From Raw Story via
Forbes.com and elsewhere this pretty startling story headline:
“Trump’s Business Hauled in $2.4 Billion
During the Four Years He Served as President”
Forbes researchers walked through the four years of Trump's
presidency and calculated what they estimate to be the total profits that his
businesses made and writing Monday (July 19), Forbes explained: They estimated
Trump's business brought in a hefty $2.4 billion while he was president.
The report says in part:
1. His real money came from the business he refused to
divest, not from his government salary.
2. Documents, some of which had just become available in the
past few weeks, to draw conclusions about the total profits. They used property
records, ethics disclosures, debt documents, and securities filings that all
add up to the billions Trump got from January 2017 to December 2020.
3. Trump's main point of revenue came from club and golf
sales at $943 million and $781 million in commercial real estate.
4. Licensing, management, and hotel businesses brought in
$466 million while property sales account for $118 million. Forbes added in
$110 million for “other category.
5. Trump National Doral, the golf resort in Miami, contributed roughly $270 million to that total. Mar-a-Lago, Trump's club in Palm Beach, brought in about $90 million. The Bedminster NJ golf club, where the former president has been spending time this summer, took in $60 million or so.
6. The report explained that all of that cash didn't exactly go
into Trump's pocket, as golf clubs are among some of the most expensive to
manage with a minimum of 20 percent overhead in a good year.
The report concluded: “During the pandemic, Trump's traditional
courses fared reasonably well, but his golf resorts had to contend with long
shutdowns, causing his overall golf and club revenues to drop 27 percent to an
estimated $190 million in 2020.”
Trump's saving grace during COVID lockdowns were his long leases that were locked into his commercial properties.
But the hotels didn't
do well at all as the report continued: “Estimated revenues stayed well above
$100 million from 2017 to 2019 but dropped closer to $50 million in 2020. No
part of Trump's portfolio was more poorly positioned to withstand such a blow,
given the debt load against his hotels.”
For example, his Washington, D.C. hotel “flat-lined” between 2017 and 2019, with Trump getting about $52 million out of it.
It wasn't even enough to cover the interest on the $170 million loans from Deutsche Bank.
During the pandemic, however, those profits dropped to $20 million. Forbes said about that: “It's no wonder the Trump Organization tried to sell the place.”
All the while, Trump never divested from any of his assets as he promised that he would do while running in 2016. Instead, he had his two sons Donald Jr. and Eric ran the whole business “empire” (but likely on his daily orders).
My 2 Cents: No wonder
Trump is so anxious to get back into the W/H – to save his empire and raise
tons of money before he goes to prison.
In short: He’s in it for
personal profit and nothing else, period.
Thanks for stopping by.
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