Short Answer: YES
The signs have been building since he pledged $5 million to veterans during the Iowa primary. Fortunately, journalists stayed on top of the pledge and found that he had done nothing.
Then came his statement that his assets were $8 billion or $12 billion. I think he forgot about the liabilities. When his past tax returns from years previous were released, journalists asked how much he was giving to charity. He cited the tax return whereby he gave rooms to charities, presumably for them to auction off during a fundraiser for the charity, a common thing to do.
But there were no cash contributions.
So how can that game work? Let’s say you have some rental units, duplex or hotel, and the room rate can vary from $200 to $600 per night depending on the season. Then you give a registered charity three days and two nights at XYZ resort, and depending on availability they can auction off a room for a fundraiser.
The donor often uses the higher room value of $600 and deducts $1,200 from his/her taxes. But, when the recipient cashes in the winning ticket, the availability may not be the top of the line rate. And if you have a “friendly” charity, you can probably donate vacant rooms in bulk even if all are not redeemed.
Then came his Trump Charities: I noticed that he didn’t contribute to his own charity. That game probably consists of “give to my charity with the Trump name on it, and I’ll be on your side, etc.” He then used the charity as his personal petty cash fund. Since then the State of New York has shut down his charity, and e is prosecuting Trump as to issues of misappropriation of funds, and more.
So, let’s do the math.
A person having a net worth of $1 billion can obtain returns of 10% or more. This equates to $100 million after all expenses per year. If he had a $10 billion net worth, he would have an income of $1 billion.
Then, after he concluded an agreement with the Saudi’s, they purchased 500 rooms from his WDC hotel. Even at the rate of $1,000 or night, this $500,000 commitment is pocket change compared to the income he should be making. Or is he really making that? After his Trump University settlement of $25 million, he sold the Florida condo for an estimated profit of over $35 million from a very friendly buyer— a Russian buyer.
Over time it has become known that he can’t get a loan from an American bank; and then we learn that the Russians have purchased over a hundred of his condos, for a total I’m guessing is over a billion dollars. It appears that his only source of funds is the Russians. And, if that is the case, he is on life support.
Thus, Trump is broke and in more ways than one. He has had to mortgage his soul.
Rich Meyer, Blogger & Author
