On the campaign trail, Donald Trump is happy to tout his many successes in business. If you listen to him and his minions, he is the greatest business genius the world has ever seen. Many of those who plan to vote for Trump do so because they have faith that a man with so much skill in business can surely make the country profitable again.
But an article in Market Watch reveals that Trump’s record in business is anything but glorious. Trump’s fame is based mostly on his many real estate enterprises. Most notable, of course, are his Donald Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts.
The trouble is that during the ten years that Trump ran those casinos, he ran them straight into the ground. Straight into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in fact. The stockholders in the Trump casinos lost nearly 89-percent of their investments. The businesses lost more than $600 million dollars.
It was, by anyone’s definition, a total catastrophe of a business venture.
So maybe it was just a really bad time to be a casino owner during that decade? Well, no. Market Watch points out that during those exact years (1995-2005), his competitors were raking in the cash.
The Dow Jones Index of gambling stocks rose by 160-percent. Stockholders in other companies were making bundles of cash. Harrah’s stocks rose 150-percent and MGM’s by 500-percent.
Maybe Trump wasn’t actually hands-on during that time? Maybe the businesses just used his name? No again. Donald J. Trump was Chairman of the Board through the entire decade, and CEO of the company for the first 5 years.
He was in charge. And he blew it big time.
The last bit of information that was revealed in the article, was the fact that while everyone who had invested money into Trump’s big dream had their asses handed to them, Donald J. Trump actually made a bundle.
By giving himself “bonuses” (no doubt for the great job he was doing at the helm), Trump took $32-million out of his collapsing casinos. At the same time, his public stockholders lost about $100 million.
I don’t think this is really the guy who is going to make America “great” again.
Featured image by Donkey Hotey via Flickr. Available through a Creative Commons License 2.0
