Fluid Team

~ Clarissa

It’s silly that people are acting so stunned by the fluidity of Trump’s team. He’s extremely successful in business – and yes, he is, in spite of the lower-middle-class terrors around the word “bankruptcy” – and you can’t do that without being comfortable with fluidity. It’s not like letting go of people easily is any worse than holding on to all kinds of severely compromised folks like Hillary does.

Published by Clarissa

20 thoughts on “Fluid Team”

      1. Of course. That’s why I need the laugh.

        But the idea of this guy being a successful fluid business man when the bulk of his current wealth is inherited from real estate deals his father did is risible. Nothing says “fluid” like “huge tracts of land.” It’s almost as funny as a libertarian railroad mogul.

        Better examples of successful fluid business men:
        Mitt Romney.
        Jamie Dimon: (or whomever came up with the idea of putting subprime mortgages in those mortgage bonds)

        And we’re going to talk about the epitome of successful personal branding, it’s Oprah, not this joker. If you’re going to talk about fluidity as applied to personal branding, any reasonably successful pop star is better at it.

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        1. As somebody pointed out before, Trump’s success isn’t based on him being a great real estate developer, which as you say, is not very fluid as a job. It’s based on him being good at branding and knowing how to use first TV and then social media for this purpose.

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          1. I think Shakti and I are disagreeing with your assessment that Trump is a successful businessman–not disputing that he’s good at branding. Trump’s isn’t a business success. He’s a celebrity. No different than Ben Affleck or Justin Timberlake.

            He branded himself into being president, yes. But that’s not a business or an economic success. It’s a marketing success at most. And truly, it’s not even all that astounding. Americans love celebrity and hate expertise. We voted for Ronald Regan, Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Trump was just another in the long line of bumbling, incompetent men that we elect to high office.

            Also, racism and misogyny are an integral part (not the whole) of Trump’s brand. It doesn’t exactly take a marketing genius to tap into those veins-just takes someone ethically and morally bereft.

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            1. Actually, his brand is going down if you look at it from a “putting my name on things makes people want to buy stuff and pay more for it” perspective.

              The money he makes from his club memberships right now is “people want to buy access to the decision maker” not “people want to buy access to Trump, the personal brand.” The money he made from charging Secret Service agents to stay in Trump Tower to guard his current wife and child’s life is a rent not some kind of branding “success.”

              A true brand success would not result in Trump rebranding some hotels as Scion because why in the world would you obscure the connection to a successful personal brand?

              Also, you might argue that Ivanka Trump’s businesses are at the end of their life cycle but her businesses which trade on her name and her association with her father (it’s Ivanka Trump not Kushner or whatever) have suffered. Why would anyone relabel clothes and shoes as some other brand if the name getting all this exposure from your father being POTUS?

              He sells #MAGA hats…big whoop. I don’t see a flood of people here trying to benefit from the halo effect of the President and this county went for Trump.

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              2. Another thing to note is that this whole Russia mess came about precisely because his ‘brand’ was so shitty he couldn’t get loans from banks in US and Europe, so he had to rely on shady Russian money for investment.

                There’s so much written about how he’s never enriched any investor in his entire business career. Just himself.

                And it’s not like banks have any ethical considerations. They work with drug cartels, for god’s sake. All they want is return on their investment, the only thing donnie has never been able to provide.

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  2. That is such a charitable interpretation of what is happening that I wonder if you weren’t vying to be a part of this ‘fluid team’.

    PR companies should steal this phrase.

    ‘Why do you keep hiring wife-beaters?”
    ‘Business at the speed of light, dude. Embrace the fluidity’.

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      2. I honestly wonder if Hillary is that loyal to her friends or if it’s just that difficult to find intelligent, driven employees who aren’t at least a little apprehensive of working around Bill, who she can also trust to not run to the police/media over “every little thing” Of course, if you’re working with Hillary, you also have to be somewhat aware that she would turn on you in a heartbeat if you ever made allegations against Bill.

        It might just narrow her options quite a bit.

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  3. “[Trump is] extremely successful in business.”

    You think so?? Most analyses suggest that, since Trump started his ventures with a great deal of money (given to him by his father), that his gain his actually quite low–about the same as if he had put his initial money in a low interest savings account. And, actually, the majority of money that he made on his own comes from his TV show. It’s why most true businessmen (like Mark Cuban or Jeff Bezos–neither of whom I consider particularly admirable) thin Trump is a joke. It’s really sort of a myth that he’s good in business. He was just lucky enough to be born extremely wealthy.

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    1. “Most analyses suggest that, since Trump started his ventures with a great deal of money (given to him by his father), that his gain his actually quite low–about the same as if he had put his initial money in a low interest savings account.”

      • I personally know people who started out with a lot more and did absolutely nothing with it but spend. Some of them now have nothing.

      “And, actually, the majority of money that he made on his own comes from his TV show.”

      • Branding is at the heart of today’s practice of business. This is why Marc Cuban – since you mention him – is clutching on to any chance to be on TV.

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      1. I’m no fan of Marc Cuban but he has acquired a fantastic amount of wealth– most of it through tech startups/ tech investments. He’s not selling “Marc Cuban” branded products. He clearly enjoys his celebrity and has fun on Shark Tank. But that’s a hobby– his wealth is not intertwined with his celebrity.

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