What are some actual reasons why people think Donald Trump would be a bad president

[James Warren]

From Your Quora Digest •
Politics

What are some actual reasons why people think Donald Trump would be a bad president, not including
his appearance/wealth?
Matthew Lee Myers
Matthew Lee Myers, Web Developer, Designer, and PoliSci Dropout
235.5k Views • Upvoted by Jacob Sommer, Student of politics, BA in PoliSci (UMass Boston, 2012, summa)

I grew up in Atlantic City and have lived in Manhattan. I've had the opportunity to interact with
quite a few people who worked with or for Trump. More than anything else, it is my familiarity with
Trump as a business owner that has influenced my opposition to his candidacy.

To be blunt, when Trump says he will "Make America Great Again", it is laughable for anyone with any
familiarity with his business dealings.

When Trump says he is one of the best businessmen ever and one of the smartest men on the planet, it
is laughable for anyone with any familiarity with his business dealings. He is a rich man, having
inherited control of a company worth a quarter of a billion dollars and doing fairly well with it,
growing to to somewhere between $3-4 billion. In about 40 years, he has multiplied his wealth by a
factor of about 12-16. That's pretty good. A compound interest rate of 7.2 over 40 years would yield
a 16x multiplier. So he did a little worse than "average". Though he certainly hasn't done as well
as someone like Warren Buffet, who was also worth a quarter of a million in 1974, and is now worth
66 billion. And not as well as someone like Mark Cuban ($3B) who built a similar fortune from
nothing. And certainly not as well as Jeff Bezos ($46B), Bill Gates ($80B), or Elon Musk ($13B) who
built fortunes that completely eclipse Trump's and started with significantly less. Trump isn't even
a respected real estate developer within his hometown of New York. He's not in the top 10 condo
developers (Here's a look at NYC's biggest condo developers ). He's not in the top 20 power brokers
according to the New York Post (The 20 biggest power players in New York City real estate ). And
Commercial Observer, which is his best showing I am aware of, puts him at lucky number 13 (Power 100
). So forget most successful people in the world. He's not even top 10 in his industry in Manhattan.
He can't get investment capital with any major bank anymore because he's lost over $5 billion in
investor funds (he claims that he doesn't need them anyway and that he can self finance, which is
somewhat dubious given his shift towards franchising his brand rather than developing or managing
property). He's also been blacklisted from a number of major construction companies and legal firms
for stiffing them on the bill. So, while he may have been a player in New York in the 80s, he's
mostly been a joke since then. Don't get me wrong: he's done well. But he's far from the richest or
most successful man in the world. Or America. Or even Manhattan. He started on third base, stole
home, and acts like he hit a home run.

When Trump talks about caring about the middle class, it is laughable for anyone with any
familiarity with his business dealings. Whenever Trump was faced with the choice between "America"
and "Trump's bank account" he routinely chose his bank account. He pays his hotel workers less than
any other in Vegas and refuses to let them organize (currently ignoring a court order to allow them
to do so). His construction projects routinely use inferior quality windows made in China rather
than slightly (about 10%) more expensive American models. When his Atlantic City casinos were in
trouble he raided his employee pensions and healthcare accounts before declaring bankruptcy,
screwing not only his employees but also his investors.

When he talks about Mexicans coming over to take our jobs, it's laughable for anyone with any
familiarity with his business dealings. He routinely brings in workers on temporary work visas so
that he can pay them less than American workers, taking not only those jobs from American workers
but also driving down wages throughout the industry. Meanwhile his merchandising line was being
produced in China and Mexico, despite the fact that they could have been produced in America for
only slightly more.

When he talks about being able to negotiate and be tough with China and Mexico, it's laughable for
anyone with any familiarity with his business dealings. The Riverside South project saw him bailed
out by Hong Kong investors who ended up screwing him out of millions. He later sued them and lost.
His Trump Ocean Resort in Baja Mexico was a spectacular failure. He fleeced his investors with
promises about being able to get it done, but the project collapsed due partly to his inability to
deal with the Mexican government. His investors sued him and won. Even friendly nations like the UK
have stymied him and won. As recently as the last few months Trump lost his lawsuit to prevent a
windfarm from being built off the shore near his golf course in Scotland, despite taking the case
all the way to the British supreme court.

So I think it's only sensible to distrust his claims. He's had plenty of chances to put ordinary
Americans before his own interests, and he hasn't. He's had plenty of chances to keep jobs here in
the US, and he hasn't. He's had plenty of chances to stick it to Mexico, or China, or even the UK,
and he hasn't been able to pull it off. And he's really only a mediocre businessman. He's had
decades and billions with which he could have done something, anything, to make America great, and
yet he has failed to do so. So why would I believe he'd be willing or able to do it now?

EDIT:
People have brought up concerns about the $200M inheritance figure, so I want to address it
properly. While it is true that Trump's siblings were also shareholders in the $200M company that
Trump gained control of in 1974, the specifics are not public. What we do know is that Donald was
named president and sole trustee of that business, meaning that he was able to leverage it to build
his own real estate empire between 1974 and the time of its eventual sale (when he received 1/3 of
the $600M it was worth at that time). So while he did not gain the $200M in cash, he did receive it
as an asset that he could use in his own dealings, and it certainly formed the foundation upon which
he built.
Updated Mar 12 • View Upvotes
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-jw