The nation's biggest tease is finally putting out. After flirting with the idea of running for president for years but never pulling through, not many thought much of it when he spoke of running again for 2016. Surprisingly, though, he means it this time, becoming the 12th Republican candidate. This shocked most of the nation and put a spin on the race, not to mention inspired some pretty creative tweets.
Honestly, most of America is viewing this bid as a joke. Trump is a man with no political experience, and it's easy to assume he's just running to get his ratings up. Not many are taking the poor guy seriously, and the internet is full of about as many hair jokes as the nation can think up.
I'll admit, I thought it was ridiculous at first, but the more I read and thought about it, the more he began to make sense. Am I saying he should be the next president? No, it's too soon for anyone to really know that. But still, he doesn't need to be completely thrown aside just yet. Trump has some points and qualities that we should think about, and we need to consider him as a more serious candidate.
Let's think about who he is. Trump is a true American success story that made billions for himself through real estate and entertainment. He's a financial genius, really, and he announced recently that he has a net worth of almost $9 billion. He can completely finance his own campaign, a large, expensive one at that, and he doesn't have to worry about drawing a crowd. He's a very famous face with a hit reality show, so he has an enormous fan base as is. His name already draws the largest GOP crowds. Let's be honest, just the fact that he's decided to run already makes this campaign ten times more entertaining and is getting a lot more people involved.
Trump might not be the "career politician" that most of the other candidates are, but no one can deny that he has financial and foreign policy experience like no other. Perhaps this is a new, positive type of leader for our country. His promise to "Make America Great Again", in other words rich, claims that bringing money and jobs back from countries like Mexico and China is the key, and that he can do this in a way no politician can. With all the success Trump has had, it is easy to trust that he knows where money is and how to bring it in.
Trump built an unbelievable company that deals with Japan, China, and other parts of Asia on a regular basis. The New Trade Deal does not speak of currency manipulation, and he claims this is how all these other countries are taking advantage of us. He spoke at the Freedom Summit in May about how he has beat China to owning a chunk of the Bank of America building, and they have a great deal of respect for him. Trump claims that China is killing the US because they don't respect us or our leaders, but he is a name that they listen to and can turn the situation around. They suck money out of us and then loan it back with interest, so in order to bring the money and jobs back home, Trump plans to tax China if they devalue their currency. With his name and how much money he makes off China right now, one can believe that he'd know what to do.
Trump has already created tens of thousands of jobs in his career, and there's no doubt that he'd know how to make millions more. Another way he plans to do this is by focusing on getting plants and jobs away from Mexico, and this includes working to stop illegal immigration by building a wall along the Mexican border. And let's be honest, he's one of the best builders there is. That wall would not fail.
It's hard to deny that his career has brought him financial and foreign policy experience other candidates simply do not have. Trump is easily comparable to the independent 1992 presidential candidate Ross Perot, a billionaire businessman who also financed his own campaign and had almost no political experience. Like Trump, no one thought much of Perot, especially since he dropped out and back into the campaign. He shocked everyone when he ended up finishing in third place, receiving close to 19 percent of the popular vote. This was the most won by a third-party since Theodore Roosevelt. Some wonder if Trump might be the same type of underdog who will pull more support than most expect.
Maybe this new type of leadership is just what we need: an outside point of view from someone other than the average politician. The strengths and weaknesses are very different, but not necessarily the wrong choice. The main trouble I imagine him running into is his never modest mouth. It's only a matter of time before the blunt, outspoken, unfiltered Trump offends an entire group of people and loses a huge percentage of votes. If he can avoid this, then overall he's a great GOP candidate, and with all the experience he has gained over his career, he deserves more attention than just for a few bad hair jokes.
