If you have been following Donald Trump's campaign speeches, you wouldn't find anything extraordinarily new in this book. However, the book elaborates on some of the pet themes of this realty mogul and reality star.
Trump's premise is that America resembles a Third World country. Everything is broken. But not beyond repair. And he alone can fix it.
His arguments are superficial; and often unidirectional. On the face of it, some of the things he talks about seem to make sense, but when you are talking of a huge, multicultural nation like the US, its Presidential aspirant can't have blinkers. He needs to have a holistic and a macro view of different aspects of the nation.
Somewhere towards the latter half of the book I began getting the feeling that he has just one solution: create more and more business opportunities for people. So create more and more hotels, resorts, malls etc etc. even if heritage structures or whatever have to be broken down.
That way, he will bring in more jobs, and prosperity. His route to fixing America is only via more and more dollars. Not surprising, because, he is basically a businessman. And, I doubt if he has any interest in or understanding of any other facet of a multicultural society.
At the same time, he says somewhere in the book, that getting rich is no guarantee to becoming happy. He talks of American values, which are not elaborated. And, there is somewhere a disconnect.
The book is more about his dreams, of mending a broken country. But the full, long road map isn't there. Just elect him as the next President of the US. That's all. Leave the rest to him.
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Thanks for the nice review. I agree with your 2 star rating. Wish the Republican Party has elected some other person as their Presidential candidate. However, Ito a certain extent, I agree that he (Trump) alone can solve the problems. All other potential candidates, with the exception of Sanders, have been bought by big money. If elected, these candidates have to "obey" what the big money says. They cannot make any independent decision.
ReplyDeleteI feel sad for the Americans who will head out to vote on the 8th; and for those who won't. They really have no clear choice.
DeleteYes, I agree, Sanders would have been a better choice than Hillary.
Sorry to be saying this. But when I think about Trump, it's a different image that comes to my mind. Not that of a statesman (or even a businessman) who will rise above frailties to "mend a broken nation".
ReplyDeleteNot that Mrs Clinton is way better, but she is a safer bet.
Trump might be a reformed man now (w.r.t. bodily aggressions), but he has scant respect for institutions, value systems and proprieties. What a Trump win could unleash is scary, to say the least.