As "the king of debt," Trump borrowed to build his empire. Then he began spending cash.
NEW: @realdonaldtrump has spent $400M+ in his own cash on property since 06, defying normal real-estate practices.
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As the king of debt, Trump borrowed to build his empire. Then he began spending hundreds of millions in cash.
by Jonathan O'Connell, David A. Fahrenthold and Jack Gillum May 5 at 1:30 PM
jonathan.oconnell@washpost.com; david.fahrenthold@washpost.com; jack.gillum@washpost.com
In the nine years before he ran for president, Donald Trumps company spent more than $400 million in cash on new properties including 14 transactions paid for in full, without borrowing from banks during a buying binge that defied real estate industry practices and Trumps own history as the self-described King of Debt.
Trumps vast outlay of cash, tracked through public records and totaled publicly here for the first time, provides a new window into the presidents private company, which discloses few details about its finances.
It shows that Trump had access to far more cash than previously known, despite his string of commercial bankruptcies and the Great Recessions hammering of the real estate industry.
Why did the King of Debt, as he has called himself in interviews, turn away from that strategy, defying the real estate wisdom that its unwise to risk so much of ones own money in a few projects? ... And how did Trump who had money tied up in real estate and buildings raise enough liquid assets to go on this cash buying spree?
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Jonathan O'Connell covers economic development with a focus on commercial real estate and the Trump Organization. He has written extensively about Donald Trump's business, including how his D.C. hotel has affected Washington and what Trump hotels will mean to the Mississippi Delta. He joined The Washington Post in 2010.
Follow @OConnellPostBiz
David A. Fahrenthold is a reporter covering the Trump family and their business interests. He has been at The Washington Post since 2000, and previously covered Congress, the federal bureaucracy, the environment and the D.C. police.
Follow @Fahrenthold
Jack Gillum is an investigative reporter for The Washington Post. He previously worked for the Associated Press, where he focused on national politics and data journalism projects. He also pursued investigations into standardized test cheating and college athletics for USA Today, and he began his career at the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson.
Follow @jackgillum
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)Check Kiting anyone? Double Books? Of course,we now know were the money flow was coming from. Old Vlad and Friends via Wilbur Ross and Cyprus via Deutche Bank.
louis-t
(23,297 posts)because he has defaulted on so many loans. All of the really rich people in this country will not invest in him anymore (some have stated they always bet on him to fail) because of his history of failures and his propensity to spend way too much on properties he has "emotional attachment" to. He has terrible instincts. He's a terrible businessman. When you have two British golf courses that have lost $240 million so far, you have a problem. I believe his "buying spree" was reckless, and the reason he can't pay his bills.
snowybirdie
(5,234 posts)is a great way to launder other folks money, isn't it?
Sedona
(3,769 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,836 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,192 posts)SWBTATTReg
(22,166 posts)borrowing too much money. This is what normally happens when a company or the like borrows too much, and is unable to sustain the debt load. W/ the prices of RUMP properties depressed, this could lead to problems down the road for RUMP and associates, which means that watch out for RUMP lining his pockets more and more in order to salvage his business interests.
Serves RUMP right. Another screw-up and possible bankruptcy in the works!