Is Trump really that hard to understand?
Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) recently said "I don't understand" President Trump. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has said the same thing, as has CNN's Don Lemon. The New York Times even posted an op-ed this weekend about people who "don't understand Trump."
But forbes.com writer Randall Lane contends that the president isn't that hard to understand.
Based on an oval office interview, Lane says, "President Trump stays true to the same Citizen Trump form that Forbes has seen for 35 years," and that Trump's business tactics and his presidency demonstrate a "worldview" that "has been incredibly consistent."
Nearly a year after the most stunning Election Day in many decades, pundits still profess to find themselves continually shocked by President Trump. They shouldn't be: His worldview has been incredibly consistent. Rather than as an opportunity to turn ideology into policy, he views governing the way he does business – as an endless string of deals, to be won or lost, both at the negotiating table and in the court of public opinion. Look at his first year through this prism, and it makes sense. And it offers clues for the next three years – or seven.
Drawing on quotes and anecdotes from Trump's The Art of the Deal and from Trump's decades in the public eye, Lane describes a president with a "transactional mindset" who is always selling, always negotiating.
Trump shows the writer around the Oval Office as though he is "pitching a Trump Tower penthouse," par for the course for the "greatest-ever American salesman," who Lane says "leveraged" his business "efficiency" and his "formidable skills as a marketer and showman" to win the presidency while spending far less money than his opponent.
Trump's transactional mindset means asking for a 15-percent corporate tax rate "for the purpose of getting to 20," as well as seeking "multiple bidders," to get the best deal, says Lane, hence his recent overtures to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer on immigration, health care, and taxes.
Trump loves to boast about big numbers, whether it's GDP, the stock market, or Twitter followers, which Lane says "explains the inexplicable," such as the "need to shoot the messenger any time a bad poll comes out."
But Trump, for decades, has boasted about how he conducts his own research – largely anecdotal – and then buys or sells based on instinct. Numbers are then used to justify his gut. He governs exactly that way[.]
Describing Trump by turns as boasting; counter-punching; and, "above all," selling, Mr. Lane's excellent piece presents a balanced picture of a president who is true to himself, loves his job, and is determined to "do the right thing" for the American people.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton said, "I just don't understand" what Trump is doing as a candidate. Hillary still doesn't understand what happened. As former House speaker Newt Gingrich has said, Trump's opponents "remain baffled and predisposed to attack a president they don't understand."
But President Trump is just not that hard to understand – unless you are a Democrat. Or the media. Or the Washington establishment.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/10/is_trump_really_that_hard_to_understand.html#ixzz4vCxu0IJD
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well no, Hillary and the Democrat leaders can't possibly understand Trump....that would give him credibility.
I have been arguing for the past two years that the two thirds of us who oppose and object to Trump need to be MUCH tougher and harder on the one third who defend this moron's every utterance. A third of our citizenry enables this daily, bizarre, and dangerous , travesty.
We need our independents and moderates to come to their senses and oppose this president and his toady followers.
So you're saying liberals have been too nice to Trump supporters?? Do you think being meaner will actually help?
I would call it being honest. The idea that Trump is qualified to be president of the United States is one of the biggest frauds, if not the biggest, ever to be perpetrated on this country.
Do you think being meaner will actually help?
What a snowflakey thing to say.
I learn from watching the pros.
Nope. Not even close. The biggest fraud was thinking that fucking dipshit Obama was qualified.
OMG. You are standing reality on it's head.
Failed Community Organizer, One Term Junior Senator vs Highly successful Businessman. Yeah, Reality. It bites John. Accept it.
My suggestion to you is...start drinking heavily.
Highly successful businessmen don't file multiple bankruptcies.
It's not too hard to understand Trump. Just think of what a 9-year old would do, and there you go.
not bad for a 9 year old to never have a political position in his life, never ran a campaign, to be a sitting President.
are you on board with Hillary - What Happened?
If you are going to mention the person who lost the election in all of your comments I dont think we are going to get along. This is 2017.
this is when your beloved leader Hillary published a book titled what?
Hillary Clinton is not my leader. The only time I ever mention the woman is when she is being attacked by idiotic right wing comments.
I understand him. He's establishing an anti-establishment concept in politics. We all know lifer politicians have become morons over the years, only really making themselves relevant and set to themselves and NOT others.
Trump has them ALL, and I mean ALL, running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I'll call it "Common Sense" on his part, but some "maroon" will come out and say his sense isn't common.
Well....Mr./Mrs. doubting Thomas, he IS exactly what WE are. WE, the "Common" folk, don't put up with wishy washy, Poor Me, crying, whiney SHIT either. That's all "Politicians" are now, and Trump isn't putting up with it.
That goes for the rest of the World Leaders Too.
The ones that have been a political member since the day of the dinosaur, have us in the mess we are in now. Not Trump !
The man is a pathological liar. Your denial won't cure that.
In a tweet yesterday Trump said Corker was tricked by the New York Times into thinking his phone conversation with the paper was off the record.
Unfortunately for Trump, there is a recording of Corker telling the Times that he knew the conversation was ON the record.
So Trump casually lied, again, like he does every single day of his life. It is his way of life, it is who and what he is. And has been for decades.
Come out of your cocoon.
And you vote for the same every election year.
Your point ?
Worse than that, Corker actually requested that it be recorded.
He isn't. He is an egomaniac that acts, and probably truly believes, that the world revolves around him. Everything he does is meant to do one of two things, or both, and that is either stroke his ego, or fatten his wallet. Trump does not care for or about anyone but himself and will say anything to anyone to get what he wants. He is a con man, through and through.
If you understand those things then everything he does makes complete sense. Take his policy "positions" for example, they are all about undoing everything Obama did just because Obama made fun of him and it makes him feel better. It doesn't matter one bit if it is a good idea or not, nor what the consequences may be, he couldn't care less. All that matters is the he gets to "stick it" to Obama and that makes him feel good. But hey, this was never a mystery, it was painfully obvious what he is and has always been.