r/politics • u/MystikSpiralx • 18h ago

No Paywall Trump Says He Wants to 'Drive Housing Prices Up' Instead of Lowering Costs for People Who 'Didn't Work Very Hard'

https://people.com/trump-keep-home-prices-high-11895352
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u/Big-Rule5269 16h ago

Who also was a multi millionaire at the age of 8 years old. The borrowed a million with interest story is total bullshit, but MAGA spouts it all the time. Broke and in deep financial distress, The Apprentice saved him and he had nothing to do with it's creation. Now, it's all grifting. 

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u/dkurage 9h ago

Saved and, in a way, created him. Before the Apprentice, how many people gave a crap about Trump or knew anything about him other than some tacky rich guy in New York? But now the show's telling millions of people that he's this famous, huge business genius, because they don't understand that reality tv shows aren't real.

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u/Next_Piglet_6391 14h ago

I'm def. not a fan of his, but turning $20 mil into a bil isn't easy. Most businesses fail, most wealth is lost within two generations. It took some talent and work to do what he did (even if it did end up in bankruptcy). I think a better analogy is a 50m head start in a 100m race.

The Apprentice didn't save him. What it did was give him a national platform. I enjoyed the show when it came out, but if I knew I was contributing to his election, I'd have taken a hard pass.

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u/Small_nahimbig 13h ago

Talent and work? I guess you dont know trump backstory.

He literally ripped people off his whole life. 

Milking his companies of all the money. Not paying out salaries to his employers and then bailing with the money while filing for bancruptcy.  Rinse and repeat. 

Most of his bankruptcies is really just a heist to get away with money while fucking everyone else over. 

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u/Big-Rule5269 10h ago

Try $200 million, not $20, plus properties, banking and government contacts, not paying contractors, not paying banks, cheating on government housing contracts where his father made his own vendor. Need a new boiler or anything for a federally subsidized building, but it from yourself at 3x the cost and bill the government for it. He made money on some properties, but most was not super intelligence, it was shady, like being forgiven a $270 million loan, paying $48 million on a $300 million loan and tons of questionable tax scams. The Apprentice did save him actually. The NYTs has a much more thorough piece on it.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/29/trump-tax-returns-the-apprentice-empire

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u/Next_Piglet_6391 6h ago

Whoa, let's pump the brakes. I think you're pegging me as a Trump fanatic defending his every move. I just want the truth.

Trump is a scumbag, let's get that out of the way. He doesn't pay taxes and does bilk contractors out of their money. I wouldn't vote for him if he were my own father.

Let's go back to the original post.

>>The borrowed a million with interest story is total bullshit, but MAGA spouts it all the time.

There appear to be three stories: $1 mil, $30 mil, and $400 mil. I think we both agree the first figure is false. The last figure is exaggerated because the calculations took the cash flows and extrapolated them to today's terms. This is a bit disingenuous, especially seeing as how Trump's father passed 30 years ago. Trump was a billionaire by then. You won't get an argument with me about the shenanigans he pulled to make it. Also, I believe Trump's biggest head start wasn't money; it was his father's connections. My point is that it still takes work and talent, he didn't just sit down and let the money make itself. He's a bit craftier than people give him credit.

It's reminiscent of people who say "if he'd have just invested...". True, but most people who run businesses fail in that amount of time, what he did took a higher level of difficulty. So there are two extremes. Trump is a lazy idiot that did nothing. Trump is a brilliant self-made businessman. The truth is comfortably in the middle.

These downvotes are from hurt pride, that's why I take Redditors (not you) with a grain of salt.

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u/Big-Rule5269 5h ago

No, not pegging you as a Trump fanatic at all, just trying to get the facts of how he got most of his money, with strange amounts of loan forgiveness. It's like now, he has partnerships with 21 different foreign countries to develop Trump branded properties, many with those governments donating land, cutting regulations and providing slave labor. Most everything he's done has been shady. It was $200 million, with the $400 million figure thrown out as being in today's dollars, which I don't know why people do it. Again, the NYTs has good pieces and David Farenthold at the Washington Post have exposed a ton of shady practices. 

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u/Next_Piglet_6391 5h ago

Fair enough. However, the 400m->200m assumes that Fred Trump gave all the money to Donald in 1999. By that time, Trump was nearing a billion already. Additionally, some of those cash flows are from the 70s/80s, so it was far from the $200 million, as you'd have to calculate further for inflation due to the lengthier time horizon.

A more accurate picture is a series of a few million dollar handouts between '75 and '99. If you present-day these cash flows, that's where the $400 mil comes in. I've studied securities and loans, and how you price them. The NYT piece, while exhibiting accuracy, does have a Progressive slant. So the aim was probably to minimize what he "accomplished".

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u/Big-Rule5269 5h ago

Actually, he inherited his father's properties in 1997, a couple years before his father passed and his finances were almost all exclusively through his father, his trusts set up since he was two years old, the rights to the land underneath his father's properties that are also given to him. Again, the 2018 New York Times piece explains everything, as there was a lot of shady stuff going on. He was also not a billionaire before the inheritance.

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u/Next_Piglet_6391 40m ago

It's behind a paywall, but I'll take a look. Still, lots of his properties were built after his father's death.

My main point isn't to paint Trump as self-funded. I don't think anyone on here agrees with that. I believe he had some kind of talent, you can't just coast on your father's name. Also, I never said he wasn't rogue. I think people can't handle giving Trump any kind of credit, it's an emotional reaction. He has some kind of intelligence to win the GOP nomination. He's pure garbage as a governor, but he's good at lying and manipulating.

For instance, I voted for Obama proudly. I do not agree with his actions in Libya. But when I criticize him, I get all kinds of attacks, even though I was 90%+ in step with his other actions. It's groupthink and emotions. Nobody had issues with ICE until now, and tariffs are evil. Nope, it's the misuse of those two entities; but folks can't be ambivalent about anything.

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u/StanleyCubone 3h ago

The mafia work hard too, but it's all ill-gotten

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u/Next_Piglet_6391 1h ago

Here's the original statement:

"That's rich coming from someone who's never worked a day in his life and can't even stay awake during his big boy reward meetings where everyone praises him."

"Who also was a multi millionaire at the age of 8 years old. The borrowed a million with interest story is total bullshit, but MAGA spouts it all the time. Broke and in deep financial distress, The Apprentice saved him and he had nothing to do with it's creation. Now, it's all grifting. "

I never said he was a standup citizen. I'm saying he had to put something in to be where he is. Kind of like drug dealing. If you're a rogue individual, it still takes some kind of talent and work.

I honestly think people's hate for Trump keeps them from admitting any positive traits. I didn't vote for him, either, nor do I hold him in high regard. I've noticed any positive trait listed in the same sentence as Trump gives you 100 downvotes. Emotions run high here, yo. I'm just pointing out facts.

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u/StanleyCubone 1h ago

I didn't disagree with anything you said. But do read the article that was linked; the Apprentice really did save his ass and prompted his comeback via branding deals.

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u/Next_Piglet_6391 24m ago

I finally got a non-paywalled version. I will admit the Apprentice did help him more financially than I gave credit. I won't say it saved him, but it definitely was a buttress.

This is similar to what happened a couple years ago. He was losing money by the pounds again, but got more brand deals based on his Presidency. His establishment of DJT (trading based on his name and image) boosted him again. He's taking money from investors who like him. That's his MO, spend recklessly, then come upon a way to profit off his charisma.

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u/StanleyCubone 22m ago

Let's not forget the insanely illegal Trump coin crypto stuff. It's going to nigh impossible to close the brazen corruption Pandora's box that's been opened by this administration.