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How Many Times Has Trump Filed Bankrupcy

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Donald Trump and Bankruptcy: Why has he Filed so Many Cases?

Donald Trump has said that his brushes with financial disaster in the early 1990s reminded him of a lesson his father had taught him: Do not leave yourself on the hook for loans.

My father knew, like I knew, you dont personally guarantee, Mr. Trump is quoted saying in TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, by Timothy L. OBrien, a former reporter for The Times. Ive told people I didnt follow my own advice.

His agreements with lenders and the two casino bankruptcies in those years still left Mr. Trump personally responsible for more than $100 million in debt, and his agreements had only delayed the day of reckoning to June 30, 1995.

He dealt with that danger by first shifting much of his personal debt onto his casinos, then onto a new group: .

Step 1 came in 1993, when his company sold more junk bonds, adding another $100 million in debt to the Trump Plaza casino. More than half of the new money went to pay off Mr. Trumps unrelated personal loans.

Then, in June 1995, with the risk of being forced into bankruptcy just weeks away, Mr. Trump shifted ownership of the Plaza casino to a new, publicly traded company: Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts. In the initial public offering, 10 million shares were sold at $14. At the same time, the company also sold another $155 million in junk bonds, at a 15.5 percent interest rate.

Indeed, the company posted losses of $66 million in 1996, $42 million in 1997 and $40 million in 1998. Those losses would continue.

How Many Times Has Trump Filed Bankruptcy

11th October 2016

Filed under: News

Donald Trump running for the most coveted position in world politics its not much of a surprise that his entire business life has come to the public spot light. In digging up his past business dealings, past bankruptcies have emerged leading us to the question: how many times has Donald Trump filed bankruptcy exactly? The answer may surprise you: its zero. Trump has owed many businesses over the past few decades including a football team and an airline company. Many of Trumps BUSINESSES have filed for bankruptcy, he however, has not personally ever filed. In all Trumps companies have had to file for bankruptcy a total of 6 times, and 5 of those were related to his casinos. Does Trump have the business savvy to lead the country? While we cant answer that question, we can say without much doubt that he obviously understands bankruptcy protects laws in the country. These bankruptcy laws were created to protect the consumer and creditor alike, and while making the decision to file for bankruptcy is never an easy one, it is certainly a useful vehicle to gain a second chance at financial health.

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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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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.

He Ignores Warnings And Overshoots

Donald Trump And His Bankruptcies

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.

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We Have A Company Thats Really Got Great Potential 2005

Though he has acknowledged mistakes in piling crippling debt on Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, Donald Trump has steadfastly maintained that his resorts were the best-run and highest-performing casinos in Atlantic City.

The casinos have done very well from a business standpoint, he told Playboy magazine in 2004. People agree that theyre well run, they look good and customers love them.

In reality, the revenue at Mr. Trumps casinos had consistently lagged behind their competitors for a decade before larger forces ravaged the industry. Beginning in 1997, his share of the Atlantic City gambling market began to slip from its peak of 30 percent.

Revenues at other Atlantic City casinos rose 18 percent from 1997 through 2002 Mr. Trumps fell by 1 percent.

Competition grew more intense in 2003, when the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa opened. The $1.1 billion, 40-story resort redefined the concept of an Atlantic City luxury casino. Revenues at Trump casinos dropped another 6 percent in a little more than a year.

Had Mr. Trumps revenues grown at the rate of other Atlantic City casinos, his company could have made its interest payments and possibly registered a profit. But with sagging revenues and high costs, his casinos had too little money for renovations and improvements, which are vital for hotels to attract guests. The public company never logged a profitable year.

I think the biggest thing is, it understates his compensation, Mr. Cox said.

Trump Entertainment Resorts 2009

His most recent bankruptcy came in 2009, after the company missed a $53.1 million bond payment. That was pretty much the end of the road for Trump in Atlantic City. While his name remained on three casinos, he resigned from the board and gave up his remaining stake in the company.

“I had the good sense, and I’ve gotten a lot of credit in the financial pages, seven years ago I left Atlantic City before it totally cratered,” he said during the debate.

The two Atlantic City casinos that still had the Trump name filed for bankruptcy yet again in 2014. At the time Trump made sure people knew he was no longer running the company, and sued to have his name removed.

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How To File For Bankruptcy

Filing for bankruptcy is a legal process that either reduces, restructures or eliminates your debts. Whether you get that opportunity is up to the bankruptcy court. You can file for bankruptcy on your own, or you can find a bankruptcy lawyer, which most experts regard as the prudent avenue to pursue.

Bankruptcy costs include attorney fees and filing fees. If you file on your own, you will still be responsible for filing fees. If you cant afford to hire an attorney, you may have options for free legal services. If you need help finding a lawyer or locating free legal services, check with the American Bar Association for resources and information.

Before you file, you must educate yourself on what happens when you file for bankruptcy. Its not simply a matter of telling a judge Im broke! and throwing yourself at the mercy of the court. There is a process a sometimes confusing, sometimes complicated process that individuals and businesses must follow.

The steps are:

Eight Us Presidential Bankruptcies You May Have Missed

How many times has Donald Trump went bankrupt ?!!

When we think of the office of president, we often think that only wealthy men can attain it. Barack and Michelle Obama have signed deals worth tens of millions of dollars, George W. Bush retired to his Texas ranch, Bill Clinton founded the Clinton Foundation, and Jimmy Carter still teaches Sunday school in Georgia. We have the idea that those who leave the office, and those who come to it, have little to worry about in terms of finances and comfort in their post-political years. However, while distinctly in the minority, at least eight presidents have experienced financial hardship and even presidential bankruptcies.

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Inheritance And Further Acquisitions

In 1996, Trump acquired a vacant, 70-story office building at 40 Wall Street in Manhattan, renovated it, and branded it as The Trump Building. In 1998, Conseco and Donald Trump purchased the General Motors Building for $878 million from Corporate Property Investors. The group received a $700 million loan from Lehman Brothers for the purchase and Trump reportedly only committed $15 to $20 million of his own money to the deal. Trump raised the controversial sunken plaza where few pedestrians had ventured, which had been criticized by Huxtable, and installed his name in four-foot gold letters. In 2003, Trump and partners sold the building for $1.4 billion, then the highest price paid for a North American office building, to Macklowe Organization.

After his father died in 1999, Trump and his siblings received equal portions of his father’s estate valued at $250â300 million.

In 2001, Trump completed Trump World Tower, a 72-story residential tower across from the United Nations Headquarters. Trump also began construction on Riverside South, which he dubbed Trump Place, a multi-building development along the Hudson River. He continued to own commercial space in Trump International Hotel and Tower, a 44-story mixed-use tower on Columbus Circle which he acquired in 1996, and also continued to own millions of square feet of other prime Manhattan real estate.

Were Watching Trumps 7th Bankruptcy Unfold

As a businessman, Donald Trump ran 6 businesses that declared bankruptcy because they couldnt pay their bills. As the president running for a second term, Trump is repeating some of the mistakes he made as a businessman and risking the downfall of yet another venture: his own political operation.

In the 1980s, Trump was a swashbuckling real-estate investor who bet big on the rise of Atlantic City after New Jersey legalized gambling there. He acquired three casinos that by 1991 couldnt pay their debts. The Taj Mahal declared bankruptcy in 1991, the Trump Plaza and the Trump Castle in 1992. Lenders restructured the debt rather than liquidate and Trump put his casino holdings into a new company that went bankrupt in 2004. The company that emerged from that restructuring declared bankruptcy in 2009. Trumps 6th bankruptcy was the Plaza Hotel, which he bought in 1988. It went bankrupt by 1992.

Trumps surprise victory in 2016 paralleled the arrival of the brash upstart in Atlantic City more than 30 years earlier. But in the fourth year of his presidency, the Trump operation is once again reeling. Voters give him poor marks for handling the coronavirus crisis, underscored by an outbreak at the White House that infected Trump himself. Democrat Joe Biden is beating Trump is most swing states and an Election Day blowout is possible. Trump has suggested he wont leave office if he loses, threatening a constitutional crisis and his own political legacy.

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About Cibik & Cataldo Law Firm

Our company is in the business of offering debt relief to our clients. Bankruptcy often includes shame, fear, and anxiety. We understand how you feel because we have helped so many in getting through what is a stressful time. We know how to confront the issues involved in individual and small business consumer bankruptcy, here in Philadelphia and surrounding areas.

Our most important desire to share our compassion and respect with you, our clients. Our lawyers are well-versed in providing bankruptcy services which include:

  • Mortgage foreclosure assistance
  • Medical debt cases
  • Small business bankruptcy claims

When you call us, we will make an appointment for a free consultation if you are considering bankruptcy. Our no-pressure environment will allow you to share with us your financial situation, your options, and come up with the right solution for you. Once we have met, we will guide you in the areas of:

  • The types of bankruptcy

A Trump Atlantic City Timeline

How Many Times Has Donald Trump Filed Bankruptcy
  • May 1984: Trump Plaza opens.

  • A second casino, Trump Castle, opens. It was later renamed the Trump Marina.

  • Trump opens the Taj Mahal, a 42-story, $1 billion casino-hotel, Atlantic Citys first mega-resort.

  • Trump Taj Mahal files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

  • Trump Plaza and Castle file prepackaged bankruptcy petitions to restructure their balance sheets.

  • Trump resigns from the board of directors of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., which declares bankruptcy.

  • The casino company again files for bankruptcy protection and Trump Plaza closes. Carl Icahn, who holds much of Trump Entertainments debt, gains control of it and the Taj Mahal.

  • : Hundreds of curious buyers line up for a liquidation sale at the Taj Mahal.

Staff writer Christian Hetrick contributed to this article.

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