Trump's Master
Class in Awful Management
The publicity stunt at
Arlington National Cemetery is a lesson for entrepreneurs: doubling down on
your mistakes isn't necessarily going to correct them.
Expert Opinion By Howard Tullman, General
managing partner, G2T3V and Chicago High Tech Investors @howardtullman1
Sep 4, 2024
One of
the most important lessons an entrepreneur needs to learn is when to quit when
you find yourself in trouble and in a tough spot, especially when the problem
is one of your own making. This doesn't mean giving up on the project or the
business. Or ceasing your efforts to succeed or to polish and improve your
product or service. And it's certainly not a suggestion that you refuse to help
your people get better or stop having
their backs. It's just a well-known rule of holes: When you're in
one, the first thing you need to do is to stop digging.
Doubling
down when you're in the dumps is almost always a bad move. Compounding your
mistakes by digging deeper, refusing to recognize reality, being too proud or
foolish to admit your error, lying about what happened, or thinking that you
can bulldoze your way through isn't the answer. The Trump campaign is providing
almost daily examples of exactly what not to do every time Trump stumbles.
The
next two months of election campaigning will provide an abundance of
misstatements, tactical errors, offensive comments, and, of course, outright
lies as well as constant lessons of what to avoid if you have any desire to
succeed in business. As Trump becomes more and more desperate, we can expect
more despicable claims, more stunts, and a continued exploration of just how
low a politician can go.
If you
thought the campaign sunk to the bottom, you haven't seen anything yet. The
only thing we've learned in a decade of Trump is that things can always get
worse, especially as he panics. The latest of Trump's stunts--the completely
fake "ceremony" and wreath laying at Arlington National Cemetery--was
a sham and a typical Trump two-fer. When all the facts emerge, I hope that his
team will be humiliated for foisting a desecration on the hallowed grounds.
First,
this photo session in Section 60 (with Trump campaign staff and others posing
for selfies while standing on soldiers' graves) wasn't an authorized
governmental event in any respect, whatever Trump's staff asserts. The Army,
normally reluctant to say anything about political matters, published a
statement pointing out that Trump's staff was specifically made aware that Army
and Department of Defense policies clearly prohibit political activities on
cemetery grounds, as well as photography in specific sections.
Second,
the photos and video were quickly turned into campaign ads on TikTok narrated
by Trump. As if it wasn't enough to trample on the graves of heroes. JD Vance,
a Marine Corps veteran, had to claim with a straight face that a video crew and
multiple cameras just happened to be there at the time of Trump's visit.
Trump
says that he knew nothing about the incident, blaming the families and the
government, and taking on the Army. You have to wonder just what he thinks of
our nation's veterans and the public. As singer-songwriter Jim Croce once
advised: You don't spit into the wind, and you don't tug on Superman's cape.
But Trump and team just keep digging deeper.
His
people are claiming that this stunt was a smart way to remind voters of the
military's painful and deadly exit from Afghanistan which, in no small part,
was every bit the product of Trump's own concessions to the Taliban, including
the release of prisoners, and closing all the military bases.
The
rest of the world (except perhaps for those still watching Fox News) thinks
that this clown just held his latest circus in a national cemetery. Trump will
never be completely worthless. He will always be a bad example.
