Donald Trump: Bad Role Model for Any Apprentice
Saturday, May 01, 2004
If you subscribe to the motto “He who dies with the most toys wins”, Donald Trump is ready to die a winner.
He has $2.5 billion and is listed as the 205th wealthiest American on the annual Forbes Magazine list.
He owns everything. From the fancy buildings in the Big Apple emblazoned with his name to the New Jersey Generals, the Trump Shuttle airline, the Empire State Building, casinos in Atlantic City, and the Miss Universe beauty pageant. I’m out of breath and I’ve only touched the surface of his vast real estate portfolio.
Some say he embodies the American Dream. Perhaps that’s why reality TV guru Mark Burnett, who created Survivor, cast Trump as the lead in “The Apprentice” his latest blockbuster hit for NBC.
16 young Trump wanna-bes were selected from a mind-boggling 200,000 applicants whose two-pronged goal was to make the most money for their team in capitalistic competitions while simultaneously dazzling The Donald with their leadership skills.
Week after week, Mr. Bad Comb-over delivered another pink slip with the newest American catch phrase: “You’re fired!” Is it just me? Or did his right arm look like a venomous King Cobra striking its prey?
Incredibly, more than 40 million people tuned in for the dramatic two-hour finale last month to watch Trump hire Bill Rancic, for a cool $250,000 annual salary.
I feel sorry for Bill.
Sure, he’s got fame and fortune. And now the challenge of overseeing the construction of Trump International Hotel and Tower in his hometown of Chicago.
But he’ll be an apprentice to Donald Trump. Yeah, I know. The billionaire knows how to make a buck. No argument there. But he’s an out-of-control, power-hungry, egomaniacal adulterer.
According to Webster's, an apprentice is one who’s bound by covenant to serve his master for a certain time with a view to learn.
Bill is already a self-made cigar-selling entrepreneur. He might not have as much of the green stuff in his bank account as Donald, but I’ll bet you my bottom dollar that Bill’s got more character.
Maybe Mr. Trump should become Bill’s apprentice to learn about life’s most important lessons: fidelity, integrity and decency.
Ray Richmond of The Hollywood Reporter said it best: Trump’s philosophy is that “unapologetic materialism is its own reward.” After watching any given episode of “The Apprentice,” I left feeling like I had just eaten some cotton candy, initially excited about the promise of something tasty, but ultimately undernourished and empty.
Trump’s latest book ”How to Get Rich” sounds as two-dimensional as his NBC hit appears. At one point, Donald, beaming with unmistakable pride, shows off his gold-plated, gaudy penthouse atop the Trump Tower in Manhattan like one of the “Price is Right” models saying, “If you’re REALLY successful, you’ll all live just like this.”
No thanks! It looked like Paul and Jan Crouch’s TBN set on crack. Other than the jealousy-inspiring view, I’ll pass.
In the midst of his endless apartment bling bling is his prized jewel, Melania Knauss, his supermodel live-in-sin girlfriend who’s a little more than half his age. Just like his art collection, he perceives her to be an impressive trophy. He actually said, "When we walk into a restaurant, I watch grown men weep" about the effect of Melania’s beauty.
Now, if you’re not keeping up with pop culture, you’ve probably lost track of Donald’s sexual sins. After marrying Ivana Zelnicek, model #1, in 1977 and having three children, he broke his marital vows and had an affair with Marla Maples, model #2, who was 14 years Ivana’s junior.
Mr. Trump admits in his 1990 book Surviving at the Top, “I even thought, briefly, about approaching Ivana with the idea of an ‘open marriage.’ But I realized there was something hypocritical and tawdry about such an arrangement that neither of us could live with – especially Ivana. She’s too much of a lady.”
No, you’re too much of a creep, Donald.
According to the record, Ivana and Donald were separated in 1990 and officially divorced in 1992. Marla and Donald married in 1993, divorcing 6 short years later.
Marla Maples, in her own words, admits that “I met Donald Trump in ‘85. I ran into him several times throughout the years. We knew we had this connection, but it wasn’t appropriate timing. So we’d spend a lot of time on the telephone with each other without ever being out together in public. By ‘88, I knew I truly loved this guy. I was made to believe there was a plan in place for ending Donald’s previous marriage.”
But it gets worse.
According to AskMen.com, Donald “regularly criticized Bill Clinton for cheating on his wife with a woman as ugly as Monica Lewinsky. He even said that if Clinton had been caught with a slinky model instead of Monica Lewinsky, ‘he'd have been a hero.’”
So, in Donald’s twisted world, Clinton, Mr. Commander-in-Cheat, shouldn’t be admonished for breaking his marital vows, but for breaking them with someone with average looks. That mentality is sick!
Who would want this amoral reprobate as their mentor? Apparently, 500,000 more Americans do. That’s the number of folks who’ve filled out applications for the fall season of The Apprentice 2.
If I had to pick any mortal man to emulate, living or dead, for whom I would serve with vigor as apprentice, I would select St. Paul, who wrote, "I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity" (Philippians 4:11).
"Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy" (1 Timothy 6:17).
Poor Bill. He’s got a poor role model. Over the next year, I suggest the newly hired apprentice simply disregard most of Trump’s life lessons – especially his love of money and his skirt-chasing ways.
Donald Trump was quoted in a 1999 Time magazine article as saying, "I think the handshake is barbaric. Shaking hands, you catch the flu.”
Mr. Trump, I think your lack of character is more barbaric.
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