Donald Trump wants to be your role model. But Donald Trump is a lie.
Donald Trump sells himself on TV as an Horatio Alger story. His never-ending theme is that hard work, brains, and ruthlessness will make you rich like him.
But Donald Trump did not become rich. Donald Trump started rich.
Fred Trump, on the other hand. That’s another story.
Fred Trump, who passed away in 1999, was a real estate developer. He founded The Trump Organization. Fred Trump built affordable rental apartments, mainly in Brooklyn, of impeccable quality, and he maintained them well, too. Donald Trump’s own Wikipedia biography says he inherited $200 million from his father, Fred Trump. (It may have been more, according to a New York Times analysis published in 2005.)
The Bankruptcy Blog
analyzed Trump’s claims of enormous wealth a few years ago and found them bogus. Fred Trump bailed
Donald out numerous times through 1999. Fred cosigned loans for his
son. He helped him through a 1992 bankruptcy. But by 2004 Trump filed
another bankruptcy, on his casino property.
On his own BlogMaverick, Mark Cuban then called Trump a phony. My point here is far more modest. It is that Donald Trump is not Horatio Alger, which he always claimed to be.
Donald Trump should not be your role model. If you want to become rich, don’t be like Donald Trump.
Perhaps the elder Trump’s commitment to rental housing had more to do with the lack of rent control in NYC in his prime building years that the size of his heart. Don Boudreaux shares his perspective as an economist on the effects of rent control the supply of affordable housing.
Perhaps the elder Trump’s commitment to rental housing had more to do with the lack of rent control in NYC in his prime building years that the size of his heart. Don Boudreaux shares his perspective as an economist on the effects of rent control the supply of affordable housing.
I’m taken aback by the ferocity of Mark Cuban’s blog post. Does he know Donald, or did they have some kind of run-in sometime?
I’m taken aback by the ferocity of Mark Cuban’s blog post. Does he know Donald, or did they have some kind of run-in sometime?