President Obama is right. Hillary Clinton is right. Donald Trump is not qualified to be President.
But he could be.
He just has to make an authentic decision to be an authentic candidate. And then if he wins, to be an authentic President.
Currently, some of his critics have a reasonably credible belief that Trump really has no intention of winning. He really doesn’t want to be President. He is just running to build up the Trump brand; to build his public image; or to begin a new business (such as a new TV channel, based on his political philosophy). Some even argue that he supports Hillary and is just running to guarantee her victory. These wild conjectures seem credible in light of his recent behavior – such as asking Putin to hack Hillary’s emails.
Another credible explanation of the Trump phenomenon is that he narcissistically wants to see his name on the front pages as often as possible. For example, with the above Putin fiasco, the next day after Trump’s statement, Trump was on the lips of virtually all the news pundits. Perhaps this is what he wants more than anything. At least he acts that way.
But this doesn’t have to be.
He stated he’s willing to spend tens of millions of dollars to win the election. He only has to take a few million of those dollars and hire some of the best minds in the country to quickly develop policy statements on all the major issues, statements that are congruent Trump’s basic philosophy and the philosophy of the Republican party. Then he could listen to them (with the belief that perhaps some authorities know more than he does on some subjects). He could spend a significant part of his time and energy in the next three months having these authorities educate him on these issues. He could advocate for these policies with his significant communication skills. Then, if he was elected, he could try to implement these policies in a rational way.
It may be too late for this project, but he could give it a try. At least then his whole candidacy might not be an embarassing disaster, which it is turning out to be. This disaster could also hurt him in his business dealings in the future, if he looses, which probability says that he will. The Trump name could become a joke, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Another benefit of Trump becoming an authentic candidate and his doing his duty to his supporters and the Republican party is that he might come up with a few good policies that may be implemented in the future, by Democrats as well as Republicans. With Trump’s communication talents he could help make these functional policies popular.
It is one of many of Trump’s dysfunctional beliefs that he believes that if he doesn’t win the election, all his work and investments would be worthless. It would be more functional if he could modify this belief to a plan where he would use all his talents, time, and money to do something contributory to the country, even if he looses the election.
An example of this plan is Bernie Sanders’ campaign. Even though he lost the nomination, he got Hillary to tell his supporters at the Democratic convention “Your cause is our cause.” His efforts weren’t in vain. He contributed something to the country. He lost with dignity……and meaning.
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