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Donald Trump’s Las Vegas friends say he’s got skills

CLEVELAND — Donald Trump isn’t a fixture in Nevada, not a regular one anyway. He’s made more high-profile visits since he announced his candidacy for president and started headlining raucous rallies than he’s ever made before.

But the Trump flag — a giant, golden tower with the Trump name emblazoned across the top, just slightly taller than the eponymous Wynn Las Vegas and Encore across the street — has definitely been planted.

And some of Trump’s Las Vegas friends showed up here this week to tell Republican delegates at their national convention, and the rest of the world, why Trump would make a great president.

It’s not necessarily an easy fit. Recall that when a proposal surfaced to hold the Republican convention in Las Vegas, objections were raised that more socially conservative members of the GOP wouldn’t really like a weekend in Sin City.

But the convention embraced speeches by Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White, and Trump’s longtime friend (and business partner on the Trump tower Las Vegas) Phil Ruffin.

Both men said Trump will succeed in the Oval Office because of a particular business skill: vision.

According to White, Trump saw the success of UFC fighting long before it was popular. Trump not only negotiated a good deal for UFC fights in his Atlantic City Trump Taj Mahal hotel, but he actually showed up and watched, White said.

“Nobody took us seriously, except Donald Trump,” White said. “Donald was the first to recognize the potential that we saw in the UFC, and encouraged us to build our business.”

As a fight promoter, White said, he knows fighters. “Ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump is a fighter and I know he will fight for this country,” he said. The cheers in the convention hall for that remark may not have been at UFC level, but they were still pretty loud.

Ruffin was equally effusive in his praise, countering the idea that Trump plays fast and loose with his business, racking up more than 3,500 lawsuits during the past 30 years, or allegedly defrauding students at Trump University.

“Donald’s word is his bond,” Ruffin told a murmuring crowd on Wednesday night. “If he tells you something, you can put it in the bank.”

Ruffin listed Trump’s real estate successes around the country, almost forgetting to mention the Big One: the shiny golden tower not far from Ruffin’s own Treasure Island property on the Las Vegas Strip.

The property opened in March 2008, not exactly a great time for a real estate investment because of the onset of the Great Recession. Ruffin said others may have walked away, but not Trump. Today, the building is 80 percent sold and has no debt, Ruffin told the crowd. (A second planned tower hasn’t materialized, however.)

“He is a leader. He wants to lead this country,” Ruffin said. “A tsunami is coming. His name is Donald Trump.”

Certainly, praising Trump for having the vision to see the success of companies such as UFC or a real estate deal like Las Vegas’ Trump tower is somewhat self-serving, akin to saying a person is smart because he has the good sense to agree with your ideas. But Ruffin and White aren’t the only people who’ve said Trump has an uncanny ability to spot winners and losers in business.

The question is, since government is not a business, and not supposed to be, can Trump’s business skills — negotiating, understanding other people, finding a successful outcome that everybody can live with — translate into running one of the largest and most complex governments in the world? Or does the government experience that generally gets a poor reception when it’s mentioned from the stage in the GOP convention hall matter more than the ability to build a tall building or give an upstart sporting franchise a chance?

White and Ruffin know their answer.

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist. Follow him on Twitter @SteveSebelius or reach him at 702-387-5276 or SSebelius@reviewjournal.com.

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