At Secretive Meeting, Tech CEOs And Top Republicans Commiserate, Plot To Stop Trump

A highlight of the gathering was a presentation by Rove about focus group findings on Trump. The business mogul's greatest weakness, according to Rove, was that voters have a very hard time envisioning him as "presidential" and as somebody their children should look up to. They also see him as somebody who can be erratic and shouldn't have his (small) fingers anywhere near a nuclear trigger.

The business mogul's greatest weakness, according to Rove, was that voters have a very hard time envisioning him as "presidential" and as somebody their children should look up to.

I would be so happy if my children produced children like these:

Watching their competence and poise on The Apprentice as they dealt with powerful personalities in conflict and engaged in problem-solving and decision-making completely revised my skepticism about Trump the fomer playboy billionaire. All three grown children have followed their father in not smoking, drinking or drugging. They have stayed out of the gossip press. They are all married. Don Jr has five children of his own and Ivanka has two, with another imminent, and has been photographed walking to religious services in New York City with her husband. Their Dad must have been doing something right.

I had followed Trump's business career for many years and was taken off guard by his personal warmth on the Apprentice shows, which demonstrated to many the workings of success for those who are motivated.

I also could not help but notice the effortless diversity in Trump's relationships with his Apprentice contestants, perhaps a third of which were persons of color. He mentored people and expected the best from them, not pandering to position, race or gender when critiqueing their work product. He did not hesitate because of race to fire people, and was even-handed in giving praise or telling people to shape up. I was quite impressed when an 80-year-old female won one season of Celebrity Apprentice — she had demonstrated great competence throughout — but unlike my experience in real life, she was not then overlooked or discounted because of age or gender; rather her output was appropriately recognized, even though her main contender was a black male. Trump did not look at race or gender; he looked at performance of the objective (raise money for charity) and who did it best. This was a demonstration of getting past political correctness that he has often spoken about.

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