May 16, 2019 2 min read

Trump losses explained

This “news story” referring to Trump losing $1 billion though failed businesses, being a business flop, fraud, tax evader, etc. is being played in the media for the second or third time. It is typical “fake news” trying to shed a bad light on our successful president. If one believes it they probably believed every word Walter Cronkite said 50 years ago when we only had to listen to 15 minutes of national news. I believed him, too until I became better informed years later.

This story is based on events occurring in the 1980s and worked out in the 1990s. In 1980 we had high inflation and interest rates around 20%. Unemployment was high and real estate was low. As the economy recovered under Ronald Reagan, real estate boomed, values were inflated and banks lent money like crazy. Trump was a big player in this business and better than most. When correction time came and businesses failed, i.e. casinos, banks lent even more money because they would have gone down with Trump and others if they foreclosed. Trump took a write-off of some $1 billion in 1991. His empire recovered and grew larger and more profitable. All was legal and approved by the IRS.

In 1995 the New York Times{/em} wrote an article that called Trump “The Comeback Kid.” That was when they liked him. They and others have used the same success story in 2016 and 2019 to try to discredit him. Now you have the rest of the story.

John Loughman

West Finley