Donald Trump has been a blowhard for so long that we’ve gotten used to him and his outsized pronouncements. But with his dismissive comments about and criticism of Navy veteran and Vietnam POW John McCain, he has ended his career in politics.
Sooner or later, every candidate who runs for an office as high as the presidency says or does something that carries the potential to sink his or her political future. And no matter what happens in the polls or in the upcoming debate, Trump is finished.
The question now is whether he wants to leave it that way, or undertake a focused program to rehabilitate himself and the public image he has tended to every bit as carefully as the thing he refers to as his hair.
He’ll be crossing the 70 age mark next year, and 73 by the time the next presidential race heats up. Far too old to be a player, but he could still be a participant. He's weaker than rich-guy cohort Mitt Romney, perhaps, but stronger than Rick Santorum.
Here’s the proposition: Imagine Donald Trump as a reasonable, thoughtful, serious guy, well informed on the major issues and willing to entertain opposing points of view as long as they are well founded and well-articulated.
Oh, I can hear the snickers! Howard Stern could pass for a rabbinical scholar or an NBA forward more easily, you say? Nevertheless, Trump has an opportunity to turn things around and be taken seriously. He just needs to shift his focus away from cheap celebrity and toward being the kind of solid citizen that is, say, David Rubenstein.
It begins with coming clean about a few things.
For example, now that Trump’s Vietnam-era draft dodging has been aired and The Donald was found wanting in patriotic ardor, it’s time for a look at his “marks” (as Trump calls them) as an undergraduate at Wharton, which, at the time he attended, was a program for rich boys who were going to take over their daddy’s businesses anyway so all they needed was a smattering of business courses.
During his Birther phase, Trump once demanded to see President Obama’s “marks,” so it’s time to have a look at his to see if he’s as smart as he claims and graduated at the top of his class as he has let it be reported for years but never verified.
Next, his net worth. If it’s really $10 billion as he claims, The Donald should announce that he’s dedicating a percentage of that—perhaps the traditional tithe of one percent—to charitable contributions over the next ten years. A hundred million a year shouldn’t be a pinch for a stepper like him. Unless, that is, he’s not really as rich as he claims.
Now it’s time to go back to school. Trump should join the Council on Foreign Relations and attempt to get himself onto the rolls of the Trilateral Commission, where he can rub elbows with the likes of David Brooks, Paul Volcker, Ken Duberstein, Donald Graham (the kind of Donald that Trump should aspire to be), Henry Kissinger, Walter Isaacson, Mac McLarty, Winston Lord, Larry Summers—you get the idea.
And for God’s sake, Donald, don’t refer to them as a bunch of “losers” who’ve got nothing and couldn’t get a real job. That’s all in the past.
Finally, Trump should make a big push toward capitalism with a heart. Do fundraising for organizations that promote hiring veterans. Endow a chair at Wharton aimed at investigating social mobility in this country, which has been on the decline for years. Start a program called “You’re Hired!” that gets young people into their first jobs and tracks them for five years, providing any needed assistance in getting a leg up.
It’s not too late, Donald. After your hot-air campaign balloon crashes, you can still salvage something and create an admirable image of yourself. But you have to want to change, and work hard at being taken seriously.
We’ll be watching, Donald, and rooting for you.
Bill Huey is president of Strategic Communications, a corporate and marketing communication consultancy, and the author of “The Gookville Murders” (Kindle, 2015).
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