I must say, I’m marveling at the three-ring circus the Republican primary has become. P.T. Barnum, the famous American showman and founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, has been credited with saying, “If you want to draw a crowd, start a fight.”
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Well, it seems that Donald Trump is a student of P.T. Barnum. He certainly understands how to draw a crowd. In fact, he’s so accomplished at drawing a crowd, it seems the student has become the master. Trump will say just about anything, and the media flocks to cover him. He has picked fight after fight or has baited others to pick fights with him. He appears to be a master of showmanship—so much so that The Economist had this to say, “Mr. Trump is to public service what professional wrestling, which he loves, is to sport.”
And the result of all of this? An unprecedented amount of free media coverage for Trump. His outlandish comments keep him front and center in the media coverage. The media continues to cover him because his politically incorrect comments get ratings. His over-the-top approach is great television. Trump knows how to draw a crowd!
It’s ironic that the billionaire candidate has become a master at garnering free press. According to a Wall Street Journal article, Trump has received three times the free coverage of his nearest rival and more free media coverage than all the rest of the Republican contenders combined. And according to disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission, Trump’s campaign spent just $12.4 million in 2015, millions less than any of the other top contenders for the Republican nomination. Compare that to former rival Jeb Bush, who started the primary season with a war chest of more than $100 million.
In the United States, we’ve grown accustomed to our politicians being experts at saying nothing at all. It’s not that they don’t talk—they’ve just mastered the skill of talking a lot without saying anything of substance. Why utter something that could come back to haunt you later? Why speak out when it might offend some segment of the voting public? Our politicians have become very good at being politically correct.
“Political correctness” is defined as “agreeing with the idea that people should be careful not to use language or behave in a way that could offend a particular group of people.” Politicians are usually masterful at being politically correct, but Trump is the exact opposite of politically correct. He’s about as politically INCORRECT as they come. And yet he has mesmerized a large portion of the American people and has attracted a following that was nearly impossible to predict or explain.
Let’s explore some of the things Trump has said or tweeted during this primary season:
- About Republican rival Carly Fiorina, he said in an interview, “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!”
- “Jeb Bush has to like the Mexican illegals because of his wife,” Trump tweeted, referring to Bush’s Mexican-American wife.
- “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said of Senator John McCain, who spent more than 5 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
- “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?” Trump retweeted last April.
- About Muslims, he had this to say, “They’re not coming to this country if I’m president.”
- His thoughts on Mexican immigrants? “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you … They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
These are just a few of Trump’s politically incorrect statements, and I left a few of the most egregious ones out. Yet Trump is defying logic and racing to the Republican nomination for president of the United States. It seems he has offended everyone, including women, Muslims, immigrants, Mexicans—the list goes on. Even the Pope couldn’t help but comment about him. Yet “Teflon® Don” remains wildly popular with a large segment of the American people.
It seems Trump is insulting his way to the nomination. To me, this defies logic. I cannot understand why people have so embraced the controversial businessman/celebrity turned politician. I speculate that people are so tired of politics as usual and the say-nothing political correctness that goes along with it that they’re willing to overlook his consistent, controversial statements as he takes aim at just about everyone. Even Trump seemed to have the sense that no matter what he does, people will continue to support his candidacy when he said, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
That statement is so over the top that it is offensive—or it should be. But, you know what? He might be right. Whether you love Trump, hate him, or couldn’t care less about him, he’s become a central figure in American politics. We have a billionaire who says consistently outrageous and even offensive things, and it looks like he’s well on his way to the Republican nomination and possibly to the White House. And that’s the state of politics in America!
“Share Your Comments on This Tip.” WHAT tip? As a SPHR, I have been happily reading the HR Daily Advisor for years. I read it as one of the many ways I stay current with my profession. Clearly the administration of whomever assumes the Oval Office next January will impact our profession. Someone’s rant about a particular candidate; however, is completely irrelevant and does nothing except cheapen any publication dedicated to a particular profession. STOP IT. Save it for whatever cheesy social blog is dedicated to opinions of people who don’t matter about topics that don’t matter and over which the the ranter and his ilk have no control or influence.
I think this e-pinion is indeed appropriate. In HR we are constantly striving to prevent harassment and statements that incite our employees. Can you imagine if your employees or your supervisors used such insensitive and bigoted comments? What a sorry state our profession would be in if this all of sudden was acceptable in the workplace. We would be set back fifty years. It is something for us to think about. After all this man is running for President of the United States. If we had a potential candidate for a job opening with those kind of public remarks, I doubt any of us would hire him for anything. I know I wouldn’t.
HR Daily Advisor, stick with the Human Resource venue, one-sided political views do not belong in this arena nor can it be considered a “Tip”. As Mr. Wolfe stated below, “Save it for whatever cheesy social blog …..”
Thanks to Randy, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Trump is the ugly face of hate in America. It has a voice. It has been hiding underneath laws that have changed over generations, but in the background, the thoughts have always been the same. If you support this man, you back everything he says – it is a reflection of your thoughts. Immigrants made this country and hate has to stop! And let’s just be correct, we’re all immigrants except the American Indians! You want to make “America great again”. Ok, but exactly, what time frame do you want America to revert back to?
What I hate are criminals that break the law. I have nothing against legal immigration. What I protest is all of the illegal immigrants that get a pass on just about everything (look at the girl that was run down in January when he was drag racing and the police were told they couldn’t hold him – now he’s in the wind)welfare, social security, driving with no licenses and unregistered cars, in some states they get in-state tuition at universities, and the list goes on. People say we can’t deport them because it would be too expensive. Well I say it is more expensive to support them and their families than a one way ticket home. And no, if you support any candidate it doesn’t mean you support everything they say and do. It means that they have some ideas you believe may in.
I do not think this article has any place in this publication. Unless you want to look at the other side of the isle and discuss the poor candidates on the Dem side as well. I think it is sad that this is the best we can do out of the population in the USA, for both Rep’s and Dem’s.
Well said, Dan.
Someone, anyone, anywhere had to be the voice of reason. I’m glad to see that you are that someone. I marvel at his popularity too. Agreed, people are not looking at him as a candidate, but as a person who speaks his mind. He is saying things that a lot of American’s wish they could say.
As for the comments of Randy Wolfe, just like you are entitled to your thoughts, so is Dan. FYI – Dan did not say anything incorrect, or wrong, or slanderous against Mr. Trump, he stated facts. Also, if Mr. Trump is elected president it will affect everyone, and have impact on several HR issues. Let me ask you this, if he was one of your employees spouting this racist rhetoric, how long would he be working for your company?
FYI – his editorial, not Rant, did have influence over you and me, as we both responded. Therefore, we were influenced.
Once again, well said Dan! I applaud your conscientious, and though provoking editorial.
Just for the record, when Mr. Trump first announced his candidacy, I thought good, a successful businessman is just what we need to get our country out of this depression and out of debt. However, after listening to his comments while speaking at a presidential debate, commenting on his genitalia, that is when I realized he would not be the person I want to represent me, or my country. You are free to follow/support him politically; I support everyone’s right to choose whomever they think is the best candidate, just as I am free to choose not to support him.
Thank you
Al
At the risk of TMI, I am a registered Democrat. No where in my comment did I indicate I was a Trump supporter and like Al, marvel at his “popularity”(and that the presidency has become a popularity contest). What I wrote is that I read the HR Advisor for professional updates, not political opinion. This is not the appropriate venue. We all are inundated with politics this year every time we pick up a newspaper or magazine, surf the Net, or turn on the television. I do not come to work to hear or read political opinions. Yes Mitch – I would deal swiftly and appropriately (and as privately as possible) with an employee who made insensitive and bigoted comments at work. I also would fire a manager who found it appropriate to have sex with a student intern. My ONLY point is that I was disappointed to see the HR Advisor choose to delve into political opinion rather than human resource-related subject matter.
Well said
America is doomed . . . if voters continue to elect socialist elitist politicians to office. It’s about as bad as it can get here in California, where districts have been gerrymandered into permanent Democrat or Republican enclaves, and idiots rule in Sacramento. The latest headache proposed there is a “three-week” awork schedule for employees of restaurants, grocery stores, and “retail establishments” with massive penalties to the employer for changing the schedule — the h*** with the actual needs of the business.
Donald Trump is certainly no politician. But when did that ever stop someone from running for office? You may not like him as a person, you may think his rhetoric is divisive or worse, and you probably don’t like his hairstyle either. But you must admit that he has caused people to become engaged in this presidential election cycle. We are likely to see the largest voter turn out in decades . . . finally.
The reality of being POTUS is that whoever occupies the Oval Office is a figurehead. He/She has no power to enact legislation, although the current occupant has taken Executive Orders to the boundary of Unconstitutional Dictator. The President may want certain things to happen, but he/she will have to get Congress to agree, which is easier said than done because it’s still populated by elitist bloviators who have only one thing on their minds . . . to get reelected. Everything else they do makes life harder for the rest of us.
Given the potential office holders still in the race at this point, I would take Trump in a heartbeat, if for no other reason than he is a businessman, and America needs to stop running as a welfare state and start running like a business. The country doesn’t need a budget that makes a profit, but we MUST stop budgeting as if the supply of money is inexhaustible. I think Trump is the only candidate who understands that the economics of unfettered debt don’t work.
The trillions of dollars America shifted around the globe beginning in 2002 as GW Bush put us on the path called “the war on terror” would have changed the lives of every American forever if those dollars had stayed at home instead. But what politician really wants to eradicate homelessness, poverty, the lack of education, the challenges of health care, Social Security, and Medicare when doing so probably means being voted out of office?
America has become a video game personified. Trump has figured that out, while the other candidates and the media haven’t, because they’re all narcissists who are too busy looking at themselves in the mirror . . . as in Snow White: “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”
If Trump is elected POTUS, he is likely to sweep large numbers of other Republicans into various offices across America, with the possible exception of California. Eight years ago, voters were persuaded by “Change we can believe in.” What we got was far from it. “Make America great again!” has a certain amount of appeal, because many of us haven’t sensed anything significantly great about America in a long time,and we’re willing to try to reclaim it.
Dan, how about you stick to topics relevant to HR? I’m not a Trump backer, but this drivel has no place on this website.
I am still looking for the “tip” and the relevance of today’s article as an HR professional. The only thing that this article did was support the author’s own theory of giving Donald Trump more free publicity because of his ability to “start a fight”. There is nothing that I can gain from this article of relevance to my occupation or industry. I was doubly disappointed when I realized that the author of the article was the CEO, BLR. The bottom line is as HR professionals, someone who made these kinds of comments in the workplace would be fired. If Donald Trump was a supervisor in a company he didn’t own, he would be fired, possibly put the company in jeopardy and open himself to personal damages depending on the circumstances and consistence of the comments. You can believe what you want and vote how you want, but this is not the place for giving your personal thoughts on the “state of politics in America”. Ok, you’ve had your say as CEO, Dan. Let’s now go back to some HR-relevant topics.
I read the subject header for this e-pinion and was elated that there was someone who sees the parallel between election politics to candidacy for an open position and various ways to campaign for being selected. So I read (all the way to the end of the opinion as well as nearly all of the comments). The offensive speech as abhorrent for business decisions was there but little else.
Paula Deen’s kitchen had a similar colorful flair until one of her workers not only complained but also filed an EEOC complaint. Perhaps *that* should have been the perspective of such a piece published in the HR Daily Adviser – how the two aspects of life and work in the U.S. are actually quite parallel to politics.
But this campaign defies rationality. It seems it’s only focus is on bringing out the roaches in our work, social, and school environs so that we can see the true colors of those who speak from both sides of their mouths.
And as to inciting and encouraging violence, apparently that should be acceptable. Our worker’s comp and tort laws, not to mention criminal laws, will need to go through some massive revisions. The lack of action to stop the fascist means what he does and says is acceptable and we need to learn to emulate him.
Interestingly, I wonder why we need to bother rehabilitating gang members if the Trump version of diplomacy and leadership are going to become the law and way of the land.
Can we discuss your thoughts on how this will impact HR if Trump becomes President? My thoughts are…we will face challenges on how we manage our workforce, particularly from an employee relations standpoint. I feel we may face problems with our more difficult employees who may feel they can say anything in the workplace and get away with it. What are your thoughts?
“I feel we may face problems with our more difficult employees”
What exactly is preventing you from dealing with your “difficult employees” today? Are they not efficient workers? Are they intoxicated daily? Are they destructive? Are they routinely late to work, take longer breaks and lunches?
What exactly is a “difficult employee”?
From personal experience, I can tell you that in some employments in my past, I might have been referred to by persons above my pay grade as “difficult” and there was a reason for it. Those persons, in my opinion, were inept and refused to listen to the ideas of their subordinates. So, the subordinates turned into obstinates in order to try to get some kind of attention . . . which was usually not forthcoming.
Your difficult employees may actually have the organization’s best interests in mind, but because they are labeled “difficult” no on thinks they have anything reasonable or important to say.