Trump had nothing to do with Kelo which turned into a disaster. He offered 2 million dollars to the woman in AC. What other developer would do that? I was involved in eminent domain fights at the Jersey Shore in the early 2000s and they were offering PEANUTS (to use a Trumpism) to the poor folks who were losing their beachfront houses. Once the developers had secured that land, it would accelerate in value beyond belief. Happily, in one case, we fought them off. There are many really bad developers. I don’t believe Trump is one of them.
He offered Vera Coking about a million dollars, not 2 million dollars. And she turned it down, because she wanted to stay in her house. You or I may have taken the money (I know I would have), but the whole thing about property rights is that the PROPERTY OWNER gets to make that decision, based on their own interests. And it was HER HOUSE.
After she refused to sell, Trump got his cronies in Atlantic City to use eminent domain to transfer the land to him. Her compensation under the eminent domain transfer would have been $250,000.