4 ms·

Did it? His “8th wonder of the world nonsense” was after he was elected in 2017, and Trump then lost Wisconsin in 2020

api 5y ago
Exactly. People like Trump have careers that resemble repeatedly pumped-and-dumped penny stocks. They rise and fall, rise and fall, rise and fall. Basically what they do is build themselves up through something like a social capital pyramid scheme. This eventually collapses when there are no greater fools and when all their promises fail, but the good ones already have the next grift in progress before the first one collapses. Trump is truly one of the greats at this. Not only does he do this very well but he builds the next grift off the previous one. He's IMHO the world's premier expert in "failing up."
- silexia 5y ago
  Brilliant comment, I think we are going to see this in the future too with Trump. He has gone quiet for now, but he's going to come back and make far more money than he was making prior to the presidency.
  - Solocomplex 5y ago
    And during! Which was, of course, illegal.
  - katbyte 5y ago
    Provided none of the court cases he is currently involved in send him to jail or bankrupt him?
    - UncleOxidant 5y ago
      I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for him to be imprisoned. But I do think he's going to be spending a lot of time in courtrooms for the rest of his life and that's at least some consolation.
    - anonAndOn 5y ago
      > bankrupt him ...for the 7th time?
- matwood 5y ago
  Not sure why you're downvoted because this is what Trump has done through most of his life. While POTUS, his healthcare plan was 2 weeks away, his infrastructure plan was 2 weeks away, the wall - I guess a few feet were built. Great at marketing, terrible at execution.
  - JustSomeNobody 5y ago
    I am sure down votes are because he still has supporters here on HN. But even still, there's nothing that's been said that wasn't true.
    - UncleOxidant 5y ago
      > he still has supporters here on HN. Which I always find a bit surprising because you'd think people here would be able to see through the hucksterism.
      - api 5y ago
        I have a speculation that some fraction of the tech-libertarian crowd likes him precisely because he was a dumpster fire. He helps discredit the state. Keep electing candidates of that quality and seasteading schemes start looking attractive.
        mbg721 5y ago
        Trump's appeal is precisely that he's the worst candidate apart from all the others, and the opposition keeps proving his point. Plenty of people would have preferred a non-dumpster-fire conservative, but didn't get to pick. Meanwhile, Biden was nominated purely to be an easy mouthpiece for the DNC, (certainly not on his record for race and crime issues,) but had every corporate and media voice possible behind him.
        Jordrok 5y ago
        This is such a lame excuse. In 2016 there were 16 other candidates in the primary, and 4 in 2020. Literally every single one of them would have been a better choice. If all else fails, you don't vote. Don't pretend like there weren't options. Self-righteously holding your nose and voting for a dumpster fire is still voting for a dumpster fire.
- jacobolus 5y ago
  Trump is a true grifter prodigy, who has managed to “fail” hundreds of times – while skimming billions of dollars away from investors, business partners, lenders, suppliers, employees, and customers – often in full public view, and both skate away from criminal liability and still keep finding more marks, ultimately including something like 40% of the general public.
  - mbg721 5y ago
    That may be true, but the last piece is genuinely different. If he was a fraud as a candidate, then he was a fraud in a situation where there was no legitimate substitute. Few voters have changed their minds; the aftermath of 2020 has been a digging-in of heels in a culture-war, not a "We've been had!" moment.
KingOfCoders 5y ago
Trumps brand is still strong it seems (or at least Republicans think so) and it added to his brand - I do think the most important thing to Trump is branding, being president is secondary. Or the other way around: Being president added to the brand, that's what Trump was interested in* He doesn't care he lost the presidency in principle, but because losing tarnishes the brand. He would be the same losing the presidency of a golf club. *And perhaps getting immunity.
- NicoJuicy 5y ago
  Trump's brand was name licensing. You won't license a brand that already scrunes >50% of potential customers in the US is and way more in the western world ( but the contacts seem to be solid, so it's very expensive) Look at all the hotels trying to get off the Trump brand. And all the businesses that associated themselves with Trump during his presidency.
- apercu 5y ago
  "Trumps brand is still strong it seems (or at least Republicans think so)" Jeez. In all of my marketing efforts I would never immediately out of the gate alienate 60-65% of my potential customer base. And the Trump brand did nearly that from day 1.
  - UncleOxidant 5y ago
    Sure, but he's got an extremely loyal 40%. Of course, most of that demographic aren't the folks that can afford a night in a Trump hotel or to buy a membership at one of his golf clubs.
altacc 5y ago
You probably need to consider the wider impact, not just Wisconsin. This was national news (I'm international and I remember reading about it) and would have contributed to his supporters general perception that he was delivering on promises. This isn't really an area where we can single Trump out as he was just being a normal politician here. It's common to announce an amazing deal with a big fanfare which then either fails to materialise, is in fact not as amazing as the headlines claim it to be, or includes previously agreed policies or agreements that are claimed once again as new. This is just typical PR (unfortunately).
- blueblob 5y ago
  It's either a lot less common than you're making it out to be or it should not have made international news. Anyone who followed this story from the beginning realized it was not a good deal for Wisconsinites.

api 5y ago

Exactly. People like Trump have careers that resemble repeatedly pumped-and-dumped penny stocks. They rise and fall, rise and fall, rise and fall. Basically what they do is build themselves up through something like a social capital pyramid scheme. This eventually collapses when there are no greater fools and when all their promises fail, but the good ones already have the next grift in progress before the first one collapses. Trump is truly one of the greats at this. Not only does he do this very well but he builds the next grift off the previous one. He's IMHO the world's premier expert in "failing up."

silexia 5y ago
Brilliant comment, I think we are going to see this in the future too with Trump. He has gone quiet for now, but he's going to come back and make far more money than he was making prior to the presidency.
- Solocomplex 5y ago
  And during! Which was, of course, illegal.
- katbyte 5y ago
  Provided none of the court cases he is currently involved in send him to jail or bankrupt him?
  - UncleOxidant 5y ago
    I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for him to be imprisoned. But I do think he's going to be spending a lot of time in courtrooms for the rest of his life and that's at least some consolation.
  - anonAndOn 5y ago
    > bankrupt him ...for the 7th time?
matwood 5y ago
Not sure why you're downvoted because this is what Trump has done through most of his life. While POTUS, his healthcare plan was 2 weeks away, his infrastructure plan was 2 weeks away, the wall - I guess a few feet were built. Great at marketing, terrible at execution.
- JustSomeNobody 5y ago
  I am sure down votes are because he still has supporters here on HN. But even still, there's nothing that's been said that wasn't true.
  - UncleOxidant 5y ago
    > he still has supporters here on HN. Which I always find a bit surprising because you'd think people here would be able to see through the hucksterism.
    - api 5y ago
      I have a speculation that some fraction of the tech-libertarian crowd likes him precisely because he was a dumpster fire. He helps discredit the state. Keep electing candidates of that quality and seasteading schemes start looking attractive.
      - mbg721 5y ago
        Trump's appeal is precisely that he's the worst candidate apart from all the others, and the opposition keeps proving his point. Plenty of people would have preferred a non-dumpster-fire conservative, but didn't get to pick. Meanwhile, Biden was nominated purely to be an easy mouthpiece for the DNC, (certainly not on his record for race and crime issues,) but had every corporate and media voice possible behind him.
        Jordrok 5y ago
        This is such a lame excuse. In 2016 there were 16 other candidates in the primary, and 4 in 2020. Literally every single one of them would have been a better choice. If all else fails, you don't vote. Don't pretend like there weren't options. Self-righteously holding your nose and voting for a dumpster fire is still voting for a dumpster fire.
jacobolus 5y ago
Trump is a true grifter prodigy, who has managed to “fail” hundreds of times – while skimming billions of dollars away from investors, business partners, lenders, suppliers, employees, and customers – often in full public view, and both skate away from criminal liability and still keep finding more marks, ultimately including something like 40% of the general public.
- mbg721 5y ago
  That may be true, but the last piece is genuinely different. If he was a fraud as a candidate, then he was a fraud in a situation where there was no legitimate substitute. Few voters have changed their minds; the aftermath of 2020 has been a digging-in of heels in a culture-war, not a "We've been had!" moment.

KingOfCoders 5y ago

Trumps brand is still strong it seems (or at least Republicans think so) and it added to his brand - I do think the most important thing to Trump is branding, being president is secondary. Or the other way around: Being president added to the brand, that's what Trump was interested in* He doesn't care he lost the presidency in principle, but because losing tarnishes the brand. He would be the same losing the presidency of a golf club. *And perhaps getting immunity.

NicoJuicy 5y ago
Trump's brand was name licensing. You won't license a brand that already scrunes >50% of potential customers in the US is and way more in the western world ( but the contacts seem to be solid, so it's very expensive) Look at all the hotels trying to get off the Trump brand. And all the businesses that associated themselves with Trump during his presidency.
apercu 5y ago
"Trumps brand is still strong it seems (or at least Republicans think so)" Jeez. In all of my marketing efforts I would never immediately out of the gate alienate 60-65% of my potential customer base. And the Trump brand did nearly that from day 1.
- UncleOxidant 5y ago
  Sure, but he's got an extremely loyal 40%. Of course, most of that demographic aren't the folks that can afford a night in a Trump hotel or to buy a membership at one of his golf clubs.

altacc 5y ago

You probably need to consider the wider impact, not just Wisconsin. This was national news (I'm international and I remember reading about it) and would have contributed to his supporters general perception that he was delivering on promises. This isn't really an area where we can single Trump out as he was just being a normal politician here. It's common to announce an amazing deal with a big fanfare which then either fails to materialise, is in fact not as amazing as the headlines claim it to be, or includes previously agreed policies or agreements that are claimed once again as new. This is just typical PR (unfortunately).

blueblob 5y ago
It's either a lot less common than you're making it out to be or it should not have made international news. Anyone who followed this story from the beginning realized it was not a good deal for Wisconsinites.