photo credit: musicgorilla.com
A contributor to Forbes, Thomas C. Stewart (retired New York investment banker and a
former U.S. Naval Attack Commander who flew combat during the Gulf War)
wrote about “The Day I Went Head-To-Head With Donald Trump”. It’s a perspective from the
negotiating table.
Whenever I hear
someone complain that Donald Trump is “not presidential,” I reply, “Compared
to whom? Which president are we talking about? . . .
And just what
are the qualities that really matter in a president?
The
overwhelming majority of Mr. Trump’s detractors have never sat across the table
from him to hammer out a multimillion-dollar business deal. I have. So I think
I’m in a better position than they are to judge his effectiveness as a
top-level executive.
. . .
. . . He went
through every element of our proposal with a gimlet eye, challenging our
assumptions, forecasts and business models with an exactitude and a level of
expertise that was most impressive. It was as if he had a Wharton business
professor whispering in his ear.
He wasted no
time on civilities. He was brusque, impatient and dismissive of any information
that he thought was inadequate, or any detail that he thought did not bear
directly on the matter at hand. He cut right to the heart of things.
The senior
members of my negotiating team were the products of privilege and Ivy League
schools, and were highly successful executives in their own right. They were
not used to this kind of treatment.
But for my own
part, I had not only been an attack flight officer in the first Gulf war, I had
also driven a truck through some of New York’s roughest neighborhoods. So I
took it all in stride. Mr. Trump is a New Yorker, I reasoned. Fine. So am I. We
can speak the same language—even if that language is rather coarse to some
ears. We understand each other.
In the end, I
can say that Mr. Trump drove a hard bargain. But he was honest, and he was a
square dealer. When we were through—in less time than we had expected—we had
reached an agreement that was ethical, profitable and fair to all parties
concerned. It was also an agreement that meant good jobs for working people and
healthy tax revenues for the local government.
If we didn’t
come away from the table liking Mr. Trump, there’s no question that we came
away with a lot of respect for him. He was a tough, shrewd, no-nonsense
executive who knew how to get things done, and done quickly. He was also an
adversary whom no one would want to mess with.
Isn’t that what
really matters in a president?
Read the whole thing here.
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