Donald Trump has stirred up a storm of controversy by suggesting he'll run for president. In true Trump style, he’s said he’s going to use his TV show The Apprentice to make an announcement about an announcement of his candidacy.
If he runs, Trump would follow a path of wealthy businessmen who have sought the White House before including Pat Robertson in 1988, Ross Perot in 1992, and Steve Forbes in 1996.Trump is ready and willing, to spend as much as $600 million of his personal fortune on the race. “Part of the beauty of me is that I’m very rich,” he told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
What if Donald Trump was our President?
Apparently, not everyone feels that this would be a crazy move. Recent polls show that Trump came in tied for second with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in last week’s Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, not far behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. But the CNN polls puts him far higher, tied for first with Mr. Huckabee and far ahead of Mr. Romney. Nineteen percent of Republicans polled picked Mr. Trump as their preferred nominee among a broad field of 11 potential candidates. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin came in a distant second, with 12%, while Mr. Romney was tied at 11% with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Some argue that Trump really could prove to be a serious candidate if he gets into the race.
The real estate mogul has hinted at a long-shot bid for the presidential nomination in recent weeks and has made easy headlines after suggesting President Obama wasn't born in the United States.
On the other hand, some voters have expressed that they see Trump’s candidacy as ridiculous as Obama’s of 2008, and believe that Trump is just another egotistical celebrity with a talent for branding who knows much less than he thinks and vastly overestimates his ability to fix the country’s problems. At the same time, some people argue that his candidacy, as ridiculous as it may be, serves a useful purpose whether he wins or not as he is exposing the shroud of secrecy that surrounds every aspect of our president including his birthplace and whether or not he was a natural born citizen
I too laughed when I heard about the possibility of Donald Trump running for president. When I first heard it, I actually got slightly offended with the idea that he thinks he could actually pull off running for president. Does he think that it is that easy of a task to just wake up one day and say I want to run for president? I understand that a lot of people do not agree with what President Obama is doing and thinking but I think most of us know and should know that it is an incredibly difficult job. I was even more shocked when I saw that in the polls online, Trump was ahead of so many of the other people that were more qualified than him. After I thought about it a bit more, I realized that not only do these polls mean nothing in the real world, but most of these polls are about name recognition more than anything, that of which Donald Trump has a lot of. For Trump, I do realize that by talking about running for president this gains a huge amount of publicity for him and all of his projects that need the attention. Whether it is his books or his TV show, there are all being paid more attention to because of Trumps ridiculous comments and actions. Why would people even think that Trump is qualified to be president and why would he? He has been bankrupt numerous times and has had several failures. Now I am not saying that we all dont make mistakes and fail sometimes, but who would think that this man is serious enough and qualified enough to run this country. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteI think its pretty amusing that "The Donald" considers the presidency as attainable merely because of his own, often disputed, wealth and nationwide popularity as a reality show host. Yet, I have been surprised by the amount of people who have reacted angrily at his probable, though not yet announced, campaign. If anything, reacting to it at all gives it a sort of credence that it really does not deserve.
ReplyDeleteI too was somewhat surprised by his polling in New Hampshire, yet I think people are reading far too much into a poll about an election and a race that is still nearly a year away. Polling this far in advance usually favors those candidates who voters mostly know anything about. Heck, polling from the night before primaries is more often than not incorrect. President Obama was projected to most likely come in a respectable third in an Iowa caucus that he eventually won. Likewise, following that win, he was supposed to squash the Hillary campaign substantially in New Hampshire. This of course, never happened, and Hillary won that state.
Furthermore, people who claim that spending heavily on any specific state leads to winning an election are often proven wrong by many historic examples. Rudy Giuliani, who was also a one-time prohibitive favorite a year before anything that mattered had occurred, spent all his time and significant capital in Florida. This effort allowed him to come in 3rd place, and ruin his campaign as a result. More recently, in California we saw Meg Whitman spend an unthinkable sum to become governor, yet lose soundly when the actual votes were counted.
Still, I don't want to give this anymore thought than I already have. America is a great place because people like Donald can run for President and create a platform for a national audience to be heard. He is a master of marketing, and has made himself the symbol of money and wealth in the richest country in the world, where there are many men who are far wealthier than he is. This is just another way to further his brand, and god bless him for the entertainment. I just hope he throws in a "You're fired" during a particularly serious and compelling moment in at least one debate.
I thought it was funny when Trump made his comments about running for president and I found it even more funny when Obama showed the beginning clip of The Lion King at a White House dinner last night proclaming the birth of Simba was similar to his birth. Both were publicity stunts, although Obama's was a zinger aimed at Trump, and both are working fantastically.
ReplyDeleteTrump is probably 50% serious on his Presidential candidacy. Would he be a good president? Who knows. He doesn't have the political background that a president needs but he does have the business upbringing that our economy is in desperate need of.
I know a lot of American's are not happy with the way Obama is leading out country but you have to keep in mind the crapfest he took over from when Bush was president. I think it'll be very interesting to see how the 2012 election goes. While American's are obsessed with their celebrities, will they really elect Trump to lead their country? Let's wait and see...
You gotta hand it to Trump. Although I doubt he'd actually do anything incredible in the White House, he knows how to stir up some controversy. This reminds me of Michael O'Leary, CEO of Europe's budget airline Ryanair. He has a knack for saying outrageous things and being publicly obnoxious just as his airline adds new routes. Although Trump might be serious about running for President, he likely is enjoying more favorable viewership on his television show since he started speaking his mind...
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