President Donald Trump should follow the public-figure leadership of Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter by being more "confessional" and be "willing to grow in public" and, if he were to do so, "America would be a lot better off," CNN's Van Jones said Sunday.
"So, if you wanted to listen to what Jay-Z says, follow Jay-Z’s model, Mr. President," Van Jones told CNN's "Reliable Sources" on Sunday. "He's a strong guy; he's a rich guy, but he's willing to be confessional. He's willing to grow in public. If you do the same thing, America would be a lot better off."
Jones was responding to the firestorm of Jay-Z's CNN "The Van Jones Show" rebuke of President Trump and the president's subsequent tweet reminding the rap music star of the administration's achievement of lowering the black unemployment rate to the lowest in recorded history.
Jones responded to President Trump's tweet Sunday with one of his own, saying the host did broach the topic and Jay-Z's answer "was powerful."
Jones' question was the statement, "He's going to say terrible things but put money in our pockets. Does that make him a good leader?"
"No, because it's not about money at the end of the day," Jay-Z told Jones. "Money doesn't equate to, like, happiness. It doesn't. It's not the whole point.
"You treat people like human beings. That's the whole point. ... It goes back to the whole thing: Treat me like really bad and pay me well. It's not going to lead to happiness."
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