If a “business” deal is ripping off the taxpayers, it’s not business it is theft.
True only if the deal didn’t benefit the city overall. I would have to look at the books. Trump running the place probably makes money for the city. Even my own beloved mayor Wilson Goode made money building the skyboxes at vet stadium.
And... who else was making proposals on the place. If Trump got picked ahead of other viable proposals just because he was a crony that’s one thing. That isn’t good. But if he was the only or by far the most audacious plan for improving the property (a dump, by another freeper’s account) then that could easily be a far better deal than nothing.
We have to be careful not to argue against capitalism itself like liberals do.