The Apprentice saved him. If they had cast Michael Dell or Larry Ellison I think Trump would have run out of money and his name would just be one of those people from the 80s and 90s that you forgot about.

He seemingly spent his time travelling between his gaudy mansions and a child sex island in a warm climate where he raped people with zero accountability due to his prestige. That sort of freedom / luxury / depravity is not something afforded to the normies.

Yes, and he could have done that if he'd just retired on the money he inherited / stole from his father. He didn't need to start and fail at a bunch of businesses, but his ego demanded that he do that. So, slowly he depleted the half a billion and it was almost gone when The Apprentice gave him a lifeline.

Honestly I just don't have much else to say. They can disagree with me if they want.

You could argue that evangelicals trying to end the world are also doing it for personal gain.

He didn't release anything

I wonder if anyone's made a video of 10 hours of keys jingling

[checks]

Yep

Oh boi, who would influence our elections this time now that Russia is busy at war?

Accurate post!

Actually, to try and help highlight the viewpoint I'm describing, in light of what you're putting out, let me try to frame this stuff a little differently.

Consider something like the CEO of Blackberry. His company is now essentially defunct, in part due to the lack of security and stolen IP, but also because they screwed up their business market dominance by trying to chase the retail market when Apple/google started showing up. His business is toast, and for the sake of argument, let's say the CEO now lives a basic lifestyle, with very little to his name -- most likely he's living pretty damn good though, in reality, but likely not "ultra rich" wealthy.

At the height of his wealth curve, he'd be viewed as a successful business man. At the nadir of his wealth curve, he's a failure.

Business people are often considered successful or not based on their current positions and most recent endeavours, and their overall hoard of wealth. Given that the apprentice 'saved' him, anytime after the apprentice it'd be reasonable to say Trump's a successful business person, even if he was drastically inflating the actual numbers associated with his wealth. Even if he'd previously failed a bunch. There are lots of entrepeneurs that will see their efforts fail a bunch at the start, and if they have enough wealth they'll often eventually succeed. Doesn't make it less of a success when it happens, in some ways.

And now that he's managed to leverage that into owning America, his profit's gone up exponentially -- for both himself and his entire family line. So by American standards, that's pretty successful. And we all know there'll be no accountability, especially not for his family.

At the height of his wealth curve, he'd be viewed as a successful business man.

I guess you're using Research in Motion as an example of a company that went up and went back down, and are picturing some imaginary CEO, not Mike Lazaridis or Doug Fregin who were the co-CEOs of RIM, but are no longer with the company.

The difference from Trump is that this imaginary "Blackberry CEO" took a company that was worth nothing and then made it into a company that was one of the most influential in the world. That "zero to hero" story is something Trump never did. He started at the peak, with half a billion dollars he inherited / stole from his dad, and then he went down from there.

To be considered a "successful businessman" you have to make something worth more than it was previously worth. That's not something Trump ever achieved.

Jay Gould was considered a successful businessman because he grew up in poverty and then became a multi-millionaire (a billionaire in today's dollars). His son George Jay Gould isn't considered a successful businessman because all he did was inherit his dad's company and didn't meaningfully increase its value.

Fred Trump was a successful businessman because he made the fortune that Donald Trump squandered.

So, because there are less economically developed places that somehow negates the idea that the U.S.is undereducated, how? It’s still a huge fucking problem, even if there are other entirely independent problems in the world. Fuck this whataboutism.

Facts do not support your doubts. Get your head out of the sand. Half of voting Americans want all this.

And how much money has Trump made pillaging America? Pretty sure he's got most of those folks beat. Heck, Jared Kushner got like $2billion from the Saudis to play around with, and that was just one of the kickbacks to Trump's family orbit. Pretty successful at enriching themselves -- Gould become a billionaire, Trump's become a multi-billionaire and made his family connections all billionaires in their own right aswell.

To be considered a “successful businessman” you have to make something worth more than it was previously worth. That’s not something Trump ever achieved.

Trumps made himself worth more than he was previously worth. He's also made his family and friends worth more than they were previously worth. So he fits your definition of being a successful businessman.

Nobody "believed" these things. They PRETENDED TO BELIEVE THEM because "fuck you, you can't prove I don't."

And how much money has Trump made pillaging America?

That's post-election.

The timeline is:

1. Trump fails at business
2. Trump is cast in The Apprentice, convincing America he isn't terrible at business
3. Trump gets elected
4. Trump loots the US.

At no point was he a successful businessman.

Oh boi, who's gonna bake the cake now that the baker is in the kitchen baking?

The last paragraph highlights something else as well: those who define this way of being as "success" are quite empty of substance. These shouldn't be American standards of success. It's up to us what our definition of success is. I reject Trump as any example of success.

I swear reality TV was a poison to society. The most annoying thing is that YouTube shows that folks just doing things is a completely viable form of entertainment and I'm not even talking about vloggers.

It can be the fault of the system and people can be individually responsible as well. They're not mutually exclusive.

I can fully appreciate the sentiment, but I think the viewpoint/issue is unfortunately more nuanced than a straight forward assertion. I'm no communist supporter by any stretch, as I think it a less viable structure in practice, but I can't help acknowledge that in the current social order, money translates almost directly to agency. And that agency is essentially freedom; to an extent, the viewpoint has some merit.

I get what you're going at, but the key issue is he has done well for himself. He likes his own pockets. Sure he can be equated to an influencer, but influencers job is to convince people to give themselves and their company money.

A good businessman can pay himself well, and build his business empire. (Ideally bringing the employees and the greater community with it)

A good president can elevate himself as a model American and elevate the country as a beacon of hope, strength, and compassion.

Trump doesn't build anything. He tears down the structures around him and stands on the rubble to lift himself higher.

Wtf? What's wrong with Slovenia? It's a perfectly civilized European country in a beautiful part of the continent. Why should it be a shame to have lower life expectancy than them?

And if I was given a choice of cutting my clitoris or living a bit shorter but with my clit intact, I'd chose keeping my clit - I'm not sure you got the "what life has to offer" thing quite right.

I kinda get what you mean and the US has a lot of deep problems, but there are definitely better ways of illustrating it.

It does seem reasonable to define an intelligent person as someone who can see that "the line goes up" ideology is bullshit.

Scamming your investors

This being the only scam where the wealthy actually get prosecuted.

If they personally are benefitting, and they don't care if others do well, then they are achieving exactly what they want. Surely telling them they are stupid will be the solution we need.

I have nothing against Slovania. I could have picked any of 60 countries that ranks higher than the US.

Excision is an absolutely disgusting practice and I'm sure that if any of the countries were it is practice had large reserves of oil, the US would love to bring them american freedom.
With that said, if you asked me to pick between one country were excision is tolerated and one were pedophiles and rape is, I honestly wouldn't know know which to pick. I guess that's the difference between you and me.

I think people thought they would have more income/resources with him, and:

• Voted only thinking about that

or

• Also liked his bigotry. Enemy of my enemy kind of logic