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What the hell? You're grouping Trump together with Musk?
Trump was never hugely successful at anything. "The Apprentice" was perhaps the only real success.
What did he ever outperform at, given his ambition (which any idiot can be born with) combined with absolutely massive inherited wealth (400m usd or so)?
Trump parleyed his position as the middle child of a minor patrician family into being a top-level player in 3 distinct and notoriously exclusive and cut-throat fields. Urban Real-estate, Television, and Politics. Furthermore he did so without seeming to accrue the roster of enemies, the public baggage, nor the "Kompromat" that one might otherwise expect from a man in his position. (most of the nonsense about him being "a fascist", "an authoritarian", and "the most dangerous man in politics" only appeared after it was clear that he was about to become the 2016 GOP Nominee).
Similarly Musk has founded 3 companies in 3 distinct industries that are notoriously difficult to break into, Banking, Automobile Manufacturing, and Aerospace, and not only have those 3 companies survived in industries where the overwhelming majority of start-ups fail, they've grown to become major players in their own right.
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The man leveraged a middling career in reality TV to go 2 for 3 against the entire political establishment of the most powerful nation on earth. I know he hasn't turned that into fulfilled promises, that he's running into hard walls and making bad decisions. But if he is a failure, he has failed to greater heights than most will ever dream of.
He's a success because of the failure of the system. It's not a novelty, it was always the criticism of democracy that it would allow charismatic demagogues to claim political power. The miracle was supposed to be figuring out a way to either keep them at bay or check them
Trump is clearly skilled at moving the public. He's not skilled in some sort of objective domain like someone like Musk who we can say is more impressive at that than the bulk of the elites.
(And I think that Musk also failed at government).
"Trump is a charismatic demagogue" is a very different complaint from "Trump is neither smart nor capable".
In fact, they are in no way equivalent.
Obviously he's achieved atypical things and is talented. The point is that they're not the same sort of achievement as Musk's.
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The claim was "hugely successful across multiple domains for decades", implying pre-POTUS times.
“Everyone who inherits 400m is famous” - he’s famous for being rich but 99% of people who are rich are unknown. He had a tv show. He managed to build a lot of buildings.
If I can be 5% as successful as pre-potus Trump I’m taking that deal.
You might be able to legitimate bullets that his IRR on investments had no alpha.
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