Fake chief executive by @BloggersRUs

Fake chief executive

by Tom Sullivan

"Doctor poses" from Cigna insurance "TV Doctors of America" ad

Donald Trump is not a real CEO, but he's played one on TV. Now he's playing president even less convincingly. Donald Trump is the late, fake Prof. Irwin Corey, "the World's Foremost Authority," without any of the humor, warmth, or winking at the joke.

Catherine Rampell writes about Trump's phony savvy for the Washington Post:

“If we could run our country the way I’ve run my company, we would have a country that you would be so proud of,” he promised during one debate.

Well, he was half right. Trump has definitely run the country the way he ran his company. But, no, this is nothing anyone can be especially proud of.

That’s because the president is running the executive branch less like a “Six Sigma” efficiency machine and more like a crappy family business that went bankrupt six times.

Consider Trump’s personnel choices. In both private and public enterprise, he has loaded up the payroll with incompetents, self-dealers and family members — categories that are not mutually exclusive — whose top qualifications are ethical pliability and unwavering devotion to the boss.

Which is only one reason the Trump Organization looks so much like a crime family. The West Wing is another.

"Trump’s ‘Best People’ Are the Worst," read the headline on the New York Times Editorial Board's April 25 posting. From Trump EPA chief Scott Pruitt, whose personal corruption is totally the fault of staffers, to Mick Mulvaney who heads both the Office of Management and Budget and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Mulvaney blurts out in public that he runs a pay-to-play operation the way Trump threatens obstruction of justice on live TV. This week there is Dr. Ronny Jackson, the White House physician facing an "avalanche of allegations of questionable behavior" whom no one wants to work for. He's almost as bad as his boss.

Then, of course, there is Michael Cohen, Trump's "fixer." The Trump attorney who is not really a Trump attorney. Other than the company he keeps and solving "problems," Michael Cohen bears no resemblance to Winston Wolf. He just aspires to.

"I'm Winston Wolf. I solve problems." Still from Pulp Fiction (1994).

Heck of a job, Trumpy.

West Wing poses.

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