[mikeash]

It doesn't have to be hard to run an empire badly.

A shell script that just repeats "Sell all assets and invest in SPY" would outperform Trump at running his empire, and it would have the side bonus of not being a crazy asshole.

[MicroBerto]

How many people have you hired in your life?

[mikeash]

How is that remotely relevant?

[MicroBerto]

Clearly it's easy, right?

If you've never give through the experience of hiring good people, you have absolutely no clue how difficult it is.

So convenient to drive from the back seat though, yeah? I never said Trump was "right". I said he's been a step ahead every time, which he has.

But it's easy to trivialize things and call him an asshole because it fits your narrative.

Walk a mile in those shoes and then tell me how simple it is. You have no clue. Empires are not built from shell scripts. If only it were that easy.

[mikeash]

I'm sure it's hard to do well. My point is that Trump hasn't done well. The fact that he built a not particularly successful business empire with inherited money doesn't say much about his skills or smarts.

Hiring good people is hard, for sure. Has Trump ever done it?

[MicroBerto]

I find this line laughable. Everyone seems to think that turning a million into billions is a cakewalk.

Most people wouldn't even know where to begin and would lose their minds during any downturn. The others would buy a small house and whither away savings. The rest would waste it all on idiocy.

If you're running a billion dollar empire and it hasn't burnt to the ground, you can be sure that he's hired good people.

Why don't you go put $1,000,000 in a market simulator and tell me how your "shell scripts" do over the next 20 years.

Given that you haven't answered the original question, I'm guessing that you have hired very few or even zero people ever?

[mikeash]

Trump inherited tens of millions. Other people have done the "market simulator" thing and the result is that Trump has not outperformed the market. My shell script would have done about as well at growing Trump's wealth as Trump did.

Turning tens of millions into a few billions over the past forty years is a cakewalk. I don't know why you think it's "laughable" to say this. It doesn't even require smart investing, just the minimal amount of non-stupid investing.

I haven't answered your original question because it's simply not relevant. You're trying to make an ad-hominem argument against me. I'm not exactly going to jump at the chance to help you with that.

[over]

Being a crazy asshole is Trump's strongest suit. Hatred is a powerful motivator.