Trump - Time to get tough: making America #1 again

Table of Contents

Ive written this book because the country I love is a total economic disaster right now.

For starters, we are in debt $15 trillion and soaring. Let me help you wrap your mind around that number. If by some miracle the so-called leaders in Washington could find a way to save one billion dollars of your tax dollars every single day, it would still take thirty-eight years to pay off the debt. And thats not even taking into account the interest.

We dont have thirty-eight years to turn this thing around. The way I see it, we have four, maybe eight years tops.

Every day in business I see America getting ripped off and abused. We have become a laughingstock, the worlds whipping boy, blamed for everything, credited for nothing, given no respect. You see and feel it all around you, and so do I.

To take one example, China is bilking us for hundreds of billions of dollars by manipulating and devaluing its currency. Despite all the happy talk in Washington, the Chinese leaders are not our friends. Ive been criticized for calling them our enemy. But what else do you call the people who are destroying your childrens and grandchildrens future? What name would you prefer me to use for the people who are hell bent on bankrupting our nation, stealing our jobs, who spy on us to steal our technology, who are undermining our currency, and who are ruining our way of life? To my mind, thats an enemy. If were going to make America number one again, weve got to have a president who knows how to get tough with China, how to out-negotiate the Chinese, and how to keep them from screwing us at every turn.

Then theres the oil crisis. The idea of $85 a barrel for oil used to be unthinkable. Now OPEC yawns at that figure and jacks the price higher, laughing all the way to the bank. The result: you and your family are paying $3 a gallon, $4 a gallon, $5 a gallon, and soaring. Excuse me, but OPECthese twelve guys sitting around a tablewouldnt even be in existence if it werent for the United States saving and protecting those Middle Eastern countries! Where is our president in all this? Wheres the accountability? What is the point of executive leadership if our executive is weak and doesnt lead? What excuse is there for a president whose answer to the oil crisis is not to get tough with OPEC, not to free our own domestic oil companies to do their job and drill, but to release our strategic reserve? Thats not leadership, thats an abdication of leadership.

Whether we like it or not, oil is the axis on which the worlds economies spin. It just is. When the price of oil goes up, so does the price of just about everything else. Think about it. You buy a loaf of bread. How did it get to the store? What powered the bread truck? What equipment did the farmer use to harvest the grain? Equipment and vehicles dont fuel themselves. They need oil. And when a producers prices go up, they pass the cost along to you in the form of higher prices. I was privileged to be educated at the finest business school in the world, the Wharton School of Business. But it doesnt take some prestigious business diploma to realize whats going on here. Its basic math.

And yet, with China beating us like a punching bag daily, OPEC vacuuming our wallets clean, and jobs nowhere in sight, what does President Obama do? He makes his NCAA basketball picks. He hosts lavish parties at the White House. Now look, I like basketball and lavish parties like the next person. But when youre the president of the United States and your country is burning to the ground right before your eyes, your first instinct should not be to party. Its no wonder America is flat broke.

Did you know that one in seven Americans is now on food stamps? Combine that with skyrocketing energy costs, double-digit unemployment, Obamas massively wasteful spending spree, the federal governments annexation of the health-care system, and the outcome is painfully clearwere headed for economic disaster. If we keep on this path, if we reelect Barack Obama, the America we leave our kids and grandkids wont look like the America we were blessed to grow up in. The American Dream will be in hock. The shining city on the hill will start to look like an inner-city wreck. It wont be morning in America, as President Reagan put it. Well be mourning for America, an America that was lost on Obamas watch. The dollar will fall as the worlds international currency. Our economy will collapse again (something I believe is a very real danger and risk: a double dip recession that could turn into a depression). And China will replace America as the worlds number one economic power.

But it doesnt have to be this way. If we get tough and make the hard choices, we can make America a rich nationand respectedonce again. The right president can actually make America money by brokering big deals. We dont always think of our presidents as jobs and business negotiators, but they are. Presidents are our dealmakers in chief. But the outcome of a deal is only as effective as the person brokering it. Constitutionally, a president is the commander in chief, appoints judges, and can veto or sign bills. Whats his job the rest of the time? Well, I can tell you one important job: he serves as Americas chief negotiator and dealmaker. He is supposed to broker deals that protect and benefit us with other nations. The presidents duty is to create an environment where free and fair markets can flourish, private sector jobs can be created, and our economy can boom. If they are strong negotiators and make the right deals, America wins. If they wimp out and make the wrong deals, you and your children pay the price.

Now consider the embarrassing and anemic deals Obama has pulled off. Im for free and fair trade. After all, I do business all over the world. But look at the deal Obama cut with South Korea. It was so bad, so embarrassing, that you can hardly believe anyone would sign such a thing. In theory, the agreement was supposed to boost American exports to South Korea. In reality, the agreement Obama signed will do next to nothing to even out the trade imbalance, will further erode American manufacturing and kill more American jobs, and will wipe away the tariffs South Korea presently pays us to sell their stuff in our country. Why would Obama agree to these terms, especially when we hold all the cards? The South Koreans like our military defending them against North Korea. But they dont need us to do their dirty workSouth Koreas armed forces number between 600,000 and 700,000. And yet we still have 28,500 American troops in South Korea. Why?

Even if you think its a good idea for us to keep troops in South Korea, why isnt South Korea footing the whole bill for our defending them? (Currently they only cover a portion of the costs.) Better still, why is our president signing the trade bill that the South Koreans want him to sign instead of the one that gives us maximum advantage? He may have been a good community organizer, but the man is a lousy international dealmaker. This is hardly a surprisehes never built or run a business in his life. His entire career of dealmaking, such as it is, has been finding ways for government to shakedown taxpayers to reward his special interest groups. Thats not the kind of dealmaker we need.