"Pay no attention to that very bad man behind the curtain"
Wizzard of Oz, Vincent Minelli
Donald Trump made a media career by playing the role of the successful businessman and executive. He sold his name and exhibited his properties as symbols of his ability to run businesses and published several ghostwritten books to foster his reputation as an expert.
His public persona as a businessman was further fostered and showcased in cable TV with The Apprentice, a show designed to present Trump as a mix of Peter Drucker and Jack Welch, mentoring young hopefuls into his own companies.
For those looking more carefully into the substance of shows, it was pretty evident that Trump Inc. looked pretty much like a mom and pop operation staged in luxury towers. With big double-stretched limos and helicopters landing on the towers' roofs. Exactly as in Hollywood.
There were no professional managers or directors around. Just Trump and his children auditioning candidates to play as if they were managers in a real business operation. There was no MBA stuff, no business plans, just the kind of operational stuff that concierges and real estate agents have to handle.
And that might be as much management as Donald J. Trump has done during his entire life as CEO, President and owner of Trump Enterprises. There is no much more to Trump Inc than there was to Kramerica Indusytries in Jerry Seinfeld's famed comedy:
Only that now, the joke is on those who voted a Wizzard of Oz into the White House expecting something like professional management. Or those -many more- who expected Trump to move from campaigning on cultural war to governing on the Constitution -like most previously aggressive and controversial campaigners (think of Reagan or Bush 43) did.
Far from that, the slim but consistent majority of moderate, independent Americans (40 percent of the electorate, check polls) who expected a return to civility and increasingly organized , professional management of POTUS office during the past two years have witnessed a White House ran as a "mom & pop" (or better said, "dad & kids") operation.
Professional staff positions were not appointed, then gradually cut off in any form of policy by the President. When finally appointed, those celebrated as heroes at inception ended their short tenures as career military like Secretary of Defense Mattis o General Kelly. To a staggering 65 percent turnover tracked until October (before Mattis and Kelly's departure) by Brookings Institution.
Managing the POTUS institution has always been hard. As JFK said after a tumultuous first 100 days in office: "there is no school for presidents".
Historians of the POTUS institution agree, but also remark that JFK called previous president Einsenhower when in trouble. And got good advice. Same did Bill Clinton with Richard Nixon first and Bush 41 later.
Reagan called James Baker III -who's still around going strong- when things got out of hand. Bush 43 got help from Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, two old hands dating back to Gerald Ford's administration (btw, Gerald Ford was also asked for advice to both Bush and Clinton). There is also a President's Club.
The problem that makes Trump's a Wizard of Oz presidency is not only that he doesn't ask for advice to his predecessors or experienced officers, but that he assumes he knows better and engages in dangerous 'trial and error" experiments led by polls and talk-show hosts. Polls are lagging, not leading indicators. As Henry Ford explained, had he polled people before introducing the car, they would have asked for "a faster horse".
This becomes a serious problem because the office of POTUS is not -and was not- meant to operate like that of a monarch. That was precisely what George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison -the Founding Fathers and our first presidents- had in mind to prevent the United States to repeat the catastrophes and chaos of George III's madness or the excesses that turn the French Revolution into the Reign of Terror and the crowing of Emperor Napoleon to restore order.
Chaos, like Saturn, devores those who embrace it.
Just looking at the painful saga of the Secretaries of Press Spicer and the "Communications" chief Scaramucci tells the story of a small family business in disarray.
Hundreds of stories, half a dozen books by and recurring post-exit testimonies (including exit interviews and open letters) from former Secretaries of State and top cabinet officers recurrently describe a one-man show kind of operation, where changes in mood and early morning musings have become M.O.
That is now what the markets and foreign leaders expect from POTUS and what they discount in their VIX swings at home and preemptive political alliances abroad. And the main reason for such wealth-destroying, dangerous volatility.
Like in a dysfunctional small family-ran operation, Donald J, Trump plays all the roles: he's the Chief of Staff, Secretary of Press, State, Defense, Budget, Fed, DOJ, Attorney General and even rescue operations director. He not only plays the roles. He thinks he can.
The difference between the Office of the President of the United States, the one that should operate the West Wing and Trump Inc. fades more every day. It has been doing so with each firing of top officers and hiring of lower level, more docile underlings.
Those who have some experience in small business consulting or run one are painfully familiar with these kind of scenes. And they worry when they see them because they know that small businesses ran this way end in bankruptcy. Like many of Donald J. Trump previous ventures.
And current ones, such as the Trump Foundation or his children's fleeting brands.
Far from that, the slim but consistent majority of moderate, independent Americans (40 percent of the electorate, check polls) who expected a return to civility and increasingly organized , professional management of POTUS office during the past two years have witnessed a White House ran as a "mom & pop" (or better said, "dad & kids") operation.
Professional staff positions were not appointed, then gradually cut off in any form of policy by the President. When finally appointed, those celebrated as heroes at inception ended their short tenures as career military like Secretary of Defense Mattis o General Kelly. To a staggering 65 percent turnover tracked until October (before Mattis and Kelly's departure) by Brookings Institution.
Managing the POTUS institution has always been hard. As JFK said after a tumultuous first 100 days in office: "there is no school for presidents".
Historians of the POTUS institution agree, but also remark that JFK called previous president Einsenhower when in trouble. And got good advice. Same did Bill Clinton with Richard Nixon first and Bush 41 later.
Reagan called James Baker III -who's still around going strong- when things got out of hand. Bush 43 got help from Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, two old hands dating back to Gerald Ford's administration (btw, Gerald Ford was also asked for advice to both Bush and Clinton). There is also a President's Club.
The problem that makes Trump's a Wizard of Oz presidency is not only that he doesn't ask for advice to his predecessors or experienced officers, but that he assumes he knows better and engages in dangerous 'trial and error" experiments led by polls and talk-show hosts. Polls are lagging, not leading indicators. As Henry Ford explained, had he polled people before introducing the car, they would have asked for "a faster horse".
This becomes a serious problem because the office of POTUS is not -and was not- meant to operate like that of a monarch. That was precisely what George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison -the Founding Fathers and our first presidents- had in mind to prevent the United States to repeat the catastrophes and chaos of George III's madness or the excesses that turn the French Revolution into the Reign of Terror and the crowing of Emperor Napoleon to restore order.
Chaos, like Saturn, devores those who embrace it.
Just looking at the painful saga of the Secretaries of Press Spicer and the "Communications" chief Scaramucci tells the story of a small family business in disarray.
Hundreds of stories, half a dozen books by and recurring post-exit testimonies (including exit interviews and open letters) from former Secretaries of State and top cabinet officers recurrently describe a one-man show kind of operation, where changes in mood and early morning musings have become M.O.
That is now what the markets and foreign leaders expect from POTUS and what they discount in their VIX swings at home and preemptive political alliances abroad. And the main reason for such wealth-destroying, dangerous volatility.
Like in a dysfunctional small family-ran operation, Donald J, Trump plays all the roles: he's the Chief of Staff, Secretary of Press, State, Defense, Budget, Fed, DOJ, Attorney General and even rescue operations director. He not only plays the roles. He thinks he can.
The difference between the Office of the President of the United States, the one that should operate the West Wing and Trump Inc. fades more every day. It has been doing so with each firing of top officers and hiring of lower level, more docile underlings.
Those who have some experience in small business consulting or run one are painfully familiar with these kind of scenes. And they worry when they see them because they know that small businesses ran this way end in bankruptcy. Like many of Donald J. Trump previous ventures.
And current ones, such as the Trump Foundation or his children's fleeting brands.
Mike Bloomberg- a real businessman- minced no words to describe how the business community sees Donald Trump's career and track record:
It's high time for this country and the POTUS office to get some help from a script doctor. The Constitution has SCOTUS and POTUS for that role. They are being tested regularly with tactics reminiscent those of burglars trying to break in during a Christmas vacation.
This two-year run would be a funny series if it only were a sequel of The Apprentice.
But this is the Presidency of the United States.
Or it should be.
This two-year run would be a funny series if it only were a sequel of The Apprentice.
But this is the Presidency of the United States.
Or it should be.
