(Click the links for source information.)
Now that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have donated $100 million to Ivanka Trump’s fund for women entrepreneurs, one has to wonder how long it will take before some of that money finds its way into one of Ivanka’s $450 Turnberry Satchel shoulder bags? After all, that’s the one thing that the Trumps actually do well – relieving other people of their money.
Let me count the ways… but first, a little Trumpocrisy.
(That’s hypocrisy in the era of Trump.)
When he was running for office, Trump frequently criticized the
Bill and Hillary Clinton Foundation for accepting donations from foreign
governments, even though fact-checkers showed that all of the cash was used for
the foundation’s worthy endeavors around the globe. USA Today quoted a
June 2016 Facebook posting in which Trump said, “Saudi Arabia and many of the
countries that gave vast amounts of money to the Clinton Foundation want women
as slaves and to kill gays. Hillary must return all money from such countries!”
Speaks for itself, I think.
Hypocrisy aside, the Trump family has a long history of
taking other people’s money and keeping it for themselves. It’s what they’ve
always done and what they continue to do from the relative protection of the
White House. Let’s look at the family’s track record:
Four times the Trump organization used funds borrowed from
banks to finance casinos and other businesses, only to file for bankruptcy
within a couple of years, leaving their creditors to try and recover millions
of dollars of debt.
* According to thelawdictionary.org, Trump's Taj Mahal casino in
Atlantic City was in debt for billions of dollars in 1991 when his corporation
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Bankruptcy Court allowed Trump to
reorganize his debts and allowed the casino to keep operating.
* In 1992, Trump filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on his Trump
Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City. At this time, Trump owed $550 million. As part of
the restructuring, Trump was given a lenient repayment plan and was allowed to
stay on as CEO.
* Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts filed for bankruptcy in
2004. The corporation had $1.8 billion dollars of debt. Trump reduced his share
in the company to 25%, thereby surrendering his control of the corporation. The
corporation received lower interest rates and another loan to upgrade the
properties.
* And in 2009, Trump Entertainment Resorts filed bankruptcy
after missing a large bond interest payment. Trump was not able to agree with
his board of directors on a repayment plan so he resigned as chairman of the
board and retained only a 10% ownership interest in the corporation.
Even when he managed to keep his businesses afloat, Trump
has a history of refusing to pay vendors for work performed on his projects. USA Today reported
at least 60 lawsuits, along with hundreds of liens, judgments and other
government filings accusing Trump and his businesses of failing to pay them for
their work. “Among them are a dishwasher in Florida, a glass company in New
Jersey, a carpet company, a plumber, painters, 48 waiters, dozens of bartenders
and other hourly workers at his resorts and clubs from coast to coast, real
estate brokers who sold his properties and, ironically, several law firms that
once represented him in these suits and others,” the newspaper said.
In addition to the lawsuits, USA Today found more than 200 mechanic’s liens — filed by
contractors and employees against Trump, his companies or his properties
claiming they were owed money for their work since the 1980s. The liens range
from a $75,000 claim by a Plainview, N.Y., air conditioning and heating company
to a $1 million claim from the president of a New York City real estate banking
firm.
Then there was Trump University, a scam college that
purported to teach average citizens how to strike it rich in the real estate
business when, in fact, it was just a marketing ploy to take their hard-earned
money. Instead of sharing his secrets of success, Trump made money selling
expensive seminars and preying on the naivete of the elderly and uneducated.
Perhaps the most disturbing Trump scam was his use of
$20,000 in donations to his supposedly charitable Trump Foundation to buy a
six-foot-tall portrait of himself during a fundraiser auction at his Mar-a-Lago
Club in Florida. I’d call that narcissism on steroids.
So now a bunch of oil-rich Arabs have figuratively put Ivanka
Trump in a room with $100 million of free money. What do you think she’ll do with the cash? And how will we know, since the
Trumps like to hide their financials from the public?
Think about it. I mean, after all, Trump is now in a
position to use the White House to steal money. He wants to take away Medicaid
benefits and Obamacare subsidies from the poor, the elderly and the sick, for
example, and that’s only one way he’s robbing the public to help wealthy
Americans like himself get even richer. I’ve got to believe that in a short time, that $100
million sitting in Ivanka’s "charitable fund" is going to start calling out his name.
No comments:
Post a Comment