Trump also lost his defamation lawsuit against the author of the book, “TrumpNation” on a motion for summary judgment and on appeal.
The case was “Trump v. Brien”. It’s an interesting read and a bit of an expose on Trump’s inflated ego.
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/nj-superior-court-appellate-division/1579526.html
Here is a funny excerpt:
“Further, it is indisputable that Trump’s estimates of his own worth changed substantially over time and thus failed to provide a reliable measure against which the accuracy of the information offered by the three confidential sources could be gauged. The following exchange from Trump’s deposition is illustrative of this point:
Q Now, Mr. Trump, have you always been completely truthful in your public statements about your net worth of properties?
A I try.
Q Have you ever not been truthful?
A My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings, but I try.
Q Let me just understand that a little bit. Let’s talk about net worth for a second. You said that the net worth goes up and down based upon your own feelings?
A Yes, even my own feelings, as to where the world is, where the world is going, and that can change rapidly from day to day. Then you have a September 11th, and you don’t feel so good about yourself and you don’t feel so good about the world and you don’t feel so good about New York City. Then you have a year later, and the city is as hot as a pistol. Even months after that it was a different feeling.
So yeah, even my own feelings affect my value to myself.
․
Q When you publicly state what you’re worth, what do you base that number on?
․
A I would say it’s my general attitude at the time that the question may be asked. And as I say, it varies.
Further, as defendants note in their brief, other sources recognized the difficulty of estimating Trump’s net worth and the wide spread of plausible values. Defendants quote a September 9, 2004 article in The Washington Post, which stated:
Actually, it’s hard to know exactly what percent of Trump’s net worth is tied to the casino business, because most of Trump’s portfolio is in privately held companies that don’t report earnings. He’s described himself as “a billionaire many times over,†but who knows? There are skeptics out there who believe Trump has $300 million, tops. And the guy has a reputation for, let’s say, shading the news in a light that reflects his enthusiasms.
Another interesting excerpt:
“We reject Trump’s additional argument that O’Brien improperly ignored Trump’s interest in the “Trump†brand. As Trump’s accountants acknowledge in the 2004 Statement of Financial Condition, under generally accepted accounting principles, reputation is not considered a part of a person’s net worth.4
Footnote 4. Trump contends that O’Brien acknowledged that his name was a valuable asset, calling it “bigger than Coke and Pepsi.†That statement is incorrect. The claim was reported in a BusinessWeek article as emanating from Trump himself.”
So Trump claimed that his Trump “brand” was more valuable than either Coke or Pepsi; and that his net worth varies from day to day based on his “feelings”. What a joke.