The sole rationale behind Trump’s candidacy starts to crumble

[DonViejo]

10/04/16 09:47 AM—UPDATED 10/04/16 09:52 AM

By Steve Benen

Eric Trump, one of Donald Trump’s sons and campaign surrogates, recently boasted on Fox News about his father’s “entrepreneurial” skills. The Republican presidential hopeful, Eric Trump added, has “become the epitome of the American dream” after starting with “just about nothing.”

It was, of course, unintentionally hilarious. Donald Trump didn’t begin his business career with “just about nothing”; he started with millions of dollars in family assistance. Despite this extraordinary head start – the kind of advantage the vast majority of Americans could hardly imagine – it didn’t take long before the New York Republican’s enterprise was hemorrhaging money, and as the New York Times reported today, “it was decisions Mr. Trump made at the helm of his business empire during the 1980s that led to its nearly imploding.”

By 1990, Mr. Trump had amassed $3.4 billion in debt, much of it in the form of high-interest junk bonds. He was personally liable for $832.5 million of that. He had bought a yacht for $29 million, the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan for $407 million and a failing airline for $365 million. All were losing money.

Details of the losses are not available, because the entities were privately held. But reviews by New Jersey casino regulators and securities filings related to debt offerings show a grim picture…. The measures he promised to take repeatedly did not work, casino regulators noted. At several points, he turned to his family fortune.

The Washington Post reported that by 1990, Trump’s enterprise had “piled up more than $3 billion in debt.” He couldn’t afford to pay the interest on the money he owed, but Trump “persuaded his bankers and bondholders to extend the terms of his loans” until 1995.

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http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-sole-rationale-behind-trumps-candidacy-starts-crumble?cid=eml_mra_20161004

[DarthDem]

1. "Extend the Terms of His Loans Until . . . "

"1995." Oh, the year he claimed a nearly billion-dollar tax writeoff?

[treestar]

2. what a total loser

blowhard bragging deplorable.