There is obviously a lot of talk about Donald Trump these days, since he is currently the frontrunner to get the Republican nomination for president.

There are many things I don’t like about Trump, politically speaking.  He is absolutely terrible on economics.  Being good in business does not necessarily make one competent in economics.  I could say the same thing about Warren Buffett, but I’m not sure how much of it is economic incompetence or simple dishonesty when it comes to Buffett.

Back in 1999, Trump was talking about running for president.  He proposed a one-time wealth tax of 14.25 percent in order to pay off the national debt.  His plan would have applied to people with over $10 million in net worth.  Luckily he hasn’t floated this idea this time around.

Not only was his proposal immoral in stealing people’s property, but it would have been disastrous economically too.  Imagine businessmen having to sell off 15% of their businesses or stock holdings in order to pay the government.

Even without that proposal, Trump is still a disaster economically.  He wants to put tariffs on Chinese goods.  This is nothing more than a tax that will make life more expensive for the already hurting American consumer.

As a libertarian, I also oppose Trump for the simple fact that he doesn’t propose any serious significant cuts to government programs, except perhaps in scaling back wars.

And it is in foreign policy where Trump offers a glimmer of hope.  He is standing up to the Republican establishment on this issue and they absolutely hate him for it.  That is why the establishment can still tolerate Ted Cruz.  Cruz has no trouble in maintaining the U.S. empire.

Aside from Trump’s political views, what about Trump as a businessman?

Mitt Romney recently gave an anti-Trump speech.  It was sad and pathetic.  Romney is the face of the establishment, and it probably just solidified support for Trump.

I have never liked Romney and I have always hated his politics.  Still, he seemed like a half decent guy despite being embedded with the power elite.  I remember Ron Paul saying some nice things about Romney.  I think Romney’s wife was the only one who was friendly towards Carol Paul at the debates.  Mitt Romney’s wife really does seem like a nice lady.

I don’t know if Romney is trying to position himself as a candidate for a brokered convention, or if he was just pushed out there by the establishment to oppose Trump.  Romney never said such harsh words against Obama when they were facing off.

It was particularly interesting that Romney said Trump is not a good businessman because of all of his failures.

To be clear, I haven’t agreed with everything Trump has done as a businessman, particularly in his use of eminent domain.  Aside from that, I do understand his political donations and connections.  He has played the game that is given to him.

I have heard from more than one source that Trump is very kind and good to his employees.  I don’t know this firsthand, but that is what I have heard.

I have also heard that Trump University was a decent, if expensive, program.  Again, I don’t know firsthand, but supposedly the material was high quality as compared to other get-rich programs.

But for Romney to say that Trump has not been a good businessman because of all of his failures is utterly ridiculous, and someone like Romney should know better.  Maybe he does know better and was being dishonest.

How many people wouldn’t trade places with Donald Trump in terms of business success?  The numbers don’t lie.  And certainly Trump did start out ahead of others.  He says he started out with a million dollars.  Still, to turn that into billions is incredible.  It is not anything comparable to someone such as George W. Bush who used his family’s money and connections for business deals.  Bush was not actually an entrepreneur, nor a good businessman, except in using government power.

Trump has tried a lot of different things.  Some of them have failed and some of them have been successful.  That is what businessmen do.  Entrepreneurs have to somewhat guess at what consumers want.  They don’t really know until they actually offer the product for sale.  Profits and losses will dictate if it is something that the consumer desires.

In order to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to take chances.  You have to put things out there to see if consumers want them.  There are no 100% guarantees that anything will work because consumers have the final say, unless you are talking about government monopolies.

Trump is actually a great example for aspiring entrepreneurs.  I am not saying you should risk a lot of your money or dump all of your efforts into one thing.  Obviously Trump has money to play with.

But to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to try something.  You can’t be afraid of failure.  You just have to limit your risk on new ventures so that you can keep going if it fails.  And that is something that makes a great businessman – the fact that failure does not keep him down.

If someone puts out 10 products and 9 of them fail, then I guess Romney would consider that person to be a 90% failure.  But if the 9 failures were limited in losses, and cut when they were obvious losers, then these are just as much successes as anything.

And compare that person to someone who has an idea for a product or business who never puts it out there.  According to Romney, that person has never failed because he never tried.  But maybe that is the person who is failing all of the time.

The 90% failure guy has his one success.  He didn’t know which one of his 10 ventures would be a success.  But if he didn’t put all 10 of them out there, he wouldn’t have his success.

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, don’t listen to what Romney says.  Failure is actually good as long as you limit the damages and it doesn’t discourage you from trying again.  Part of being a good businessman is trying many things and keeping with the things that work.