How to Talk to Your Employees About
Trump
Start
by telling them what it takes to be a real leader.
EXPERT OPINION BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V
AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS @HOWARDTULLMAN1
Oct 14,
2025
We have a liar as our
President, and we’re stuck with him for the next three-plus years. Whether
you’re a business owner, parent, or both, we consistently need to say something
to our kids and everyone else in our lives who’s trying to make sense of this
cynical charade. As numb as we all are at the moment, it’s dumb to stay quiet
any longer.
We have a leader who
lies the way most people breathe. It’s beyond second nature to him. He doesn’t
merely lie to secure a certain objective or interest (apart from his desire to
be a King); he lies because he enjoys it, because he can’t help himself, and
because it’s a central part of his deeply-flawed character. And because he
intuitively believes what Thomas Jefferson said so many years ago: “A continual
circulation of lies among those who are not much in the way of hearing them
contradicted will in time pass for the truth”. If Trump has a credo, this is
it: A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth.
We laughed that the
difference between a car salesman and a computer salesman was that the car
salesmen knew he was lying to you. The computer guy barely understood what it
was that he was selling. Trump knows he’s lying and knows exactly what he’s
trying to accomplish. To scare us, to turn us against each other, to always
blame the “other,” and to incessantly aggrandize himself. It actually seems to
be getting worse. His continued attempts to declare himself King aren’t very
different from the claims in ancient France of Louis XIV that “l’etat c’est
moi.” Trump thinks saying makes it so and claims that “when somebody’s the
president of the United States, his authority is total.” The slime ball Stephen
Miller blurts out that Trump’s power is plenary and then instantly regrets on
live TV accidentally speaking the truth.
So how do we fairly
describe for our employees and our families just what is happening to our
government and our country and why we can no longer in good conscience believe
anything said by its clearly deranged and dishonest, leader? Start by
telling them what it takes to be a real leader.
1. Leaders can cast shadow or light. Everything about Trump is dark and
divisive.
2. Leaders must understand that they’re part of something greater than
themselves. Trump actually believes that he’s the king of the world.
3. You’re not a leader until others believe that you are putting them
first. Trump is about nothing but Trump.
4. A leader never blames his people for his failings. Trump is utterly
incapable of accepting either blame or responsibility. He blames everyone but
himself.
5. Leaders can either swell or grow. We can only hope, as the swelling and
bloat continue, that Trump bursts one of these days.
The embarrassing,
baseless, and arrogant assertions will continue as long as the mainstream media
refuse to challenge or confront Trump. When tin-pot dictators lose the people’s
trust, confidence, and belief, they seize upon authority as their final claim
of support. The truth is that no one ever believed in Trump—he was a cartoon
and a joke from the start—but unfortunately too many people acting in their own
self-interest saw him as a weapon and a vehicle to secure their own aims. They
held their collective noses, looked elsewhere, and let the clown run wild. We
have only one person to blame for this mess and that’s each other.
Lies often reveal who
and what the liar wishes he could be, and Trump has desperately sought the
approval of the powerful and the media since his earliest days. He was by his
own account always the biggest, the best, and the loudest, but he was never taken
seriously. He has been a farcical caricature and, as he berates the press to
their faces in the White House (and forever soils the place with his venom), we
see just how bent and bitter he truly is. It’s pathetic and beyond embarrassing
to see this out-of-control reality show character singling out and slandering
the press and, by extension, the public’s interests, which they attempt to
represent. The press may deserve a fair amount of criticism and contempt for
its own shortcomings and failings, but his actions are simply beyond the
pale.
Now the
Cheerleader-in-Chief, with the help of the feckless Speaker Mike Johnson—who
does whatever Trump demands—thinks he can adjourn Congress for as long as he
pleases to keep the Epstein files hidden from the public. This stupid ploy is
doomed, but it’s also very reminiscent of an old Hollywood quote from Samuel
Goldwyn about his employees, which couldn’t be more fitting and timelier for
our current circumstances. He said: “I’ll take 50 percent efficiency to get 100
percent loyalty.” And boy, don’t we know that and see it every day in action.
Lying may be an essential part of politics, but lying to yourself (as Trump
does every day) and believing your own lies is pathological.
To make things worse,
Trump’s ego is so fragile and sensitive—and so easily offended—that, for the
slightest perceived slights, he pummels the press and even his own people and
rubs things in their faces on a daily basis right before our eyes. He’s an overbearing
bully, a mini-martinet, and a retweeting weasel to boot. Samuel Goldwyn’s most
famous observation fits here too. He famously said: “I want everybody to tell
me the truth, even if it costs them their job.”
Speaking the truth is no
easy task with people (young or old) who have been raised to respect the office
of the president and, sadly, the courts as well, to err on the side of goodness
and give any occupant the benefit of the doubt in terrible circumstances, and
to believe that anyone in such a position of trust and responsibility would
act—not in his own selfish interest and for favored special interests—but for
the good of the country as a whole.
