His tweets are gradually getting worse. The only positive outcome of media coverage is that some former Trumpists have had enough and are turning their backs on him. Not all, by any means, because the core of his base is a cult. But denigrating a war hero has to cross a line for some.
1
If Trump practiced his style of bullying in most US middle schools, he would be suspended for two weeks and required to go to counseling. His parents would also be required to talk to the principal or vice principal and his fellow students would come to see him as a pariah. As president he is acclaimed for his bullying as well as his prevaricating, his ignorance, and his amorality.
2
I keep trying to ignore Trump too. It's the only rational response to his nonsense. American companies have every right to manage their own businesses without interference from Mr. Trump. It's all just so much noise with no substance from a weak man who has no real achievements.
2
Looks like Trump’s “imposter syndrome” is in full delusion. Trump has no idea how the auto industry works, but he presents himself as being smarter than the CEOs, none of whom need Trump’s amateurish opinions on how to run their companies.
The USA will be much better off once Trump is out of office. The charade is over. I look forward to stepping into the voting booth in November 2020 and not seeing Trump’s name on the ballot.
2
If the media had ignored Trump as it should have, he wouldn't be president.
4
Never acknowledge a spoiled brat. Ignore a spoiled brat.
2
These last few years have been a massive sinkhole of time...trillions of hours spent being justifiably outraged by this total moron. Trying to intuit what this dolt will do next.
For the GOP, your labor, the hours you spend driving this economy just don’t mean that much. They insult you and your hard work everyday by letting Donald Trump squat and tweet in the Oval Office.
3
Donald is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. An elderly agitated blowhard with a short attention span and no business sense whatsoever.
2
We are closing in on the waining days of the Trump administration and Trumpism/Bannonism. Trump’s tantrum about war hero John McCain was a McCarthy moment. Like McCarthy, Trump will always have those who support him. About 30% of Americans, the deplorables if you will, will always be with him and delight in his bullying and racism. The rest of us are moving on. Bye bye Trump.
2
Donald Trump has the attention span of a gnat. The media should follow the business world's lead: ignore his Tweets.
People would say: But he's the president of the United States!
Well, give his press conferences coverage, as painful as they might be to watch. Give him the airways for the SOTU address.
But don't re-broadcast his mindless and petty Tweets around the globe. Don't televise his rallies - not even the cringe worthy sound bites from them.
Strip him of the attention he obsessively craves. The world will be most grateful.
4
In an earlier column about the relationship between Mr. Trump and Deutsche Bank the statement was made that Mr. Trump had a $40 million brokerage account. Since he has not placed his financial assets in a blind trust I wonder if the Regulators have been looking at, or for, any correlation between his tweets about corporate entities and trading activity in his brokerage accounts? His tweets do sometimes move the markets, either broadly or specifically, and since he believes that he is immune to conflicts of interest issues I wouldn't be surprised if he also believes that he is not subject to insider trading or stock manipulation laws.
Might be worth looking into!!
7
Bullies get their way, until they don't. Too bad for the President, because tweets and threats constitute his entire skill set.
38
@Madeline Conant
Temper tantrums and pouting are feeling ignored, they at least merit a mention.
2
Not terribly surprising. Market research has proved time and time again that public outrage almost always fizzles out quickly. People are happy to complain loudly when it means little to them, but the moment they have to decide whether they can live without the product they're complaining about, the protest usually dies. Add in the ridiculous nature of most of Trump's outrage targets (anyone remember the Trumpers destroying their Keurig coffee machines?) and, no, not surprising at all that he has little impact on business anymore.
25
@Mr. Adams
I thought they destroyed those machine because of the crappy coffee they produce.
8
Almost as bad as Starbucks.
1
I'm just happy to read that trump's still being haunted by the Ghost of GOP Past, John McCain.
10
Remember when there were no Trump Tweets sucking all the oxygen out of America's air and replacing it with sewer gas?
It not only smells bad. It is deadly poisonous to all who breath it.
7
Now if only the press would ignore him....he would just fade away like all incompetent windbag before him.
8
Brilliant because Trump doesn't know what he's doing. And media should take a hint. Stop giving this guy coverage every time he gets toilet paper stuck to his shoe or says anything.
11
The media have the traditional obligation to report our president's comings and goings and policy statements. But where is the obligation to report every gaseous emission?
10
Maybe GM could save the factory but uninformed high level comments by Trump will not help. If we had a reasonably staffed government that is not in constant crises mode they might be able to keep the plant from closing.
3
i think we've all learned that paying attention to Trump is like painting a breaking wind.
5
I stopped paying attention to this attention seeking,ignorant,lying crank awhile ago, fervently hoping that he will eventually just go away. My other hope is that the news media will ignore the continuous bile coming from this toxic human as well.
4
Why should any company listen to a failed businessman like Trump? Tweet storms do not equal policy. Just some crazy man ranting!
11
@Gorgeania:
Exactly. The only thing that comes from the Buffoon-in-Chief's tweets is ever more evidence that he's little more than a twit.
Sad. Bigly sad.
6
Fact of the matter is pretty much everything His Orange Highness says is hokum, spur of the moment.
Where's my middle-class tax cut he promised?
Where's the 10% raise for the military he said was already approved?
Is he really in love with Rocketboy?
Why is he going out of his way to attack a dead man?
Why is- Oh, look! Bright, shiny object!
9
@Patrick Conley:
Spot-on!
"...shiny thing!" --- classic!
5
Looking at the GM workers responding to Traitor Trump, reminds me never to buy a GM car, although the last time I bought a piece of junk made in America was 40 years ago.
4
Keep quiet and lay low, or, fight back and call them out? Do you have the energy it takes to lay low, or, the energy to take someone who is attacking you on? Two kinds of energy. No wrong or right perhaps, know Thyself. For me? Revenge is best served cold... or something like that...Shakespeare? Anybody?...Anybody?...(Ferris Bueller's Day Off)
1
Entire country learned to do this. What one does immediately after hearing his voice? Yep, changes the channel.
16
President Trump cannot help injecting himself into whatever catches his fancy at the moment... instead of concentrating on the broader shape of things and good management. part of this is a result of his mercurial personality, ignorance, and short attention span, and part his apparent inability to actually handle the executive reponsibilities of his office. his base seems to appreciate the way he mirrors their shallow enthusiasms, so at least he has motive for the first part. but every day reveals more ways Trump is just not qualified for the presidency, or capable of upholding his oath of office, and for that reason he should be removed under Article 25. ps, check out Trump's history of remaining true to his oaths, in business and in his personal life.
10
Good. Its about time they started acting like grown ups
6
@sjs:
Don't hold your breath . . .
More tiresome Trump tweets. What else is new? Not even 75 comments here. Looks like everyone else is finally learning to ignore him, too. If only his supporters would figure it out -- but most of them appear to be even dimmer bulbs than Our Dear Leader. Here's hoping that they also tire of him and stay home in November 2020, so the prosecutions of the formerly unindictable president can begin at last.
8
Everything he says is designed to protect his ego, appeal to his base, or both. If the rest of us have cottoned on to this then why would any sane person care or be worried by his twits?
3
It's been 2 year and 59 days this fraud has held office. I like Gm, Amazon other corporations, and fellow human beings of like mind ignore his insensible utterances.
The media has to practice "restraint" as well and stop sharing his rambling twitterings. The TV media has got to stop airing his grandioso staged appearances to his fringe following. maybe just share a quick written and/or verbal recap. There is an abundance of issues that we all face and need to be addressed with the focus on resolutions. Keep me informed about these.
The soap opera he continues to produce and direct got old a long time ago.
6
It's a pity that Congressional Republicans still live in terror of the Tyrant Toddler's twitter feed. How they'll regret their abject cowardice when, after their careers, reputations, and legacies are destroyed, they wake to the fact that Trump was animated only by their cowardice all along.
10
@Christopher M
Yeah, but the cost of their integrity is life in a gated community, unbelievable cradle-to-grave health care, an eye-popping pension, and probably investment income for family members unto the fourth generation.
Believe it, they're getting theirs.
"Careers"? "Reputations"? "Legacies"? Heck, Republicans sold their souls long ago for the brass ring.
2
I wish the Republicans in Congress would follow the lead of the corporations. A majority of Americans do not want to spend billions of dollars on a border wall and agree that it is not the way to "fix" immigration. Vote against Trump's false emergency, vote to override his veto, for once do your job.
6
Maybe these same advisors can help Congressional Republicans figure how to protect democracy instead of constantly enabling the dictator wanna be out of fear of being primaried?
3
We can only hope that industry makes investment and production decisions based on economics and not on the whims of a politician otherwise our country would soon be bankrupt.
1
The new measure of a president of the United States:
How little harm can he/she do.
4
I still don't understand why anyone pays any attention to Twitter period. Talk about the ultimate con job.
5
I think as time goes on companies realize he is just mostly hot air. As his brand falls the big question will be will Republicans stick with him.
I think Pelosi's idea NOT to impeach might be really the right thing to do. He will do more to damage the Republican brand.
As his Actual skills in business come more and more into light, when the Korean deal dies and likely next the China deal, he will be seen as a fool.
Democrats are horrible at scripting a message. This is the real challenge.
2
Best sound bite I read this week, the expert who described the situation as “tantrum congestion”. Who would have thought that not only would the putative leader of the free world make largely baseless attacks on US companies, but then the companies would learn to ignore him. Chalk one up for corporate America.
40
@NYT Reader Now if the media in general would follow suit, we'd all be in a better place.
1
Big corporations woke up to the rants of a bully. So have our Allies. It seems that the only people who care to listen to Trump are the leaders who follow with the "fake news" comments. Trump should lead by bringing all of his, and Ivanka's products back to America. Lead by example, for once.
53
@Dan O
No way! Ivanka's shoes aren't even fit for third-world consumption. Talk about junk....
4
I once lived near a freeway. When I first moved there, the sounds of traffic were an annoyance but over time, I just stopped hearing it.
The same is true of Mr. Trump's tweet storms. I no longer pay attention and corporate America has obviously realized that they can do the same.
107
@Jacqueline Gauvin
Jacqueline and her freeway... I and the fire station a block from my house!
4
@Jacqueline Gauvin
I am a news junkie and consume a large amount of news, print and TV. I have found it is easy to merely ignore him when his bloated face and annoying whine and syntax appear on screen. I refuse to be deterred from my being informed by a whiny toddler.
2
Well Trump's tweets might be irrelevant but the NY Times still quotes them.
The sad thing is that when we are finally rid of Trump from the White House, he will still be tweeting away from Mar a Lago or some place, and no doubt the pundits will still be quoting his tweets. Trump is, and always has been, a back-bench heckler.
33
Can you tweet from prison?
7
It's about time someone started to ignore DJT. I wish the GOP would start to do the same. Now if the media would do that as well......
32
After two years of running scared since Trump took office, corporate leaders have learned how to cope with his disparaging tweets – just to ignore them. It’s the only sensible thing to do, because paying attention to him only helps inflate his ego.
Soon they must decide what to do with him in 2020. Will they try to get rid of him? Perhaps not! Ignoring his tweets may be easier than losing the fiscal benefits he brought to the corporate world.
11
What this teaches is a basic lesson, that Trump is all bluster, great at tweeting outrage to fire up his (diminishing) base, making a media frenzy with each tweet (which is the media's fault for even giving him that kind of attention), yet in the end he has neither the power nor the will to do the things he blusters about, not to mention that what he did do (the trade war with China) has hurt both companies and his base without solving anything. More importantly, I think that companies realize, for the better or worse, that the people Trump is tweeting to don't really impact their bottom line, that companies assumed the wrath of Trump would resonate throughout the country, that the mob was angry, and in reality the "mob" is influential only in the GOP.
11
GM and Pfizer are actual businesses -- unlike the Trump Organization, which is a mix of money laundering and serial bankruptcies.
11
Corporations, along with an increasing number of public figures, have gradually come to the realization that the emperor has no clothes. And he's all bark and no bite.
7
Hurrah! He is very easy to ignore. He never , never says anything worthwhile---usually he lies and denies so much that is obviously true. He is worth ignoring and then voting out of office.
8
I'm sure Macbeth's quote has been referenced many times in the the context of The 45, but it strikes me as particularly apt in this case:
"...a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."
26
Why hasn't the Wall Street Journal picked up on this? Congratulations NYT, you're my new go to for business news.
7
I can imagine the Trump Presidential Library that will be lovingly constructed by donations from his fans, and overseen by Ivanka (who will pay herself a hefty salary from those donations). Since he's produced little else of value, the walls and ceilings will be covered in copies of all the tweets written by Trump during his time in office. A truly fitting way to remember the 45th president. No need to study the writings of Lincoln or Jefferson any longer. Trump's devoted followers can go and gaze at such inspiring tidbits as, "I wish someone would call Canadians what they are: Snow Mexicans." Or, "Everyone knows I am right that Robert Pattinson should dump Kristen Stewart. In a couple of years, he will thank me. Be smart, Robert." Or, "I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th.” Or, "I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke." Or, "Thanks- many are saying I'm the best 140 character writer in the world. It's easy when it's fun."
12
"Despite Mr. Trump’s vast media presence and his popularity among Republicans, he has not demonstrated the ability to do lasting damage to a corporate brand that crosses him."
Good. Presidents have acquired far too power and authority in this country (even extra-legal authority, such as seen by vague tweets), and too many citizens fall all over themselves worshiping at the altar of the Oval Office. Some of that power has been ceded by Congress, such as the use of military force or being able to impose tariffs, even on allies, based on some vague, unchallenged pretense of "national security".
We should only care what any president says on matters over which he has actual legal or constitutional authority. What he personally thinks of the practices of corporations, their executives, sports teams and games, and the rest of the weekly blather is irrelevant. And the point made by some comments is valid and a message to the media. Stop reacting to every single inane outburst. Nothing frustrates a bully or blowhard more than to be ignored.
4
The GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio is in the crucial Youngstown- Mahoning Valley region of Ohio. The Democratic Chairman of Mahoning County was one of the first to warn Hillary Clinton that she had a big problem; he was ignored. Let's hope the Dem's have more sense this time around and work the rust belt the way Obama did.
4
"Ignore" was the right strategy all along.
5
Thought experiment: imagine any other president intentionally seeking to damage an American company. Impossible. Why aren’t Democratic presidential candidates talking about this? If Trump had succeeded in harming corporations, he would have succeeded in reducing employment. His supporters need to understand that.
7
Trump supporters do not understand, they believe; they do not analyze, they react. that's the GOP's secret sauce for hoodwinking voters into voting against their own interests and for the exclusive benefit of the wealthy.
1
These companies will do what they have to do to survive. It isn't like they are rebranding cheap wine and peddling mail-order steaks. Unlike Donald, their leaders actually have to answer to shareholders and boards of directors.
5
The article’s mention of the hapless (and still quite dangerous) President’s “scattershot” attention span goes a long way in explaining his waning influence on the business community and, for that matter, Joe the Plumber. The man is all over the board, often incomprehensible, and almost always lying or insulting or engaging in outrageous self-directed puffery - sometimes in the same ungrammatical collision of butchered phrases. My bet is that even many cultists have abandoned hope of discerning actual meaning or commitment in the words of the bizarro occupying the WH.
7
I wish everyone - including children who are more well-behaved and resonable - would go take a look at them to see how not only out of his mind but out of his depth Trump is.
There's no defense for his indefensible twitter rants and tirades, except that he needs to be put into a psychiatric facility - not for an evaluation but for intense therapy and to keep him away from control over real humanitarian crises, the nukes, the nuclear agreements, and anything else that is expected from a rational adult.
8
Trying to make sound decisions in industry and commerce, based on irrational tweets from an emotionally deranged individual, is crazy. Especially when this individual is a fraudster himself. How long can this misrule last, or what will it take to stop it? A real crisis perhaps?
26
Ignoring lies and attacks does not address the "problem." The best way to address a bully is to shame and humiliate. These corporate leaders should put Trump in his place with a smart Twitter reply that diminishes him. And then it it up to us to help that tweet go viral.
14
@Tom - Republicans would be wise to take a page from the playbook of George Conway. Conway's assessments of Donald Trump are 100% accurate.
6
The opposite of love is being ignored.
Listen up, people.
12
With the demise of everything from Atlantic City casinos and the Plaza Hotel to the Trump Shuttle and Trump University, people began to realize that Rick Wilson’s book “Everything Trump Touches Dies” says everything one needs to know about this demented swamp creature. Now that people are removing his name from his very own properties, let us hope and pray that the same cannot be ultimately said about our once proud country.
14
“It isn’t good for the country, but it’s good for CBS News.”
That says it all.
Trump is a childish, incompetent buffoon, but he’s been magnified by the media microscope that over-emphasizes him.
Rules for dealing with a school-yard bully:
1) Ignore him.
2) Punch him in the nose if you are attacked - or, in this case, impeach him.
21
Trump’s point is not to actually change these corporate decisions, just to give the appearance that he is fighting for the American worker. He understands better than anyone that the attention span of the public and the media is little more than a nano-second. He’ll scream and threaten and then move on. Trump’s approval rating is near its all time high. Mission accomplished. The GOP marches in lock step support of this fraud. People don’t like to admit they’ve been swindled. Until there is a consistent and compelling voice of opposition that clearly offers a credible alternative, this scam will continue.
39
It would have been commendable if companies had ignored this mentally declining man. It made Trump stronger. As always, it’s the stock price not the country. Sure they have shareholder responsibilities but morality should top that.
3
Ignoring a sociopath is not only the best way to avoid conflict but the most effective weapon against the perpetrator. I can state from experience that this is the most effective weapon. Treat them like they don’t exist.
15
@Robert Goldschmidt now if television would ignore him.
Tariff Man is putting the burden of a mental tariff on the entire world. It's felt from the business world to the consumer world, by the rich who got the tax cut and the poor who saw their vote suppressed or got deported, from Parkland to Pittsburgh, and from the North Pole to New Zealand.
5
I do appreciate the phrase, "tantrum congestion".
18
Imagine, if you can, any other president's words or actions being met with the response: "Ignore him."
11
The next step: Republicans in Congress realize that they, too, have nothing to fear; two years of supporting and defending their dangerously ignorant and evil leader have gotten them nowhere, other than to destroy what little credibility remained for their party.
It’s time for the media, the politicians, and the citizens of the world to put Trump’s daily tantrums on mute. We’ll all be better off as a result.
14
With such a short attention slay, my hope is that this is a hit-and-run presidency. 45 will not stay at the scene of the crime, however, and what remains of our democracy will be the victim.
2
@Concerned Veteran
I share your concern. How many decades will it take this country to recover from this insanity, if we ever can? The GOP division of this country appears to be the starting salvos of another Civil War in this country, this time pitting the rational against the irrational. I am not optimistic.
4
I agree totally, FrankM ... unfortunately!
Correction...Short attention span.
Let's hope one of the 200 Democratic candidates reads this and makes some seriously effective advertising.
These companies can afford to ignore the tweet storms, knowing this administration will do nothing concrete to keep manufacturing here. Maybe if they proposed a...25% tariff on all those motorcycles, small cars not made here....the Dems, desperate to show they really care about the ‘little guy’, would join to pass the legislation.
Forget the corporations, that ‘base’ is beginning to realize they took the trip with Trump and all they got was a lousy tweet. Uh, that’s assuming the president is the actual person doing the typing.
What happened to that old idea of make it here, sell it here, make it in X country, sell it in X country? Tweets, force of personality- won’t create a new version of global trade. Legislation, treaties designed to create jobs (instead of making it easier to manufacture, deal with China, etc) - will have to wait on leadership that actually follows through with political rhetoric. On both sides.
8
The closed border idea of protectionism right now would land us all in the second Great Depression. There is an attitude that we can do it and the other countries won’t respond in kind.
Trade means more peace with the rest of the world. If you want jobs here tax the profits of globalization and directly hire people through government until markets balance. It’s socialism but sometimes is necessarily. It simply offsets the market imbalance from the more impoverished countries until things right themselves.
3
@Jo Williams
The people who pay the tariffs are not the companies who sell products, but the people who buy them; in other words, us. z
Trump has brought only short-term benefits to corporations in the form of lower taxes. But that law can easily be changed in time. In the end, Trump will have no lasting achievements because he spends his time tweeting and golfing rather than thinking and doing anything useful for our country.
Proving the adage Keep Calm and Carry On. Hooah
3
Ignoring the problem does not make it go away. Trump is bad for business, bad for democracy, bad for humanity. Conservatives taking regular doses of the kool aid is becoming this country’s downfall. What will be left with when all this is over? Will it ever be over? WILLFUL IGNORANCE IS A CRIME.
14
Empty barrels make the most noise, they say. And that is what Trump is - an empty container.
18
Approximately 60 million voters, nearly half of those who voted, cast their votes in 2016 for Trump, knowing that he was a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, incompetent fraud. The Republican Party, the majority Party in most states and in Congress from 2016-2018, nominated and has overwhelming supported and enabled Trump, obstructing, whenever possible, any challenges to ill advised appointments, outrageous policies, and autocratic tendencies. Trump is what he is, and he never should have been considered as the a presidential nominee, and certainly should never have been elected. The shame is on the voters and the Republican Party, or, as they have been called, his “base”.
26
@Stu
Agree completely. My question is, how do we prevent this atrocity for repeating itself. It appears that candidates for public office should actually understand how government should work. Perhaps a "certification" test is in order, as required in most other professions. I would like to see Mr. Trump and all other politicians pass the Naturalization test given to immigrants before they become citizens of this country, before even being allowed to run for office. Interesting thought that people should be qualified for their job?
1
@FrankM A good start would be for the states to pass ballot initiatives similar to the Washington state legislation prohibiting candidates from appearing on the ballot that have not released (I like ten years but could be convinced that 5 is sufficient if there is additional tax reform ... any body remember Romney dodging release due to hiding money off shore? Harry nailing him with the "he paid zero" line,) multiple years of tax returns and other relevant information. Next step, have states vote to award electors to the national popular vote winner.
2
@FrankMNot a bad thought. But I would say mandatory vetting with a bibartisan credentialing body might avoid the criminality, indecency, and incompetence we have seen with Trump.
The man has spent the entirety of the last two years proving himself to be remarkably impotent and incompetent. It's no surprise at all that US companies have learned to ignore his tantrums, just as the rest of the world has figured out.
16
The more one cries "wolf," the less one is concerned with.
4
What? Ignore the school yard bully?
What a concept.
5
If only CNN et al figured this out in 2016.
7
Trumpolini's twitskrieg is striking only for its prepubescent banality and overall uselessness. Unfortunately there are about 40 million Americans who suffer so much from arrested emotional and intellectual development, they're still in the sandbox with diaper Donnie, pretending they're grown-ups.
15
I wish the media would ignore him as well.
18
I wish the news media would do the same for “ presidential “ tweets: Ignore Them. And for the same reason- they are of no consequence. Yesterday was a prime example. Panel discussions, phone in callers, print analysis all devoted to tweets about John McCain. Really? Just summarize them in a little box on page 3. Done. I just can’t even read/watch/listen to the nonsense anymore. Stop feeding the outrage machine. But in reality I know that’s where the $ is....it’s all about the clicks.
11
Ah, the well known "Chicken Little" and/or "Boy Who Called Wolf" Effect! His rodomontade has a non-huge half life, thankfully.
1
The demise of D. J. Trump, POTUS, has been inevitable, if not predictable.
Accession to POTUS by D. J. T. is a caveat to Americans regardless of political leaning. First, it signals the paucity of leadership in the candidate roster of 2016. It's hard to imagine that ANY of these aspirants would have distinguished themselves in the POTUS slot.
Second, it has revealed either inattention or cynical regard in the electorate towards its officials in high political office. Fortunately perhaps, the failings of D. J. T. will resurrect our obligation to Walt Kelly for reminding us how susceptible we have been to his Pogo's "We have met the enemy and he is us."
4
I ignore the tweets and the tweeter behind them.
What’s the point? They represent a documented avalanche of lies.
Talk about fake news!
10
Poor Donnie. Spends his life running a Mom and Pop real estate company with only a few real employees and competing in local landscape run by equally small families. Then he assumes the giant industrial complexes that run our nation are going to listen to him. He's got no idea what it takes to lead anything and everyone out there running a real business knows it. They also know he's already a lame duck president as far as his impact on them goes.
13
Ignoring Trump makes sense: it's the same approach a parent would use in a supermarket to an attention hungry child.
9
His twitter rants should be ignored by everyone. They're worthless distractions that don't add to the conversation about anything important going on in the world. They should be treated as worthless and totally not news worthy.
7
I only hope that congress crosses Trumps "red line" and does some lasting damage to his "corporate brand" although our congress has become a "corporate brand" in and of itself.
11
As someone who lives very close to Lordstown and know many people who have worked at this plant, it's truly a shame they had to close. GM did indeed offer their employees the option to relocate, but it's understandable why some would not or could not.
But, surely, Trump understands business, and that sometimes, businesses have to make choices to stay in business. Right?
4
@B. M. Sandy Right! They can just declare bankruptcy and do as they please. That is how he understands and does business .
If Trump had really wanted corporations to bend to his will he would have fought for a tax code that incentivized the behavior desired.
Instead Trump and the Republican Party opened up the candy store, especially for the large multi-natioanals. And as a bonus, Trump put lobbyists in charge of regulatory agencies and the deregulation free for all began.
At that point the corporations knew that Trump’s blustering was not serious and only part of the show for his base. And, really, what will the base do, send mean tweets to corporations?
14
At long last! I hope the media will follow suit and begin to ignore the Twitter-storm from 45. While the cable networks respond breathlessly to every tweet like a crow goes for shiny objects, our rights and protections are being eroded by his appointees. #StayWoke
20
Just Ignore Him... Indeed.
If only CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and all the other media outlets that just couldn't get enough of this ratings bonanza had done the same. But no, It's all about the money.
They are all hoping that Trump gets re-elected, even if it means the end of The Good ole' USA.
6
@Rick
A lot of people have commented that we should just ignore him. Well, we can't. He is still (sadly) the president of the United States. And he cannot be ignored.
1
Everything Trump says is a lie, and everything that Trump does, supports corporate profits at the expense to the American people. Corporations get tax breaks, can pollute more, deploy unsafe aircraft, outsource jobs, raise prices by double digits in year, and buy back millions of shared of stock while exploiting average Americans.
Trump and Fox News entertain the crowds and disinform, confuse and lie every day to coverup the biggest draining of the treasury.... and they don’t care because they are old and won’t be here to pay the costs and their heirs will inherit it all tax free.
12
@Deirdre
Great summary of the DJT legacy. As Mitch McConnell would say, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain". Every bill the GOP passed in 2017 and 2018 were anti American at their base. When you read what they entitle their legislation immediately understand the result is the exact opposite for the citizenry. LOC.gov is a great site to watch what is truly going on. McConnell and Ryan have worked to destroy America while the clown in chief out front dances for the public.
1
I am delighted to see America's business leaders realizing that Trump is neither.
I am even more delighted to see that they have rediscovered the lessons learned in childhood about how to deal with a loud-mouthed, mean bully.
Finally.
16
It is far past time for the Republican members of Congress, particularly in the Senate, to take a similar path and stow away their fear of Trump and do what they know is right. For starters, they can overturn his veto and begin the task of silencing this bully. If they continue with their sycophantic behavior, they do so at their own peril.
7
It's the Trump brand that has been seriously damaged, including here in NY where buildings are throwing his name in the waste bin where it belongs. Another Donnie success story.
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"The traditional playbook often entails responding directly, quickly and forcefully to bad publicity. However, when it comes to Mr. Trump, experts say an understated response that does not further agitate the president tends to be more effective."
Thought experiment: If the question 'Is this right?' had been posed by these business leaders, instead of 'What is the POTUS going to tweet today?' how different would the American economy and society look today?
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"Despite Mr. Trump’s vast media presence and his popularity among Republicans, he has not demonstrated the ability to do lasting damage to a corporate brand that crosses him."
I disagree. At least Ivanka's company had to close.
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Sink a company's stock price? Hardly, and if you are going to make such a strong assertion you should provide data points as proof.
Trump's Tweets have always done nothing but inject some temporary turbulence in the stock price, something that typically vanished after a short period of time. Yes, when first elected the turbulence was greater and lasted longer than it does now, but it never SUNK a company's stock overall as this article casually implies as a fact.
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@JBC He did make Amazons stock take a steep dive the first time he went after them and the post office. I remember because I bought some at the time to bet against Trump and have since made a decent return :)
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Yup- just enough turbulence for someone who may have known in advance to take advantage of the turbulence. Yet another potential crime to investigate
Donald Trump doesn’t like anyone making more money than he does off of anything so if there is money to be made you know he had his hand in the pie in some way.
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@Brian Brennan
Exactly. I have followed the same path. The market hates chaos and this guy embodies chaos as his "brand". Always bet against Trump and make money.
I find myself turning away from the news and newspapers as well, as Trump is just so tiresome. I am not interested in reading articles about him anymore. His lackeys and fellow malfeasants as well.
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Business leaders are catching on -- Trump Tweets to his base.
His pathological needs to insert himself into every conversation (but only in 280 character increments), to peddle noisy oversimplifications rather than actionable ideas, and to vent interminably have become a stale act. Everyone knows by now that the man says nothing worth saying.
Let Trump continue to flex his doughy Twitter muscles. After two years of what one could hardly call an administration, business leaders (and one hopes workers, consumers and voters as well) know that when it comes to solving real problems, Trump doesn't factor into the equation.
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@D Price unfortunately, he seems to be successful at causing problems.
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To his supporters, Trump has embodied a symbolic raised middle finger aimed at an elite establishment, "political correctness, and just plain decency.
Well, their gang symbol is finally losing its clout that it never had for most of us in the first place.
All it has done, along with Trump's sub-standard rhetoric and behavior, is debased and devalued any perceived prestige and honor of the Office of the US Presidency to the point where it's ignored.
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We Americans are lazy and cowardly in allowing Trump to remain in office. His erratic behavior is more than enough evidence that he is dangerously unqualified for the presidency and should be removed.
Regardless of Muellers pending report and possible impeachment, Trump should have been long gone by now under the 25 th amendment due to his emotional instability.
Who in Washington can take the lead in developing a coordinated campaign to invoke the 25 th amendment? If Trump is out of his job there will be little chance he can succeed in getting re-elected!
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@Michael Kittle
25th requires the VP and most of Cabinet to agree. Which of them would stand up and ask DJT to step down?
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If you think this craven Vice President and the looney bin cabinet will ever invoke the 25th Amendment, you are sadly mistaken. They are all too busy enriching themselves at the public trough to take any action.
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@Delcie - "…this craven Vice President" standing up to VeryGoodBrain would be the equivalent of Bibb Fortuna standing up to Jabba the Hut (there's great symmetry in that visual metaphor, BTW).
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When will media/journalists take the lesson from businesses? Trump's tweets are short spasms, with little to no long term importance or effect. His administration's deregulation, erosion of government agencies, and degradation of America's reputation abroad are the actions that will have long term consequences. i.e. EPA, FAA, FDA, etc. etc.
Can we concentrate more on those, please?
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There is only one strategy to challenge a bully-confront them and take away their power.
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Looks like people, corporations, are responding far less often to the man who cries wolf.
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Trump will be gone in a few years but these companies will still be around and will have to explain to their shareholders why they made the decisions they made. Imagine the CEO telling the board and the shareholders that we lost millions because I was afraid of Donald Trump or we felt it expedient to support Trump's political agenda. How long do you think she will last?
Ignore Trump. There is not master plan. There is just an old man who wants to be loved by his base. He can't think beyond the end of the day.
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@Sherlock
Well the GOP are afraid so why wouldn’t the spineless ,
CEO ‘s feel the same way corporations had a big tax break from Trump. Shareholders don’t care about people it’s about money in their pockets.
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General Motors should get an Ohio plant “opened or sell it to somebody and they’ll open it.” If you need a good example of how little this man understands about the marketplace (Other than his various failures and bankruptcies, that is), this concept is a good place to start. He may have some feral intelligence about rousing his base, but he has zero grasp of business and economics. Are we sure he got a degree from Wharton?
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@Frank other business schools are using examples of Trump to sway over students to them instead of Wharton. Seriously
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@Frank Do you think Trump has any idea of the cost of re-tooling an automotive manufacturing plant? Nope.
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@OneView, I'll go you one further. When, if ever, did DJT have an original idea? He learned his lying, cheating ways by watching the old man and has surrounded himself by people with the same "education". That is why so many of them are going to jail. I can't wait until 2021 when he is no longer president and is then a guest of the New York State Penal system for tax evasion. That is how they got Al Capone.
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We should all ignore his Tweets. I press mute every time a Tweet is mentioned. Trump The most reprehensible person I know. Who attacks a dead hero? The man who chose to stay in prison with his men. Trump vilifies and demeans the people who serve him. Shame on the people at the tank company who cheered him! Deplorable! Deplorable! Deplorable. No sense of decency.
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We should all learn to ignore the bully in the White House. Trump’s toxic Twitter feed is now nightly news; how tiresome. It would do the citizens of this nation good if news outlets also chose to ignore his infantile rants.
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"Scattershot attention span."
"Tantrum congestion."
Mr. Rappeport has offered brilliant new descriptions of the inherent weakness of the twitter-in chief. Like the child he is, best just to ignore him. At least unless he gets too close to the nukes.
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The Art of All Hat and No Cattle®
An exciting new Presidential paperback about how to fraudulently 'win' and manage a fake Presidency.
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@Socrates
If you should decide to pen such a novel, and you are the perfect person to do it, I would be rushing to buy it if ever makes it to print.
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When dealing with someone with the attention span of a gerbil, why not take the long view (say, just look past today). That's what the business community appears to have figured out. Engaging in a Twitter-spat or media war with Trump is a waste of both time and effort. He'll move on to some other shiny bauble, some other imagined grievance, some other faux outrage brought up on Fox, or just another round of golf or six at Mar-a-Lago. Move on citizens, nothing to see here.
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Two years in, and it is quite clear that Mr Trump has the attention span and thoughtfulness of a five year old. As any schoolteacher knows, one need only ignore the tantrum and keep an eye out for 2.35pm, or 2020 as the case may be.
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The classic way to deal with any bully or narcissist is to ignore him or her. This is not a political issue. It is a matter of common sense. On the merits, the orange awfulness does not deserve our attention, individually or collectively.
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"Now they have a new strategy: Ignore him."
If only the media would adopt the same sensible strategy.
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@Penseur
I was listening to news this morning and the talking heads were talking about ignoring Trump's tweets. We know that won't happen. It's like watching a train wreck.
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Isn't it a sad day when people are learning to ignore the rantings of a mad-man president?
It's a little bit 'the boy who cried wolf'. All hot-air and no substance.
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So Republican business leaders are doing what the rest of us have been doing since Trumo took office, ignore him?
Great - glad we elected someone who could rubber stamp all the deregulation bills put in front of him while he tanks this country.
Hope the stock bump was worth it
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Oh, so you're only now figuring that out?
You're so terrified about your shareholders? Then maybe you should be in another business.
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Now, if only the news media would follow the corporate world's example and ignore the Tweeter-in-Chief, what would happen? Soon his followers on Twitter would look elsewhere for entertainment and he would gradually realize he is the sad little man in the White House, alone and ignored and perhaps he would resign and return to TV where people would be paid to jump when he yelps.
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@G James-Half agree. Although an ego maniac, demagogue, bigot, pathological liar and those are some of the nicer things I can say about Trump, The NY Times has to cover him. that is their job.
However there should be a disclaimer similar to what I said above after every story they say about him.
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@G James Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. If only . . .
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Maybe Trump has learned not to fear the New York Times' wrath as well. This paper certainly has an agenda with people they disagree with.
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@skanda But I bet you think Faux News is doing a fabulous job. The truth about Mr. Trump is probably quite painful to his worshippers, but that does not make it untruthful. It has been shocking to see the way his worshippers refuse to acknowledge the train wreck that it is this presidency. Their mantra is,"who are you going to believe, Trump or your lying eyes?"
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@skanda Agenda, or, is it the reporting of facts, verifiable facts, that raises your ire?
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@skanda
Reality is a hard wall to run, full out, into. trump supporters will, and are, finding out just what their support of this con man is costing them and will cost them. The Red states, trump country, just fall farther and farther behind. They get poor and sicker and less educated. When will they wise up?
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I'm surprised it has taken the business community this long to realize that he's all bluster and no action. He has the attention span of a gnat, so while he might twitter-abuse GM today, it will be someone else tomorrow, and someone else the day after that. All his threats and big talk against companies has basically amounted to zero. It's at the point now where no one pays any attention to what he says; but we do need to watch what he's doing (judicial appts., de-regulating every industry, etc.)./
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@Jackie Shipley Seriously. Does Trump actually think yelling at a CEO will accomplish anything? Instead of fighting for legislation or using actual power that he has to make it more worth their while economically to stay in the US he is using none of his presidential powers. Art of the deal smh
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FROM THE ARTICLE:
WASHINGTON — Two years ago, some of America’s largest corporations were tearing up their business plans to accommodate President Trump, fearful that he could send their shareholders and customers fleeing with a tweet. Now they have a new strategy: Ignore him.
COMMENT:
Alas … 'tis a strategy that does not work for me.
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The corporations realize he is a paper tiger, all roar, no claws, unfortunately our rivals on the international stage realize that too.
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Trying to win onesy-twosey fights with businesses shows that Trump has a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the president and the government in commerce.
Government is crucial in business, but in the role of rule-maker, standard-setter, law-enforcer, trade policy (real trade policy, not fake bluster) creator and enforcer.
One of the best things government can do for business is create a level playing field. Trump wants the opposite. He wants a field that he alone refs, and gets to pick winners and losers for ego gain or even personal gain.
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@PABlue It could be argued Teddy Roosevelt did exactly that, picked winners and losers. But he did it competantly and had the work ethic to follow through. If Trump wanted to he has vast powers including attacking monopolies if he wanted to make this companies listen. But he is too much if an incompetent and too lazy to follow through with any of it.
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@PABlue remember the GOP tirade against Obamacare when they bought he was was giving a solar some extra help? Rush Limbo screaming from the rooftops about the president should not pick winners and losers in corporate America? Remember that??
1
@PABlue remember the GOP tirade against Obama when they bought he was was giving a solar company extra help? Rush Limbo screaming from the rooftops about the president should not pick winners and losers in corporate America? Remember that?
"Since then, the president has focused his attention on Mr. Bezos’ marital problems."
Finally, a topic that the president of the United States of America can understand.
Congratulations to GM for handling Trump like the buzzing gnat that he is. May the voters of America follow their lead.
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@KJ seriously. Like Trunp has any room to talk about marital problems. And yet the evangelicals still love him.
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