A President Who Demands The Very "Best"
President Donald John Trump has lived a life that few of us can even imagine. For years, we’ve seen him on the cover of magazines and the front page of newspapers — photos of him walking with celebrities, shaking hands with Presidents.
He’s been the epitome of a real estate tycoon, having owned signature properties, including a selection of golf courses, three Atlantic City Casinos, and now his legendary Trump Tower in Manhattan and the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.
It’s just the sort of portfolio you’d expect from the scion of a significant real estate family. Begun by his grandparents and driven to great heights by his father, the Trump family holdings included Trump Village in Brooklyn (named after Fred Trump, not Donald), as well as other apartments throughout the New York Boroughs.
Trump became President of the family business at the age of 25 — a lofty height for any young person. It meant that for Trump’s entire adult life, he has dealt with the very top, the upper echelon of business and finance. No doubt this has driven the future US President to demand the very “best” (Trump’s definition) and deal only with the “winners,” a term Trump frequently uses.
Whomever the television executive was who decided to use Trump for “The Apprentice,” it was an inspired choice. Any candidate who did not live up to Trump’s expectations was summarily “FIRED.” Trump’s expectations were high, and if you did not contribute to the “bottom line,” you would likely find yourself on the sidewalk.
The “Bottom Line” is always the measure of worth for Trump — a simple, straightforward way to measure someone’s value to an organization, be it public or private. According to the Partnership for Public Service, the Trump Administration has fired 199,000 federal government employees
(https://ourpublicservice.org/),
all of whom apparently failed to make a significant contribution to the “bottom line.”
Ah, the “bottom line,” that incredibly rigid, unforgiving measure of worth. Over the years, I’ve noted how major corporations, and now the US Government, have cycled between expansion and contraction, as business conditions warrant. During the good times, organizations promote marketing and sales personnel to the corner office to expand their business. But when times turn down and the company loses money, they inevitably turn to the accountants, the bean-counters, to cut costs.
If we were to look only at Trump’s personnel management, we might conclude that’s what he’s doing — cutting costs. However, that cannot be the case for a President who has just enacted the largest federal budget and hence the Largest Federal Deficit in history. Someone who apparently has no limit on his willingness to spend, spend, spend.
No, the issue here is something more pernicious. It has to do with the kind of government, or for that matter, the kind of country that Trump envisions.
Remember, our thesis is that Trump demands the very best (his definition of “best” is not ours) in an organization and in its people. In Trump’s world, the “best” is always measured by the bottom line. So, look who the richest President in history surrounds himself. There’s that iconic Inauguration photo with the five Tech CEO’s and Founders behind him, from Jeff Bezos, to Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pinchai, and Tim Cook, and, of course, Elon Musk, at the time the world’s wealthiest person, and all meet Trump’s definition of the “best.”
On Trump’s Cabinet are the wealthy and the famous; it is estimated that the net worth of Trump’s Cabinet exceeds $7.5 billion, nearly double the wealth of any other Cabinet in history. It includes billionaires Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Education Secretary Linda McMahon. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent comes in third with a “mere” $600 million. All adhere to that fundamental Trump criterion: they are the “best” (i.e., the richest).
The point here is not to “dis” the wealthy, but to underscore that this is the circle that Trump travels in, and always has. Clearly, Trump’s values, goals, and objectives have been set by this class. Without a doubt, Trump has lived one of the most extravagant lives ever. On numerous occasions, Trump has pointed out that he’s had a “great life” before he ran for President.
https://x.com/thehill/status/1309615773002993664 (@ 50 seconds)
So, here’s the question, it’s as old as history: can Trump see below the elite to the level of the ordinary person? Does he understand the worth of the fourth-level librarian at the Smithsonian, or the local beat cop? Or the contribution of the janitors, farm workers, and day laborers who make up much of our economy?
These are the individuals who may contribute little to the financial bottom line, but are essential in enabling an organization to function. Workers, who likely don’t know the “Art of the Deal,” or even what a “Deal” is, but without whom all commercial activity would stop.
It's not merely a humanitarian question, or even a purely personnel issue; there are real, genuine economic and financial concerns here. We are, as a country, completely unbalanced, celebrating the wealthy and successful, but failing to recognize many of the essential jobs at lower levels. The police, service personnel, and basic laborers who make our cities safe, ensure the lights come on, and provide us with food and water.
Yes, I’ve seen the photos of candidate Trump posing with police and service workers, but it’s time to look at the President’s policies. Who does President Trump help in building his “Great America?”
To see how Trump’s focus on the “winners” philosophy is reflected, we can look to the White House Website, “The Trump Effect: A Running List of New US Investments In Trump’s Second Term.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/08/trump-effect-a-running-list-of-new-u-s-investment-in-president-trumps-second-term/
It is, as you might expect, a running tally of the economic winners in our country, headed by a $600 billion investment by Apple Computer and a $500 billion investment by Oracle Systems. As I last checked, these two technology leaders are doing just fine financially.
There are a few manufacturing or heavy industry companies in Trump’s list of “New Investments.” In fact, the first manufacturing company on the list is number #13, United Arab Emirates-based ADQ Energy, which reports a $25 billion investment, a level 24 times smaller than Apple’s investment. It’s also noteworthy that of the few industrial companies here, most are foreign.
Throughout the rest of the list, a handful of energy companies are listed, primarily due to the increasing energy demand of AI (Artificial Intelligence) facilities.
Overall, this is a list that rewards the “winners” and DJT’s “best” in corporate America.
Of course, we’re all delighted that American Technology Companies, as well as foreign enterprises such as UAE Energy, and the 37 other foreign companies that make up the list, are committed to funding new facilities and projects here.
It makes us all feel good. Moreover, it makes great headlines. Unfortunately, it misses the point. As President, Mr. Trump, it’s not necessary to applaud the winners or march at the head of that parade.
It’s the companies that are not receiving funding and are floundering that need your help and support. We thought that the goal of MAGA was to make the entire nation Great, not just cheer for those who are doing well.
As you said in your Inaugural Address:
“America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have — the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth — and we are going to use it. We’ll use it. (Applause.)”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/remarks/2025/01/the-inaugural-address/
When can we expect to see the list of investments in our manufacturing base and energy infrastructure? Mr. President, when will you begin to boost and support the downtrodden sectors of the economy? When will you acknowledge that the nation’s infrastructure is managed by average companies in fields such as energy, water, and mining? These are organizations that don’t have the highest P/E ratios, nor achieve the greatest ROI, but Mr. President, without these companies, our country would not function.
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