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The Real Genius of Trump

Jul 25, 2018

27

YOUGHAL, IRELAND - The markets seemed to hold their breath... still, like dead leaves before a hurricane.

The Dow barely moved yesterday.

Jim Cramer, of TV's Mad Money, says we're waiting to see if the EU "caves" in Donald Trump's trade war. Then, he says, the market will go much higher.

Other reports say the market is waiting for more earnings announcements.

More likely... money has been upstaged.

It's the Trump Show, playing to sold-out audiences everywhere. Politics. Politics. Politics. Money will have to wait...

...for a while.

Cracking Open

And what a show it is. Audiences laugh. They cry. They renew their passports and look for sharp objects or open windows.

Something remarkable is happening; the American public is cracking open... dividing itself into hostile camps, with Donald J. Trump as the wedge. Some of them hate him. Some love him.

For the haters, he can do no good. If he achieved peace in the Middle East, prosperity at home... and built a Trump hotel on Mars... they would still see no good in the man.

If he caused the blind to see... the lame to dance... and walked across the Potomac barefoot, they would suspect a trick.

They detest the way he talks, the way he slouches, the way he treats his wife, the way he does business, the way he eats...

They have nothing but contempt for the man and all he represents - crassness, stupidity, ignorance, TV, golf, gaudy buildings, celebrity culture, and in-your-face wealth.

If he were to die tomorrow, they would breathe a sigh of relief, cross themselves as if they had been spared by the Virgin Mary, and look forward to the next election.

Trump World

For the Trump lovers, on the other hand, he can do no wrong. He is their man. They are his. He is their shepherd. His battles are their battles. His victories are theirs, too.

But theirs is the bigger challenge, too, for they have to reconcile the real world with the Trump world.

And there is Mr. Trump himself, contradicting, backpedaling, and denying the very affirmations they took as gospel only a day before.

One day, they are told that Mr. Putin and his minions would do nothing to sully the pristine U.S. election process.

The faithful barely had time to assimilate that doctrine when a new one was announced: Yes, the president believes his top men in the intelligence agencies. Russia did interfere in the 2016 election.

Quickly turning their heads to face the newfound foe in Moscow, Trump's true believers are then rocked again, when their hero claims he never said that.

The Washington Post elaborates:

  • Six days ago, President Trump held a news conference to walk back comments he made suggesting that he did not believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw a plan to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

    "Let me be totally clear in saying that - and I've said this many times - I accept our intelligence community's conclusion that Russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place," Trump said in that statement.

    Trump then said he realized, after seeing the backlash to his news conference, that one statement needed clarifying. That's when he offered his now-infamous "double-negative" defense. "In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word 'would' instead of 'wouldn't.'... The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia.' Sort of a double negative."

    But on Sunday, he suggested that the investigation was "all a big hoax."

But as Mr. Trump himself put it, he could kill someone dead on Fifth Avenue, and still, his supporters would stick with him.

He stumbles and bumbles along - and they see a genius with a plan. And when he undermines the "conservative" principles and institutions that they hold most dear... they insist it is fake news.

Trump Faction

Each group has its own source of information, opinion, and advice - thanks largely to the new electronic media.

Thanks to algorithms and machine learning, Google and Facebook know which version of "fake news" you want... and they make sure you get it.

Each group has its hopes, night terrors, and fantasies... teased and elaborated by a circus media...

And each regards Mr. Trump either as its Savior... or its Antichrist.

When Trump was elected, we expected that he would end up setting up a new political party. We called it "Trumpismo".

The old-fashioned Republicans, we reasoned, would discover that he was an imposter - not a real conservative - and reject him. He would have to go off on his own political movement - much like Macri in Argentina or Macron in France.

Instead, Trump was able to attract and retain such an enthusiastic group of fans within the Republican ranks that no traditional conservative dared to defy him.

They buckled and bent... and the most anti-Trump among them - such as Senator Jeff Flake - announced their retirement.

The Trump faction became critical to winning in the primaries. And even incumbents despaired of facing the ire of the Trumpistas.

The Republican Party became the Party of Donald Trump, and the old Republican stalwarts, such as George Will, saw no other solution. "Vote the Republicans out of office," they recommended.

As for Mr. Trump himself, he understood better than anyone how to whoop up his "base"... and how to use the techniques of reality TV and the wraslin' genre to keep the seats filled.

His political philosophy, as near as we can fathom it, falls not far from the tree of the man himself. Millions of words have been written trying to decipher his plans and his programs. We have probably written 100,000 of them ourselves.

But most have been a waste of time. He is sui generis - at least in America.

In Latin America, the phenomenon is better known, as we will see tomorrow.

More to come...

Regards,

BILL BONNER Founder, Agora Inc
Bill Bonner, Bonner & Partners
Vivek Kaul's Diary

PS: When the markets nosedive, that's the best time to put wealth building in motion. Small caps are crashing - that only means there is more opportunity than ever to buy them up - get our market-beating small caps recommendations here.

Bill Bonner is the President & Founder of Agora Inc, an international publisher of financial and special interest books and newsletters.

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4 Responses to "The Real Genius of Trump"

Metilda Stanley

Jul 25, 2018

Thanks Mr Kaul for the inspiring and touching article. I have always read all your articles and you sure know how to keep the reader engaged. You are a great writer. I am praying for an opportunity to meet you and hear you in person. Great speech.

Like 

CM Suri

Jul 25, 2018

Rightly said Vivek.

Ties don't make an MBA an MBA actually.
And neither is an MBA grad a God's gift to mankind !
Unfortunately, several (not all, mind you) think that a tie and and the degree are armament to spearhead any organisation.
Takes much more than that, much more. Start with emotional intelligence. End with financial acumen.
With an epilogue of humanity.

Like 

CARLOS DESOUZA

Jul 25, 2018

So far this article has been a load of CRAP. I doubt anything better will follow, but one never knows :-)

Like (1)

CM Suri

Jul 25, 2018

Excellent, Vivek. Direct and sensible. I love all your emails.

Wish to paste here a good piece of advice from Sadguru, relevant to your post in a different way:
*Sadguru ADVICE TO 60-YEARS OLD & OLDER*

*Because none of us have many years to live, and we can't take along anything when we go, so we don't have to be too thrifty.*

*Spend the money that should be spent, enjoy what should be enjoyed, donate what you are able to donate*

*DON'T WORRY about what will happen after we are gone, because when we return to dust, we will feel nothing about praises or criticisms. The time to enjoy the worldly life and your hard earned wealth will be over!*

*DON'T WORRY too much about your children, for children will have their own destiny and should find their own way. Care for them, love them, give them gifts but also enjoy your money or what is left of it, while you can. Life should have more to it than working from the cradle to the grave!!*

*60-year olds, don't trade in - your health for wealth, by working yourself to an early grave anymore. Because your money may not be able to buy your health.*

*When to stop making money, and how much is enough*

*Out of thousand hectares of good farm land, you can consume only three quarts (of rice) daily; out of a thousand mansions, you only need eight square meters of space to rest at night.*

*So, as long as you have enough food and enough money to spend, that is good enough. You should live happily. Every family has its own problems.*

*Just DO NOT COMPARE with others for fame and social status and see whose children are doing better etc., but challenge others for happiness, health, enjoyment, quality of life and longevity.*

*DON'T WORRY about things that you can't change because it doesn't help and it may spoil your health.*

*You have to create your own well-being and find your own place of happiness. As long as you are in good mood and good health, think about happy things, do happy things daily and have fun in doing, then you will pass your time happily every day.*

*One day passes WITHOUT happiness*, *you will lose one day.*
*One day passes WITH happiness and then you gain one day.*

*In good spirit, sickness will cure*;
*In a happy spirit, sickness will cure faster;*
*in high and happy spirits, sickness will never come.*

*With good mood, exercise, sun, variety of foods, good amount of vitamin and mineral intake, hopefully you will live another 20 or 30 years of healthy life*

*ABOVE ALL* -
Learn to cherish the goodness around... *like your spouse , she's not called the better half for nothing and FRIENDS*........... *They all make you feel young and "wanted"... without them you are sure to feel lost !!*

Wishing you all the best for the years to come. ??????

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