Althouse: In India, Trump stirs up the competition of gender difference: Women are "great and natural entrepreneurs," and the men had better be very careful, because "They're really good!"

February 24, 2020

In India, Trump stirs up the competition of gender difference: Women are "great and natural entrepreneurs," and the men had better be very careful, because "They're really good!"

I clipped 19 seconds for you:

"We are delighted to be joined as well by dozens of Indian women entrepreneurs who are helping to build your nation's future. They are great and natural entrepreneurs, and I just say to you men: Be very careful — they're really good!"

ADDED: Is entrepreneurship innate? Is it a natural part of the human psychology, and if so, is it more predominant in males than in females? Trump is saying that men shouldn't rest on their prejudices and the accomplishments of men over the course of history. Women have arrived in modern commerce and women will compete and they're really good.

It was like something he'd say on "The Apprentice." Season 1 had a men's team against a woman's team. And in Season 4 — dissatisfied with the "street smarts" vs. "book smarts" theme of Season 3 — he returned to the competition of gender difference.

Trump gets criticized for being "divisive" and "polarizing," but I think he sees greatness as the product of competition. I said at the end of the first post of the day, riffing on a quote by Rabindranath Tagore about Swami Vivekananda: "If you want to know America, study Donald Trump. In him everything is positive and nothing negative." For him, us versus them is not a bad thing. It's a sport. It's all for the good. It's competition. It's the source of achievement.

Some of us are not natural entrepreneurs. I know I'm not. Some of us want harmony and peace and substantial comfort and niceness. But we can still see how the natural entrepreneurs benefit us and how we would lose if they could not do what they're born to do.

52 comments:

gilbar said...: President Trump thinks women are "Really Good"
Democrats think women have penises; 2/24/20, 7:37 AM
daskol said...: Read between the lines: he's telling the men there, learn to do dishes.; 2/24/20, 7:39 AM
John henry said...: Every day I love this man even more

John Henry; 2/24/20, 7:40 AM
Howard said...: The interesting thing about actual misogynistic countries is that their women tend to go for stem over traditional female jobs as opposed to the least misogynistic countries in Scandinavia. The women of India are a huge untapped resource for the betterment of the Western world.

Another progressive move by Trump. What's next a huge infrastructure bill that he sends to Congress?; 2/24/20, 7:44 AM
AllenS said...: I had a VA woman doctor that was from India, but she left for a real hospital. Too bad, she was very knowledgeable. She was a movin' on up.; 2/24/20, 7:49 AM
gilbar said...: Most Best President, EVER!; 2/24/20, 7:51 AM
rehajm said...: It's an observation. He sees Indian women who are more interested in founding and creating than they are in joining the gender committee. It's a contrast observed by other Americans.; 2/24/20, 7:51 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: many small businesses are founded by and run by women. In tech startups they are underrepresented, and dogged by a silly media that makes “stars” out of con-women like Liz Holmes (Theranos) who are politically connected. But da Media ignore the millions of female entrepreneurs who take risks and employ many but aren’t worth Big Media’s time because they don’t fit The Narrative of oppression, the template for nearly every Bug Media stories staring women.; 2/24/20, 7:53 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: I meant “Big Media” above. I actually like and support Bug Media because they’re better at covering insect politics.; 2/24/20, 7:56 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: The youngest of the Jenner-Kardashian clan is a billionaire not from fashion modeling (her job) but from her branded makeup line (her entrepreneurial endeavor). There has never been a better time for equal opportunity as there is now, here and worldwide. Go for it.; 2/24/20, 8:01 AM
Howard said...: My new dentist here in Central Mass is and Indian woman training at Tufts. Her main assistant is a Somali woman. They are both excellent. My son is also dating a beautiful intelligent good-humored conscientious American girl whose parents are both from India. She is the product of an arranged marriage. Is that eugenics?; 2/24/20, 8:04 AM
Howard said...: You know what the millennials always ask when people say Indian is Dot or Feather; 2/24/20, 8:06 AM
Hagar said...: An entrepreneur must be willing to read and cope with Federal, State, and local laws and regulations, do payroll, etc., and so forth ad infinitum in addition to their work in the business. Plus be responsible for everything, of course.

This never was my bag. All I wanted to do was work and do my job the best I knew how.; 2/24/20, 8:10 AM
AllenS said...: Howard said...
You know what the millennials always ask when people say Indian is Dot or Feather

What, Howard? Please don't leave us in doubt.; 2/24/20, 8:13 AM
Michael K said...: My son is also dating a beautiful intelligent good-humored conscientious American girl whose parents are both from India. She is the product of an arranged marriage. Is that eugenics?

One of my medical students was a beautiful girl who was smart as a whip. She was one of the engineer-medical group I had for a few years. SC had an engineering medical program, with the students already being graduate engineers. There was even a PhD program in biomedical engineering. Monica is gorgeous and cultivated a "Valley Girl" sort of personality, which seems to be a way to conceal her tremendous intellect.

She told me her parents, both physicians from India, met through an Indian dating site. Her mother chose her father because he was the only man who had submitted a color photo.; 2/24/20, 8:16 AM
daskol said...: Not the most engaging book, but a good thesis and title/subtitle: Michael Barone's Hard America, Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling and the Battle for the Nation's Future

One can be really good at doing dishes, engendering harmony in the home. Competition between husband and wives, I imagine, leads not to greatness. Competition among siblings, on the other hand, is where we learn of what greatness is made.; 2/24/20, 8:17 AM
MayBee said...: Is he saying "women" are those things, or the women who have joined them today are those things? Because those particular women *are*.; 2/24/20, 8:21 AM
Michael K said...: My new dentist here in Central Mass is and Indian woman training at Tufts. Her main assistant is a Somali woman.

My dental hygienist in California before we moved to Tucson was an Ethiopian woman who is Jewish and who, as a child, was one of the Ethiopians rescued by Israel from a civil war about 20 years ago. She and her siblings grew up in Israel and she and her white husband go back every year. We talked quite a bit about race in America. She agreed with my impression that American blacks are crippled by their victim mentality.

She told me she would get hate stares from black women when she was out with her white husband. They live in Irvine, which has a median house value of close to a million dollars.; 2/24/20, 8:21 AM
Seeing Red said...: — Some of us are not natural entrepreneurs. I know I'm not. Some of us want harmony and peace and substantial comfort and niceness. But we can still see how the natural entrepreneurs benefit us and how we would lose if they could not do what they're born to do.—-

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as "bad luck.”

Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

Robert A. Heinlein

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.

Robert A. Heinlein; 2/24/20, 8:21 AM
Kevin said...: Some of us want harmony and peace and substantial comfort and niceness. But we can still see how the natural entrepreneurs benefit us and how we would lose if they could not do what they're born to do.

The Democrats are working hard to reject your thesis.; 2/24/20, 8:21 AM
Lloyd W. Robertson said...: When my son rants about Charlottesville or what not, I sometimes say: you know, I'm not sure Trump really hates anyone at all. The response is indignation, etc. I think to myself: I don't think I'm the asshole at Thanksgiving. Anyway: Trump singles out individuals for criticism. It's old-fashioned and unfair to make it about physical attributes like Bloomberg's height. This one is hard to resist because we do look for "stature" in leaders. His hits against Jeb were like surgery, vaporizing a candidate who was riding on family reputation and money. He expected Alicia Machado to live up to a contract, he thought Khizr Khan took part in Hillary's campaign in a very unfair way, and so on. Holding individuals responsible is something like the opposite of racism or bigotry. He had some kind of real feud with Rosie O'Donnell, noting that her career was going downhill, etc. Classic New York banter/insults? Unfair? My main point is: yes, a remarkably positive person who thinks business is a good test of who can be trusted.; 2/24/20, 8:23 AM
narayanan said...: Blogger rehajm said...
It's an observation. He sees Indian women who are more interested in founding and creating than they are in joining the gender committee. It's a contrast observed by other Americans.
____=====
Ivanka Presidency being set up?
https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/02/20/ivanka-trumps-global-development-and-prosperity-initiative-empowers-women/; 2/24/20, 8:33 AM
Meade said...: "Some of us are not natural entrepreneurs. I know I'm not. Some of us want harmony and peace and substantial comfort and niceness. But we can still see how the natural entrepreneurs benefit us and how we would lose if they could not do what they're born to do."

Eliminate the natural entrepreneurs and all you'll have left is sick people desperately trying to steal what's left of each other's Medicare for All.; 2/24/20, 8:47 AM
Hagar said...: And AA is wrong about "women have arrived in business." They have always been there; just like they have in politics. In ancient Egypt, there were women pharaohs centuries, if not millennia, before Cleopatra, but now, all of a sudden, they have "arrived."
This is B.S.; 2/24/20, 8:51 AM
Calypso Facto said...: So in the last week, Trump has effusively praised women entrepreneurs, been cheered on by 100,000 Indians, and made the highest level openly gay political appointment in history. Worst sexist/racist/homophobe ever!; 2/24/20, 8:52 AM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: I could probably never be an entrepreneur, but it probably has more to do with the way I was raised than anything innate.; 2/24/20, 9:03 AM
Chuck said...: “...I think he sees greatness as the product of competition...”

Right. Competition, on reality game shows. Competition, in college football. Competition, between siblings for a thrice-married father’s attention.

If only Trump believed in the kind of competition that really mattered for a U.S. President proposing to take a hyperactive role in trade policy; international trade and business competition.; 2/24/20, 9:08 AM
Chuck said...: Blogger Meade said...
"Some of us are not natural entrepreneurs. I know I'm not. Some of us want harmony and peace and substantial comfort and niceness. But we can still see how the natural entrepreneurs benefit us and how we would lose if they could not do what they're born to do."

Eliminate the natural entrepreneurs and all you'll have left is sick people desperately trying to steal what's left of each other's Medicare for All.

Is it going to be hard for elder Trump fans, who are actually on Medicare, to sneer about political proposals for “Medicare for all”?

Or will it just be hard for those of us under age 65 to listen to them?; 2/24/20, 9:12 AM
narciso said...: she was a Ptolemy, but still smarter than her brothers,; 2/24/20, 9:13 AM
Temujin said...: I've lived long enough and seen enough in business to know that real entrepreneurship is innate. A lot of people- especially the younger generation- call themselves entrepreneurs. But a real entrepreneur comes in both genders (yikes...in Canada...or California, I'd be cut off for saying that). It is something in some people and not in others.

Some have visions and drive and the desire to be their own boss, make their own way, and are willing to take the risk. You have to be willing to take the risk. And you have to live it and breathe it above anything else in your life. At least for the first few years. Others have zero desire to be completely swallowed up by their work, their vision, etc. There's no right or wrong, but in this society we have a huge need for entrepreneurs. They're the ones who open new doors. Women are every bit as great at it as men. It's not gender based. It's a gene that some have, and some do not.

Then there are those who think that being an entrepreneur means creating an app and becoming a 25 year old zillionaire in a year. It doesn't usually work that way.; 2/24/20, 9:15 AM
Inga said...: "If you want to know America, study Donald Trump. In him everything is positive and nothing negative."

Apparently, the Swami hasn’t heard Trump’s Inauguration speech, “The American Carnage”.; 2/24/20, 9:21 AM
Howard said...: My son's girlfriend is a dot, Allen. One funny thing about her is her family is from the north and are generally fairly light-skinned. She is moderately dark skinned and her mother tells her to avoid the sun during the summer so she doesn't get any darker. Thankfully she is American and does not do as her parents always wish. My son inherited his pigment from his mother, a whiter shade of pale. His gf is about 5 4 and my son is blond 6 4 so they make quite the striking couple.; 2/24/20, 9:24 AM
Howard said...: I'm a serial entrepreneur who is not a natural entrepreneur so I only managed an upper-middle-class lifestyle.; 2/24/20, 9:27 AM
Michael K said...: Is it going to be hard for elder Trump fans, who are actually on Medicare, to sneer about political proposals for “Medicare for all”?

Some of us can add and subtract. You should try it.; 2/24/20, 9:42 AM
Big Mike said...: Some of us want harmony and peace and substantial comfort and niceness.

Then I guess you had better plan on voting Republican because the Democrats have made it plain that as long as they hold even the slightest scintilla of power they will set American against American, and even modest hopes for niceness are but delusions.; 2/24/20, 9:48 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: Our host's observation is that Trump is a player in the British public school sense. One should (or one must) "play the game" and "play on". Trump enjoys the cut and thrust of competition.

In another vein, Trump's businesses have occasionally failed and fallen into bankruptcy. I remember a German commenting on serial startups in Silicon Valley. He said that the leaders of such businesses bore their bankruptcies like German university dueling scars. They'd fail and start again until they succeeded. If Trump had the technical training I think he'd do well in Silicon Valley.; 2/24/20, 10:01 AM
traditionalguy said...: The secret ingredient to competition is mutual respect of the opponents and respect of the rules of the game. Lawlessness and Rules for Radicals respects neither.; 2/24/20, 10:12 AM
dreams said...: Trump is a genius.; 2/24/20, 10:18 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Everyone is an entrepreneur, or they are on welfare. Even Althouse.; 2/24/20, 10:28 AM
Big Mike said...: Or will it just be hard for those of us under age 65 to listen to them?

Oh this, surely. I pay a lot for Medicare Part B out of my Social Security — about $200 per month for my wife and I — and frankly the coverage is crap. If I didn’t pay a lot extra out of pocket for Medigap coverage my current doctors would almost certainly tell me to look elsewhere. And there are plenty of treatments that my doctors cannot give me because even after they’ve been successfully been employed for many years, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Classified them as “experimental.”

And don’t get a doctor started on their dealings with the slow-paying, pettifogging CMS.; 2/24/20, 10:40 AM
Milwaukie guy said...: You know what the millennials always ask when people say Indian is Dot or Feather... Id' still like to know what.

When people sometimes begin speaking of the Indians, dot or feather is an important context to begin with. It's like when talking about people from the subcontinent, push start or pull?; 2/24/20, 11:42 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Re “arrived”

I was just trying to capture the implication I heard in Trump’s remark, but I concede that I assume women suffered exclusion in India in the past in a way that is being rectified.

I don’t purport to know.; 2/24/20, 12:11 PM
RigelDog said...: Entrepreneurship is strongly tied to inborn personality traits, IMO. Our new son-in-law was raised by two low key parents who worked in bureaucracies and had no ambition to go it alone. He, OTOH, has had the goal of creating his own businesses since college and left a high-paying tech/business job with a major corporation to start up his own business three years ago.; 2/24/20, 12:19 PM
rcocean said...: Trump was always "pushing women" on the Apprentice but they usually disappointed him. Same in the White House. You have few American women Entrepreneurs because women aren't risk takers or self-starters. They do better as managers, where they just have follow a set of rules/regulations.; 2/24/20, 12:27 PM
rcocean said...: How many women want "to be there own boss"? A few, but not many compared to men. Most women in the workforce are perfectly happy to take orders or be middle managers.; 2/24/20, 12:30 PM
n.n said...: Entrepreneurship may be a sex-correlated gender quality. It is more likely to be an individual instinct and skill, especially with respect to ordering priorities. Sex differences? Probably not.; 2/24/20, 12:37 PM
n.n said...: Everyone is a capitalist, even in far left societies. This is market economics, which also exists in the latter, where the minority regime has little interest or delegates management for profit (e.g. fascism).; 2/24/20, 12:42 PM
paminwi said...: My son worked for a NYC based high frequency trading company. They had an office just outside of what used to be called New Delhi. They actually had a fair amount of women hired as traders. His first time visiting the office as he was brought in, in his own car with a driver, he noticed many cars dropping women off at the front door. He found out each woman at the company had her own driver hired by the company since sexual assault is so frequent in public transportation. Men still had to find their own way to work. No one complained.; 2/24/20, 1:02 PM
Seeing Red said...: — Some of us want harmony and peace and substantial comfort and niceness. —-

Damn biology.; 2/24/20, 1:15 PM
n.n said...: — Some of us want harmony and peace and substantial comfort and niceness. —-

Damn biology.

That's the sex difference: an order of priorities, means, and methods. Two normal distributions that are sex-biased and intersecting, including women who are not so comforting, or nice, a choice, really.; 2/24/20, 1:23 PM
Nancy Reyes said...: the background: Women run the street market shops and small businesses in much of the third world. You lean about prices, profit, and bargaining.But women's expertise is not funded or encouraged and doesn't get expanded into big business.

Ivanka has been pushing the idea of empowering women in business for quite awhile.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/global-fund-championed-ivanka-trump-women-entrepreneurs-begins/story?id=50468898; 2/24/20, 2:42 PM
narciso said...: https://dailycaller.com/2020/02/24/case-agent-1-stephen-somma-fisa/; 2/24/20, 3:14 PM