The Donald at Mar-a-Lago. Credit: Jonathan Becker/Contour by Getty Images
It was a question from the CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour that allowed Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, his one and only fist-bump, slap-down moment before his bid to win the Democratic presidential nomination fizzled to expensive nothingness.
She asked: “Do we need yet another billionaire in the race?”
He replied: “Who is the other billionaire?”
Oh, how political America giggled. It knows that the thin-skinned Donald hates nothing more than having his manhood questioned. And for Trump his manhood is, to a larger extent than with most men it seems, his money.
So where is his money? Here the events of recent weeks are deeply relevant. The President is, by his own admission, not much of a stocks and shares man. He likes stuff you can see: preferably from a distance. Stuff with space for a neon sign. Casinos, hotels, resorts, golf clubs. Places where people mingle and spend money. Places with staircases the late Saddam Hussein would appreciate. Places that are closed or about to close for extended periods as the Covid-19 wave breaks across the USA and the wider world.
So when the President says – as he did on the day he announced he was standing for office – “I’m very rich,” do we still believe him? There is no completely certain way of judging. This is because the Trump organisation — run now by his sons Don Jr. and Eric — is a private company. It seems fair to say, though, that they are taking a hit.
The President likes to keep his eyes on Fox News, but if his sons, worried about the money, were watching CNBC the other day they will have heard Bill Ackman of Pershing capital suggesting that even Hilton Hotels, one of the world’s strongest hospitality brands, was “going to zero”. If we carry on with this shutdown, he said, “every hotel company in the world is done”.
So does this mean coronavirus is going to wipe out the Trump empire?
Trump properties have been doing well recently, in part – controversially to put it mildly – because the fundraising effort for his 2020 run has seen large meetings requiring expensive rooms in … well, actually in Trump properties. According to the watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a two-day event in December at Trump’s Washington DC hotel, hosted by Trump Victory, saw the cheapest rooms going for $6,719 compared with the usual rate of $500. That’s the art of the fundraising deal.
CREW say there have been 81 political events held in Trump properties since the presidency began, 122 events held by outside special interest groups, 143 visits by foreign officials and 468 by the president himself. The phrase ‘conflict of interest’ hardly does justice to the scale of this branding/money making/room filling exercise.
But the truth is that even before the Covid disaster, Donald Trump’s properties were not doing well. As a couple of investigative journalists at Forbes Magazine put it in 2018: “Donald Trump is not getting richer off the presidency. Just the opposite. His net worth, by our calculation, has dropped from $4.5 billion in 2015 to $3.1 billion the last two years.”
It’s a lot of money. But it sits on a pile of debt estimated by Bloomberg (the organisation, not the man) to be around half a billion dollars. “I am the king of debt,” Mr. Trump once said on CNN. “I love debt.” What if that debt, in the wake of current events, balloons?
It has happened before. In his book, Trumpocracy, David Frum, one of Trump’s fiercest Republican opponents, puts it like this:
“Donald Trump and his Kushner in-laws are perceived as fabulously wealthy. But while they do own substantial assets, they also owe enormous debts…Trump has teetered on the edge of financial ruin again and again throughout his career.”
The extent of the teetering would be gut-wrenching to any ordinary person. In his pre-presidency biography of Trump, The Truth about Trump, the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Michael D’Antonio has a chapter entitled Luck Runs Out. Michael is a mild-mannered man with a twinkly smile: I think he liked the restraint of this description. The reality was grotesque.
‘Donald Trump’s big bet’ was how the Washington Post headlined its piece on the Taj Mahal Atlantic City — the biggest (of course) casino the city had ever seen. On a pre-opening tour the paper was horrified by vulgarity but impressed, in spite of itself, with the ambition: “With more than 3,000 slot machines and 167 blackjack, roulette and other gaming tables, the Taj will boost Atlantic City’s gambling capacity by 20 percent when it opens April 2.”
“We’re calling it the eighth wonder of the world,” said Donald Trump of his creation. “I think it’s going to do huge numbers. The overall majesty of the building is what’s going to attract people. People are just amazed at the opulence.”
After opening in 1990, it went belly-up in 1991 — along with an airline shuttle Trump ran between New York and Washington. What happened next is instructive for those who think the President might be done in by the Covid-19 depression.
Six thousand people lost their jobs. The man who made the elephant statue for the garden was one among many contractors who claim they were never paid. But Donald Trump walked away from the wreckage. Because, as the old adage goes, if you owe the bank a tenner it’s your problem, if you owe 10 million it’s theirs. And it was theirs.
As D’Antonio puts it in his account of the fallout from the collapse: “Trump grasped the power of his position after the lender who had held the mortgage on his yacht not only accepted that Trump had stopped making payments but but took responsibility for the vessel’s upkeep and insurance at a cost of $500,000 a month.”
Trump, so it goes, was too big to fail. Well here we go again. According to the Wall St Journal: “More than 500 staff at Trump properties in New York, Washington, Las Vegas and Florida have been laid off or furloughed, say people familiar with the matter and federal disclosures. Several Trump hotels have been closed, and those still running have experienced dwindling occupancies. One day in March, the family’s flagship Trump International Hotel in Washington had just 11 guests in its 263 rooms, according to an employee.”
Eric Trump told the paper: “We have an unbelievably strong company and we continue to pray for the health and safety of all Americans,” but went into no more details about what happens now. So it does look like Donald Trump could be in serious trouble on paper as a result of the shutdown he is belatedly supporting — and there are surely plenty of Americans who would see that as an upside of the virus.
But history suggests Donald Trump’s businesses and fortune have an uncanny ability to bounce back — while all around go bankrupt. If the rich ‘are different from you and me’ then Donald Trump is different from most of them too. As he put it once to an incredulous lawyer in a court deposition, “My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with the markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings.”
Yes, he believes he can control his wealth with his feelings. And, for now at least, the President of the United States almost certainly believes that he is still “very rich”. Who are we to suggest otherwise…
Justin Webb presents the Americast podcast and Today on Radio Four. His Panorama documentary “Trump the Sequel”, is available now on Iplayer
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SubscribeNot many Nazi armies running around anymore. Or Imperial Japanese.
Hamas can be destroyed. But until you destroy Islam, there will always be groups like Hamas.
Of course, destroying Islam, perhaps by discrediting it, or perhaps by laughing at it, or rendering it irrelevant, or simply by killing lots and lots of Muslims, is a more difficult task.
Maybe it was a bad idea to set up a colony of genocidal Islamophobes in the heart of the Muslim world?
The problem of Islamic fundamentalist savagery is one that we in the West are ignoring, to a large degree.
This essay is a good example. The fundamentalists around the Muslim world must be laughing at those in the West who think that peace is an option in Gaza or that Hamas (et al) will ever willingly return all the hostages.
Golda Meir once said “We will have peace with the Arabs when they learn to love their own children more than they hate ours”. Most Arab nations understand this now. But the fundamentalists seem to be beyond redemption.
The under-reported large demonstrations against Hamas that started yesterday throughout the Gaza strip belie the very premise of the article. The combination of the weakening of the Hamas apparatus and the renewed military pressure by the IDF, including the evacuation orders of all areas from which Hamas is launching rockets, may have caused ordinary Gazans to reach a tipping point.
The demonstrations demand the removal of Hamas from Gaza. Will they be effective? Time will tell, but anyone who has the well-being of Gazans at heart, should root for the demonstrators. Anyone who does not – and they are many – discloses that for them, Gazans are just cannon fodder to be used against Israel.
If Hamas didn’t exist, the far-Right in Israel would have had to invent them (as opposed to fostering them for decades)
It’s quite simple .. release all the hostages and a ceasefire can be put in place.
18 months on .. yes .. 18 months, and some 20+ living hostages are still being held.
What other western nation would allow hostages to be held so long ?
The only way forward is for Israel to use force to get the hostages out, even though Hamas are likely to kill them.
Gaza was free of Israel since 2006, and in the years since, has been nothing but a jihadi death cult.
Gaza is a giant walled-off ghetto and the Israelis control their borders, access to water, fuel, electricity, food, etc.
Israel allows Hamas to smuggle in a few ineffectual weapons, so the Likudniks and other far-Right ethnosupremacists have an excuse to postpone the two-State solution while they carry out their slow-mo ethnic cleansing.
And so far, it’s working very well. The Likudniks point at the few dozen hostages Hamas has managed to hold on to while Israel has literally thousands of Palestinian hostages held in prisons where they are routinely tortured, raped etc.
David Swift’s article follows the usual anti Israel parroting shown by the like of the BBC, Guardian, Foreign office, UN, Sky UK ie anti Israel sentiment .. the usual mainstream prejudice against Israel, echoing the liberal left luvvie support for Hamas.
Looking at the initial set of comments, most readers do not agree with Swift, and are pro Israel. This is echoed by the ‘thumbs up’ and ‘thumbs down’.
As those who represent and believe in Israel, the ‘loud minority that support Hamas’ are countered by the ‘silent majority’ who know the facts and support Israel, the only liberal democracy in a dangerous neighbourhood of Arab and Muslim nations that are run by dictators, ruling monarchs and autocrats.
Weak and disingenuous article which just wastes the time of the reader:
1. The author is babbling about “sacrifice in the interests of peace”. Does Hamas want “peace”? If not, there is no reason an Israeli leader should make any sacrifices.
2. Nobody has ever claimed that victory requires killing every Hamas fighter. More important than that is to cut off their supplies and to extract a heavy price for 07.10 from the Palestinian society which has created Hamas and is supporting it. This may require the occupation of Gaza with a subsequent installation of another government (e.g. by Arab states).
The only analysis that makes sense to me is that Netanyahu wants to keep the conflict going indefinitely to force the Gazans into exile in the West or wherever they can manage to escape to.
I mean that was the purpose of the barbarism demonstrated by Hamas on 07.10, right? To create a feeling among the Israelis that they cannot live in Israel in peace and should better leave. Can the Palestinian society (which has created Hamas and is supporting it) now complain that they are being pushed out?
It was never about Hamas.
Bibi wanted Hamas well funded.
Pretty easy to see the game yet western media largely ignored it.
They are bombing the hell out of everything and everyone so that Gaza is uninhabitable. They’ve said it themselves.
These are war crimes. This is ethnic cleansing. And it’s going to destroy Israel.
How do you intend to substantiate your claim that “Bibi wanted Hamas well funded”?
Until you do so, such opinions render your position as little more than a laughing stock, as do your latter assertions.
Lad, your ignorance is making you the laughing stock. To me anyway, probably not the rest of these Unherd reality deniers. It’s on record. Read Israeli papers. Watch the film “the bibi files.”
Now why would Bibi give permission to Qatar to make sure the Hamas authority – evil terrorists remember – get the sackfuls of cash?
Work it out Laughing stock Lad.
I’d say you are the laughing stock for two reasons.
Firstly, you show your stupidity by making it personal against Lancashire lad.
Secondly, in reading the first set of comments above, the readers seem more in favour of Israel and Netanyahu, that they do of Hamas.
Hey bullfrog – lad named me the laughing stock first. How is that personal? Seems you might be in the laughing stock group too.
Welcome.
I agree with everything you wrote except your conclusion.
Israel have destroyed Syria as any kind of real threat, set back Hezbollah for a generation, stolen more land in Syria, Lebanon and the West Bank, and are in the process of liquidating Gaza.
How are their war crimes “going to destroy Israel”? Their support from all important foreign institutions seems complete; leaders throughout the West would rather see their own populations beggared, than Israel go without weapons or support or diplomatic cover in the UNSC.
I know it doesn’t look like it now. But the world is changing. The west doesn’t run everything. The BRICS alliance is getting stronger. Also, Israel is a vibrant democracy. What bibi is doing, not just the in the war but in the legislative arena too, has enraged secular Jews. Also, the fascistic religious right that he is in bed with are so insane that a fissure in Israeli society, if not a civil war of sorts, is possible.
There was a short time when Israel funded Hamas in order to weaken the PLO. As for the rest, to put it simply, it’s shoot or be shot.
And for while there back in the 80s the US funded jihadis in Afghanistan.
Enemy of my enemy etc.
But of course, you’re unable to justify your claim that Bibi wanted Hamas well funded, just as you’re unable to admit the barbarism of a people who are being perfectly honest about often stated desire to commit genocide against Israel, as indeed all lunatic jihadis’ do–even if well funded by Iran and indirectly by the U.S. in its sending millions of dollars to it. Tell us please what would you have Israel do? The two state solution has failed three or four times when it has been offered to the Jihadis. Do you want Israel to simply go away? Move to another country? Or do you wish the “Palestinians” would wipe them out? Where are you on the questions of Israel’s existence? Never mind your ridiculous unsupportable claim that Bibi loves Hamas. Please.
Do you really think the western media that was overwhelmingly ant-Israel would have missed an opportunity to slam Bibi if they actually had any evidence of his love for Hamas? Seriously?
Didn’t say bibi “loves” Hamas did I?
Said he have the go ahead for them to receive sack loads of cash. True or not? You think the western media is anti Israel? Who? Haaretz is more anti Israel than any paper I’ve seen, including the guardian.
The gaslighting that Israel use has infected you too. What do expect Israel to do, move to another country?
I’d ask you, what do you want Palestinians to do, move to the Sinai?
Israel isn’t going anywhere. And the West Bank? Do the Palestinians have a right to resist the violence of the settlers? Or are they dangerous Terrorists if they do?
You have this notion that bibi is an honest player. He’s not. He’s a self serving narcissist, a war criminal – not my words – and the UK and US, who find and help this ethnic cleansing, have blood on their hands.
This is common knowledge in Israel. Haaretz wrote about it, as did the JPost, and WaPo. If you google “Likud funded hamas” you’ll get plenty of links to “respected” news outlets discussing it
And given Bibi’s maximalist ambitions, why wouldn’t he absolutely adore Hamas? He was facing prosecution and practically half the country was out on the street protesting his rule; Hamas’ 7th October “surprise” (the NYTimes reported that the Israeli government had detailed plans a year in advance) gave him all the pretext he needed to wage his genocidal campaign (“Remember what Amalek has done to you!”). Add the fact that most of the 7th Oct Israelis appear to have been killed by the IDF following the “Hannibal Directive” (as reported by Grayzone and 972) and you get a pretty clear picture of exactly what kind of monster Netanyahu is.
You’re a sick puppy, Kane, and the author of this article is an ignoramus.
Yes. I’m the sick puppy. Not the supporters of a psychotic government. This isn’t football. Im no fan of Hamas or any other religious or ethno nationalist state. What Hamas did was horrific, of course. But do you really believe the goal is the “defeat” Hamas? And do you really believe Bibi thinks that is possible? Of course not. They need Hamas, as a justification to continue bombing hospitals, schools, mosques and churches, journalists, women and children. The goal is to completely terrorise these people so they will leave. Obviously l. And what about the West Bank, sick puppy?
The continued violence by religious thugs, the bulldozing of houses, the stealing of land. It’s ok with you? Do the Palestinians in the West Bank have a right to resist?
The goal of the Right in Israel is “Greater Israel”: the original Jabotinsky dream of a unified “Jewish” state, unbesmirched by Un-Chosen Semites (ie, Christian or Muslim Arabs).
Ethnic cleansing is the ultimate aim here. Talk of “beating” Hamas is just that; what they want is to exhaust the Arabs’ will so they give up and flee to somewhere their family is less likely to be slaughtered. That this is happening in the West Bank as well as Gaza shows that it’s not about “defeating Hamas”.
In fact it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if “Hamas” at this point are just an arm of Mossad, God knows everything they do just seems to be hastening the delivery of the Zionist dream.
You can’t kill an idea, Palestine, like Ireland, will be united and free.
They tried to kill an idea with the Basques, Catalonians, Western Saharans, Tibetans, the long suffering people of Corsica and the Kurds. Northern Cyprus will be free.
Israel is clearly falling into the trap that Hamas set for them. The Gazans lured the IDF into the strip, let them kill their leaders, then they brilliantly let the Zionists think they cut off resupply tunnels in the Philadelphia corridor. But the Israelis miscalculated because Hamas are winning the propoganda war. Every Saturday rich Arabs living in Kensington march down Parklane, clearly Israel has lost.
The only thing a group like Hamas needs to do to win is survive. In 30 years time if even a single 5 year old, remembers, then Israel will have lost, even if it is impossible to launch another attack like Oct 7th.
“Only” thing? That alone seems a pretty tall order at the moment; and that’s assuming Hamas are actually legit resistance, rather than (say) an arm of Mossad giving Israel’s far-Right a pretext to wipe out the remaining non-Chosen Semites (ie, Christian and Muslim Arabs).
Israel has a hidden agenda here and rather obvious it is
However when will the West ever learn that to eradicate a foe is nigh on mission impossible
Just look at Afghanistan
$ 3 trillion spent ( borrowed )
380,000 Afghan civilians killed , over a million life changing injuries
Result they replaced one generation of Taliban with a new generation of Taliban who are far more Savvy and most certainly more difficult to defeat
Furthermore The USA is now taking aim at China and most certainly require allies in the Pacific
Stupidly those allies are restricted to Japan , Sth.Korea and The Christian Phillipines
Whist by far who follows at the very least remain Neutral or aid and abet China
Vietnam, Cambodia , Laos , Malaysia , Indonesia , India , Pakistan and the whole of Central Asia
The West is already defeated by stupidly just taking Aim at China
Wisdom dictates back off , drop the gun , smile and extend the hand of friendship
If not so then Western colonial Neo Liberal Capitalism shall rapidly wither and die
Israel is part of this cartel of extremely silly Nations
This all sounds a bit like a comment from the People’s Liberation Army of China.
Their credibility was blown when they gave the world COVID.
You truly are a most stupid person
The PLA take 2 oaths , the first and foremost is to the Citezens of China
This oath means that in times of need such as Natural disasters
The PLA must be trained ,equipped and ready to respond
Immediately
Like all you Coolie village idiots on here
Go study how The PLA performed with regards the recent Tibetan earthquake
Then go compare with The LA fires
Do not come back till you can demonstrate that not only you can think for oneself but have researched how China handled the earthquake
And The almighty USA is not handlings the consequences of the LA fires
Ah but are Coolies capable of such ?
As for COVID and I having a 1st Class Honours degree in Genetics may I suggest you go study genetics in relation to evolutionary
Science
Pay particular attention to
Retro Viruses
Should you do so then look till the end of time how China deliberately created COVID and come back with conclusive evidence and most certainly not Internet conspiracy theories
As all Coolies would for certain run with the conspiracy theory
And why is that ?
Because you obviously
” Hard of Thought”
Wisdom dictates back off , drop the gun , smile and extend the hand of friendship
.
I have nothing to add to this nonsense
Then you lack Wisdom
Suggest you embark upon a high level career with The Pentagon or NATO where utter stupidity reigns
“Cease fire” is not “peace”, especially with regards to Hamas and other jihadis.
What few people are willing to acknowledge is that the entire content of “Palestinian” identity (as distinct from local Moslem Arab) is genocidal hatred and cancellation of Israel. And jihadi radicalisation amongst them is at saturation levels due to indoctrination from birth.
Further, the Quranic idea of “salam” (misleadingly translated as “peace”) to which all Jihadis (and a disturbingly large fraction of Moslems in general) subscribe, is “submission”. “Islam” means submission [to Allah]. They believe that Non-Moslems must submit in one way or another: become Moslem, become Dhimmi (third class citizen, paying the jizya tax), or die.
So what can one do with people most of whose minds are irremediably corrupted by hate and contempt?
The only language which is respected is decisive force. Foreign pressure on Israel is always to “moderate” her response. All that does is convince Jihadis that Allah is on their side to save them when the odds look bad. In other words, western do-gooders are in large part responsible for perpetuating the monster and have the blood of Israelis and Arabs on their naive hands.
I agree. The problem with the Palestinians is that (as a society) they do not pay any meaningful price when they attack Israel. For people contaminated by jihadi ideology casualties do not matter. In addition, the inexhaustible flow of humanitarian aid has allowed the Palestinians to essentially reset the clock after each war. This does not mean that every Palestinian supports Hamas and is a jihadi, but the Palestinian society cannot be allowed to continue like this forever.
Taking ‘eradication’ literally is disingenuous. Israel’s intent is to destroy the organisation, not kill every last person. It is equally disingenuous to make out that the decision to finish off Hamas now could be anything other than political. War is political!
Weak article.
It might be a weak article but dealing with a lowlife like Netanyahu would challenge any analyst.
Dodgy character, but at least not a fanatical anti Semitic would be genocidaire as the Hamas leadership (and its indoctrinated foot soldiers) undoubtedly are. It is truly ludicrous to.not just make a moral equivalence here, but actively argue that the Israelis are worse. If Israel had wanted either to exterminate or ethnically cleanse the entire Palestinian population, it could have done so by now.
Israel has to tread carefully in its ethnic cleansing; too far, too fast would embarrass its Western puppets.
Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey…