Business Lessons I’ve Learned from the Trump Years

Photo by Aubrey Hicks on Unsplash

One of my recent NSFW columns for WorldatWork (A Trip Down COVID Lane) discusses the things I’ll miss when we’ve been able to put the pandemic in the rearview. I wanted to write a parallel piece about the Trump years (for Medium, as politics are, ironically, not safe for NSFW ), but after 24 hours of coming up empty, I decided to go a more conventional route and list the things I won’t miss, not even for a second.

I hasten to mention that I’ve studiously avoided politics in my NSFW columns, on my Work in Progress podcast, and in business dealings in general, though it’s long been a deep and abiding interest. I enjoy reading political bios, histories, books and articles on policy, etc., and will argue with friends and frenemies just short of pistols at dawn. But even when a business colleague or associate or general business acquaintance foists his/her, uh, opinions on me, I try my level best to deflect, even though it can take every ounce of discipline to keep my tongue — and open hand — in check.

If you’re detecting an anti-Trump bias, yes, guilty as charged, but when Trump came into office, I wasn’t entirely opposed, at least not to the concept — I did have hopes.

For years, people would argue the merits of a President with business experience — someone who knows how to read a balance sheet and negotiate…