The Incredibly Shrinking Donald
He lies about his wealth, and now there’s proof
Alan Weisselberg just confessed to a judge that he lied about Donald Trump’s wealth. This matters because as chief financial officer for the Trump Organization, he was the former president’s financial henchman. In coming clean about how he inflated the boss’s worth, he shook the foundation of a false identity Trump has created with lies and deceptions. If money is the measure of a man – and Trump believes it is – then he’s getting smaller every day.
Trump began manufacturing a billionaire persona in the 1980s when he was still a local phenomenon in New York. He took the game to a national (and eventually international) level when he became the host of the TV show The Apprentice. In the video open of the very first episode viewers got a helicopter view of the New York skyline and a narration from Trump himself. “My name is Donald Trump,” he says while riding the streets of Manhattan. “And I am the largest real estate developer in New York.”
He wasn’t. Not even close. And so began the construction of a golden facade.
The evidence of Trump’s lies about his wealth and success includes his many bankruptcies and a 2005 book, Trump Nation, that pegged the self-proclaimed billionaire as worth, at most, $250 million. In 2015, as Trump claimed to be worth $10 billion, Forbes estimated the figure at $4.6 billion, number 403 on the magazine’s annual list of the 500 richest people. Forbes now says he is worth $2 billion less. He has dropped off the list completely
Now Trump is asking a New York court to free him from paying a $454 million fine for business fraud and accept, instead, a $100 million bond. The obvious question is: Is this guy, who had said he was worth as much as $10 billion, really unable to pay less than $500 million the court requires?
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In 2012 Trump said, “Part of the beauty of me is that I’m very rich.” Set aside the weirdness of a grown man declaring the source of his “beauty” and consider for a moment how much he has made wealth the source of his political identity. No president, or presidential candidate, has ever bragged about money the way Trump has. Now consider why he has felt compelled to lie about his assets and cash on hand. Could it be that he has always felt insecure about his true worth, in every sense of the word? I mean, who would Trump be without his alleged assets, which he says is how he “keeps score.”
The truth, which most people do not know, is that Trump has never owned many of the buildings that bear his name. In many cases the true owners have used Trump’s name for marketing purposes, paying him modest annual fees for the privilege. Unfortunately for him, the value of the brand as declined and in some cases become a negative. In New York the name has been taken off a huge residential complex overlooking the Hudson River. Apartment developments in Florida, Connecticut, and suburban New York have shed the name and so have hotels in Manhattan, Toronto and Panama City.
While the licensees have headed for the exits, marketing authorities have noted that Trump’s own properties are no longer favored by the rich because they have been tarnished by his reputation for scandal and lies. The man is so desperate for cash that he recently began selling a gold-colored Trump sneaker. Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign donors have seen roughly $50 million in contributions shifted to pay the lawyers defending him in various courtrooms around the country
A CFO pleads guilty. Trump asks a judge for a 75 percent discount. Building owners drop his name. Hopes are pinned on the sale of golden sneakers. A political action committee is raided to pay his personal debts. What we are seeing here is truth catching up with Trump’s lies about his defining quality – wealth. He has become, it seems, the incredible shrinking billionaire.
Can you please submit this to the major newspapers for the front page? Billboards? I don't know... throwing darts here BUT it shouldn't be just New York that knows Trump stiffed 4200 people for not paying his bills... so rich of him to suggest NATO doesn't pay, etc. to infinity.
Anyone who has bothered to take a close look at Donald knows what a farce he is, BUT, he's a very successful one.
He learned the basics from his father and continued with a relationship with Roy Cohn, a sleazy lawyer , who lived on the fringes of "high society" and was kept around mostly for entertainment, much like Donald, was never really "IN". Cohn never paid for anything in his life and Donald learned that lesson well. Also, never give up, never step back, never apologize, never admit you are wrong, and keep moving forward. As much as we bitch about him this "lesson" has served him well. He has just steam rolled over everyone and very well could be elected again. It's horrifying, but it's there.
He sold his name for millions, had his kids go to the sales meetings for developments, lie about the number of units or lots sold to gin up sales. Some of these, like a housing development in Baja, took several peoples money, several hundred thousand dollars each, and went bankrupt before even getting off the ground. Those people never saw a dime back. Donald and his spawn walked away with 35 million dollars.
He went bankrupt twice on a couple of his casinos in Atlantic City. He drained them of their cash and bailed. In the end NO US bank would lend to him anymore. What is interesting is Donald owns shares in a building on California Street in San Francisco (known as Bank of America building) and on on 6th Ave, in NY and both of those were leveraged with note coming due. Verano Real Estate Trust is the majority stake holder and they are run by every creepy name in the book but anyway, they worked a deal with Citi Group, Morgan Stanley Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of Montreal to issue bonds to bail them out and Donald ended up with over 600 million dollars in his bank account. THAT is how he survives, shifting money around. How many of THOSE names ring a bell with you in the real estate crash of 2007-2009, taking OUR tax dollars to save their sorry asses for the bad investment scheme they came up with .
He cheats on his wives, he cheats at golf. He has no capacity for empathy of love. His mentor and "good friend" Roy Cohn was dying of Aids and Donald would not talk to him nor see him. He was not useful anymore.....so bye bye. When his brother Robert died, Donnie buzzed by the hospital for a minute a few days before Robert died. The best thing Donald had to say about Robert was "he was never jealous of MY success".
When Donald started to speak at his father's funeral he began by saying that the morning he was notified of his father's death HE had been reading the paper, and thinking how well HE was doing that year and then went on to outline all HIS achievements that year. As someone who knew him said, it was NOT unexpected but it was indeed stunning. I could fill 20 pages, but just know, a vote for Donald Trump is a vote for this AND so much more.....Steve Bannon, Steven Miller, Roger Stone, Kellyanne Conway, and 3/4 of Congress just for starters.