the best man win!