Trump, Musk, Vivek: three super-salesmen; trouble ahead?
Jan 03, 2025
∙ Paid
When businessmen discover politics, they’re often delighted.
They realize that’s a business where you can sell blue-sky promises with no product.
And if the public buys in, jackpot.
Musk and Vivek are heading up a new federal department that isn’t an actual department. DOGE. They’re going find ways to cut huge chunks from the federal budget.
That’s shooing fish in a barrel.
Anybody can do it. Senator Rand Paul’s yearly Festivus report just indicated a trillion dollars of fed waste. Rand had no supporting fanfare from a President. No marching bands.
The trick is making the budget cuts actually HAPPEN. Which is a whole other operation. There are no fish and there is no barrel. There is Congress, the body filled with crooks who owe campaign donors big-time. Meaning government $$$ contracts. In the fed budget.
Of course, Trump has already made a slew of promises before taking office for his second term. In his book, Art of the Deal, he confessed to his gargantuan overriding m.o.
“The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration—and a very effective form of promotion.”
That’s a promise he HAS kept. To promote. To exaggerate. To find sweet spots and keep hitting them with vows.
Like the Warp Speed COVID kill shot.
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