Ashok Dhillon
Feb 24, 20205 min
In the last four years or so, the first being Trump’s run for the Presidency, and the last three, the term in Office so far, Americans and the World have been subjected to constant boasting by Trump as to his ‘genius’ and his ‘wealth’ (‘I am a stable genius, and very, very, rich’). But in the cold, hard, American capitalist world of business smarts, success, big money and politics, it is Trump who is the minnow, and Michael Bloomberg who is the whale.
Knowing this, Trump tries to belittle Bloomberg for his height, which at 5 feet 8 inches is certainly shorter than Trump’s (both Trump’s actual height and the height his last medical report states), but is just shy of the average American male height of 5 feet 9 inches, and therefore is not extraordinarily short by any measure.
However, when one compares Bloomberg in smarts and overall business success directly to Trump, there is no such close calls to the ‘average Billionaire’ – as Bloomberg towers over Trump in every way.
In business success, Michael Bloomberg is a genuine global giant, as his financial information empire spans the globe, and is a critical source of up-to-the-minute data for the World’s financial institutions, and active financial professionals. And as for being ‘rich’, Bloomberg is independently confirmed as among America’s top 10 wealthiest people, at 9th place as of February 2020, with an estimated net worth of about $61.8 Billion, which also makes him one of the wealthiest people in the World, at 12th place as of February 2020. In comparison, Trump’s net worth is self-declared, at about $10 Billion, but is estimated by Forbes to be at about $3.7 Billion, in 2016, and even less by others.
As the World has gotten to know Trump, and his penchant for stretching the truth to beyond the breaking point, it is safe to assume that Trump’s own numbers are most likely to be highly inflated, and very significantly inaccurate. Regardless, Bloomberg’s independently estimated net worth makes Trump’s net worth, even at his inflated best, at about 16% of Bloomberg’s net worth, and at the more accurate Forbes estimate, a mere 6% of Bloomberg’s wealth (a minnow versus a whale).
In terms of overall standing in the business World, Michael Bloomberg is a giant by any standard, and is acknowledged as such, internationally, while Trump is primarily known for his relentlessly self-promoted name, but not at all for his business acumen; instead, it is quite the opposite as Trump is more famous for his many business failures, and high profile bankruptcies, rather than his business successes, which are generalized as ‘property development’, and a reality TV show.
As a litmus test, the truly successful in America, the real giants, do not have a high regard for Trump as a businessman, while they acknowledge Bloomberg as a true giant in his field, with the enormous net worth to prove it.
In the political arena, it can be credibly argued that Michael Bloomberg has been the far more successful of the two. Bloomberg ran for, and won three terms as the Mayor of New York City. His each term as Mayor was successful enough that he went on to win three terms, two as a Republican, and one as an Independent. And while he faced some controversies in some of his policies, such as the rightly hated and now quite infamous, ‘stop and frisk’ policy, his terms as Mayor were generally considered to be successful, overall.
While Trump eventually did end up winning the Presidency, it was after a number of years of ‘thinking about it’, an aborted attempt in 2000 as a Reform Party candidate, and finally wining in 2016. But since becoming President, it can be credibly proven that the majority consensus (in America and internationally) is that Trump’s is a failed Presidency, while Bloomberg was a successful New York City Mayor, for each of his three terms.
Certainly Trump’s hard-core ‘Base’ (approximately 40% of Americans) would vehemently disagree with this assessment, but it must be obvious even to the most fanatical supporters of Trump, that he is a flawed person, and a failed President – if nothing else but from the sheer volume of credible criminal investigations that he has triggered with his own inappropriate behaviour, and his closest cronies’ many criminal activities that have landed most of them in jail.
For Trump himself, it was everything from improprieties during the election; and from illegal pay-offs to porn stars and centre-folds; to asking foreign powers to intervene in the election through Russian e-mail hacking of the DNC; to Wikileaks’ dispersion of damaging e-mails on his political rival; to triggering more investigations that led to multiple charges of obstruction of Justice (which may be pursued after he leaves the Office); to having the greatest number of his closest Advisers, surrogates and appointees, being indicted, convicted and jailed for criminal offenses; to illegally withholding Congress sanctioned Military Aid to an ally (Ukraine), in a quid-pro-quo arrangement, for his personal political benefit, which resulted in him getting Impeached by Congress, as per the Constitutional procedures regarding high crimes and misdemeanors by the US President.
Though Trump did get acquitted by a highly partisan Senate that made a mockery of the requirement for ‘impartiality’ in the Impeachment Trial, yet the evidence was overwhelming, and the blocking of pertinent witnesses and documents by the White House and the Republican Senators, only added to the certainty of his guilt. And even though the Republican Party keeps denying and rubbishing every illegal act and every inappropriate behaviour since Trump ran for Office, the Courts have been trying and convicting his many closest allies and advisers, on related matters to his election, and on their other criminal behaviour.
There is no rubbishing the number of convictions that have been reached by US Judges, and US Juries, including the latest conviction and sentencing of his favourite political advisor Roger Stone, on whose criminal behalf Trump and the US Attorney General, William Barr, intervened most inappropriately.
Michael Bloomberg has been politically tainted by bad policies, such as ‘stop and frisk’, and by personal choices in the public utterances, and behaviour, that were crude, callous and clearly misogynist, but none of his actions triggered any of the severe political and legal storms that Trump has repeatedly generated, and continues to generate on an almost daily basis.
Compared to Trump, behaviourally, Bloomberg is almost a normal business and political type - while Trump is off-the-charts unfittingly abnormal in both areas.
What Bloomberg brings to the Democrats at this stage of the election fight is business, wealth and political creds (even though his Democrat rivals don’t appreciate his out-sized personal wealth being used to promote his nomination bid in competition to theirs). Nor do they appreciate many of his attributes that they have actually been campaigning against so far – things like his status as a mega-Billionaire, and a less than sensitive politician where minorities and women are concerned. And his personal views which have at times have been offensive.
But, Bloomberg’s presence as a Democrat in this Presidential election significantly blunts Trump’s boasts about his own ‘business smarts and personal wealth’.
On both counts Bloomberg makes Trump look amateurish and naive in comparison.
It also makes the Republicans gun-shy in attacking Bloomberg on all their favourite accusations and barbs against the Democrats, as being naïve financially, and economically.
In reality, none of the Republicans can fault Bloomberg on just about anything, as he has been, till now, just like them in a number of ways; a lifelong Republican, and one of the most successful ones.
...And there-in is the Trump neutralizer, and counter balance, for the Democrats.