Trump’s Economic Plan?
Trump’s Wealth Management Skill
In 1982,
Trump was listed
on the initial Forbes list
of wealthy individuals as having
a share of his family’s estimated
$200 million net worth.
His financial losses
in the 1980s caused him
to be dropped from the list
between 1990 and 1995.
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The Apprentice is an American reality television program
that judged the business skills of a group of contestants. It ran in various formats across fifteen seasons on NBC from 2004 to 2017.
From Encyclopedia
In its 2020 billionaires ranking,
Forbes estimated Trump’s net worth
at $2.1 billion[a] (1,001st in the world, 275th in the U.S.)
making him one of the richest politicians in American history
and the first billionaire American president.
During the three years
since Trump announced his presidential run
in 2015, Forbes estimated his net worth declined 31%
and his ranking fell 138 spots.
When he filed mandatory financial disclosure forms
with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) in July 2015,
Trump claimed a net worth of about $10 billion;
however FEC figures cannot corroborate this estimate
because they only show each of his largest buildings
as being worth over $50 million, yielding total assets worth more than $1.4 billion and debt over $265 million.
Trump said in a 2007 deposition,
“My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down
with markets and with attitudes and with feelings,
even my own feelings.”
Journalist Jonathan Greenberg reported
in April 2018 that Trump, using a pseudonym
“John Barron”, called him in 1984 to falsely assert
that he owned “in excess of ninety percent” of the Trump family’s business, in an effort to secure a higher ranking on the Forbes 400 list of wealthy Americans.
Greenberg also wrote that Forbes had vastly
overestimated Trump’s wealth and wrongly
included him on the Forbes 400 rankings of 1982, 1983, and 1984.
Trump has often said he began his career with “a small loan of one million dollars” from his father, and that he had to pay it back with interest. In October 2018,
The New York Times reported that
Trump “was a millionaire by age 8”
, borrowed at least $60 million from his father,
largely failed to reimburse him, and had received $413 million (adjusted for inflation) from his father’s business empire over his lifetime.
According to the report,
Trump and his family committed tax fraud,
which a lawyer for Trump denied.
The tax department of New York says
it is “vigorously pursuing all appropriate avenues
of investigation” into it.
Analyses by The Economist
and The Washington Post have concluded
that Trump’s investments underperformed
the stock market.
Forbes estimated in October 2018
that the value of Trump’s personal brand
licensing business had declined by 88%
since 2015, to $3 million.
Trump’s tax returns from 1985 to 1994 show
net losses totaling $1.17 billion
over the ten-year period, in contrast to his claims
about his financial health and business abilities.
The New York Times reported that “year after year,
Mr. Trump appears to have lost more money
than nearly any other individual American taxpayer”,
and Trump’s “core business losses in 1990 and 1991 –
more than $250 million each year –were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years”. In 1995 his reported losses were $915.7 million.
From Encyclopedia
Personal and business legal affairs of Donald Trump
From the 1970s until he was elected president in 2016,
Donald Trump and his businesses were involved in over 4,000 legal cases in United States federal and state courts, including battles with casino patrons, million-dollar real estate lawsuits, personal defamation lawsuits, and over 100 business tax disputes.
He has also been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault, with one accusation resulting in him being held civilly liable.
In 2015, Trump’s lawyer Alan Garten called Trump’s legal entanglements “a natural part of doing business” in the U.S. While litigation is indeed common in the real estate industry, Trump has been involved in more legal cases than his fellow magnates Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., Donald Bren, Stephen M. Ross, Sam Zell, and Larry Silverstein combined. Much of the lawsuits were filed against patrons with debt to his casinos. Of all cases with a clear resolution, Trump was the victor 92 percent of the time.
Numerous legal matters and investigations occurred during and after Trump’s presidency, some being of historical import. Between October 2021 and July 2022 alone, the Republican National Committee paid more than US$2 million to attorneys representing Trump in his presidential, personal, and business capacities. In January 2023, a federal judge fined Trump and his attorney nearly $1 million, characterizing him as “a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries”.
On December 6, 2022, the parent company of Trump’s many businesses, The Trump Organization, was convicted on 17 criminal charges.
Trump has been found liable for sexual abuse and defamation and is appealing an order to pay more than $80 million in damages to the victim, E. Jean Carroll. Trump, together with his associates, has also been found liable for fraud regarding overvaluation of The Trump Organization and Trump’s net worth, and is appealing a $364 million fine[16] plus $100 million interest. In 2024, Trump was convicted on numerous counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels,[19] although the sentencing has been delayed in light of a Supreme Court ruling that may have relevance to the case.
In 2024, Trump will also face trial on federal charges related to the 2020 election. In 2025, Trump is expected to go to trial for federal charges relating to his handling of classified documents.
From Encyclopedia
Trump’s Bankruptcy
THE FACT CHECKER
Washington Post
6:58 PM
September 26 by Michelle Lee
Fact Check: Has Trump declared bankruptcy four or six times?
“You’ve taken business bankruptcies six times.”
–Hillary Clinton
“On occasion – four times – we used certain laws that are there.”
–Donald Trump
THE FACT CHECKER | Clinton is correct.
Trump’s companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which means a company can remain in business while wiping away many of its debts. The bankruptcy court ultimately approves a corporate budget and a plan to repay remaining debts; often shareholders lose much of their equity.
Trump’s Taj Mahal opened in April 1990 in Atlantic City, but six months later, “defaulted on interest payments to bondholders as his finances went into a tailspin,” The Washington Post’s Robert O’Harrow found. In July 1991, Trump’s Taj Mahal filed for bankruptcy. He could not keep up with debts on two other Atlantic City casinos, and those two properties declared bankruptcy in 1992. A fourth property, the Plaza Hotel in New York, declared bankruptcy in 1992 after amassing debt.
PolitiFact uncovered two more bankruptcies filed after 1992, totaling six. Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts filed for bankruptcy again in 2004, after accruing about $1.8 billion in debt. Trump Entertainment Resorts also declared bankruptcy in 2009, after being hit hard during the 2008 recession.
Why the discrepancy? Perhaps this will give us an idea: Trump told Washington Post reporters that he counted the first three bankruptcies as just one.
From Washington Post
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