Reason #27: Entrepreneur?
Why do we need to defeat Donald Trump and ensure that a Democrat occupies the White House?
In a previous post, we have seen how Donald Trump lost billions of investment dollars during the implosion of his three Atlantic City casinos, ruining creditors and investors. Not a very impressive entrepreneurial record thus far. But what about his many other business ventures? We have also previously discussed the sordid decline and fall of Trump University.
Let’s return to Donald Trump’s business career. He daily boasts that he is very smart and is a brilliant businessman, a savant in “The Art of the Deal”, who has parlayed a scant one-million-dollar startup loan from his father into a multibillion international business empire. The truth is very different.
To begin with, Trump did not start with a million-dollar nest egg; he started at a million-dollar annual starting salary, right out of college. His early business deals were bolstered by his father’s political clout and investment support. When his deals fell a cropper, daddy would step in and bail him out of trouble, as when Fred Trump bought $3.5 million dollars’ worth of casino gambling chips and took them out of circulation. When his father died, he left an estate worth hundreds of millions of dollars as well as a Trump Organization with enormous real estate holdings. Although the estate was intended to be split four ways, his dead brother’s children were excluded, leaving more for greedy Donald. He sold all of his father’s apartment buildings to a single buyer, to bail out his other losing investments in 2004. Donald’s take was $177 million!
NY Times October 2, 2018. “Trump engaged in suspect tax schemes as he reaped riches from his father.”
Although Trump has always focused primarily on real estate ventures, he has also taken flyers in multiple other directions.
While on the subject of fliers, let’s soar with Trump Air and the Trump Shuttle, which he owned and managed for three years 1989-92, Trump Air owned three helicopters that flew gamblers to his casinos and to and from Wall Street and the Trump Shuttle. The Eastern Airline CEO met Trump at a party and agreed to sell the Eastern Shuttle to Trump for $365,000,000. Trump refit 25 Boeing planes as luxury airliners. He personally assumed $135,000,000 of the company’s debt. His collapsing casino businesses forced him to cede control to bankers and Trump air defaulted on its debt in 1990. Trump Shuttle hemorrhaged money and was shut down for good in 1992.
In this travesty, the net for the art of this bungled deal was a total personal loss for Donald of approximately $30,000,000. The lion’s share of the money lost was suffered, as usual, by others who invested in his foolish, grandiose schemes.
We will skip over many other business travesties, including Trump perfumes, bibles, high top sneakers, NFT collectible cards, teddy bears, the Tour de Trump bicycle race, the Trump “footlong”, Chinga tu Pelo ale, Trump Steaks (lasted 2 months), Trump vodka, and Trump ties and follow his catastrophic foray into social media.
After being banned from Facebook and Twitter for his action in triggering an armed takeover of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, the Donald decided that he would take on and dominate social media.
He formed a corporation that would manage “Truth Media” a new social media platform. Trump owned about 60% of its stock. Trumpies went wild, driving up the stock price as high as $97/share, proving once again that some people never learn. To say that the company has done poorly, even by Trump standards, is a ludicrous understatement. In this year’s first quarter Truth Media lost more than $300,000,000 with revenues of less than one million dollars. Its visit and visitor metrics continue to sag.
But even those horrible results may be fabricated. The accounting firm filing Truth Social audits has been accused of “massive fraud”.
It is no surprise that DJT’s stock price has tanked, given that it is losing both enormous amounts of money and customers. What is a surprise, an ill omen for stockholders, is that its chief investor is now schmoozing with his chief competitor! Former progressive Elon Musk bought Twitter for an enormous investment in 2022. He is an on again, off again supporter of Trump politically, but a serious business competitor. Yesterday, Trump posted on X, Musk’s site for the first time in two years and agreed to do a soft ball “interview” with Musk. The stock fell more than 5% immediately. Why is Trump now undercutting his own media site by sleeping and posting with the enemy?
Some speculate that it is because Trump will be able to unload his shares in Truth Social in September. Will there be a race to the bottom, as shareholders dump their stock before it becomes worthless? If that happens, Trump stands to lose billions of dollars to deflated stock price. Could it be that Musk is going to step in and buy the company? That would mean a faux billionaire (Donald Trump) owned by a real billionaire (Elon Musk). Stay tuned to the rollercoaster financial adventures of those gullible Republicans who believe in, trust and invest their money in this entrepreneurial genius.
Donald Trump is not smart. He is not a good businessman. He is reckless and irresponsible, repeatedly indulging in ridiculous entrepreneurial adventures that cost creditors and investors dearly.
Have a heart; use your mind, search your conscience, and vote for Democratic candidates – across the ballot – on November. 5th.
Please share this message with your friends and please, add your thoughts, to expand upon what are only brief sketches here.
Fred Grannis
August 13, 2024