If I Was Donald Trump's Campaign Manager

by

Bobbie L. Washington

To say that this presidential campaign season is sometimes bizarre, frantic, spiteful, mean, belligerent, mean, comical, frustrating is just the tip of the political spear as 2016 has marked some colorful milestones in this race to the White House. One of the candidates, Donald Trump, has been met with a frenzy of opposition from inside his own GOP and as well as outside forces bent on derailing his campaign. And sometimes it comes from within his own campaign when the illustrious Donald Trump sometimes aims that verbal gaffe towards his own foot and shoots it off. You have to wonder sometimes as to who is advising him when he doesn't follow the perfunctory political script and just set his phasers to full blast and sometimes it winds up blowing up in his face. Now I am not a Donald Trump supporter. I don't support anyone because quite frankly, this season of political contenders are the bottom of the barrel scrapings that we are stuck with. But Donald Trump is a unique character, business mogul, reality TV star, self-promoter, Type A personality. When he finally jumped into the game, nobody took him seriously and that was their demise because he broke all of the rules and if you were to hear him say it, and he did, led in the polls for the most part. But then he hit that brick wall with those gaffes. It was one thing with his supporters for others to go after him but now that he's speaking more on the issues, it's giving them pause and rethinking their position. So, if I were Donald Trump's campaign manager, here is what I would advise.

1. Stick To The Bread and Butter Issue: Speak consistently about providing jobs in America. Jobs, jobs, jobs. That's what is critical in an election. How are we going to keep the jobs that we have, how we are going to find the jobs we don't have and how are we going to make more jobs for the future generations.
2. Steer Clear on Any Abortion Topic: You like walking in a mine field, Donald? That's what you did when you talked about abortion. No good ever comes from discussing this topic because it's like handling a loaded weapon and if you are not adept with this weapon, it will go off on you. You become wounded and it could be fatal. So, just keep the safe political line of where it exist now and how it's the law of the land and that's it.
3. Be a Duck, Donald: Learn how to roll with the punches. You've been a public figure for a long time and you are ripe for verbal punches. Learn how to roll with them. Don't be so easily offended because you have critics, enemies, naysayers, protesters and when you react to their comments, you diminish your stance as being presidential. When the semi-nude picture of your wife surfaced on the campaign trail, your swift reaction against Ted Cruz was a mistake. You should have went with, “yeah, I'm tapping that. Jealous?” See, and now it's over, move on. Everybody knows now that you think you must react to every little thing that you find offensive and that is your Achilles Heal.
4. Be More Human: You are a person who is bigger than life. Come down off that high horse and mingle with the people who got you there. Take off the jacket and red tie and sit a spell and listen to what the people have to say. You live a life of insulation. You a surrounded by sycophants who have kissed your ass for so long that they can tell what you had for lunch. They will tell you what you say is okay but the real down to earth people will tell you otherwise. Be a bit more discerning and you will find that this approach might be beneficial.
5. It's Hard to Be Humble: Nobody likes someone who brags all of the time. You have a record of accomplishments and failures. And that should be normal if you are a business person. And you should also say that you've learned from those failures and capitalized on the successes. But don't just throw it in peoples faces every fucking time. We didn't need to hear about your wine or anything else you created under your name. It has no bearing on this political campaign. What, if you happen to win this office, you can't bring it with you so why does it matter?
6. Study, Study, Study: There are more issues facing a president than ever before. It's not just domestic issues, there are the foreign issues as well. You know that we are a global community now and you just can't have blinders on when it comes to the foreign affairs. Take a crash course on the key foreign issues, Israel, Palestine, Humas, the EU, North Korea, etc. because you will have to provide some answers to this area real soon. And on the domestic side, you will no longer have supporters to deal with, you will have citizens of the United States to deal with. In addition to the Republicans, you will have Democrats, Independents and people who never voted for anyone under your stewardship to maintain their lifestyle and you must address it with passion instead of an aloof indifference. WE witness this under the Reagan Administration with disastrous results of favoritism and a resurgence of a class system. This will be your biggest challenge.
7. Understand The Health Care System: You have discussed briefly about health care and talked about having a “Trump Care” program but I don't think you have ever experienced it from the everyday people side of it. You haven't lived through the system to understand the high cost of health care and that would mean you have to review Rule #4 again. For some of us who get hit with an unexpected health issue, it becomes something of a challenge, the numerous doctor visits, the exorbitant medical bills, the metal anguish of how to pay for all of these health related expenses. This is what people deal with everyday. If you are faced with a medical tab of over $900 per month for five types of pills that last the 30 days, you have to decide what is important, food, shelter or health. Normally health takes a back seat and many have been lost in that decision making process.

8. Hold Your Tongue: Learn when to speak and how to speak. Don't just let words vomit out of your mouth any kind of way. You are already a running target for SNL and every other comedian and late night talk show out there.  Speak softly and carry a big stick is Teddy Roosevelt's advice if you know what that means. Every word that comes out of your mouth has reverberations. Be selective, not politically correct, but selective in choosing the right words to say because words carry weight. When you have spoken on things that have been controversial in nature, did anyone ever tell you that it was perhaps incendiary? You built buildings in the past by going with a set of plans. The same applies with your language, find the architecture of words and craft them accordingly. You can make the same point when protesters interrupted your political rallies when you said, “ I'd like to punch him in the face. “ versus a more eloquent approach of “Somebody here wants to exercise their free speech but this is my rally so please escort him outside where he is free to do it.”

Well, that does it for me. Take it or leave it, it's up to you. You started this campaign with an outsider, not part of the establishment, campaign. Only you can make this happen.