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Also see: Hotels; Mar-a-Lago; golf; Jared
Kushner; business;
February 29: The myth and the reality of
Donald Trump’s business empire
So many claims have been made about Donald Trump's business career during the
presidential campaign — from Trump’s dramatic statements about his own success,
to Marco Rubio’s fiery attacks during the Republican debate Thursday night. The
questions remain: Is Trump really a titan of American business, a model of
entrepreneurial success and self-invention? Or is he a reality TV star who has
spent his career playing around with businesses built with inherited money,
while ceaselessly courting celebrity along the way?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/29/the-myth-and-the-reality-of-donald-trumps-business-empire/?utm_term=.8339caebf2fa
May 2: Donald Trump compared real estate
brokers to ‘bloodsuckers,’ yet he is one
March 17: Facing soaring costs, Palm Beach officials ask Trump to
pay up
Palm Beach County officials, facing the prospect
of paying millions of dollars in overtime costs associated with protecting
President Donald Trump during his frequent visits to the tony Florida enclave,
want either the federal government or Trump himself to foot the bill.
Protecting Trump while he is at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach,
primarily falls on the Secret Service. But when the President visits Florida,
the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office is asked to assist in a variety of
public and private ways. With Trump making his fifth trip as president to what
he calls the "Winter White House," the costs are rising.
According to estimates provided to CNN by the sheriff's department, it costs
about $60,000 in overtime every day Trump spends in Florida. Trump has spent,
before this weekend, 14 days in Florida since taking office in January,
meaning costs to the sheriff's department will likely top $1 million during
this weekend's visit.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/17/politics/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-costs/?iid=ob_lockedrail_bottomlist
April 6: Trump’s
Conflicts of Interest in South Korea
In 1999, the Trump Organization
signed a deal with Daewoo Engineering & Construction Ltd., a group that had
previously worked with the Trump Organization on Trump World Tower in Manhattan,
to develop
Trump
World in Seoul, South Korea. Opened in 2007, Trump World in South Korea is
made up of six condominium properties, three of which—Trump World I, II, and
III—are located in Seoul, with the other three located in the cities of Busan
and Daegu.
Oddly, it appears that Trump did not report any
income from his branded South Korean properties on either of his financial
disclosure forms, despite the fact that the properties are still open and
running. According to two former Daewoo executives, however, the Trump
Organization had previously
received an annual fee of roughly $8 million for the properties. South
Korean news agency Yonhap previously
reported that Trump’s brand fee for the six buildings amounted to between $6
million and $7 million in presumed annual payments.
Trump’s South Korean ties have all the classic
hallmarks of his conflicts of interest: corrupt business partners; policies that
may be designed to enrich him, his family, and his partners even if those
policies are not in the best interests of the United States; and a convoluted
and opaque paper trail that it makes it very difficult to understand who is
paying Trump and how much he is being paid.
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/news/2017/06/14/433958/trumps-conflicts-interest-south-korea/
April 12: Before becoming the President of the
United States, Donald
Trump was one of the most well-known real estate moguls in the world, and
thanks to years of making lucrative deals, he has amassed an impressive net
worth of an estimated $3.5 billion. (For greater insights on Trump's net worth,
see: Donald
Trump's Real Net Worth: $3.5 Billion.) The Trump Organization LLC acts
as the primary holding company for Trump's array of companies and is his main
source of wealth.
https://www.investopedia.com/updates/donald-trump-companies/
April 18:
... various right wing web sites ... reported a claim that Malcolm Nance, a retired Navy
intelligence officer, veteran counterterrorism expert and current MSNBC
commentator, called for the Islamic State, or ISIS, to bomb property belonging
to President Donald Trump.
[In fact,] Nance’s tweet was a “threat assessment” based on the fact that both
President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are particularly
resented by ISIS, and that both have recently been in the news together, making
a location that both bears Trump’s name and is situated in Erdoğan’s country
vulnerable. On 18 April 2017, the news media widely
reported that President Trump had called to congratulate Erdoğan on a
referendum election that granted him expanded powers. In June 2016, the Turkish
president
called for Trump’s name to be removed from a building owned by a Turkish
conglomerate, because of the then-candidate’s derogatory comments about Muslims
while on the campaign trail.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2017/04/22/counterterrorism-isis-trump/
May 2: How
Trump's Property in Manila Looms Over His Interactions With Duterte
May 25: The Watchtower in Brooklyn Heights
is one of the most noticeable edifices in New York. It’s a complex of buildings
on a bluff above the East River, with a sign on top that flashes the time and
temperature. It used to be the world headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
But today, workers are preparing to give it a makeover. Like so much else in
Brooklyn, the Watchtower has been sold to developers. It changed hands last
August, shortly after Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination for
President.
The timing is relevant, because the buyer was Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
At $340 million, Kushner’s purchase of the Watchtower was one of the biggest
real estate transactions in Brooklyn history.
Kushner didn’t buy the Watchtower alone. He had help from a company called CIM
Group, a private equity firm based in Los
Angeles. Over the years, documents show, CIM has done at least seven real
estate deals that have benefited Trump and the people around him, including
Kushner. Those deals included stabilizing the scandal-plagued Trump SoHo hotel,
a key Manhattan holding for Trump and his children Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Jr.
September 6: Trump rental properties in
Norfolk were part of 1970s federal discrimination suit
Forty-five years ago this summer, a Mrs. Jones walked into the office of the
Oakdale Apartment complex near Wards Corner. The morning newspaper had carried
an ad for the rental units, which were owned by Trump Management. The company
president was a New York businessman, Donald Trump, according to a federal court
filing.
No vacancies, the apartment manager told Mrs. Jones. A unit might come available
in a month. Jones and her husband could fill out an application, if they wished.
Shortly after Mrs. Jones left the office, Ellis and Klara James entered and
similarly asked about renting an apartment. The manager offered them one
immediately and said they could move in the following week.
The difference between the couples: The Joneses were black, and the Jameses were
white.
September 11:
Dems Ask DHS Watchdog To Probe Cost Of Securing Trump Properties
Several Democratic lawmakers have asked the Department of Homeland Security’s
inspector general to look into whether the Secret Service’s spending to secure
President Donald Trump’s properties exceeds the amount allowed by law.
Democrats sent a letter to the DHS watchdog last week, following reports that
the Secret Service is struggling to cover the costs of keeping Trump and his
large family safe at several of the President’s properties, including Trump
Tower in New York, Mar-a-Lago in Florida, and the golf club in Bedminster, New
Jersey. The director of the Secret Service
told USA Today in August that he can’t pay hundreds of agents because
they’ve already met salary and overtime caps.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/democrats-secret-service-spending-trump-properties
November 17:A Reuters investigation into the financing of the Trump Ocean Club, in
conjunction with NBC
News, found Nogueira [Alexandre Ventura Nogueira, the lead broker] was
responsible for between one-third and one-half of advance sales for the
project.
November 17: The investigation revealed no indication that the Trump Organization or members
of the Trump family engaged in any illegal activity, or knew of the criminal
backgrounds of some of the project’s associates. But Ventura said that the
Trumps never asked any questions about the buyers or where the money was coming
from.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/panama-tower-carries-trump-s-name-ties-organized-crime-n821706
November 17:
Still, legal experts contacted by Reuters for the story said Trump should have
asked those questions.
Because Panama is “perceived to be highly corrupt,” said Arthur Middlemiss, a
former assistant district attorney in Manhattan and a former head of JPMorgan’s
global anti-corruption program, those who do business there should perform due
diligence on others involved in their ventures.
January 10: President Trump’s companies sold
more than $35 million in real estate in 2017, mostly to secretive shell
companies that obscure buyers’ identities, continuing a dramatic shift in his
customers' behavior that began during the election, a USA TODAY review found.
January 12: Trump’s Hotels Are Getting
Yelp-Bombed After His “Shithole” Remark
It didn’t take long for people offended by President Trump’s remark that African
nations were
“shithole countries” to turn the insult back around on his family-owned
company’s properties. The Yelp page for the Trump International Hotel on
Pennsylvania Avenue has been swamped since Thursday afternoon with one-star
reviews calling the 263-room luxury hotel a “shithole.”
“It’s a shithole. The owner is a racist senile old man. Don’t waste your money.
#shithole,” reads one review. Another tells readers, “But I hear you can get
incredible ‘service’ if you bring in your own Russian hookers to give you the
‘golden treatment.'”
https://www.washingtonian.com/2018/01/12/trump-hotels-yelp-shithole-remark/
A growing number of pregnant Russian women have been traveling to Miami to give
birth, with the wealthier ones buying birth tourism packages and those of more
modest means putting together DIY packages. Giving birth in the U.S., and Miami
in particular, is a status symbol in Moscow,
NBC News reports, and the big draw is birthright citizenship. All children
born in the U.S. are U.S. citizens. "The child gets a lifelong right to live and
work and collect benefits in the U.S." NBC News says. "And when they turn 21
they can sponsor their parents' application for an American green card."
January 16: Trump embroiled in
'unprecedented conflicts of interest,' report warns
Sixty-four trade groups, foreign governments, Republican
candidates and others stayed at or held events at properties linked to President
Donald Trump during Trump's
first year in office, a political watchdog group said in a report released on
Tuesday.
Shortly before taking office last year, Trump said he would hand off control of
his global business empire to his sons
Donald Jr. and Eric, and move his assets into a trust to help ensure that he
would not consciously take actions as president
that would benefit him personally.
January 16: Foreigners reportedly ‘curry
favor’ with spending at Trump properties
Donald Trump’s first legal problem as president began literally on his first
day. As regular readers
may recall, the “Emoluments Clause” of the Constitution prevents U.S.
officials from receiving payments from foreign governments, but Trump, who
refused to divest from his private-sector enterprises, never stopped profiting
from his businesses, some of which receive payments from foreign governments.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/foreigners-reportedly-curry-favor-spending-trump-properties
January 16: Then-President-elect Donald
Trump moved a year ago to give up direct management of the company and turn it
over to his sons, but he kept his financial ties through a trust that allows him
to continue withdrawing funds. The report says that arrangement "has presented a
unique set of conflicts that previously were unimaginable for the president of
the United States."
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/watchdog-foreign-groups-among-spenders-at-trump-properties
[For how much Trump's personal property visits are costing you, see "cost to
keep him"]
January 20: Is the President Making Money
Off the White House?
Before Trump got involved with politics, annual spending by political committees
at Trump properties never exceeded $100,000 in a single year, since at least
2002. But his reelection efforts are already well underway, and since assuming
office, the campaign has spent more than half a million dollars at Trump hotels
and Mar-a-Lago
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-properties-special-interest-political-groups-spending-786016
January 29: Trump again sues over property
tax bill for Jupiter golf course
In another indication that the world’s most powerful politician has few qualms
about battling local public officials, President Donald Trump again has sued the
Palm Beach County Property Appraiser over the valuation of his Trump National
Golf Club.
February 13: The Biggest Political Spender
at Trump Properties Is Trump
Republican groups spent a little over $1 million at Trump properties in 2017. Of
that, almost 70 percent was from Trump’s own campaign and his joint fundraising
committees.
But when it comes to official campaign spending, whether for event space or
lodging, Republicans have mostly spent their money elsewhere. Two GOP party
committees that support House and Senate candidates host events and raise money
across the country. In places where the Trump Org. has some of its most
prominent properties—New York, Washington, D.C., Illinois, and Nevada—the
committees combined to spend more than $1 million on event space and catering
last year. None was spent at a Trump Org. property.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-trump-properties-campaign-spending/
February 13: 3 Trump properties posted 144
openings for seasonal jobs. Only one went to a US worker.
February 22: Several business groups held
meetings at properties owned by President Donald Trump during his first year in
office, raising questions of whether the funds they spent had influenced policy,
according to an Associated Press analysis published Thursday.
The news agency was quick to point out that it is impossible to say whether the
money spent at Trump golf clubs and hotels resulted in policy changes. Still,
“never before in American history have such groups had the opportunity to hold
an event at a property owned by the president, paying for event space, rooms and
food with money that ultimately heads into the president’s pockets ...”
https://www.ceoupdate.com/articles/ceo-dateline-association-events-trump-properties-come-under-scrutiny
March 5:
Judge removes Trump family hotel business from Trump Panama City
Hotel
Escorted by police officers and a Panamanian judicial official, the owners of
the Trump Panama City hotel have taken control of the property. A team of Trump
Organization security officials abandoned the area on Monday.
The action by Panama's government resolves a 12-day standoff between President
Donald Trump's family hotel business and Orestes Fintiklis, a private equity
investor who boutgh a majority of the units in the Panama property and then
sought to drop the Trump Organization's management company and brand. Though
Fintiklis and other owners tried to fire Mr. Trump's company last year, the
Trump Organization had refused to surrender physical possession of the hotel.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-removes-trump-family-hotel-business-from-trump-panama-city-hotel/
March 6: After 12-day standoff, workers
strip Trump name from Panama hotel with crowbar
A bitter feud between the Trump Organization and the owners of a Panama City
hotel that carries the president's name ended this week after a 12-day standoff
for control of the 70-story luxury, waterfront high-rise.
March 6: Replicas of the official
presidential seal displayed at one of Donald Trump's golf courses were given to
the club by members and have since been removed, the Trump Organization said
Tuesday.
The statement to The Associated Press came a day after a report from two news
organizations that said order forms for dozens of presidential seals listed
"Trump International Golf Course" as the customer. Under federal law, the seal
bearing the American eagle can only be used for official government business,
with violations punishable by up to two years in jail.
July 25: Judge allows case alleging illegal
foreign gifts to proceed against President
A federal judge in Maryland on Wednesday
denied
a motion to dismiss portions of a lawsuit alleging that President Donald
Trump, through his Trump International Hotel in DC and the Trump Organization,
violated a constitutional clause banning gifts or advantages from foreign and
domestic governments.
