[jmull]

> assuming one even exists

Why would you assume that?

I don't know why people keep expecting Trump to be different than what he has consistently shown us for all these years. There's no subtle plan. There's no long-term plan. He's cranking the levers immediately available to him for the drama, as he has always done.

People around him may have ideas and plans. They can sometimes get him to agree to one of these, but it never lasts long.

[ToucanLoucan]

I mean, his rich friends made 340 billion in the stock market chaos. So I suspect there is at least a vague plan, but it has nothing to do with anyone but himself and those who support him getting richer. But that's the only plan I think Trump has ever had in his entire life, or will ever have.

Like he's just not that deep. He's an incredibly shallow, inexperienced, dim, incurious old man who has never worked a job in his life, never built anything, never did anything. He arrived on top and his greatest achievement in life was managing to not lose it, in a country where it is specifically very hard to do that.

And hearing his supporters talk about how strong he is is just objectively hilarious. Man looks like 4 steepish flights of stairs would kill him stone dead.

[badc0ffee]

I don't like him either, but it's not like accomplished nothing: https://www.cnbc.com/2010/11/09/Donald-Trumps-Best-and-Worst...

There are some failures in there but also some wins, like buying air rights for. Heap and making effective use of them.

[jmull]

You found a puff piece from 2010 to extoll Trump?

(It appears to be a promotional piece for a "CNBC Titans" episode featuring Trump.)

I try to assume good intent, which includes not writing off the odd things people post as bot-generated, but in this case, attributing this to a bot is quite a positive spin.

[badc0ffee]

Maybe it's a puff piece, but it contains examples of what he did with his life and businesses. You couldn't write an article like that after 2015 or so without it being influenced by his disaster of a political career.

My point is, he didn't just sit on daddy's money, he actually pulled off a couple of savvy moves. There are plenty of other things to criticize him for.

[latency-guy2]

> his disaster of a political career.

45th and 47th president of the USA as a disaster seems to be setting the bar unbelievably high for failure.

[SpicyLemonZest]

Why would you want an article on someone that excludes context from their most impactful and most visible decade? It's true that an author today, who knows about his 2024 conviction for fraudulently overstating the value of his properties, would bring a much more skeptical eye to claims about what a success they were. Did he seem to be making better deals in 2010 because he was better at it then, or because nobody was looking as closely at whether they were really good?

[badc0ffee]

Because the first guy I replied to claimed Trump never did anything earlier in his life but inherit money, and I wanted to provide examples of how that isn't true.

The Tiffany's transaction definitely happened, and no landowner in Manhattan has left money on the table like that since. As scummy and self-promoting as he is, he changed the real estate market in NY and made some investments that paid off in the 70s and 80s.

I think that puts to rest this idea that he just rested on daddy's money and then lost money on his Atlantic City casinos, or whatever.

(Standard disclaimer that he has always sucked, and maybe he never made a good business move after the 80s.)