Donald Trump, You’re Fired!

Jan 11 2007

By Ira Winkler

At first glance, the Donald Trump-Rosie O’Donnell spat would seem not to be security related. However, Trump has seriously damaged his reputation which has a financial cost and is completely analogous with reputational issues for large companies. Donald Trump has long had a reputation as a tough business person. As a matter of fact, during one presentation I attended (before The Apprentice came out), one of Trump’s business lessons was, (and I have to paraphrase here) “[Screw] them before they [screw] you.” This is definitely acceptable for a business person to say, but not for a TV celebrity.

When Trump went into the entertainment world, what he says in public directly affects his public persona and his business value. Frankly, what O’Donnell said about Trump was essentially accurate. He has a reputation of a womanizer and some of his businesses have filed for bankruptcy protection over the years. By Trump calling more attention to O’Donnell’s comments, which would have otherwise went into oblivion, he gave the criticisms even more protection. Then he went ahead and acted like a child by making personal attacks against Rosie. Calling her fat and ugly is not the reaction of a respectable business person, but a superficial schoolgirl. Then claiming on Larry King that O’Donnell has no talent is directly challenged by O’Donnell’s multiple Emmy Awards. Every step Trump took since has been and is a public relations disaster, damaging his reputation in the eyes of typical TV viewers, and therefore damaging the value of The Apprentice and the NBC network.

The Apprentice has likewise been less appealing to me and other people, as demonstrated by the continually declining viewership, because of related issues. For example, putting new contestants in tents if they lose is more akin to Survivor than The Apprentice. Instead of a show that is supposed to be smart and demonstrate business insights, and treating their contestants like successful businesspeople, I am now expecting contestants to have to eat bugs if they lose. Likewise, Donald Trump replaced one of his senior managers, Caroline, with his daughter. For many women, Caroline was important to the show’s credibility as she was the quintessential all around woman. She was made out to be a good mother, who was still able to be successful at business through demonstrated hard work. Clearly Trump can hire and fire who he wants. However, by replacing Caroline with his daughter “in the boardroom”, Trump is sending the message to women that being related to him is more important than years of hard work and devotion, outside of the fact that they are in the will.

Frankly, I had a great deal of respect for Trump, not because he was never bankrupt, but because he fought his way out of bankruptcy protection to completely turn the situation around. His father was a highly successful NY developer long before Donald became involved in the business, and he was brought into a successful business. It takes much more character to lose everything and fight their way back than to just live off a trust fund. Donald Trump should be proud of that instead of calling someone a “fat, ugly loser” for pointing out that he several times needed bankruptcy protection.

There are many, many childish business people out there, and like Trump, they can get away with it if their business is large enough. However Trump has chosen to become a TV star and have a business on TV. Anything he does off screen can affect the show’s ratings and his financial position. The less likeable he is, the fewer people will watch his show.

While I have made a conscious decision to always be true to my beliefs, I fully realize that every time I write something or speak in public, it can come back to bite me. Some people refuse to attend my presentations because I criticized NSA’s domestic spying. Many people in the mythical “computer underground” don’t like me when I said I can train a monkey to break into a computer. These are things that I acknowledge and understand as consequences of being true to my beliefs. However, you are not going to catch me calling someone schoolyard names, like a fat, ugly loser. That is not relevant to the issues involved.

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