2B
L awrence J ournal -W orld - USA TODAY MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016
Ride services could use a lift v CONTINUED FROM 1B
Uber said that since starting operations in Austin in October 2014, it has signed up 10,000 drivers, and 500,000 riders have opened its app to request a pickup. Rival Lyft, which, like Uber, is based in California’s Silicon Valley, said in a statement, “The rules passed by the City Council don’t allow true ride-sharing to operate.” Lyft said it hopes its “pause” in operations will show it is taking a stand in defense of app-based ridesharing. Uber and Lyft spent about $8 million on the campaign leading up to Saturday’s vote, in which the measure to overturn rules adopted by the city was defeated by a 56% margin. Long among the nation’s top cities for tech, Austin is an unusual place for a dispute involving industry disrupters to play out. The state capital is home to the SXSW festival, which marries music and tech innovations. Dan Driscoll, 33, a tech entrepreneur who splits his time between Austin and Boston, predicted that the absence of ride-hailing could take a bite out of Austin’s nightlife if fewer people go out or more people drive drunk. “Austin is a town where the weekend runs from almost Wednesday until Sunday afternoon,” he said. “The reality is that people don’t take cabs because logistically, they’re a nightmare. They don’t show up when you call them.” Driscoll drove for Uber and Lyft for about a year. The fares helped him underwrite a start-up, he said. The ride-hailing system “was never broken” and fingerprinting won’t necessarily improve safety, he said. When Uber and Lyft began operations, they were allowed to self-regulate. In December, the City Council adopted rules that included requiring fingerprinting of drivers, which drew strong objections from both companies as being unnecessary because of their own background checks. Uber says it is threatening to pull out of Houston, which requires fingerprinting. Uber notes that other cities, such as Toronto and Miami, have passed ridesharing laws that don’t require fingerprints. Uber and Lyft indicated they are open to returning to Austin if the rules are changed. Jason Stanford, spokesman for Mayor Steve Adler, said the mayor has been clear that “he wants Uber and Lyft to stay, and they’re welcome to the table to try and figure this out. We’re a better town with them in it.” Corrections & Clarifications USA TODAY is committed to accuracy. To reach us, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones at 800-8727073 or e-mail accuracy@usatoday.com. Please indicate whether you’re responding to content online or in the newspaper.
PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER
John Zidich
EDITOR IN CHIEF
David Callaway CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER
Kevin Gentzel
7950 Jones Branch Dr., McLean, Va. 22108, 703-854-3400 Published by Gannett The local edition of USA TODAY is published daily in partnership with Gannett Newspapers Advertising: All advertising published in USA TODAY is subject to the current rate card; copies available from the advertising department. USA TODAY may in its sole discretion edit, classify, reject or cancel at any time any advertising submitted. National, Regional: 703-854-3400 Reprint permission, copies of articles, glossy reprints: www.GannettReprints.com or call 212-221-9595 USA TODAY is a member of The Associated Press and subscribes to other news services. USA TODAY, its logo and associated graphics are registered trademarks. All rights reserved.
TRUMP ISN’T WORRIED BY OPPOSITION WITHIN GOP New Republican voters will make up for detractors, he says David Jackson USA TODAY
Donald Trump is shrugging off the refusal of some Republican leaders to endorse him, saying most of the party will back his nomination and new voters will compensate for the rest. “Look, I’m going to get millions and millions of votes more than the Republicans would have gotten,” Trump said an interview Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. Trump was addressing questions raised by House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is scheduled to meet with the presumptive presidential nominee on Thursday after saying last week that he wasn’t yet prepared to back the New York billionaire. In an interview on ABC’s This Week, Trump said he is a “very different” kind of candidate, and party unity may not be as big a factor. “I think it would be better if it were unified,” Trump said, adding that “I don’t think it actually has to be unified” in the more traditional sense. “It’s not called the Conservative Party,” he told ABC. “This is called the Republican Party.” While Ryan has said he is not yet ready to endorse Trump because of doubts about his conservatism, other party members have flatly come out against the nominee-in-waiting. That group
WIN MCNAMEE, GETTY IMAGES
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has declined so far to endorse Donald Trump as the likely nominee of the GOP.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Donald Trump says the Republican Party doesn’t necessarily have to be unified behind his candidacy. includes 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney as well as former 2016 GOP hopefuls Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham. They cited
issues from Trump’s abrasive language to his comments about women and Hispanics. Trump lacks the “temper-
ament or strength of character” to be president, Bush wrote in a Facebook post on Friday. Bush’s brother and father, former presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, have said they had no plans to endorse, while Romney has denounced the New York businessman as a “phony” and a “fraud.” In his NBC interview, Trump said Romney is “ungrateful” for his support in 2012, and that the former Massachusetts governor “choked” on his chance to beat President Obama. Trump said that Bush and Graham are angry that he beat them during the nomination fight, and he noted that both once backed a pledge to support the nominee. The presumptive Republican nominee said he was “blindsided” by Ryan’s reluctance to endorse, saying he thought he had a good relationship with the House speaker. Ryan told CNN he wants to back the nominee, but “I’m not there right now.” Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, blasted the House speaker, saying on CNN that she’ll support Ryan’s challenger, Paul Nehlen, in the Wisconsin primary for his seat. “I think Paul Ryan is soon to be ‘Cantored,’ as in Eric Cantor,” Palin said in an interview broadcast Sunday on State of the Union. Cantor was the Republican House majority leader who was upset in a 2014 primary in Virginia by Dave Brat. Contributing: Tom Vanden Brook
Trump is likely to follow his gut v CONTINUED FROM 1B
would never have been hired to do what they’re doing by a campaign that was sane,” Stuart Stevens, strategist for Mitt Romney in 2012, told The Hill this year. Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager, had never run a successful statewide race. Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman, was doing Trump corporate PR and had never worked for a political campaign. That’s fine with Trump. “He wants diamonds in the rough,” says Gwenda Blair, a biographer. WOMEN
Trump has hired many female executives. They include Norma Foerderer, who was his top assistant, and Barbara Res, construction manager for Trump Tower. Naming a woman head of a big construction project was unheard of in 1980. Res says that when Trump hired her, he told her, “Men are better than women, but a good woman is better than 10 men.” His logic: A woman who has succeeded in a sexist system had to be outstanding. INSIDERS
Trump likes to hire and promote people he knows. “They don’t have drug problems, they don’t have alcohol problems,” he told Bloomberg last year. “I would rather take guys at a lower level and move them up than hire people that you have no idea who they are.” Calamari rose from security chief to COO. Foerderer, hired as a secretary, became executive vice president. Trump’s social media wizard, Justin McConney, is the son of the Trump Organization controller and has been with Trump companies since 2009. A small San Antonio firm that’s worked for Trump since 2011 was hired to build the campaign website. Trump took a liking to Res after he saw the 31-year-old engineer stand up to an architect at a meeting on Trump’s first big project, the conversion of the old Commodore Hotel at Grand Central Terminal into a Hyatt. Next thing she knew, she was sitting in his living room listening to his plans for Trump Tower. RELATIVES
Trump always has relied on family. Ivana, his first wife, helped manage his Atlantic City casinos and ran the Plaza Hotel. Their children — Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric — largely run the Trump Organization. Most corporate websites have biographies of key managers. The Trump Organization’s doesn’t
PETER FOLEY, EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
The Trump family: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, center, with, from left, daughter Tiffany, Donald Trump Jr., daughter Ivanka, and son Eric. In the front row are Kai Trump, left, and Donald Trump III, children of Donald Trump Jr. mention anyone whose last name isn’t Trump. TRUTH-TELLERS
Ronald Kessler, a journalist who met Trump while working on a book about Palm Beach, says he “expects candor in people he hires. It’s the one thing that really stands out.’’ Up to a point. Once a decision has been made, Blair notes, Trump expects complete loyalty — “someone who’ll jump when he says jump.” ADVERSARIES
“I often hire people that were on the opposing side of a deal that I respect,” Trump told Newsday in 1989. In the early ’80s, he sued New York City Housing Commissioner Anthony Gliedman personally for blocking a $25 million tax abatement for Trump Tower. In 1986, after a lunch in Little Italy, Gliedman agreed to join the Trump Organization and leave the administration of Mayor Ed Koch. LOOKERS
Trump cares about a prospective hire’s hairstyle, weight and attire. The winning Apprentice contestant often was the best-looking. Hicks, the spokeswoman, is a former model. For Trump, attractive equals successful, D’Antonio says: “It’s very important that someone look the part.” CHARACTERS … AS IN STORIES
Trump likes hires with a good back story. Gliedman’s showed Trump’s willingness to bury the hatchet. Res’ showed his focus on talent.
GETTY IMAGES
Matthew Calamari
Hope Hicks
AP
Trump “believes in the power of story,” D’Antonio says, “especially a surprising one.” HOW DOES HE DO IT?
As instructive as who Trump has hired over the years is how: instinctively, quickly, personally. He doesn’t rely on résumés or references. “He believes in nothing more than he believes in his gut,” D’Antonio says. Res says it’s simple: “He sees people, he likes ’em, he hires ’em.” In 1981, Trump hired Foerderer, who had no experience in the private sector, let alone real estate, based on a meeting that lasted five minutes. She served him for more than two decades. For a presidential nominee choosing a running mate, Trump’s hiring patterns and practices have some pros and many cons. He can’t pick a relative, an employee or a novice. Good looks don’t count. Trump’s limited number of politician supporters don’t offer much gravitas, except possibly Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. A methodical vetting could be essential if Trump doesn’t want a running mate who will blow up in his face. “Intuitively is not how it’s done
anymore,” says Joel Goldstein, a St. Louis University Law School expert on the vice presidency. “And when it was, the people involved had served together and knew each other very well.” Res says, “He will listen to his advisers. There’s too much at stake not to.” D’Antonio agrees but wonders if Trump is too much like a rebellious teenager: “If he can do what everyone says he shouldn’t and get away with it, he wants to do it.” Potential vice presidential candidates could be leery of going down with Trump’s pirate ship or serving under such a notorious micromanager and spotlight hog. While Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton leads in general election polls, the kind of hiring “good story” Trump likes might come in handy — like Marco Rubio, whom Trump relentlessly derided as “Little Marco,” joining the ticket. Don’t scoff, D’Antonio says: “Trump is the most manipulative person in the world. He’s capable of persuading almost anyone, who’s even a bit receptive, to join his ticket.” Kessler says Trump himself doesn’t hold grudges. In Palm Beach, for example, he made peace with private clubs who opposed his conversion of his Mara-Lago estate into one. And he’s reached a rapprochement with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, with whom he’s feuded. As far as Kessler is concerned, the point is moot — “I’m sure he’s already decided in his mind who it will be.” Kessler’s sure it’s Rubio. And he’s sure Trump can hire him.