The Business Equivalent of Paris Hilton

Can we all, now, at last, get over this nonsense that Donald Trump is a capable businessman?

From here he looks like Paris Hilton with a comb-over. His "feud" with Rosie O’Donnell is more like Paris vs. Nicole than Jobs vs. Gates.

First, he became a millionaire by starting as a billionaire. His "self-made fortune" was made by his father, Fred Trump. The Donald has endured two bankruptcies, anyone who invests with him gets hosed, and his megal0maniacal habit of splashing his name on everything doesn’t earn any of these buildings a premium — just the opposite.

Second, The Apprentice is to business as burlesque was to opera. One has nothing to do with the other beyond the fact they both take place on a stage. Putting his own kids into the cast should have been a Clue. Anyone idiot enough to think being a contestant on this show makes you a "business player" should have their degree taken away from them.

Third, he’s parading through American cities right now, along with a host of scam artists ("God wants you to be rich?") on behalf of The Learning Annex. What he’s running is a business school for trailer trash. He’d might as well fill telephone poles with street spam reading "Make Thousands a month working from home," because these are just the people he is working with.

Trump gives legitimate business a very bad name, yet the business media
continues to suck up to him. This says a lot about the state of
so-called "business journalism" today — even TV is nothing more than
PR, runway model anchors breathlessly hanging on every lie told by any
CEO who happens by. The only way Fox could top this kind of BJ
journalism is by having Donald Trump as anchor.

Yet the last time Trump came through Atlanta, with his Learning Annex circus, there was gridlock in downtown. No media company — none — has done the kind of take-down on Trump I just did after spending 10 minutes Googling him.

Maybe he is an historical character after all.

He’s the Jim Fisk of the second Gilded Age. When the Progressive Era comes back, let this be Exhibit A. Bring back the estate tax, and double it.