He has filed for bankruptcy four times.
When one names his businesses, the big “bombs” come to mind quicker than the “hits.”
He notoriously refused to pay “the little people” that did the work.
Attorneys won’t work for him because he stiffs them with the legal bills.
No American bank will touch him when it comes to loans.
The Washington Post repeatedly caught him promising to donate funds to charity, only to find that he kept the money for himself.
His foundation never donated a single dollar of cash, only “in-kind” gifts, advertising.
Oh, and he is the first candidate since the Nixon era to not release his taxes, given that there is no prohibition about releasing taxes under audit, he had another reason for not doing so. Also, given that the man defines himself through luxury, lavishness and wealth, how the ffffaaackkk could the man resist the “obligation” to “show the world” a number with all those zeroes?
How many billionaires do you know have time to make a TV show where they “play” a successful business man? How many of those billionaires brag about what they made on that show? He did make pretty good money on that show, 8 figures. He no longer has that income now, you know that, right?
How many billionaires need to make “multiple payments” to their attorney to cover the $130,000 paid to the porn star so that she would not tell the world that you never had sex with her* (*according to the president)?
At first, I believed that the multiple payment represented ways to get around the reporting requirements about moving amounts greater than $10,000 – but those requirements don’t apply to checks (since they can be traced no matter what), and the requirements don’t apply to payments for services to attorneys. So, Trump gained nothing but making multiple payments except …time?
In 1990, Trump lived the lavish lifestyle of a billionaire. The penthouses, private jets, cocaine and models, all of it, but an official bank valuation of Trump’s assets and liabilities put Trump’s net worth at $295 million …in the negative, negative $295 million. It is very possible for some people with enormous loans and dizzying lines of credit, to live tremendously extravagant lives, and be poorer than you.
There’s this, from the Vanity Fair reporter (via Rawstory) who wrote the seminal 1990 Vanity Fair article, which caused Trump to sue for defamation, and lose:
As readers of DCReport know, Trump last year claimed to be worth just $1.4 billion. That figure, attested to by Trump under penalty of perjury, is a nearly 90 percent reduction from the more than $10 billion he touted on the campaign trail.
Even that much-reduced net worth figure is grossly inflated. For example, Trump claims his Scottish golf courses are each worth more than $50 million. That’s odd because in recent years they have lost tens of millions of dollars, British disclosure statements show.
If put on the market the Scottish courses might well fail to attract any buyer because their value, including debt, appears to be less than zero.
It is not unusual for people whose wealth is tied up in real estate to have cash flow issues, to be “cash poor.” It is highly unusual for people with great wealth tied up in real estate to be so cash poor that they cannot qualify for the normal “line of credit” that you and I qualify for (just with more zeroes). Those real estate people who can’t get normal bank lines of credit are often forced to turn to the “lender of last resort” – the mob, the Russian mob, Russian oligarchs, to be precise. Serious people have postulated that Putin – not Jeff Bezos – is actually the richest man in the world. Add in the two or three dozen Russian billionaires that Putin controls, and that is a big pot of money, just sitting there waiting to be put to use.
Think of the Russian oligarchs as the “Anti-Trump.” They have far too much cash in far too few legal assets. Therefore, they need to “park” cash in places where it remains “valuable” and out of the hands of investigators, say for example, investments in golf courses in Scotland, or paying double the appraised value for a Florida beach property. Just like Trump is in a constant search for cash to maintain the myth that he is this high-flying billionaire, the Russian mob is in a constant search for “hard-to-value luxury assets” in which to plant money. Unlike your bank, the Russian oligarch is not bothered by Trump’s previous bankruptcies or creditworthiness, because they know that their loan is secured. They know that Trump loves his family, and would never let anything happen to them. They also know that Trump can “repay” them in unique ways, such as making a mockery of the American election, and then – if winning – withholding sanctions against those very same oligarchs.
It is embarrassing that the truth has been in front of our eyes for quite some time. Please do not tell me “broke people do not fly around in private jets with gold toilets.” Because back in 1990, Trump lived at least as lavishly as he did before he got into government housing, and he did it all with a net worth nine figures in the negative.
He needed several months to pay his lawyer the $130,000. His lawyer loaned Trump $130,000 and Trump couldn’t pay it back all at once. If everything were truly valued, and we knew all the legal assets (not counting the value to the Russian mob of having a lackey as U.S. president, which would be worth billions), and all the liabilities, would Trump be broke?
He sure acts like it.
Oh! One more thing, on the very next day after Trump’s inauguration, he filed as a candidate for 2020. No candidate had ever filed earlier than 2 years prior, never mind four. Why might he have done that? Because as a “candidate” his “campaign” can raise money and pay expenses along the way, anything that can be characterized as having to do with the campaign – which to Trump, means “everything,” – can be paid for by “campaign” funds.
Is Trump broke?
Mueller knows. And, Mueller knows that the Russians are the “anti-Trump,” having so much cash. Perhaps if Mueller can bind Trump to the Russians, matter to anti-matter, they will annihilate one another. That would be the hope.
