# Who has more business smarts: Trump or Obama? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 2, 2019, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833 "2019-02-02T14:20:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/21 "2019-02-02T20:23:26Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Trump just seems to have unlimited resources, & he was not self made. So he has always operated with the upper hand, IDK how he would handle business not working from a power position. We are seeing how that plays out now with him and Pelosi. He expected to be able to just shove her around, and is confused as to what to do when he couldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/22 "2019-02-02T20:52:03Z")
What do business smarts have to do with being president? It’s like asking who’s a better golf player - utterly irrelevant to their actual job. ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/23 "2019-02-02T21:02:12Z")
I think it’s clear that Trump is by far the superior businessman. I think it’s also clear that that has nothing to do with being a good president. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/24 "2019-02-02T21:09:28Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > What do business smarts have to do with being president? It’s like asking who’s a better golf player - utterly irrelevant to their actual job. This what kills me about people who voter for Trump because “He’s not a politician”! That’s like saying “Meet our new head coach! This guy knows NOTHING about baseball - still giggles when we talk strikes and balls” ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/25 "2019-02-02T21:17:57Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > . . . (Trump) has always relied on his being able to con and bully people, and being able to skirt the law without getting into trouble over it. > > That’s history now. . . . Maybe the skirting, and possibly even the bullying, but the conning? He’ll be even stronger - huge numbers of people will still buy his BS. And they’ll give him even more credence by the very fact of his presidency. (Unless he’s in jail, of course, in which case he’d be in isolation. Protective isolation.) ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/26 "2019-02-02T21:38:59Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > This what kills me about people who voter for Trump because “He’s not a politician”! > > That’s like saying “Meet our new head coach! This guy knows NOTHING about baseball - still giggles when we talk strikes and balls” Yeah, but we are going to get a new stadium, and our rival team is going to pay for it! ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/27 "2019-02-02T22:09:44Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Well, Obama’s net worth has clearly outperformed the stock market over his lifetime. Trump appears to have underperformed the market, though he was born into wealth. But I’m not quite sure that Obama’s wealth is actually business acumen, as opposed to being a part of his celebrity-like status. Obama’s net worth has nothing to do with any business acumen. It is a result of him receiving large sums of money for speeches or books about himself. We won’t even go into the legitimacy of it. It’s enough to note the money was not legitimately earned as a result of any skill. His financial legacy is based entirely on his celebrity status. He’s never worked in the business world and his academic career was as a senior lecturer and not a tenured professor. His resume as an adult consists almost entirely of jobs he was voted into and not earned through any skill. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/28 "2019-02-02T22:14:49Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > He’s never worked in the business world … He never worked full time in the private sector, to be precise. So it’s not a fair comparison. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/29 "2019-02-02T22:38:55Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Trump is only rich because his dad was rich and because Trump has helped the Russians launder money. Give Trump his due. He is rich because his dad was rich _AND_… > [@](#): > > I will give Trump credit, he is excellent at marketing. Trump is probably a genius at self promotion. Trump is not rich from Russian payoffs and kickbacks. He is rich from selling himself. As you say he is not necessarily a stellar businessman - his list of failed enterprises is longer than Kristaps Porzingis. But it appears he has managed to keep his financial machine afloat through force of personality and a lot of precarious ball juggling. He may not be a billionaire, but he’ll die very wealthy because he is a shark and because P.T. Barnum was an astute observer of the human condition. > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Obama disappointed a lot of progressives because he governed like a new england republican. Lots of progressives felt we voted for candidate A and got candidate B. He presented himself as a progressive, and he governed like Susan Collins. Actually, no. Far as I can tell Obama presented himself like a “New England Republican” but progressives hopefully _assumed_, with virtually no evidence, he was one of theirs. But he never was from the left-wing of the party. I’m perpetually perplexed by progressives that were disappointed with Obama’s attempt to govern as a MOR consensus-builder, when he never promised to be anything but that. It’s the same sort of perplexed( but not nearly to the same degree )I get when certain conservatives accuse Obama of being a “socialist.” They obviously have never met a _genuine_ socialist or they would never make that kind of frankly idiotic mistake. Obama was as blandly straight-down-the-line, albeit from a DP perspective, as we’re ever likely to see in the Presidency. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/30 "2019-02-02T23:01:06Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Magiver** : > > Obama’s net worth has nothing to do with any business acumen. It is a result of him receiving large sums of money for speeches or books about himself. We won’t even go into the legitimacy of it. It’s enough to note the money was not legitimately earned as a result of any skill. His financial legacy is based entirely on his celebrity status. And his celebrity status is a result of being President, which in turn is a result of his skills. This is as opposed to Trump who is President as a result of his celebrity status, and whose celebrity status is a result of the wealth he inherited. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/31 "2019-02-02T23:02:32Z")
Considering that Trump has never actually run a business, I think even _I_ have more business smarts than him. Obama knows what’s legal, and constitutional, so I’d rather work for him. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/32 "2019-02-03T02:51:28Z")
> [@Locrian](#): > > Considering that Trump has never actually run a business, I think even _I_ have more business smarts than him. Obama knows what’s legal, and constitutional, so I’d rather work for him. If you have more business smarts than Trump you should have a higher net worth. I don’t think you do but prove me wrong. The same goes for Obama. He should be able to turn that 40 million he’s worth into billions of dollars. Because he’s smarter than Trump it should be easy. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/33 "2019-02-03T02:56:10Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > If you have more business smarts than Trump you should have a higher net worth. I don’t think you do but prove me wrong. > > The same goes for Obama. He should be able to turn that 40 million he’s worth into billions of dollars. Because he’s smarter than Trump it should be easy. Or he could consider 40 million to be enough and would rather make the world a better place than sacrifice his humanity running up the “score”. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/34 "2019-02-03T03:33:26Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > If you have more business smarts than Trump you should have a higher net worth. I don’t think you do but prove me wrong. > > The same goes for Obama. He should be able to turn that 40 million he’s worth into billions of dollars. Because he’s smarter than Trump it should be easy. Obama started from nothing to become worth 40 million. Trump started from a 400 million inheritance and is now ‘maybe’ a billionaire, and a good deal of his wealth comes from money laundering after declaring bankruptcy and his businesses failing multiple times. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/35 "2019-02-03T03:50:54Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > He never worked full time in the private sector, to be precise. So it’s not a fair comparison. Obama was a partner in a law firm. So he has worked in the private sector. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/36 "2019-02-03T03:55:52Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#): > > Trump’s “business” is fraud and money laundering, so a child running a legitimate lemonade stand has better business smarts than Trump. That’s debatable. There’s a difference between business smarts and business ethics. Somebody who’s making millions via shady practices may have a lot of business smarts even if they lack business ethics. People like Lucky Luciano and Pablo Escobar had plenty of business smarts. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/37 "2019-02-03T04:03:46Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > If you have more business smarts than Trump you should have a higher net worth. I don’t think you do but prove me wrong. There’s also the factor that I don’t have a father who can hand me four hundred million dollars. That’s not insignificant. > [@Magiver](#): > > The same goes for Obama. He should be able to turn that 40 million he’s worth into billions of dollars. Because he’s smarter than Trump it should be easy. Maybe he could. But as several of us have noted, Obama never set out to become a billionaire. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/38 "2019-02-03T04:15:22Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > That’s debatable. There’s a difference between business smarts and business ethics. Somebody who’s making millions via shady practices may have a lot of business smarts even if they lack business ethics. People like Lucky Luciano and Pablo Escobar had plenty of business smarts. I agree. The difference is they ran criminal enterprises that actually took business acumen. It takes no business smarts to be a fraud. Maybe the money laundering part of his business could be put to his credit for business smarts. I don’t think so because it isn’t as if his money laundering schemes aren’t particularly clever, and mainly revolve around people using him. If he weren’t rich to begin with he’d never have been able to do it. People used him as a screen for their criminal activities, so his case all it really requires is to be rich and willing to lie. Trump would be richer if he’d just invested in index funds, so there’s very little evidence that he’s particularly good at generating wealth. > **[What's More Lucrative: "The Apprentice" or the S&P 500?](https://fortune.com/2015/08/20/donald-trump-index-funds/)** > > The S&P 500 has grown much more than Donald Trump's wealth. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/39 "2019-02-03T04:47:28Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Maybe he could. But as several of us have noted, Obama never set out to become a billionaire. Ah, altruism. I guess when you can cover your grocery bill with a $400,000 speech there really isn’t any need to work. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833/40 "2019-02-03T04:49:24Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Obama was a partner in a law firm. So he has worked in the private sector. what law firm was that? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-more-business-smarts-trump-or-obama/828833.md?page=3)