Public arena may prove Trump's downfall

Born into wealth, the scion of affluence, Donald J. Trump was the progeny of prosperity, inheriting everything while earning nothing, his passport, imprinted on his birth certificate became his rite of passage to power his way through life on the home front and world stage.

His sudden opulence afforded gradual but selective privacy, personal isolation, and preferential confidentiality. This financial hermitage provided him the discretion to pick and choose cagey confidants as he built his real estate empire. It allowed him to perfect the "Art of the Deal," his version of doing business, taught by his father who conducted such similar corporate conventions.

On his way to the top, openness was never the option; concealment was his modus operandi as practiced in the medical profession but when he declared his candidacy for presidency of the United States, all that would begin to change. As he spent decades using his inheritance to build his real estate fiefdom, the wall he built around his kingdom could be coming down.

What could be more ironic than the deconstruction of Donald Trump, the razing of a man who built his fortune in real estate who couldn't foresee the fatal flaw in his decision to run for president?

And it may not matter whether he wins or loses the election.

Has the "Donald's" tactics and strategy used to build his wealth been undermined by his decision to step away from the cloistered arena of capitalism into the public square where he's given up the privacy long sheltered throughout his life?

Can this revelation of his past survive his future? This question may be answered in the next few weeks …

James D. Cook

Schaumburg