We have met St. Donald of Orange, the “Chosen One” by his own admission. And we have met Generous Donald, who works for free — while charging the Secret Service an arm and a leg to stay at his properties. And now we are about to meet Scrupulous Donald who made sure that checks were pouring into the treasury, which represented all the money he was making from foreign dignitaries staying at the Trump International close to the White House. Talk about people that never were and things that never happened. But it is Lara Trump’s job to make the Fox News viewers believe that they did.
They did not give back any emoluments. They lie like they breathe.
— Emily (@MfromPa) June 12, 2024
Trump’s businesses made $2.4 billion when he was in office, according to Forbes. The “working for free” i.e., not collecting his presidential paycheck is a sham and a hoax and was meant as such from square one.
A 2021 Forbes analysis found that Trump’s business made $2.4 billion in revenue between January 2017 and December 2020 through commercial real estate, licensing, management and hotel businesses, property sales and other ventures.
Trump’s businesses were put in a revocable trust for his presidency despite calls to sell his assets and put the proceeds in a blind trust, the New York Times reported in 2017. Details from Forbes:
In April 2017, Press Secretary Sean Spicer took the podium in the White House briefing room and announced that the president was donating his first-quarter salary to the National Park Service. With a serious look on his face, Spicer pulled out an oversize check with an oversize signature. It was the first of several checks that Donald Trump signed while in office, handing over his $400,000 salary in exchange for good publicity.
That was pocket change for Trump. His real money came from the business he refused to divest, not from his government salary. An analysis of documents, some of which only became public in recent weeks, shows just how much Trump’s businesses raked in while he was in office. Dig through everything—including property records, ethics disclosures, debt documents and securities filings—and you’ll find about $2.4 billion of revenue from January 2017 to December 2020.
If not for the pandemic, there would have been even more. Trump’s business was hauling in about $650 million annually during the first three years of his presidency. But in 2020, revenues plunged to an estimated $450 million as Covid infected the business. “It’s hurting me, and it’s hurting Hilton, and it’s hurting all of the great hotel chains all over the world,” Trump said in a March 2020 press conference at the White House. “It’s hurting everybody. I mean, there are very few businesses that are doing well now.”
The biggest portion of Trump’s revenue flowed through his clubs and golf properties, which generated approximately $940 million over four years. Trump National Doral, the golf resort in Miami, contributed roughly $270 million to that total. Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club in Palm Beach, brought in about $90 million. A New Jersey golf club, where the former president has been spending time this summer, took in $60 million or so. Those top-line figures didn’t all end up in Trump’s pocket, however. Golf clubs and resorts are expensive to manage, with operating profit margins running at 20% in good times. During the pandemic, Trump’s traditional courses fared reasonably well, but his golf resorts had to contend with long shutdowns, causing his overall golf and club revenues to drop 27% to an estimated $190 million in 2020.
Trump used the presidency and so did his entire family, whether it’s Ivanka with her Chinese patents or Jared coming up with $2 billion in investment money from the Saudis. You think either of them would have done that without Daddy being president? And let’s not forget the $640 million that the two of them made the four years Trump was in office from other things.
Yet this doesn’t get investigated by Congress but OMG, let’s talk about Hunter Biden lying on a form to own a firearm. Now that is critical for the public to know about.
I would very much like to see an accounting from Lara on how the cost of every margarita and every tortilla chip purchased at the bar by a foreign dignitary during the Trump years found its way into the coffers of the U.S. treasury. Lara wants credit, I say we give it to her with bells on. Show us the deposits, Lara. Show us the money, as the famous movie line went. We’ll be happy to send you a thank you card and a fruit basket, even. I know I’m not holding my breath.
And that’s not counting whatever the dictators around the globe paid under the table for state secrets.
Oh for f*ck sake-Von Shitzinpants doesn’t even pay his taxes. He sure as shit doesn’t send what he steals anywhere except into his own pocket. What a moronic twat.
Isn’t his NY business in conservatorship? He has no business in NY now. We know that he never, ever paid taxes and never, ever gave anything to the treasury. More gaslighting.