Sure, ones that were working on legitimate economic activity before taking office. But if someone comes into the presidency as a lifelong intelligence officer with no massive inheritance, and after 15 years in office is a multi-billionaire, it's pretty clear what's going on.
No. Most were in the $1-10 million net worth range before taking office. Former presidents, of course, can easily make tens of millions on book sales and speaking fees. But that's still small time compared to the owners of major firms.
Trump being billionaire before joining Politics is not a bad thing in my book. I am worried about the centi-millionaires whose only profession is Politics like the Clintons, Pelosi, Mitch etc. Of course, Obamas are on that road too.
Donald Trump is a billionaire. It is also plainly clear that he has conspiratorial thinking and is often fooled by completely incorrect information. Somebody being a successful tech entrepreneur has almost nothing to do with being able to develop deep understanding of rapidly changing situations off third hand evidence.
Trump, Tillerson, DeVos, Koch brothers, Goldman Sachs, and on and on. I think there are plenty of people willing to stretch moral and ethical boundaries in order to make more money.
We have had a leader being a technocrat/rich businessman only once before in US history. That was Herbert Hoover. Now Trump. Neither have done anything amazing for business and/or innovation.
I very much think Trump is the exact same way. He knows a lot of business and his business, but he knows absolutely nothing about governance. That's not necessarily because he's a bad person, but because he's an extrovert and the type of extrovert who learns from experience and not from books. Evidence of the this is the violence at his rallies, when is the last time that happened to a Presidential candidate? I think the sort of policies he's going to push are going to lead to a lot of problems in the world for America in the long run. But it's very likely that he will be elected.
Also in terms of intelligence, getting a lot of money early in life and then making lots of small time investments in a lot of companies and having them turn into unicorns is not necessarily signs that you are super intelligent. You can just as likely just be lucky, and it be a case of survivor-ship bias.
I remember something like six ex- Goldman-Sachs partners? Multiple billionaires and corruption incidents at a breath taking frequency...
I really don't like to blame rich people for their wealth. But boy, the people around Trump really make an effort to promote the image of rich people feeling entitled to more than they are legally allowed.
Trump a political outsider. Lol. What a lie and many of the unthinking masses actually believed it. They probably still do. As if billionaires and politicians don't run in the exact same circles. As if it wasn't made crystal clear after the inauguration. Politics and business leadership in the U.S. are the same thing. There's no way in hell anyone's going to make billions without being a political insider.
The fact that all a POTUS does after presidency is enrich oneself, it's quite clear where the motives are.
The moment when POTUS is unable to profit off of his presidency is the moment where these things wouldn't happen.
POTUS becoming a multimillionaire after presidency is just a sad display of moral corruption.
Edit: Not talking about Trump, just in general about POTUS. It's my impression that in the last 50 years all of them benefited from the public, exerting their influence after losing the binds of the POTUS position to enrich themselves. Shows quite a lack of moral character in all of them.
I agree. Do we know the actual rulers? I'm thinking a few Russians who gave Trump loans and owners of American steel companies, but I'm not sure who the specific billionaires are.
That won't open doors. Neither party will trust her. Republicans think she is a democrat, and democrats would blacklist anybody who worked for Trump. She had plenty of doors open already, not that she needed them. She had her fashion brand, and she married into the finance industry. She doesn't need any nepotism.
The president needs people he can trust. If that means hiring family, I'm fine with that. Other politicians seem to have their kids work for Ukrainian gas companies, which is a lot more disturbing.
Wealth involving real estate is difficult to estimate, but typical estimates are several billion. For example, a drop from 4 billion before the presidency to about 3 billion now is one estimate. This is notably the opposite direction from a typical politician. Increases in wealth are far more suggestive of corruption.
Well, he already had money before becoming President and everyone knew that. But, hell, did the people around him cash in. For instance, Jared Kushner (Special Adviser/son-in-law) and Steve Mnuchin (Treasury Secretary) founded private equity firms and raised $2 billion and $1 billion respectively from the Saudi government [1]. It's not illegal to do that, but it's really murky especially for Kushner who was not known for having investment experience outside real estate (Mnuchin, on the other hand, is a veteran investor who previously chaired a bank).
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