Trump Castle Associates 1992
In less than a year he was back in bankruptcy court for his other Atlantic City casinos. This bankruptcy included the Trump Plaza Hotel in New York, the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City as well as the Trump Castle Casino Resort. He gave up half his interest in the New York Plaza to Citibank, but retained his stake in the casinos.
They Will See How Great It Will Become 2009
When Donald Trump has been pressed on his casinos performance during his presidential campaign, he has repeatedly said he left Atlantic City at the right time.
Atlantic City is a disaster, and I did great in Atlantic City, he said during a Republican Party debate last September, according to a transcript. I knew when to get out. My timing was great. And I got a lot of credit for it.
That would suggest Mr. Trump willingly left sometime around 2006, the year that revenues peaked in Atlantic City and that Pennsylvania allowed its first casino to open, a development that marked the start of a rapid downward spiral in the city. The drop-off was exacerbated by the recession that began in 2008.
But in early 2009, as Trump casinos lurched toward bankruptcy for the fourth time, Mr. Trump was still trying to hang on. At loggerheads with board members who had been selected by bondholders after the 2004 bankruptcy, he offered to buy all or a part of the casino company bearing his name. He was rebuffed, and he quit the board soon after.
Testifying in bankruptcy court in Camden, N.J., Mr. Trump argued that the company could not use his name, since shortly before filing the bankruptcy it had stopped paying him the $166,000 a month he received under the services agreement. He testified that his brand was worth $3 billion. He also testified that he was personally negotiating the settlement of a lawsuit in Florida that would yield more than $100 million for the company.
Construction And Property Law Matters
In 2011, Donald Trump sued Scotland, alleging that it built the Aberdeen Bay Wind Farm after assuring him it would not be built. He had recently built a golf course there and planned to build an adjacent hotel. Trump lost his suit, with the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom unanimously ruling in favor of the Scottish government in 2015.
In 2013, 87-year-old Jacqueline Goldberg unsuccessfully sued Trump on allegations that he cheated her in a condominium sale by bait-and-switch when she was purchasing properties at the Trump International Hotel and Tower.
In 2015, Trump initiated a $100 million lawsuit against Palm Beach County claiming that officials, in a “deliberate and malicious” act, pressured the FAA to direct air traffic to the Palm Beach International Airport over his estate, because he said the airplanes damaged the building and disrupted its ambiance. Trump had previously sued the county twice over airport noise the first lawsuit, in 1995, ended with an agreement between Trump and the county Trump’s second lawsuit, in 2010, was dismissed.
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Personal Vs Business Bankruptcy
Theres an important distinction to be made. Trump has never actually filed for personal bankruptcy. Instead, four of his businesses have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Taj Mahal was the first in 1991 and was followed by the Trump Plaza Hotel the next year. After over 10 years of general stability, the Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts filed in 2004 and the Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009.
Trump claims his personal finances were only involved in the Taj Mahal Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. This is the reason Trump has been able to come out on top after multiple filings. Not involving his personal finances in the corporations operations protected his own bank account from total ruin.
Trump understands the difference between business and personal bankruptcies quite well. If you run your own business, its important that you do too.
Business Bankruptcy:
Filed by a business or an individual in the case that business-related debts cannot be paid. Corporations and partnerships, in which the entities are separate from the owners, may file for Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Sole proprietorships, in which the owner is legally responsible for business-related debts, may file for Chapter 7, Chapter 11 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
Personal Bankruptcy:
Filed by an individual in the case that personal debts cannot be paid. Individuals typically file for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
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How Is Donald Trump Able To File For Bankruptcy So Many Times
Prior to the 2016 presidential election, when people discussed then-candidate Donald Trump, they often focused on his personal finances and how he had run his businesses. One of the common refrains had to do with his bankruptcies. According to pundits and critics, Trump had been unsuccessful in business, having to file bankruptcy several times in order to get by. Some people may have seen those stories and read the reports only to wonder how a person can declare bankruptcy so many times. For someone with the wealth of Donald Trump, how is it possible to keep declaring bankruptcy?
Donald Trump and personal bankrtupcyTo understand Donald Trump and bankruptcy, one must first understand the distinction between personal finances and business finances. Businesses are separate entities according to the law. In particular, corporations have their own legal personhood. They are specifically created so that people can avoid personal financial liability if things happen to go wrong. With this in mind, Donald Trump has actually never declared personal bankruptcy. In each instance, his bankruptcy has been a result of a business failure rather than a personal failure.
There have been many other business bankruptcies. Most of those have involved casinos. While Trump has tried hard in the casino business, he has had a number of failures there. On top of that, his Trump Plaza Hotel had to declare bankruptcy in order to seek ample protections.
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He Ignores Warnings And Overshoots
Trump was not aware of when to stop in Atlantic City, which led him into serious trouble. He bought the Plaza and Castle, his first two casinos. As Atlantic City casinos grew, profit margins plummeted, massive, and the market became saturated.
Experts warned Trump that he was a considerable over spender when he made his purchases.$820 million of debt. In the late 1980s, the Taj Mahal was built. Trump ignored them and focused on his optimistic assumptions.
After 16 months of the grand opening, the casino was experiencing cash flow problems and declared bankruptcy in 1991. Trump might have been content with his first two casinos and not had to file for bankruptcy in his entire career.
Trumps fear-mongering, slander and other unregulated excesses as president have been his most unregulated. Trump could have used the support of the working-class voters, libertarian businesspeople and others to win by adopting pragmatic policies that make him appear like a problem-solver.
Instead, Trump has relentlessly bullied his critics and blamed immigrants and civil-rights activists for getting in his way. Trump refused to take aggressive measures to stop the coronavirus spread, despite being advised by public-health experts. Instead, he tried to convince the public that everything was fine.
Trumps coalition now seems to be shrinking rather than expanding, as his support among women, seniors, and other key voting blocs crumble.
Lawsuit For Inciting Violence At March 2016 Campaign Rally
During a campaign rally on March 1, 2016, in Louisville, Kentucky, Trump repeatedly said “get ’em out of here” while pointing at anti-Trump protesters as they were forcibly escorted out by his supporters. Three protesters say they were repeatedly shoved and punched while Trump pointed at them from the podium, citing widely shared video evidence of the events. They also cited previous statements by Trump about paying the legal bills of supporters who got violent, or suggesting a demonstrator deserved to be “roughed up.”
The lawsuit accuses Donald Trump of inciting violence against protesters in Louisville, Kentucky. The plaintiffs are Kashiya Nwanguma , Molly Shah and Henry Brousseau . The suit is against Trump, his campaign, and three Trump supporters . Bamberger, who was wearing a Veteran’s uniform in the video, apologized to the Korean War Veterans Association immediately after the event, writing that he “physically pushed a young woman down the aisle toward the exit” after “Trump kept saying ‘get them out, get them out.”
Trump’s attorneys requested to get the case dismissed, arguing he was protected by free speech laws, and wasn’t trying to get his supporters to resort to violence. They also stated that Trump had no duty to the protesters, and they had assumed the personal risk of injury by deciding to protest at the rally.
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Bankruptcy Is Not Synonymous With Failure
Although a corporate bankruptcy filing often indicates that a business is in a perilous financial condition, it doesnt necessarily sound the death knell for that business. The provisions of Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code allow businesses to find ways to reduce their debt and restructure their operations without having to be shut down and liquidated to satisfy debts instead of closing their doors, businesses can stay open, pay their employees, and take in revenue while developing a budget and a repayment plan for creditors .
Many of the United States largest and most prominent businesses have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection one or more times, including General Motors, Charter Communications, Delta Air Lines, Kmart, Macys, and the Texas Rangers baseball team.
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Promotion Of Conspiracy Theories
Before and throughout his presidency, Trump has promoted numerous conspiracy theories, including Obama birtherism, the Clinton Body Count theory, QAnon, and alleged Ukrainian interference in U.S. elections. In October 2020, Trump retweeted a QAnon follower who asserted that Osama bin Laden was still alive, a body double had been killed in his place, and that Biden and Obama may have had SEAL Team Six killed.
During and since the 2020 presidential election, Trump has promoted various conspiracy theories for his defeat including the dead voter conspiracy theory, and without providing any evidence he has created other conspiracy theories such as that some states allowed voters to turn in ballots after Election Day that vote-counting machines were rigged to favor Mr Biden and even that the FBI, the Justice Department and the federal court system were complicit in an attempt to cover up election fraud.
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Trump Has Several Business Bankruptcies On His Record
Trump-controlled businesses have sought bankruptcy protection several times after those entities nearly all of them casino properties were several hundreds of millions of dollars or more in debt :
#1) Trump Taj Mahal : The Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City opened in 1990, with Trump financing the completion of its construction with $675 million in junk bonds at 14% interest. By the following year the casino itself was in debt to the tune of $3 billion, while Trump himself owed some $900 million in personal liabilities.
In order to keep the Taj Mahal afloat, Trump struck a deal with his lenders in which he gave up half his ownership share and equity in the casino, sold his Trump Shuttle airline and his Trump Princess 220-foot yacht, and agreed to a bank-set limit on his personal spending in exchange for a lower interest rate and additional time to make his loan payments.
#2 and #3) Trumps Castle and Trump Plaza Casinos : Less than a year after the Taj Mahal bankruptcy Trump filed for Chapter 11 protection again for two more Atlantic City hotel-casinos, the Trump Plaza and Trumps Castle, over their inability to make principal and interest payments on bonds. The Plaza and the Castle were competing against each other, as well as against the Taj Mahal, and Trump gave up a 50% share in exchange for more favorable terms on the debts.
Donald Trump Is The King Of Bankruptcy Filings Destroying Many Lives Along The Way
Donald Trump spewing his birther-crap again just for attention, is seriously defensive when asked about his bankruptcies over the past two decades. Trumps Taj Mahal Hotel was built by Trump selling bonds to raise over 800 million dollars, then declaring bankruptcy which turned the bonds into junk-bonds. For all of Trumps hyperboles about his riches, if you and I did what he has done we would be imprisoned for life years ago!
For legendary tycoons, Donald Trump tops the list, but how many times has Donald Trump filed for bankruptcy? The 90s recession wasnt picky about who it affected. Donald Trump felt the pinch as well. His decision to use high interest bonds to finance the assembly of the Taj Mahal casino caused life to get very stressful for the tycoon.
In 1991, unable to pay a $3.5 billion loan, he declared business bankruptcy. He also came close to filing personal ruin. At the time, his personal debt was estimated to be around $900 million. Due to the bankruptcy, banks and bondholders lost millions. They came to a compromise with Donald Trump. The banks gave him lower interest rates and a longer time frame to repay the debt and Donald Trump gave the investors half the ownership of the Taj Mahal. In mere months the casino was back in business.
Posted on: Apr. 23, 2010
No Personal Involvement!
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Trump: Good Or Bad Business Record
So how are we to rate Donald Trumps business acumen in relative terms? Is the cautious businessman who minimizes risk, rarely fails, and shows a moderate return better than the brash businessman who often takes on highly risky pursuits, strikes out a lot, but also hits his share of grand slams? Thats too subjective a question for us to answer, and the few numbers offered in this trope arent very informative.
Its an oft-cited statistic that Donald Trump has 515 companies, but a number of those businesses are only connected to him in tangential ways and arent owned or directly controlled by him.
Its also an oft-cited statistic that about 80-90% of businesses fail within the first year to eighteen months, but such numbers typically refer to startups and small businesses, while much of Donald Trumps business empire involves expanding and building on existing large business lines and ventures.
The most important takeaway from this trope might be that you cant sum up the world of big business. much less any presidential candidates qualifications, with a couple of numbers devoid of explanation or context.
Fourth Time’s A Charm: How Donald Trump Made Bankruptcy Work For Him
Trump Plaza, Atlantic City. Image via Flickr.
Here at FORBES, we’ve been tracking Donald Trump‘s wealth since the inaugural Forbes 400 rich list in 1982. Today, we value him at $2.7 billion, although he claims he’s worth far more. One question we’re often asked when talk turns to Trump’s fortune: how can a man who has been bankrupt so many times remain a multi-billionaire? How is he worth more now, post-bankruptcies? We spoke to bankruptcy lawyers and casino industry experts — some of whom have had firsthand involvement in Chapter 11 cases connected to Trump — in an attempt to explain how he has survived corporate bankruptcies and thrived in the aftermath.
1. It’s nothing personal…
First things first: Donald Trump has filed for corporate bankruptcy four times, in 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2009. All of these bankruptcies were connected to over-leveraged casino and hotel properties in Atlantic City, all of which are now operated under the banner of Trump Entertainment Resorts. He has never filed for personal bankruptcy — an important distinction when considering his ability to emerge relatively unscathed, at least financially.
“Corporations, limited partnerships, and LLCs in which he had an ownership interest or companies that had his name attached have filed for bankruptcy,” said Michael Viscount of Atlantic City law firm
In Presidential Bid)
2. …it’s just business.
3. It’s better than the alternative.
4. He’s leveraged his persona.
6. He’s not the one to blame.
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