Posted on 01/13/2016 5:43:11 PM PST by dschapin
... After gaining control of two casinos through deals that loaded them with debt, [Trump] turned in 1987 to the Taj Mahal, a megaproject being built by publicly traded Resorts International Inc.
Mr. Trump bought a class of shares that gave him just a slice of Resorts’ equity, but voting control. From that perch, he pushed through a service contract that would have the company pay him $108 million over five years. He told casino regulators the company could raise the cash needed to finish its casino only by assuring lenders Mr. Trump would remain involved, which this contract did.
Upon news that funding was uncertain, Resorts’ stock plunged. Mr. Trump then told investors the only way to finish the Taj Mahal was for him to buy Resorts at just above its reduced share price. Construction lenders, he said, were put off in part by the high cost of his service contract.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
So any examination of Trump’s business dealings and character that are not positive are “holier than thou.” That’s a neat trick. Apply that equally to all candidates and I guess we can’t criticize anyone.
That is not a defense. It is an attempt to kill the messenger.
Your Trump Derangement Syndrome is a total leftist tactic. They always smear the opposition with mental health labels. It is not persuasive to conservatives.
agreed
>>Maybe it’s me but after 18 years here I’ve never seen it as bad.
Do you remember Pat Buchanan’s campaign?
:)
Please read WHO ran this screed...the WSJ...the "Pravda" of the GOPe
There’s not one corporate business man who is not a globalist and that includes Trump, who has many business interests in many different countries,.....not to mention he is spending his own money ‘in a bid’ to become chairman of the largest progressive globalist organization in the world...which currently is the USA.......
Trump’s ultimate problem is not that he isn’t an intelligent man (in his own way). His problem is that he is certainly brutish and contemptible..... he plays very loose with the facts, although he is usually intelligent enough to quickly ‘cover up his tracks’ on those persnickety facts when challenged.
The world operates globally now in every facet....if you think Trumps just going to bring business here then you aren’t paying attention to what he’s saying.
Did I say that?
I’m pretty sure I didn’t say that. And I’m pretty sure I didn’t mention you either.
There’s a pretty damn big difference between criticizing a candidate and calling his supporters cultists, Trumpanzees, crazy, and stupid. All of which I have had directed at me both personally and collectively.
Defend those attacks if you like, but that sure as hell isn’t ‘examination of Trump’s business dealings and character that are not positive’.
well, I’m reading the WSJ article, then reading wiki, which says that Merv Griffin had driven Resorts Intl into the ground by 1988 and ‘construction was stopped’ on the Taj Mahal, as in, nobody was being paid. Griffin initially refused to sell but Trump prevailed by swapping some properties with Merv. Trump then spent a billion dollars to open the casino in 1990 - which went on to become the top grossing casino on the strip for well over a decade.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Taj_Mahal
Trump obviously has some serious business sense, but it must be remembered, he graduated from college and his dad wrote him a $10,000,000 check to invest with. How many people get that kind of a start? The vast majority of people who are successful in business started with maybe $10,000, so the way I see it, Trump is about as successful as the working class guy that ended up with a net worth of $10 million, laudable, admirable, but a miracle worker? No.
There are 40,000 people just like him, and a lot of those didn’t stoop to paying off politicians or playing political chameleon games to get there.
I never said he was a miracle worker, but he has a strong work ethic and passed that onto his children. Which isn’t necessarily the norm with people that inherit wealth.
How many multi-billionaires didn’t play political games? And how would we know?
hit send too soon...
The real estate business is more tied to politics than many others, with the permits, licenses, inspections, taxes required from the government just to get started. Other billionaires may not be tied to government approval for their businesses but real estate is controlled by the government.
According to the wsj article Trump began his hostile takeover of the Taj Maja in 1987 and used his stock holdings to sabotage the company so that it’s stock price would plummet and he could take it over.
So you don’t care about the character of the man you want to elect president. That is sad but good to know.
He’s absolute scum.
This is who we want as president? I know the Trumpbots want him, but what about decent people?
Thanks for posting this article.
This fits the classic quote by J. Paul Getty, “If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.”
Its obvious that Trump can keep a cool head in the face of crisis. I love it. If an ambassador calls for help from the middle east, I have a feeling that President Trump will pick up the phone.
Trump absolutely did the right thing negotiating away the personal guarantees which should not be mistaken as money that Trump spent on personal expenses that was rolled into the Chapter 11; it represents losses directly related to the property. Whenever you can get rid of those, you do it. They often represent over- collateralization and bank overreach, anyway. That’s just good negotiation which our country could use right now.
Another point in Trump’s favor is that he had the cahones to sue the Pritzker family. You need to be brave to file against the Pritzkers. Do your own research on that bunch. Its obvious to me that Trump doesn’t like to get ripped off. Good on him.
This article proves that we have a Presidential candidate who can swim with the sharks without getting eaten is exciting. Its an opportunity; if Americans are smart - we will grab it.
The WSJ article says the stock tanked because RI was rumored as not able to obtain additional debt funding on their own. Up to that point, Trump, along with Griffin, had been buying boatloads of stock, so both of them would have taken any price drop in the pants right along with the rest of the stockholders. Even after the stock dropped, Trump offered to buy more but the takeover of Resorts Intl wasn’t a one-man show. Trump and Griffin didn’t begin to ink their settlement agreement until mid 1988 and Merv eventually walked away with Resorts Atlantic City and Paradise Island (the future Atlantis). And while Griffin was a household name which would boost shareholder confidence, with RI already on life-support there’s no assurances that RI would have remained whole under Griffin’s guidance or that the Taj would ever have been completed. (Merv later sold Paradise Island for about a quarter what he paid for it, if that says anything.)
Other things could have affected RI stock prices, such as the 1985 scandal involving a rather large bribe paid by RI to the Prime Minister of the Bahamas (see mention in NYT obit, below), the death of the company’s Chairman of the Board in 1986 with subsequent internal plays for control adding to the general uncertainty, or even the activation of shark repellants such poison pill clauses in the company charter.
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