Dow Chief Says Business “Aghast” at Trump

The global business community has been “fundamentally ignoring” the positive response US Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's campaign has received from the American public, Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris said at a meeting in his native Australia.

At the same time, he said he had perceived business to be “aghast” at Trump's success.

The best explanation of the Trump phenomenon is the billionaire property developer's success in marketing himself to a public disenfranchised from government and business, the newspaper Sydney Herald reports Liveris told at the event in Perth on Mar. 23.

The Dow chief cited a leader of Congress describing the means of communication used by former presidents.

Abraham Lincoln, he explained, was an excellent writer, while John F. Kennedy was the first “television president,” Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were natural entertainers and Barack Obama conquered the use of social media and the internet.

“And now,” Liveris said, “the presidential cycle is bringing us the Kardashian presidency,” referring to a popular US reality show featuring a flashy, self-absorbed family.

“TV has taken over what most Americans see, and most people are disaffected with Washington and Wall Street, and a lot of things like that and they look at reality TV and they imagine that life, and I think Donald Trump is an incredible marketer of the fantasy of what could be,” Liveris remarked.