In early 2016, most commentators still treated Donald Trump’s presidential run as a sideshow. Dan Peña didn’t. In this clip from his February 2016 London Real interview, recorded months before the Republican nomination was settled, Peña tells Brian Rose that if Trump wins, “he’s gonna rock the planet.”
It’s classic Peña: loud, profane and certain. But underneath the language is an argument about self-esteem, political correctness and what voters were really asking for.
▶ Watch the full episode: Dan Peña – Just F*cking Do It
No limits, no fear of opinion
The clip opens with a theme Peña returns to again and again. You have no idea, he tells the audience, how limitless life becomes when you stop worrying what other people think or say. Brian connects that to self-esteem, and to what he sees missing in the world.
Trump as a symptom
Peña’s view is that Trump is the clearest sign that Americans had had enough. Voters know he doesn’t always tell the truth, Peña says, and they don’t care, because they don’t believe any politician gets elected on the truth. What they are fed up with is the rest of it. He goes further: political correctness, in his view, is a symptom of a society with low self-esteem.
“Respect gets respect”
As evidence, Peña cites an exchange he remembers from the campaign: Trump talking tough about Vladimir Putin, and Putin responding days later that he liked the man. Peña’s reading is that strength earns respect where diplomacy doesn’t. “Respect gets respect,” he says.
He applies the same idea to himself. He says he doesn’t want anybody’s love, and that people have respected him all his life precisely because he says what he thinks. His test is the foxhole: when things get dangerous, do you want a politically correct companion or someone who will fight? Trump, he says, is the second kind, though he adds that he doesn’t agree with everything Trump says.
The other side of the coin
Peña doesn’t see Trump in isolation. He points to Bernie Sanders, then running strongly against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, as the same phenomenon from the left. Peña is no fan of Sanders, but he reads both campaigns as proof that the US is ready for change. And when America sneezes, he says, the rest of the world catches a cold.
He even says he’d like to see Sanders run against Trump, because either way the world would change. He’d just do better personally if Trump won.
Looking back
Whatever you think of Trump or Peña, the clip is a useful time capsule. Peña called the mood of 2016 earlier than most, and his framing, an electorate tired of polished politicians and willing to forgive almost anything for someone who seemed to mean it, became one of the defining explanations of that election.
The language is strong throughout. That is part of the Peña package, and part of why his London Real conversations are among the channel’s most watched.
Who is Dan Peña?
Dan Peña is an American businessman and mentor who built the oil and gas company Great Western Resources in the 1980s. He created the Quantum Leap Advantage (QLA) coaching method and for years taught it at seminars at Guthrie Castle in Scotland. His relationship with Brian Rose is the subject of the documentary The 50 Billion Dollar Man.
In this full 2016 episode, Peña and Brian talk about fear, self-esteem, success and doing the work. You can also watch another of his popular clips: Dan Peña – Why We Have A Snowflake Generation.
See everything Dan Peña has done with London Real on his guest page: Dan Peña on London Real.
More on London Real
Transcript
Transcript: Dan Peña – “Donald Trump Is Gonna Rock The Planet”: His 2016 Prediction
0:01 Dan Peña: You have no idea how limitless it is when you’re not afraid of what other people think or say. You have no idea. There aren’t two people watching this who even have a concept of what it is to act as if you have no limits to your abilities. Zero.
0:22 Brian Rose: And that ties into self-esteem.
0:23 Dan Peña: Correct.
0:24 Brian Rose: And that ties into what we see lacking in this world, and we see a lot of other signs of that.
0:31 Dan Peña: Donald Trump is the pre-eminent manifestation that, at least in America, they’re up to here with it. They know Donald doesn’t say everything that’s truthful. They don’t give a sh*t, because they know no f*cking politician gets elected on the truth. Our current president is a classic example. He is a perfect manifestation that the world, or America, is fed up with all the bullsh*t. And I believe political correctness is a manifestation that the world has a lack of self-esteem.
1:12 Brian Rose: So we had a lack of self-esteem and we got an Obama, and the fact that Trump is getting support, does that show we’re shedding that a little bit?
1:21 Dan Peña: When he becomes president of the United States, and it’s a long shot, I said a year ago: if he’s serious about being president, he will rock not only the United States of America, he will rock the world. Five months ago he said he was going to punch Putin in the mouth, if you recall. Six days later Putin said, “I like that man.” What does that tell you, Brian? What does that tell these people listening?
1:56 Brian Rose: What?
1:58 Dan Peña: Respect gets respect, instead of all this political horsesh*t. If Donald Trump becomes president, he’s going to rock the planet.
2:14 Brian Rose: What does that mean, rock the planet?
2:16 Dan Peña: He’s going to change it.
2:20 Brian Rose: You said to me last night that you don’t care what anyone thinks of your opinion of them. You don’t want their respect, and yet by doing that you get all of their respect.
2:32 Dan Peña: I don’t want anybody’s love. Everybody loves me. I don’t give a f*ck if these peeheads watching this like me. You said they’re either going to love you or hate you; I knew which one it would be. All my life I’ve been this way, and all my life people have loved me and respected me. If you’re in a foxhole, who do you want in the f*cking foxhole with you, Brian? Some mealy-mouthed c*nt, a politically correct a**hole, or somebody who’s going to rip their head off and sh*t down their neck? Trump’s that kind of guy. I don’t agree with everything he says, but he’s that kind of guy.
3:14 Brian Rose: And he’s a sign that people want someone to…
3:16 Dan Peña: He’s a sign from Allah above.
3:20 Brian Rose: Because whether he gets elected or not, the fact that he’s in the polls tells us so much about ourselves. Is that what it is in America? A lack of accountability, no self-esteem, everyone just mediocre?
3:37 Dan Peña: And the US has more self-esteem than all the other countries put together.
3:41 Brian Rose: It should, or it does?
3:43 Dan Peña: It does.
3:44 Brian Rose: Right. It’s got the biggest problem as well.
3:47 Dan Peña: There are two sides to the sword, and he is showing the future. It’s right there in front of us. If Trump got to be president, Allah doesn’t even know who’s going to be the next prime minister. He’ll rock it. Now, whether he does or not, I don’t know. But the other side of that coin is Bernie Sanders. God help us. He was a f*cking communist 35 years ago. Now he’s a socialist, he’s been in the Senate for 15, 20 years, and he’s kicking Hillary’s a**. What the f*ck does that say? The US is ready for change. They’re so fed up. And when the US sneezes, the rest of the world gets a cold.
4:48 Brian Rose: Trump gets elected, and we see a wave.
4:50 Dan Peña: And I’d love to see Bernie run against Trump, because either way the world’s going to change. It’ll change better for me if Trump’s elected.
