By John McQuaid:
A man with $10 billion and a decent shot at the presidency ought to be able to free up substantial funds to do that – and to do anything to win. That’s emphatically not happening. The Occam’s razor explanation is that he’s not worth $10 billion. However much he is worth, he appears not to possess the liquidity to conjure up the necessary $1 billion, or hundreds or even tens of millions, that a national campaign requires. Even a million is a stretch.
This might be OK if Trump were willing to raise money. After all, self-funding presidential campaigns are rare because they cost so much. But Trump doesn’t appear to be willing to do the minimum required on this front either. He dislikes calling rich donors. He has said that he wants the Republican Party apparatus to take over the functions of a national campaign. This is insane, because the Republican Party has its own job to do. It’s supposed to work concert with the nominee’s national organization, and with down-ballot campaigns. So handing it this huge extra job, without the money to make it happen, will hurt not just Trump but the entire Republican slate.
The Full Story (June 19, 2016)
Showing posts with label forbes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label forbes. Show all posts
Friday, August 12, 2016
Friday, June 10, 2016
Forbes: Inside The Epic Fantasy That's Driven Donald Trump For 33 Years
by Randall Lane:
Trump would rather take me up to his three-story penthouse and prove it’s surely worth twice the $100 million value we put on it. An offer to see the over-the-top Versailles-in-the-sky needs no arm-twisting, but Trump sells it anyway: “I’ll show you the first floor of my apartment, which I’ve never done before–I don’t do that.”
Except he has. To Access Hollywood. And Newsweek. And Extra. And a FORBES photographer way back in 2000. Heck, his 60 Minutes interview would take place in the first floor of the penthouse the next day, to be shared with 15 million people on Sunday. Trump has never let small details get in the way of good pitch.
In 1990, however, Trump hyperbole blew back on him. The New York real estate market was crashing, his Atlantic City casinos began struggling, and he was underwater with his new toy, the Trump Shuttle airline. In 1989 FORBES had his net worth at $1.7 billion. By spring 1990 FORBES figured it was $500 million at best. By that fall the overleveraged Trump was “within hailing distance of zero” and dropped from The Forbes 400.
As with today, Trump sat in his corner office and provided a rebuttal. It wasn’t very convincing. “I’m going to show you cash-flow numbers I’ve never shown anyone before,” he said back then, in familiar spin mode–but he folded the pages to obscure the final column. And while he insisted he was worth between $4 billion and $5 billion, FORBES obtained records that Trump had submitted to a governmental body, professing that as of May 1989 his net assets were only $1.5 billion–one-third of what he had told us and even a bit less than the number FORBES, which strives for conservative estimates, had arrived at the previous year.
The fibbing was more brazen when they delved into specifics. In 1988 Trump sent FORBES a document listing his personal residences–including Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach mansion–with a total net value of $50 million. At the same time sworn statements placed their total asset value at $30 million, along with a debt load of $40 million–a net liability. Trump also said he owned $159 million in stock and bonds, all unencumbered. But documents filed with the SEC showed that he borrowed big-time to buy the stock, which subsequently dipped.
Trump did not like this challenge to his reputation. He published an essay for the Los Angeles Times syndicate: “Forbes Carried Out Personal Vendetta in Print.” He argued that the “willfully wrong” piece was driven by the desire to sell magazines and damage his reputation. He told ABC’s Sam Donaldson that “Forbes has been after me for years, consistently after me.”
The Full Article (September 29, 2015)
Trump would rather take me up to his three-story penthouse and prove it’s surely worth twice the $100 million value we put on it. An offer to see the over-the-top Versailles-in-the-sky needs no arm-twisting, but Trump sells it anyway: “I’ll show you the first floor of my apartment, which I’ve never done before–I don’t do that.”
Except he has. To Access Hollywood. And Newsweek. And Extra. And a FORBES photographer way back in 2000. Heck, his 60 Minutes interview would take place in the first floor of the penthouse the next day, to be shared with 15 million people on Sunday. Trump has never let small details get in the way of good pitch.
In 1990, however, Trump hyperbole blew back on him. The New York real estate market was crashing, his Atlantic City casinos began struggling, and he was underwater with his new toy, the Trump Shuttle airline. In 1989 FORBES had his net worth at $1.7 billion. By spring 1990 FORBES figured it was $500 million at best. By that fall the overleveraged Trump was “within hailing distance of zero” and dropped from The Forbes 400.
As with today, Trump sat in his corner office and provided a rebuttal. It wasn’t very convincing. “I’m going to show you cash-flow numbers I’ve never shown anyone before,” he said back then, in familiar spin mode–but he folded the pages to obscure the final column. And while he insisted he was worth between $4 billion and $5 billion, FORBES obtained records that Trump had submitted to a governmental body, professing that as of May 1989 his net assets were only $1.5 billion–one-third of what he had told us and even a bit less than the number FORBES, which strives for conservative estimates, had arrived at the previous year.
The fibbing was more brazen when they delved into specifics. In 1988 Trump sent FORBES a document listing his personal residences–including Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach mansion–with a total net value of $50 million. At the same time sworn statements placed their total asset value at $30 million, along with a debt load of $40 million–a net liability. Trump also said he owned $159 million in stock and bonds, all unencumbered. But documents filed with the SEC showed that he borrowed big-time to buy the stock, which subsequently dipped.
Trump did not like this challenge to his reputation. He published an essay for the Los Angeles Times syndicate: “Forbes Carried Out Personal Vendetta in Print.” He argued that the “willfully wrong” piece was driven by the desire to sell magazines and damage his reputation. He told ABC’s Sam Donaldson that “Forbes has been after me for years, consistently after me.”
The Full Article (September 29, 2015)
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