Imagine you are a shareholder of one of the largest businesses in America. The shareholders, at the urging of the board of directors, just installed a new CEO based on his promises to cut expenses, stabilize sales, reduce corporate debt and improve corporate efficiency.
After a few months, this CEO eliminated many vital company services, gutted business operations, and fired many of the experienced talent.
These moves had the effect of disrupting the corporation’s primary services, as well as damaging its reputation.
You find that this business is in turmoil, is generating staggering new debt, and rather than supporting competency, the CEO has removed experienced management to be replaced by loyalists who don’t have a clue as to how to manage their departments.
When the chief financial officer reported negative financial data to the directors, the CEO fired the CFO.
In addition, you had learned that the CEO had spent a ton of corporate cash on himself, like glamorizing his office with gold ornamentation, despite his promise to hold the line on spending.
In this imaginary setting, anyone criticizing the CEO had been immediately slandered and discounted as being a traitor to the corporation, and CEO allies moved to oust any dissenters.
Shareholders and customers with gripes were attacked as villains and blamed for corporate failures. The board of directors had been devoid of oversight and always concluded that the CEO is above reproach or judgment, despite their duties to the contrary.
Certainly, the CEO’s conduct and the board’s complicity are not the way to manage a profitable, sustainable and effective organization.
In the corporate world, this conduct would result in a quick, unceremonious firing of the CEO and the replacement of the board by the shareholders. Self-aggrandizement is not a feature of successful business leadership, especially when it is with shareholder money.
The problem here is twofold. The board of directors is unable to rein in its champion. But more importantly, a competent, mature leader would not demonstrate these selfish, shortsighted, or reckless tendencies in the first place.
Does this scenario sound eerily familiar?
It should.
Impulsiveness, displays of vanity, self-serving policies, and actions that decimate a functioning organization are classic Donald Trump behaviors.
Forget the Department of Government Efficiency debacle when vital federal services were indiscriminately cut. Ignore Trump’s termination of the labor and statistics commissioner for providing data that indicates our economy is weaker than Trump’s liking.
Discount the defunding of medical and scientific research that was implemented by the federal government to keep us safer and healthier.
Trump’s focus on vanity alone is cause for great concern.
The “board” in my analogy is the Republican Congress, which goes along with almost everything Trump says or does.
The shareholders are we, the voters, who seem to be powerless until the next election.
Recall the Army/Trump birthday parade in June? An Army spokesperson told The Hill that the costs were likely about $30 million.
The U.N. estimates that it costs about $16 a month to feed an adult in most starvation-ravaged regions. Trump’s birthday parade, which contributed not to our prosperity nor provided meaningful government services, could have fed 100,000 starving souls for 18 months.
Trump’s decision to exalt his ego by expending $30 million on his parade diminished not only our standing as the beacon of hope in the world, but also put lives at risk.
The Oval Office and White House have been recently adorned with gold ornaments costing millions. The to-be-built Trump Grand Ballroom may run as much as $200 million. The planned renovation of the Rose Garden, new portraits and statues, and other bling will offer no new government services, account for no efficiency, nor contribute in any way to the fabric of our society.
Remember the $500 million 747 “gift” by Qatar that will cost an estimated $1 billion to put into service, just to be ceded to “Trump’s Library” for Trump’s personal use two years afterward?
All this is meaningless crap to you and me, but one billionaire thinks it is essential to his happiness.
Remember, Trump pays virtually no personal taxes. So, it is your and my taxpayer money that is being spent on making Trump happy.
Wealth surrounding a person does not make him or her rich, but those bearing the expense are certainly poorer.
Jonathan Kraut directs a private investigations agency, is the CEO of a private security firm, is the CFO of an accredited acting conservatory, former college professor and dean, is a published author, and a Democratic Party activist. His column reflects his own views and not necessarily those of The Signal or of other organizations.
