Note On Trump Documentary

So I managed to watch some of the Trump documentary. Since I was already familiar with much of the Trump story, I was more interested in details. I recall discussing the recent NYT expose on Fred Trump and the Trump organization's business practices. I commented that this story will probably disappear because the implications were not just against Trump senior and The Donald, but would implicate various persons in NYS and NYC government, without whom many of the things that transpired could not have happened. That is, some people in NYS and NYC government either did not do their due diligence or they did and essentially aided in defrauding the state and private entities. And this is before considering how much Mob influence was involved. So the two things that stood out for me in the documentary was as follows: 1) The HUGE bluffs that Trump played when getting the deal to build Trump Tower. Apparently, when asked for proof that he had permissions from the railroad company that owned the land to build on it (or something to that effect), he produced an unsigned contract. Nobody checked the signature page.

0.o

The only way Trump could have even thought that he could get away with that is if that kind of behavior worked before. IMO. That was some gross negligence to not check for signatures. This kind of behavior seemed to be typical of Trump and I would dare say other high-risk business persons in NY and elsewhere. A lot of negotiations, etc. hinge on misrepresentation. You know the saying: Buyer beware.

This was shown again when he was going for the casino license for the Taj. Again, he said banks were lining up to give him money. No one on the commission apparently asked for proof. Can you imagine going to buy a car and telling the finance guy that banks are lined up to give you money and the finance guy not asking for proof? No? Exactly. But as Trump said, they wanted to be conned. 2) The extent to which Trump depends on others to complete projects. That female contractor who essentially built Trump Tower is representative of that. The guy who ran the two Trump casinos is another example. Trump is really a relationship/transaction guy. He's a 'big picture" guy who needs to have experts around him to do the actual work. It is probably a huge shock to "progressives" that Trump put a woman in charge of building his signature building.

This brings us to president Trump. Point two above has been used by various persons in his immediate circle to undercut the issues that got him elected. He is looking at a high probability of being a one term president due to this.

The quick ejections of Bannon, among others are examples of Trump's transactional relationship style. Bannon was useful for the election. Afterward, not so much.

The thing that may/will trip up Trump is that unlike in his companies, he can be fired. He was elected on very specific issues. Failure to deliver will imperil his 2020 campaign (to the extent that the Democrats don't self-sabotage by being the political arm of the Socialist Party USA).