Donald Trump promises to run the country the way he has run his businesses. Recent reporting on Trump's financial dealings makes that promise sound more like a threat.
The emerging picture is an ugly one. In Atlantic City, Trump's casinos failed even when the rest of the town continued to thrive. Trump used company money to pay off personally guaranteed loans, and--after the 1995 creation of the public company Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts--publicly traded funds to bail out privately held casinos. The company has filed for bankruptcy five times.
Trump is running for president on the platform that he is an extraordinary executive. Because most of his business empire is privately held, the public must look to Trump Casinos and Resorts to evaluate these claims to competency.
More troubling than his company's failure is the fact that Trump did not fail with it--while his shareholders did. Trump Casinos and Resorts lost money for its shareholders every year Trump was in charge. Meanwhile, the Post reported, Trump received more than $44 million in compensation.
"I make great deals for myself," Trump said about his Atlantic City casinos in a recent Post interview. These revelations force us to wonder once again what kind of deals he would make for the country.
Editorial on 07/20/2016