This is the problem with a CEO as a President

[titaniumsalute]

The country isn't a company. There isn't a board of directors. There isn't a CFO or COO. Diplomacy internally is vitally important. You can't fire people you don't like or that don't "see you vision" of something.

Trump bragged about being a CEO. I suppose he made a lot of money and was somehow successful in Real Estate...albeit probably from shady deals with shady places like Russia. He fired lots of people along the way that got in his way. You can't do that in government. It doesn't work.

Trumpeestas who voted for him wanted that tough guy, hard talking, balls to the wall, no nonsense, CEO. What they didn't realize is that that type of President is almost already doomed to fail.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Uh, he is a horrible CEO, it is why he doesnt go public, the one time he did it was a DISASTER

Every business eventually fails and he needs russian mob money to stay in business.

He is actually, and this is not an exaggeration, unqualified to be the assistant manager of the convenience store around the corner from your house and I could explain why in great detail.

But I wont, look, he knows as much about real estate and hotels and golf courses as he does about climate change.

Nothing.

[titaniumsalute]

3. He's built a career out of stiffing vendors

That's not something you can do in government either. Doesn't work that way.

[unblock]

8. and employees, and lenders, and partners, and customers!

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. And a piss poor CEO. Let's face it, that clown has a company that collects rents and license fees.

It's not a productive business. He is an actor.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. It's worse than that. Trump isn't even a real CEO.

He's the owner of a bunch of privately-held businesses, and he's never had to answer to shareholders or a board of directors. A big public company like General Motors, for example, has to file financial information with the government about its financial transactions; it has to have shareholders' meetings; and its board of directors can hire and fire CEOs and other officers. The Trump businesses have never had even those constraints and limits - Trump has always been the boss without ever having to answer to anybody, and he's trying to run the government the same way. He treats Congress as his employees, and is clearly furious that he can't "fire" them. He's doing his best to dismantle federal agencies and discredit the courts and the FBI because he can't control them. He will fail, but he's doing a lot of damage in the meantime.

[unblock]

5. there are many types of businesses and many types of ceos

some might translate fairly well to government, others, not so much.


generally, managing a large bureaucracy would be a useful background for being president. so ross perot probably wouldn't have had the competency issues that donnie has had.

but donnie's business was much more of a small, family organization. not a big company to make big products, but rather a collection of individual deals. he didn't manage a big bureaucracy, he really only managed a handful of project managers and fired people until he got the results he wanted. that's not an approach that translates well to government at all.


moreover, there are two ways to make money in business. one is to provide goods and services others need and take a modest profit; the other is to find ways to steer money of the money into your pockets as opposed to someone else's pockets.

donnie never game much of a crap about the first method, and his specialty was the second. screwing lenders, suppliers, employees, customers, everybody.

again, not an approach that translates to government at all. well, except in the russian model.


not all ceos are created equal....

[PJMcK]

6. Trump is a lousy example

He is such a fool and his business "success" is deeply questionable. After all, how many Fortune 500 CEO's have declared bankruptcy 6 times?

But your broader point is spot on. The function of a corporation is to generate profits from whatever business the company is involved in. Running a government is exactly not that. In fact, running a government is all about regulating businesses, (a great deal of the Constitution has to do with business). Success in business does not automatically prepare someone to be president.

If anything, Trump proves the opposite point: the president should be a professional politician because they know how the systems work. This is one of the main reasons Trump has accomplished so little in his first (and hopefully last) year in office. He doesn't know much about anything and doesn't understand how the U.S. Government works.

[Jspur]

7. I remember

I was in college around the time the apprentice was coming on. I was taking an accounting class and I will never forget the professor at the time saying "There's been a lot of hype about a reality show called the Apprentice and how Donald Trump is a great businessman. Today I'm going to show you why he's actually a crappy businessman." We were actually learning about bankruptcy in that lecture. I will never forget that lecture and how the professor broke it down in accounting terms to show that Trump didn't know shit about running a business.

[unblock]

13. but he knew a lot about extracting wealth from his bankrupt entities!

his unique business brilliance lies entirely in finding ways to make others pay for his mistakes.

as for "the apprentice", i know it was a tv game show and there will always be people wanting to be on tv, but i can't imagine ever wanting to work for someone like that. horrible manager who creates a terrible work environment.

chef gordon ramsey (from the "hell's kitchen" game show) is an abusive *sshole, but at least he seems to be a very talented chef, and i can see people willing to put up with the abuse for the top-notch training.


but with donnie you get all the abuse but none of the useful training.

[riversedge]

9. I read once that Trump called his Cabinet meeting room--the Boardroom. Says a lot IMHO.

[CrispyQ]

10. But the right believes that government should be run like a business.

They don't want a government that serves all the People, & they are close to being successful in hijacking our government for their needs & desires. Hence, cabinet members who take government transportation at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars to the People with no remorse, other than they got caught. This is what happens when people stupidly vote for candidates who openly disdain government. It's also what happens when you have a population that doesn't understand what government does & why you don't want to run it like a business. That was one of the right's smartest moves - poke fun at the educated, call them elites. Encourage people to embrace ignorance & it will be easy to convince them to vote against their best interests, like vote for candidates who openly claim they hate government.

[muntrv]

11. He never did deals with big businesses like Hilton, JW Marriot.

He made his money by screwing over the little guy.

[procon]

12. His voters also never understood that Trump is a fraud, a lowbrow stage act.

He's a one-man carnival sideshow performer, a reality TV star, a B-list entertainer, a self declared celebrity who inherited a fortune that he used to make a lot of really bad business deals that were offset by a few lucky breaks. That facade is cracking and now we can all see the craven, weak, incompetent, frightened little man that Trump really is.

[Brother Buzz]

14. The orange anus was a CEO of a private corporation

and never, ever, had to answer to anyone, unlike a publicly traded corporations. Big difference.

[moondust]

15. Even a "corporate" CEO would be better.

Someone who has had to work their way up the ladder and show some kind of ability, then answer to a corporate board and shareholders.

TheRump was nothing more than emperor of his own little fiefdom. Didn't have to answer to or even pay attention to anybody else until he screwed up and the lawyers came after him.

Either way, government is not about the small-minded pursuit of profits which is the role and experience of a CEO.

[Retrograde]

18. Like Tillerson?

Or the guy in charge of the Commerce Dept?

Going a bit off topic, a number of John D. Rockefeller's descendants made decent politicians, in both major parties. I suspect that was because, while they had some ties to the family businesses, they were more involved with the dispersal of money rather than the acquisition of it.

[TheCowsCameHome]

16. CEO's never make good non-business leaders.

We're finding that out the hard way.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

17. The problem with the notion that government ought to be run like a business

is that governments and businesses are not even remotely alike.

[KG]

19. no sure why anyone seeing how fucked-up most businesses are would want the govt run like one.

[HipChick]

20. He would have long been fired