President-elect Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE said he doesn’t like the “concept of heroes” when asked about whether he has any role models.
When asked about his heroes in an interview with The Times of London, the president-elect talked about his father, before emphasizing the importance of natural ability.
“The concept of heroes is never great, but certainly you can respect certain people and certainly there are certain people — but I’ve learnt a lot from my father — my father was a builder in Brooklyn and Queens — he did houses and housing,” the president-elect said.
ADVERTISEMENT”And I learnt a lot about negotiation from my father — although I also think negotiation is a natural trait, I don’t think you can, you either have it or you don’t, you get better at it but basically, the people that I know who are great negotiators or great salesmen or great politicians, it’s very natural, very natural.” The president-elect went on to tout his win in the GOP primary, despite his lack of political experience. “I got a letter from somebody, their congressman, they said what you’ve done is amazing because you were never a politician and you beat all the politicians,” Trump said. “He said they added it up — when I was three months into the campaign, they added it up — I had three months of experience and the 17 guys I was running against, the Republicans, had 236 years – ya know when you add 20 years and 30 years — so I was three months they were 236 years — so it’s sort of a funny article but I believe it’s like hitting a baseball or being a good golfer
He said natural ability is much more important to him than experience. “And experience is a great thing — I think it’s a great thing,” he said. “But I learnt a lot from my father in terms of leadership.”