The Credibility of Billionaires

Trump had the stature to attack the "corrupt  Establishment".   Trump was not an outsider looking in.  He was a whistleblower.  

Trump presented himself as a traitor to his class, and incorruptible because of it.

In the closing days of the campaign Trump's refocused onto the theme "Drain the Swamp," a bipartisan issue objecting to the self dealing of the financial, political, media, and cultural elites.   FBI Director Comey's first letter and the timing was ideal for Trump.  It reminded Americans that a Hillary Clinton presidency meant endless House investigations and charges.  Voters' Clinton fatigue became Clinton exhaustion.   And if the political elites were self-dealing and corrupt per se, then Hillary was surely part of the problem.

Trump stayed on message, with some effort, telling himself aloud at one rally,  "We gotta be nice and cool.  Nice and cool, all right?  Stay on point.  Stay on point, Donald.  No sidetracks."    And the theme he pressed was that the elites of both parties were betraying the interests of the regular American.

"I don't need anybody's money.  I'm really rich"

Trump was publicly scorned in return by the the elites of both parties and Trump made a virtue of it.  He got boos at the white tie Al Smith Gala, he was denounced by the cream of the GOP including the Bush family and Mitt Romney, the RNC and Paul Ryan kept their political distance, newspaper endorsements were overwhelmingly for Hillary, the prestigious conservative journals denounced him, and Wall Street supported Hillary with campaign donations.   

The elites said Trump was not presidential, that lacked the proper temperament.   But  they did not say: that he lacked stature.   Under normal political circumstances this would be a negative for Trump. He would be the little guy shouting up at the big guys.  He would be the person complaining about a party he was not invited to, a position of weakness.    

Trump campaigned from a position of status as a billionaire.  He wasn't looking up, an outsider with his face pressed to the window looking at a party he was not invited to.  Quite the opposite.  Click Here: 21 Seconds. Independent. Incorruptible.  "I don't need anybody's money.  It's nice.  I'm using my own money.  I don't need the lobbyists' money.   I'm not using lobbies.  I'm not using donors.  I don't care."

Whatever the actual facts of the amount of Trump wealth--how many millions or billions, and whether the buildings with Trump on them are owned or merely licensed--Trump is wealthy and lives a publicly lavish lifestyle.  He in fact donated significant amounts to political campaigns.  His had credibility when he said he gave money to both sides and that when he needed favors politicians took his phone calls.

Huey Long.  Every man a king.

Trump was well positioned to attack the elites.  He was perceived as one of them.   Some critics derided Trump as nouveau riche interloper from mere Queens.   This charge actually helped Trump.  Only within the rarified confines of pretentious NY society would Trump be snubbed as an outsider.  The distinction between Manhattan and Queens is lost on most people in the red states.  This  criticism affirmed the Trump message: the elites are impossibly snobbish and insular.

American history has had populist leaders.   William Jennings Bryan, the orator from Nebraska, was an outsider looking in.  Huey Long from Louisiana.  George Wallace from Alabama.  They are portrayed as rumpled, sweaty men, railing angrily against forces bigger than themselves.  They represent the people because they are one of the people.

Sanders

This year Bernie Sanders from Vermont joined that group, but with a twist.  Bernie made a virtue of being rumpled.   His hair was notoriously unkempt.  He was an outsider, and proud of it, even though he was a US Senator.  His authenticity came from being uncorrupted by wealth.  Sanders had credibility in his attacks on the billionaires because it was apparent that he did not seek wealth.  He was not jealous.  He was not excluded.  He did not play their game.  He was motivated by social justice, not wealth.  But there was a weakness in his position, had he got the nomination: he was proposing high taxes on other people, people richer than himself, the "millionaires and billionaires" as he put it early in the campaign.  He later switched to billionaires only.

We do not know how Sanders would have fared in the general election.  Sanders did not present as jealous of the wealth of others, but his apparent contempt for wealth and wealth-seeking might have been a vulnerability.  People without enough money may not appreciate someone who acts as if it is not important.  Sanders's virtue might come across as ungrounded, unrealistic, and ivory tower-ish.

That would not be Trump's problem.  Trump liked money, and loved spending it.  He was criticized for his vulgarity--gold bathroom fixtures.  Trump was described as a "poor man's idea of what a rich man is like."   It was meant as a criticism, but it is in fact a source of Trump's political appeal.   He--like blue collar strugglers--appreciated money.

Wealth gave Trump credibility to attack the elites as a peer.
When he criticized Carrier Corporation and Ford for moving factories to Mexico he presented as a fellow businessman who knew exactly what they were doing and he condemned it.  

Voters in Michigan and Wisconsin understood Trump to be on the side of regular workers, people angry at the actions of the big shots, the company managers.    Multiple counties who had voted for Obama twice switched from blue to red.   The Michigan map of county switch is the story of the tipping point of the campaign that elected Trump. Trump won the Reagan Democrats, those blue collar voters.   Hillary was part of the corrupt establishment and Trump was the populist spokesman for the common man.   Trump could do what William Jennings Bryon could not do: win a majority of the electoral college votes.


Trump was a populist billionaire and it was not a contradiction, it was a point of credibility.   It gave him the same position that FDR used to his advantage, the charge that he was a "traitor to his class."    

Earlier in the campaign Trump was punching down, at immigrants, Hispanics, blacks.  His credibility improved when he refocused on the corruption of his own apparent class.  Americans who did not feel comfortable voting for a racist felt OK voting for a whistleblower.