Andrew Nenow is a wine and viticulture sophomore and Mustang Daily conservative columnist.
As President Obama approaches the last year of his term, there is a lot of focus on who will run against him in 2012. Among the candidates are household political names such as Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin and Ron Paul.
But within this list there is one candidate that seems a bit out of the ordinary: Donald Trump. Without a doubt he’s a popular person, but is he really being considered to be President of the United States?
As the CEO of the Trump Organization, a real estate developer, Trump has built a business empire that trumps (pun intended) the success of any other American businessman. With more than 14 Trump towers worldwide he is one of the most recognized names in the business.
His net worth is a staggering $2.7 billion, putting him toward the top of Forbes list of richest people in the world. So he has been insanely successful and is obviously doing something right.
The reason Trump has gained so much support is because a lot of people feel the United States should be run like a large business, and who better than the master businessman? Who better than the man who understands how to run a large company through a struggling economy?
In light of all this, it’s no wonder Donald Trump is now a GOP frontrunner, but I believe people are overlooking many things. While everything looks good on paper, there is a lot to consider with a businessman of his kind.
In the end, his fame, fortune and success in general do not say anything about who Donald Trump is as a person. Say all you want, but as interested as people say they are in a candidate’s politics, they are twice as interested in their character.
I do not think anyone can deny that Obama’s popularity during the 2008 election stemmed from his fantastic speaking skills and family orientation. Another example is the frenzy people created over the small fact that Obama was a smoker. Something completely unrelated to politics.
So now we put Donald Trump under the microscope. In the end Trump is nothing but a large ego. Watch any of his shows, read any article or book about him and in the end he is all about the dollars and cents. The future of this country cannot be entrusted to a man with that type of mind complex.
Being a celebrity has only inflated his ego, which is a very dangerous quality for a person in power. To me it would seem that voters have a myriad of better options than a celebrity.
The last celebrity to be president, Ronald Reagan, had great success and is even considered by many to be one of the best presidents of all time. This offers hope that Trump could be successful as well, but there are many differences between the two stars.
Donald Trump has no past experience in politics and seems to have been hurled into the conversation of president while Ronald Reagan bred himself to become president. Reagan actually ran for president twice and failed before he successfully won over the American people.
This American fears that if people elect Donald Trump to be the leader of this great nation they will not fully understand the ins and outs of his politics. I am not sure if I will ever be able to get past the greed of a person like Trump and would be very concerned with him leading us.
You make a valid point about how President Reagan did not just up and announce during his acting career that he was a candidate for the U.S. presidency, and instead he groomed (this is better than the term “bred” because one cannot breed oneself) himself for his political career. He had political experience, such as being governor of Ca. before he ran for the presidential office, whereas Trump does not have any such experience. I agree, a career in business does not prepare one to be the president of the U.S. Being a businessman/millionaire does not hone skills in diplomacy, social awareness (e.g., SES, the needs of the lower and middle classes, impact of education, parenting and cultural norms, diverse religious backgrounds in the U.S.), production, agriculture… But most importantly, my concern about Trump is that he is a narcissistic bully who appears to have no tact, and when someone questions or criticizes him he explodes and attacks in retaliation. Given the world’s political climate that would be very disastrous and I could see Trump ruining decades of work on more peaceful and better relationships between the U.S. and other nations. I think Trump would bring about WW three!
While I appreciate your comparison of the two celebrities of D. Trump and R. Reagan, I think you need to have someone qualified, such as a college professor or an english major, proof read your writings for grammar, correct word choices (instead of “mind complex” you could have used “mind set”), and to keep your writing in the same person status of either first, second or third (in your teachers union article the person status you use jumps back & forth).