Readers: this blog is set in the future (sometime after the year 2020). Each entry assumes there has been a 5th revolution in the US — the Revenge Revolution. More about the Revenge Revolution and author, Entry #1. List and general description of entries to date.
Note: most entries are formatted as conversations. Characters appear in a number of entries, with many entries building on previous conversations. Profile of characters (see link at top of page). You’ll catch on quickly. Thanks for your time and interest…and comments.
Scene: Jordan’s office in Washington, DC. Conversation begins Entry #279
Board Member: “Mr. Trump, during the break did you think about your managers’ concerns? What about their concerns was so unreasonable that you allowed the company to effectively shut down?”
Trump: “You guys seem to exaggerate everything. The company only closed for a few days. You know, like a long holiday weekend. What’s your problem?”
Board Member: “Have the concerns of the managers been addressed properly? Or is the company going to limp along from one shut-down crisis to another?”
Trump: “You keep pointing the finger at me. I haven’t done anything.”
Board Member: “That’s the point…you haven’t done anything meaningful. Might the Board remind you yet again, the CEO is in charge…”
Trump: “…But I want…”
Board Member: “…Excuse me but I wasn’t finished speaking. Let’s see if you understand this. ‘Little Donnie, quit whining like a brat, and be quiet until the adults in the room tell you it’s ok to speak. Understand?’”
Trump: “I feel like I’m in grammar school again.”
Board Member: “The Board thinks you act as if you’re in grammar school. As I was about to say, are you familiar with the sign President Truman kept on his desk?”
Trump: “You mean ‘The Buck Stops Here’ sign?”
Board Member: “Well, well, he does know some history. Yes, that’s the sign. And since you’re CEO, the buck stops where in this company?”
Trump: “With me…I guess. Is that what you want me to say?”
Board Member: “Brilliant analysis on your part. You’re a genius.”
Trump: “Glad you think so. I know a lot of other people think I’m a genius. Now tell me where this conversation is headed.”
Board Member: “Another insightful question from the genius. What the Board wants to know is your plan to take the company forward.”
Trump: “But I told you before about the plan to make the company great again. Step #1 is to change the compensation structure. The 1.0% management team needs more money. The peons who work for the company don’t really deserve any more money but we can throw them a few crumbs for a while…then gradually take it back. They’re too stupid to understand what’s really going on. Step #2 is…”
Board Member: “Hold on, Mr. Trump. How will the company pay for all the extra money you’re going to give to the 1.0% management team? And how much extra cash are you planning to take home?”
Trump: “Don’t worry about my compensation. I deserve every penny. In fact, I deserve much more. To pay for the well-deserved extra compensation for the 1.0% team, the company is going to borrow the money.”
Board Member: “Really? Borrow all that money? Who will lend the company that much money?”
Trump: “You forget, I’m the world’s best negotiator. I’ll get my friends at Deutsche Bank to lend the money. They’ve laundered money for me…I mean lent money to me before.”
Board Member: “But what about their connections to shady Russian oligarchs, let alone Putin? Associating with the Russians will compromise the company.”
Trump: “You keep worrying about the wrong things. The Russians are here to help. Besides all the extra money paid to the 1.0% group will allow the 1.0%er’s to spend even more on luxury goods, yachts, country clubs…you know stuff that really matters. And eventually, some of that money will find its way to those people…you know, the workers. At that point the company will sell more product and we will pay back the loan. See a perfect plan…pure genius.”
Board Member: “The approach sounds like trickle-down economics.”
Trump: “Same concept. Did you know that Arthur Laffer and Ronald Reagan stole the idea of trickle-down economics from me? Aren’t I a genius?”
Board Member: “Mr. Trump, the trickle-down approach, which president George H.W. Bush called voodoo economics, has never worked. He was right. Trickle down has never worked in the US or anyplace in the world. The trickle-down approach slows economic growth, not accelerate it. You know that don’t you?”
Trump: “Fake news. I know it works. Trust me.”
Board Member: “And what if it doesn’t work?”
Trump: “We’ll cut the worker bees’ compensation. We can reduce their medical benefits and cut their retirement benefits. Those peons aren’t entitled to those benefits anyway.”
Board Member: “You realize, of course, the workers contributed to their medical plan and their retirement plan. And they’ve done so for a long time. Your plan will basically screw them.”
Trump: “Not my problem. They didn’t contribute enough. I deserve the money and they don’t.”
Board Member: “Workers contributed what the company asked them to contribute. You set the amount that was to be withheld from their paycheck.”
Trump: “I don’t care. They should have paid more.”
Board Member: “So you want to harm the workers for your inept management of the medical and retirement programs?”
Trump: “Don’t blame me. You need to blame the guys that came before me.”
Board Member: “One more time. What did the sign on President Truman’s desk say?”
Trump: “’The Buck Stops here.’”
Board Member: “So, let’s talk in more detail about your performance this past year and how you’re going to lead the 
company going forward.”
Trump: “Why is the Board questioning me? Seems like a witch hunt. The biggest one in history. You want to find something wrong so you can get me out of office. I haven’t done anything wrong. Trust me. I’ve accomplished more than any CEO of this company…ever.”
(Continued)
Gelly: “Jordan, I was cleaning out some files. Found an article you wrote at the end of Trump’s first year in office.”
one could have done it better. Now let’s adjourn and play some golf.”
Trump: “Why? I told you my performance was fantastic. Let’s go play golf.”
Board Member: “Just to be clear, the majority of the Board did not support you to be CEO. Only because we have an odd way of counting votes that were you elected.”
Trump: “There’s so many I don’t know where to begin. No other CEO has ever accomplished so much in such little time.”
: “The only thing I need to be more effective is total loyalty from everyone in the organization.”
Trump: “Experience running large companies doesn’t matter. I don’t need to know…in fact, I pride myself not knowing about lots of things you consider important. Remember, I’m a genius. Why waste my time learning anything new? I’d rather watch TV and play golf. What’s knowledge worth anyway? I go with my gut…and I’m always right.”
Trump: “In my way of thinking, all deals are zero-sum games. And I have to win. The other party in the deal needs to cave in to my demands.”
Matt: “While getting a coffee refill, I was thinking about what you just said.”
Jordan: “Keep in mind the time frame. I didn’t compare Trump’s first year to Hitler’s entire time as Chancellor. Just one year to one year.”
popular with his base, which made up about 25% of the population. While his overall approval rating was somewhat higher, his rating was lousy by historical standards for presidents after their first year. And as time went on his approval rating kept dropping…and the disapproval rating kept increasing.”
obfuscation and cover-up that was similar in many ways to Nixon and Watergate.”
Matt: “You mean the meeting with the infamous ‘why do we want to let in people from those ‘shithole’ countries?’…or something like that. I know the shithole countries part is right, and Trump’s shithole-countries included Haiti and parts of Africa.”
Jordan: “What about religion?”
Jordan: “So now we have the president openly expressing distaste for anyone other than white, western European Aryan-like immigrants. Except, the US population was full of all kinds of immigrants who didn’t fit Trump’s profile.”
Jordan: “As were our allies, which were doing a lot of head scratching trying to figure out what was really going on. In a normal administration, the allies would turn to the Secretary of State for some guidance. Where was Trump’s esteemed Secretary of State during this period…Mr. ExxonMobil himself? I think he was MIA.”
Matt: “You mean senators Perdue and Cotton? Purdue went so far as to wait a few days and then claim his colleague in the senate Dick Durbin was lying. As if someone would hold a press conference and claim the president would use the term ‘shithole countries.’ I mean Purdue seemed to be the one lying. Besides, how stupid did Purdue think the public was?”
Jordan: “No. But, I’m also saying Republicans in Congress did nothing to stop Trump. As we talked about earlier, look how senate Republicans, including Graham, acted like Trump’s puppets, trying to block the Mueller investigation. Republicans in Congress were complicit. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Trump got so out of control he was taken out…but no thanks to Republicans in Congress.”
Jordan: “And so, we had the Revenge Revolution…and after the revolution the beginning of a return to normalcy. Thanks goodness.”
Jordan: “And that is?”
Jordan: “The Republicans in Congress and some alleged grown-ups in the Trump Administration who put party loyalty over protecting the country. Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham were two perfect examples of party-loyal senators falling on their hands and knees in front of King Donald. Nikky Haley, then ambassador to the UN, was an example of an alleged grown-up in the administration who was acting like a child, claiming no one in the White House considered Trump a loose cannon. What were they all thinking?”
Jordan: “Support the president, support the Republican Party but endanger the country? The last time I looked, the oath of office for those in Congress and those in the administration is to uphold and defend the Constitution, not uphold and defend some idiot in the White House, even if a member of your party.”
Jordan: “Let’s start with Republicans ignoring and protecting Trump’s behavior. Despite the Donald’s repeated claims that he was a genius and mentally stable, he was neither. How much more obvious could it have been that the guy was thinking and acting like a whiny 3rd grader? How many presidents throw a tantrum every time they don’t get what they want? As far as being a genius. That’s laughable. Matt, you went to that other school in Cambridge. Do you think he could have held a candle to any of your classmates at Harvard?”
Jordan: “Incendiary by design. At the time the head-in-the-sand…maybe head up someplace else…senators Gassy, I mean Grassley and Graham were making every effort to divert attention away from Mueller’s investigation and possible collusion with the Russians. The two of them made a claim that some statements to some committee about the dossier could have, maybe, or in southern terms, might could have been just a bit misleading. No evidence to support their claim, just conjecture. All this noise while ignoring a legitimate investigation of actions by Trump, family and some in the administration that could have been treasonous. So why the diversion? What was in it for Grassley and Graham?”
Jordan: “Go back and think about when the article was published. Trump’s one year into office and hell-bent on destroying institutions that are the bedrock of America’s democracy and hell-bent on destroying America’s relationship with key allies. Remember all of what happened in just one year. On top of all that the guy is clearly mentally unstable.”
Jordan: “Just as Germany’s situation grew worse and worse. I haven’t done a line-by-line comparison but I’ll bet in the first 12 months in office King Donald did as much damage to America…if not more damage…than Hitler did to Germany within his first 12 months in office.”
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