Donny and Daddy
Ted Folkert, February 22, 2019
It is always hard to understand why some people seem to thrive on controversy while most of us find it unpleasant and try to avoid it if possible. Our president brings this to mind since it seems that everything he says or does is related either directly or indirectly to controversy. If it isn’t controversial, he seems to make it so. Perhaps he is addicted to controversy. Perhaps it is his negotiating strategy. Perhaps he makes it controversial so he can relent of unimportant issues and press the big ones. Strategic negotiation can employ many elements, some of which can be emotional, such as anger or fear – or controversy.
It is easier to inject controversy if you are a bully like Trump. He probably would not be able to sustain physical threats if he was on his own, however, he surrounds himself with bodyguards when in public. Not just as president, he always did. If the truth were known, he is probably a coward. Of course, while growing up he had his daddy to protect him. He probably had body guards then. If you step on people and defraud people like Trump does you have to have bodyguards. Either that or you must be very brave and very tough. He had bodyguards.
If you spend any time in courts of law, you will recognize controversy as a technique used by some attorneys to entice people into anger or defensiveness as a ploy to induce damaging statements or distract attention from the heart of the matter. Controversy can be used to gain a small advantage by yielding on unimportant or unrelated controversial issues which distract or divert the thought process regarding the outcome of a negotiation.
Just consider Trump’s mode of operation. He starts out with people by lauding about how great they are and embellishes their character and ability. Then if things don’t go so well, he criticizes them harshly and publicly. Then if he doesn’t get his way, he blasts them with slander by criticizing their looks, their integrity, or their capability. The next step is calling them derogatory names, like kids on the playground. His daddy probably protected him on the playground as well. He wouldn’t have wanted little Donny to get hurt by big bullies.
And his daddy’s role of protector didn’t end with adulthood. He was always available to sign a bank loan or kick in a few million to cover Donny’s bad business decisions. His daddy contributed more that $500 million to the cause of making Donny rich and famous, maybe much more. And the funny part of it all is that he is unable to show us how much wealth he now has. Some light may be shone on the subject soon, since Donny has $340 million in loans coming due at Deutsche Bank. His son tells us that the Trump empire is one of the least leveraged companies around. He also tells us that most of their loans come from Russian connections, a situation that Donny has vehemently denied on many occasions.
Perhaps his properties are comfortably under leveraged by loan balances, but, is so, why does Donny find it necessary to play footsies with murderous dictators like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jon Un and Mohamed bin Salmon? Any of these guys would have him disappear if he ever crossed them, regardless of how many bodyguards he has, and his daddy isn’t around now to bail him out.
This could be fun to watch, or I guess we should say that we are “proud” to watch the outcome – you know, like he was “proud” to shut down the government and withhold paychecks of 800,000 loyal government employees – just because he didn’t get his way in building a worthless wall for $50 billion, so he could placate his base of ultra-conservative voters. This strategy was an effort to enhance his chances of reelection to enable him to continue to violate the emoluments clause of the Constitution and fill his pockets with money inspired by his actions as president.
Controversy prevails as a business strategy and integrity can’t seem to find its way into the equation. Who says that crime doesn’t pay? It always has for Donny.