Adviser Tells Behind-the-Scenes Story of Trump’s Approach to Environment

 This is an important lesson for everyone.  Trump habitually turns problems into solutions.  Every other developer would have got into a pissing match and likely done one failed golf course. That is a natural human instinct. Ask any lawyer.

Instead he recruited the problem and had him do the whole build out.  Them he leveraged that expertise into 16 projects or likely 16 billion in real estate sales while selling bona fide environmentally enhanced projects.

All his competitors could have done exactly the same thing.

Recall that when it comes to managing investment, your worst enemy is staring back at you in the mirror.  That did not happen here.  And observe how his ego was never engaged.  Expect him to do the right thing on a case by case basis.

..

Adviser Tells Behind-the-Scenes Story of Trump’s Approach to Environment

The untold story of Trump’s ultra-green golf courses

By Tara MacIsaac, Epoch Times

November 23, 2017 4:48 pm Last Updated: November 24, 2017 1:20 pm

https://www.theepochtimes.com/adviser-tells-behind-the-scenes-story-of-trumps-approach-to-environment-2_2363597.html?

Donald Trump speaks at the groundbreaking of the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., on Jan. 14, 2005. (Matthew Simmons/Getty Images)

Environmentalist Ed Russo’s hate-turned-to-love relationship with Donald Trump started on a golf course in New Jersey in 2002.

Russo was the head of a local committee that had made it practically impossible for Trump’s water-guzzling, chemical-using, habitat-destroying golf course to take root in Bedminster, New Jersey.

It wasn’t a vendetta against Trump in particular, but against golf courses in general. Nonetheless, real estate guys like Trump were “the enemy.” If it wasn’t a golf course, it would be housing developments, with all their stress and strain on the environment.

Russo received a call from Trump himself. “The first thing he did was challenge me: ‘Are you telling me I can’t build a golf course here?’” Russo said.

Russo knew it was illegal to forbid a particular land use by zoning. Instead, he had to say that golf courses are permitted, but under certain conditions. “Then you make the conditions so difficult that nobody can do that,” Russo explained, recalling how he had dealt with developers before Trump.

Environmentalist Ed Russo. (Ed Russo)

Russo told Trump, “No, I’m saying you can build a golf course, but you have to do it my way.” Trump’s reply was abrupt and unexpected: “You’re in charge. I’m sending you a contract you can’t refuse.” He hung up before Russo could say a word.

Trump essentially gave Russo a blank check and unlimited authority to make the most environmentally friendly golf course known to man. Russo made the best golf course he could, and went on to repeat that for 20 Trump golf courses thereafter.

His experience as an environmental adviser to Trump led him to write his 2016 book, “Donald J. Trump: An Environmental Hero.”

To be sure, some of Russo’s environmentalist friends have scoffed at his support of “the enemy.” But over the years, every one of them has become a convert—in private, at least, Russo said. The common perception is that Trumpis an enemy of the environment; Russo’s friends can’t afford to express public support for him if they want to be able to raise donations for their organizations.

“He doesn’t get any credit for it at all,” Russo said of Trump’s environmental triumphs. “Nobody has written about it.”