Smart business people know their employees are the window of their companies, their missions, their products, their ethics, their brand. And that's what Donald Trump is supposed to be best at: Brandishing his brand.
So it should come as no surprise that the man who jump-started his presidential bid with bogus claims that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya has a former, longtime butler and current historian at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate who is made of the same polishing cloth as Trump himself.
Trump's 30-year butler, Anthony Senecal, has quite a string of racially tinged Facebook posts referring to President Obama as a "Kenyan fraud" who should be hanged for treason.
"With the last breath I draw I will help rid this America of the scum infested in its government," Senecal spewed last May. He added that the president should be dragged from the "white mosque" and hanged "from the portico - count me in !!!!!"
This from the man who was the leader, face and epitome of Trump elegance at Mar-a-Lago, where he has also conducted paid tours. Senecal also posted that Hillary Clinton should be hanged and aimed vicious posts at Ferguson protesters, Beyonce' and others.
After the posts were found and published last week by Mother Jones, the Secret Service said it was "aware of this matter and will conduct the appropriate investigation."
A Trump campaign spokeswoman said in an email that Senecal had not worked at Mar-a-Lago for years. She added: "We totally and completely disavow the horrible statements made by him [Senecal]."
But according to The New York Times, when Senecal tried to retire in 2009, Trump said he was irreplaceable and kept him on as an unofficial historian at the Mar-a-Lago estate.
Senecal's posts lend just one more layer to the white nationalist connections of Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president. First it was associations with and support from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump's campaign aides said a technical glitch had included William Johnson, a self-proclaimed white nationalist, on a list of California delegates they submitted to the Secretary of State's office.
And Trump's own comments and taunts over the years and, of course, at his rallies speak for themselves.
Meanwhile, last week's closed-door meeting between Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Donald Trump on Thursday couldn't have been much more than one of introductions and standoffs.
You know the "find common ground" meeting - the one at which nothing apparently really happened to result in something that was supposed to unify the Republican party. It was the meeting that came after Paul Ryan, just weeks before Trump pretty much sewed up the nomination, said there is no room for bigotry in the Republican party.
"If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games, they must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry. This party does not prey on people's prejudices. We appeal to their highest ideals. This is the party of Lincoln," Ryan said in March.
But on Thursday, after 45 minutes of meeting, the two men and the Republican National Committee issued a joint statement: "We will be having additional discussions, but remain confident there's a great opportunity to unify our party and win this fall."
Chances are really good that statement was written the night before.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus called the meeting a "very positive step toward party unity" and noted their "very good chemistry."
Ryan still did not endorse Trump.
But it's probably just a matter of time and additional grandstanding. Only five elected congress members have said they will never support Trump. And of them, only Lindsey Graham has a name that is a household word in the handful of American families that have a lonely political junkie as a member.
Meanwhile, all this past weekend, every newscast was Trump, Trump and more Trump. Once again, Trump is getting way more free news than he deserves. Even here on this page as you read.
Because every eye is trained on the drama of his making, he can still stir his toxic mix of racial and class hatred, then walk it back a few steps and once again be the GOP glitter dangle. Example: The "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" has now become "just a suggestion."
Paul Ryan says he's looking for common ground, Trump obviously is looking for acceptance. The two great negotiators seem more like circling cats.
Ryan needs help. As House speaker, he can make or break a president's proposals, but at this juncture he needs to be able to protect Congress - and America - from the hand grenade that is Donald Trump.