I just find it funny I mentioned a few facts. The laptop has a paper trail back to Hunter. His former partner has confirmed the emails are real. And that somehow means I think Trump is perfect, I'm clearly bias, means I don't care about anything Trump does wrong.
Why only the extremes? I don't like Trump. He's embarrassing and has done things I don't agree with. I can say that and still be critical of others. Seems like many hear have to defend Biden at all costs or it means you're hard for Trump.
Did you vote for Trump in 16?
Does matter who he voted for he’s not ignoring the fact that the evidence is out there joe is corrupt
Who's most corrupt do you think - Trump or Joe?
Joe will be labeled corrupt soon officially
I mean, that's probably true. Trump's second term is going to be a revenge tour and a lot of people that have spend time in his way are probably going to go to jail regarless of whether they ever did anything. Meanwhile, the administration is going to be stealing money from the people they are "serving." Right in the open. The answer of which one is more corrupt is staring us right in the face. The second term will be interesting. Anyone who isn't under Trump's spell knows he's a narcissist. So will the corruption, the work for Russia, the kleptocracy, get worse without a third term to run for or will he act the same (reserved, I guess) and try to preserve it for the only other person he might care about aside from himself, Ivanka.
This coming from a man supports a candidate who is taking money from China ok
The First Daughter is making a shit-ton of money in China. Not to mention the First Family getting most of its money from Russia for decades...who do they owe $400 million to, anyway? Your guy has ulterior motives coming out of his ears. He owes a lot of favors with how he conducts himself and none of it it to Americans.
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
Aren't you having like crazy poverty levels in your country? People not being able to afford health care. Etc. Doesn't sound like a very "best" economy at all. I prefer the nordic countries economies. The bestest. Strive for that.
Post edited by Spiritual_Chaos on
"Mostly I think that people react sensitively because they know you’ve got a point"
Biden 47 years in politics and has not accomplished shit
trump 3 3/4 years Lowest unemployment ever best economy ever al this is true until China virus hit
How was your 4K doing You sure the he’ll weren’t complaining while your 4 k was growing at a rapid rate
Half of all 'Muricans aren't in the stock market and don't have 401Ks. And when did that economic turnaround begin? The day Team Trump Treason Tax Cheat descended the escalator? Or was it on election day? Maybe when he was inuagurated? Or was it when he served at least a year and his policies had time to take effect?
I just find it funny I mentioned a few facts. The laptop has a paper trail back to Hunter. His former partner has confirmed the emails are real. And that somehow means I think Trump is perfect, I'm clearly bias, means I don't care about anything Trump does wrong.
Why only the extremes? I don't like Trump. He's embarrassing and has done things I don't agree with. I can say that and still be critical of others. Seems like many hear have to defend Biden at all costs or it means you're hard for Trump.
Did you vote for Trump in 16?
Does matter who he voted for he’s not ignoring the fact that the evidence is out there joe is corrupt
Who's most corrupt do you think - Trump or Joe?
Joe will be labeled corrupt soon officially
I mean, that's probably true. Trump's second term is going to be a revenge tour and a lot of people that have spend time in his way are probably going to go to jail regarless of whether they ever did anything. Meanwhile, the administration is going to be stealing money from the people they are "serving." Right in the open. The answer of which one is more corrupt is staring us right in the face. The second term will be interesting. Anyone who isn't under Trump's spell knows he's a narcissist. So will the corruption, the work for Russia, the kleptocracy, get worse without a third term to run for or will he act the same (reserved, I guess) and try to preserve it for the only other person he might care about aside from himself, Ivanka.
This coming from a man supports a candidate who is taking money from China ok
If you take a list of things that each person has been accused of and stack them next to one another, Trump is king of that pile. The poop pile.
This is why most people laugh when they are told how bad Great Grandfather Joe is by Trump lovers.
If the way you are judging who you are voting for is on skeletons in the closet you would never, ever, support the Orange fellow. There is no logic in jumping up and down and crying "Laptop!"
Glad you have seen Pearl Jam 50 times.
You are the best Pearl Jam fan. The biggest Pearl Jam fan. Your Pearl Jam fandom is the greatest, some tell you the greatest, in the history of rock fandom.
Aren't you having like crazy poverty levels in your country? People not being able to afford health care. Etc. Doesn't sound like a very "best" economy at all. I prefer the nordic countries economies. The bestest. Strive for that.
In the United States, we measure our economy based on how the rich are doing.
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
Would the two most vocal posters regarding Hunter Biden's laptop please link to where the information they purport to be "fact," is described as such and by whom? Please? A Rupert Murdoch mouth piece, piece (he sure as hell ruined what used to be a reliable source of news and information, dumbing it down as he did). Oh, and lets not forgot who's yacht Steve O was taken off of during an arrest for, what was it again, illegal lobbying, money laundering, influence peddling, tax evasion or some such:
A Wall Street Journal columnist said Joe Biden was part of Hunter’s business deal. Hours later, its news reporters said the opposite.
Readers of the Wall Street Journal may have felt a bit of whiplash on Thursday over a news story and an opinion column that presented sharply conflicting accounts of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s alleged role in one of his son’s business ventures.
The Journal column — hailed as a bombshell before the final presidential debate by Biden critics, including President Trump — asserted that Biden was involved in a deal arranged by his son Hunter with a Chinese energy conglomerate in 2017.
Columnist Kimberley Strassel relied on the account of Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Tony Bobulinski, who provided documents that “suggest Hunter was cashing in on the Biden name and that Joe Biden was involved.”
“The venture . . . never received proposed funds from the Chinese company or completed any deals, according to people familiar with the matter,” Journal reporters Andrew Duehren and James Areddy wrote. “Corporate records reviewed by the Wall Street Journal show no role for Joe Biden.” The reporters also quoted another partner in the venture, James Gilliar, who said he was “unaware of any involvement at anytime of the former vice president.”
Biden has long denied that he ever had foreign business dealings with his son, and there is no evidence beyond Bobulinski’s assertions. Trump himself has faced questions about foreign business interests while serving as president.
Dueling accounts from the same publication about a major news story are rare. Also unusual: Opinion columnists typically don’t attempt to break news. Large, mainstream news organizations such as the Journal manage their news-reporting and opinion operations separately. The Journal’s news side is under editor in chief Matthew Murray; Paul A. Gigot is editor of its editorial page.
In the Journal’s case, there’s an ongoing civil war between its news staff and its opinion side, as well as a wider war among news organizations controlled by the family of media baron Rupert Murdoch.
In July, more than 280 employees at the Journal and its parent company, Dow Jones, protested what they said was the spread of “misinformation” by the paper’s opinion pages. “Opinion’s lack of fact-checking and transparency, and its apparent disregard for evidence, undermine our readers’ trust and our ability to gain credibility with sources,” the employees wrote to new publisher Almar Latour. “Many readers already cannot tell the difference between reporting and Opinion. And from those who know of the divide, reporters nonetheless face questions about the Journal’s accuracy and fairness because of errors published in opinion.”
The letter cited a column by Vice President Pence in which he asserted that concerns about a second wave of coronavirus infections were “overblown.”
In response, the editorial board posted “A Note to Readers,” in which it vowed that its writers “won’t wilt under cancel-culture pressure.”
Her Thursday column on the Bidens — titled “The Biden ‘Family Legacy’” — was republished by FoxNews.com, but the Journal’s news story on the same topic was not.
Fox News’s opinion hosts have aggressively pushed allegations of corruption involving Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian energy company. New allegations were reported last week by the New York Post, which cited emails from a laptop allegedly owned by Hunter Biden.
Joe Biden’s campaign has denied the allegations, which have been promoted by Trump allies Stephen K. Bannon and Rudolph W. Giuliani and embraced by Trump’s reelection campaign. On Thursday, Trump sought to highlight the allegations by inviting Bobulinski to the presidential debate in Nashville.
The Washington Post has been unable to independently verify the emails or to obtain a copy of the hard drive that Bannon and Giuliani allege was owned by Hunter Biden. News accounts have said the Ukrainian allegations against Biden are part of a disinformation campaign by Russian intelligence agents to boost Trump’s reelection.
The New York Post, Journal and Fox News are all owned by companies in which Murdoch and his family are the controlling shareholders.
Neither Strassel nor Wall Street Journal editor Murray responded to requests for comment.
Open and shut case folks, don't vote Sleepy Woke Joe Basement Biden, he's corrupt. Or could be. Or maybe. Just a little. A tad. Or maybe was. Once. Can't trust him. China will make him bow. The "truth" will come out.
Come on Hal...you’re gonna believe some investigative reporting over America’s mayor Ruddy Ghouliani.
A "Tarnished Brand," and "No Comment" from the White House. $400 million in loans coming due. Who does Team Trump Treason Tax Cheat owe?
Loan payments loom as Trump fights for his political future – and the future of his business
At President Trump’s hotel in Chicago, the most recent board meeting began with bad news. This year’s numbers were awful. Revenue had plunged. The hotel was just 24 percent occupied.
And worse: The hotel expected next year to be bad, too.
In fact, the hotel’s managing director, Gabriel Constantin, said the coronavirus pandemic had hurt the Trump hotel so deeply — reducing business travel and forcing the cancellation of Chicago conferences — that it might be nine years before their business returned to 2019 levels.
“The most optimistic [date] would be 2024,” Constantin said, according to an account of the meeting obtained by The Washington Post. He had a warning about the hotel’s future, if the pandemic’s economic effects didn’t ease: “It’s going to be very, very tough to keep the boat afloat.”
As Trump fights to save his political career, another key part of his life — his business — is also under growing stress.
In the next four years, Trump faces payment deadlines for more than $400 million in loans — just as the pandemic robs his businesses of customers and income, according to a Washington Post analysis of Trump’s finances. The bills coming due include loans on his Chicago hotel, his D.C. hotel and his Doral resort, all hit by a double whammy: Trump’s political career slowed their business, then the pandemic ground it down much further.
If Trump is reelected, these loan-saddled properties could present a significant conflict of interest: The president will owe enormous sums to banks that his government regulates. National security experts say Trump’s debts to Deutsche Bank, a German company, and foreign deals may constitute security risks if they make him vulnerable to influence by foreign governments.
Trump said at a televised town hall event Oct. 15 that his debts are “a tiny percentage of my net worth.”
“I’m very under-levered, fortunately. . . . I have a very, very small percentage of debt,” he said.
“Four-hundred million compared to the assets that I have, all of these great properties all over the world,” he added.
Trump owns his businesses while in the White House, though he says he has given day-to-day control to his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric. Eric Trump declined to answer detailed questions about the company’s finances and loans and instead sent a written statement. Trump’s financial disclosure form said that he took in at least $446 million last year, up from at least $434 million in 2018, although it does not reflect profits or losses.
“We had one of the best years in the history of the company in 2019. I am very proud of the fact that we remain seriously under leveraged and maintain very low levels of debt,” Eric Trump said in the statement. “We have an unbelievable company that continues to achieve great success even under all of the scrutiny that we face on a daily basis.”
The White House did not respond to questions.
Two lenders
The loans coming due for President Trump in the next four years are from two lenders, according to Trump’s financial disclosures and loan documents.
Trump took out at least $55 million in loans on Trump Tower and a condo building in Manhattan from a New York firm called Ladder Capital Finance. And he owes Deutsche Bank for loans on Doral, the D.C. hotel and the Chicago hotel. The Deutsche Bank loans were originally worth about $364 million, according to publicly available loan documents.
The Deutsche Bank loans all carry personal guarantees from Trump, according to the New York Times, meaning that the bank could go after Trump’s other assets if he defaults. A Deutsche Bank spokesman declined to comment.
Trump’s three properties carrying loans from Deutsche Bank appear to have been badly hit by the pandemic.
Trump’s D.C. hotel, for instance, had only been running a little over half-full in recent years, according to documents obtained by The Post. But this September, as the novel coronavirus curtailed business travel nationwide, the hotel was only about 5 percent full on some nights, according to one person familiar with the hotel’s operations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private financial information.
One recent bright spot, the person said, was a three-day period in which Trump’s actions as president brought his allies to the hotel. Trump held a fundraiser at the hotel for his 2020 reelection campaign and held a White House ceremony to introduce Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee, drawing political allies from out of town. The hotel surged to more than half-full for three nights, the person said, then dropped down again.
At Doral, where business had already dropped sharply after Trump entered politics, the resort closed for more than a month this spring because of local lockdown measures. It furloughed more than 560 employees and laid off 250 of them for good, according to filings with the state.
One member of Doral said that on a recent visit, the vast lobby was almost empty — and the golf course even more so.
“We . . . played an entire round without seeing any other players on the course until we finally reached some players on the 14th Hole,” the member said in an email message, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid risking his membership. “Imagine, someone playing on our private course!”
The New York Times recently reported that Doral and Trump’s D.C. hotel had lost a combined $217 million before the coronavirus struck. The Times report cited data from Trump’s tax filings; Trump called their reporting “fake news” without challenging any specific details of it.
Under the scenario laid out by the Times, those properties are not producing enough cash to pay back their own loans, according to commercial real estate experts.
Borrowers in that position sometimes ask their banks to forgive or renegotiate their loans, moving back the deadline to pay or lowering the amount they owe, the experts said.
Because so many commercial property owners are struggling to pay their debts during the pandemic, officials at Deutsche Bank set up special committees in April to handle requests like this from borrowers, according to an internal Deutsche Bank memo obtained by The Post.
It isn’t uncommon for banks to break their own rules on behalf of big-name clients, but one person at the bank, asked if Trump would receive special treatment, said: “ALL client requests go through the exact same process and assessment — no exceptions.” The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal communications.
The General Services Administration (GSA), which manages Trump’s federal lease on his D.C. hotel, may also have to determine how to handle the president’s business troubles.
Trump pays the GSA a little over $3 million in annual rent, and Eric Trump has already acknowledged inquiring about whether the agency will consider modifying rent payments. The GSA put its own forbearance policy into place May 6, when an agency memo declared that contracting officers may defer rent payments for up to 90 days to tenants who can show economic injury and financial need. For the agency to forgive rent requires approval from the agency’s general counsel, according to the internal memo, which The Post obtained.
Whether or not Trump is reelected, he could seek to sell condo units in some of his residential buildings — a strategy he has used to raise cash previously. But that would be a less lucrative option now than it would have been a few years ago because of the beating Trump’s brand has taken during his time in politics.
In the year before Trump took office, condos branded with his name in Chicago, Las Vegas, Hawaii and elsewhere sold at prices 34 percent above similar units, according to data from Redfin (this excludes New York City, for which data was incomplete), which said that premium has fallen by three-quarters, to 10 percent now.
Units in his buildings are remaining on the market longer, and some brokers have been stripping his name from listings to boost sales, according to Redfin. The fact that his units still receive any premium “may be a reflection of the president’s devoted supporter base,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather.
Another option would be to refinance his loans — finding another lender who would let him borrow money to pay off the first lender.
But high-end hotels have fared terribly during the pandemic, with historic properties such as the Palmer House in Chicago and the Roosevelt Hotel in New York shutting down. The value of hotels will fall between 20 and 35 percent this year, according to recent research firm HVS.
If lenders believe that his properties are now worth less than the amount Trump owes on them, experts said it could be difficult.
“The risk of lending on a hotel property loan that is underwater would be so large that it would not be considered for a new loan,” said Mark Eppli, a University of Wisconsin business professor.
Trump, who spent much of his career as a New York real estate developer, has been in this situation before, facing huge loans on slumping properties.
In some cases, he retreated, losing control of the properties in bankruptcy proceedings or negotiations with lenders. He lost the famed Plaza Hotel in New York, walked away from a debt-saddled airline called Trump Shuttle and left an empire of casinos in Atlantic City.
But during the 2008 financial crisis, he tried a different tactic. Instead of paying a Deutsche Bank loan on his Chicago hotel, Trump sued the bank — saying that the financial crash was equivalent to an “act of God,” which absolved him of having to pay.
The result was negative publicity for Trump. But as a business proposition, it worked. One of Trump’s lenders forgave more than $100 million in debt, and despite the troubles, Deutsche Bank gave him a new loan that paid off the first. The lawsuit was settled out of court.
“His way of looking at the world has always been that it’s a planet of billions of people and opportunities for exploitation. He was okay with burning almost everybody because . . . there’s a sucker born every minute, and he could find them,” said Michael D’Antonio, a journalist who’s written biographies of Trump. “The fact that he found Deutsche Bank is proof that he was right.”
But D’Antonio said it could be harder now for Trump to repeat his past escapes from debt problems. In the past, he said, the Trump brand was an asset: Trump told his lenders that they should work out a deal to let him keep his properties because they would make more money with his name on them than without.
Now D’Antonio said lenders may not see it that way.
“It may turn out that he’s destroying the brand,” D’Antonio said, and lenders would be happy to have Trump — and his name — gone.
I’ve been a pj for many years been to over 50 shows Furthest i traveled was Brazil to see em the Democrats have went way far left in recent years
with the band supporting this will make it petty hard for me to support the band
you can bash me all you want imo
Don’t let the door hit you in your capital D
Wow beautiful response lol
No one cares that you traveled to Brasil to see the band & no one cares if you decide to not listen or support them!
I don’t care if or anyone cares I was just making a point that was a big time pj supporter
I could care less about PJ's politics (even though I have only voted republican once in 24 years), I love their music. Ed and the band isn't gonna influence my vote.
Comments
Why are you wasting your valuable time here? You need to get back out on the campaign to assure us great victory!! MAGA
The First Daughter is making a shit-ton of money in China. Not to mention the First Family getting most of its money from Russia for decades...who do they owe $400 million to, anyway? Your guy has ulterior motives coming out of his ears. He owes a lot of favors with how he conducts himself and none of it it to Americans.
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
In the United States, we measure our economy based on how the rich are doing.
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
see, nobody cares.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
(Biden's team is doing some fun stuff)
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
A "Tarnished Brand," and "No Comment" from the White House. $400 million in loans coming due. Who does Team Trump Treason Tax Cheat owe?
Loan payments loom as Trump fights for his political future – and the future of his business
At President Trump’s hotel in Chicago, the most recent board meeting began with bad news. This year’s numbers were awful. Revenue had plunged. The hotel was just 24 percent occupied.
And worse: The hotel expected next year to be bad, too.
In fact, the hotel’s managing director, Gabriel Constantin, said the coronavirus pandemic had hurt the Trump hotel so deeply — reducing business travel and forcing the cancellation of Chicago conferences — that it might be nine years before their business returned to 2019 levels.
“The most optimistic [date] would be 2024,” Constantin said, according to an account of the meeting obtained by The Washington Post. He had a warning about the hotel’s future, if the pandemic’s economic effects didn’t ease: “It’s going to be very, very tough to keep the boat afloat.”
As Trump fights to save his political career, another key part of his life — his business — is also under growing stress.
In the next four years, Trump faces payment deadlines for more than $400 million in loans — just as the pandemic robs his businesses of customers and income, according to a Washington Post analysis of Trump’s finances. The bills coming due include loans on his Chicago hotel, his D.C. hotel and his Doral resort, all hit by a double whammy: Trump’s political career slowed their business, then the pandemic ground it down much further.
If Trump is reelected, these loan-saddled properties could present a significant conflict of interest: The president will owe enormous sums to banks that his government regulates. National security experts say Trump’s debts to Deutsche Bank, a German company, and foreign deals may constitute security risks if they make him vulnerable to influence by foreign governments.
Trump said at a televised town hall event Oct. 15 that his debts are “a tiny percentage of my net worth.”
“I’m very under-levered, fortunately. . . . I have a very, very small percentage of debt,” he said.
“Four-hundred million compared to the assets that I have, all of these great properties all over the world,” he added.
Trump owns his businesses while in the White House, though he says he has given day-to-day control to his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric. Eric Trump declined to answer detailed questions about the company’s finances and loans and instead sent a written statement. Trump’s financial disclosure form said that he took in at least $446 million last year, up from at least $434 million in 2018, although it does not reflect profits or losses.
“We had one of the best years in the history of the company in 2019. I am very proud of the fact that we remain seriously under leveraged and maintain very low levels of debt,” Eric Trump said in the statement. “We have an unbelievable company that continues to achieve great success even under all of the scrutiny that we face on a daily basis.”
The White House did not respond to questions.
Two lenders
The loans coming due for President Trump in the next four years are from two lenders, according to Trump’s financial disclosures and loan documents.
Trump took out at least $55 million in loans on Trump Tower and a condo building in Manhattan from a New York firm called Ladder Capital Finance. And he owes Deutsche Bank for loans on Doral, the D.C. hotel and the Chicago hotel. The Deutsche Bank loans were originally worth about $364 million, according to publicly available loan documents.
The Deutsche Bank loans all carry personal guarantees from Trump, according to the New York Times, meaning that the bank could go after Trump’s other assets if he defaults. A Deutsche Bank spokesman declined to comment.
Trump’s three properties carrying loans from Deutsche Bank appear to have been badly hit by the pandemic.
Trump’s D.C. hotel, for instance, had only been running a little over half-full in recent years, according to documents obtained by The Post. But this September, as the novel coronavirus curtailed business travel nationwide, the hotel was only about 5 percent full on some nights, according to one person familiar with the hotel’s operations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private financial information.
One recent bright spot, the person said, was a three-day period in which Trump’s actions as president brought his allies to the hotel. Trump held a fundraiser at the hotel for his 2020 reelection campaign and held a White House ceremony to introduce Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee, drawing political allies from out of town. The hotel surged to more than half-full for three nights, the person said, then dropped down again.
At Doral, where business had already dropped sharply after Trump entered politics, the resort closed for more than a month this spring because of local lockdown measures. It furloughed more than 560 employees and laid off 250 of them for good, according to filings with the state.
One member of Doral said that on a recent visit, the vast lobby was almost empty — and the golf course even more so.
“We . . . played an entire round without seeing any other players on the course until we finally reached some players on the 14th Hole,” the member said in an email message, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid risking his membership. “Imagine, someone playing on our private course!”
The New York Times recently reported that Doral and Trump’s D.C. hotel had lost a combined $217 million before the coronavirus struck. The Times report cited data from Trump’s tax filings; Trump called their reporting “fake news” without challenging any specific details of it.
Under the scenario laid out by the Times, those properties are not producing enough cash to pay back their own loans, according to commercial real estate experts.
Borrowers in that position sometimes ask their banks to forgive or renegotiate their loans, moving back the deadline to pay or lowering the amount they owe, the experts said.
Because so many commercial property owners are struggling to pay their debts during the pandemic, officials at Deutsche Bank set up special committees in April to handle requests like this from borrowers, according to an internal Deutsche Bank memo obtained by The Post.
It isn’t uncommon for banks to break their own rules on behalf of big-name clients, but one person at the bank, asked if Trump would receive special treatment, said: “ALL client requests go through the exact same process and assessment — no exceptions.” The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal communications.
The General Services Administration (GSA), which manages Trump’s federal lease on his D.C. hotel, may also have to determine how to handle the president’s business troubles.
Trump pays the GSA a little over $3 million in annual rent, and Eric Trump has already acknowledged inquiring about whether the agency will consider modifying rent payments. The GSA put its own forbearance policy into place May 6, when an agency memo declared that contracting officers may defer rent payments for up to 90 days to tenants who can show economic injury and financial need. For the agency to forgive rent requires approval from the agency’s general counsel, according to the internal memo, which The Post obtained.
Tarnished brand
Trump’s company seems to be contemplating the sale of some properties: It offered the D.C. hotel lease for sale last year, then took it off the market after the pandemic hit. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the company’s Seven Springs estate — a mansion on vast wooded grounds north of New York — might also be offered soon. And as first reported by Time magazine, the company is now trying to sell the helicopter that appeared in the opening credits of “The Apprentice.” “Call for price,” the online ad says.
Whether or not Trump is reelected, he could seek to sell condo units in some of his residential buildings — a strategy he has used to raise cash previously. But that would be a less lucrative option now than it would have been a few years ago because of the beating Trump’s brand has taken during his time in politics.
In the year before Trump took office, condos branded with his name in Chicago, Las Vegas, Hawaii and elsewhere sold at prices 34 percent above similar units, according to data from Redfin (this excludes New York City, for which data was incomplete), which said that premium has fallen by three-quarters, to 10 percent now.
Units in his buildings are remaining on the market longer, and some brokers have been stripping his name from listings to boost sales, according to Redfin. The fact that his units still receive any premium “may be a reflection of the president’s devoted supporter base,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather.
Another option would be to refinance his loans — finding another lender who would let him borrow money to pay off the first lender.
But high-end hotels have fared terribly during the pandemic, with historic properties such as the Palmer House in Chicago and the Roosevelt Hotel in New York shutting down. The value of hotels will fall between 20 and 35 percent this year, according to recent research firm HVS.
If lenders believe that his properties are now worth less than the amount Trump owes on them, experts said it could be difficult.
“The risk of lending on a hotel property loan that is underwater would be so large that it would not be considered for a new loan,” said Mark Eppli, a University of Wisconsin business professor.
Trump, who spent much of his career as a New York real estate developer, has been in this situation before, facing huge loans on slumping properties.
In some cases, he retreated, losing control of the properties in bankruptcy proceedings or negotiations with lenders. He lost the famed Plaza Hotel in New York, walked away from a debt-saddled airline called Trump Shuttle and left an empire of casinos in Atlantic City.
But during the 2008 financial crisis, he tried a different tactic. Instead of paying a Deutsche Bank loan on his Chicago hotel, Trump sued the bank — saying that the financial crash was equivalent to an “act of God,” which absolved him of having to pay.
The result was negative publicity for Trump. But as a business proposition, it worked. One of Trump’s lenders forgave more than $100 million in debt, and despite the troubles, Deutsche Bank gave him a new loan that paid off the first. The lawsuit was settled out of court.
“His way of looking at the world has always been that it’s a planet of billions of people and opportunities for exploitation. He was okay with burning almost everybody because . . . there’s a sucker born every minute, and he could find them,” said Michael D’Antonio, a journalist who’s written biographies of Trump. “The fact that he found Deutsche Bank is proof that he was right.”
But D’Antonio said it could be harder now for Trump to repeat his past escapes from debt problems. In the past, he said, the Trump brand was an asset: Trump told his lenders that they should work out a deal to let him keep his properties because they would make more money with his name on them than without.
Now D’Antonio said lenders may not see it that way.
“It may turn out that he’s destroying the brand,” D’Antonio said, and lenders would be happy to have Trump — and his name — gone.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
people don't care about the h1n1 response.
only the criminally inept response from trump.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."