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The King of Debt

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"I do love debt. I love debt. I love playing with it."


It looks like the Donald is in debt up to his ears, but I doubt that will stop his loyal following from believing what a great businessman he is.  New York Times ran an expose this weekend, estimating that Trump owes at least $650 million to a variety of lenders including the Bank of China.  It's not easy getting those big projects off the ground, but it turns out that Trump's share in these enterprises is largely in name only, including his signature Trump Tower, which he occupies on a long term lease.

No problem, says Mr. Trump, who describes himself as the King of Debt.  Interesting for a guy who has been deriding the federal government for running up so much debt.  Of course, in the real estate business debt isn't necessarily a bad thing.  The main thing is to keep ahead of that debt, which the Donald seems to do.  If nothing else, he can declare bankruptcy as he did on his Taj Mahal in Atlantic City to make room for other projects.

One would think it would send up red flags, but for the most part his friends at Fox are ignoring it.  Hannity and others continue to tell us what a great businessman their man Donald is.

It is really hard to figure how conservatives reconcile themselves with this guy.  He literally represents everything they abhor, yet here they are rationalizing his candidacy because the alternative is just too terrible for them to even consider.  No matter what new juicy bit of information is dug up on Trump's enterprises, Hillary is ten times worse in their minds.

They cry about Hillary's ties to the Saudis through the Clinton Foundation, yet it turns out Donald has been bailed out by a Saudi Prince twice.  Trump's debt is spread to all corners of the world.  Seems everyone wants a piece of the Donald, given his notoriety.   That may change come November.

His self-destructive campaign has already led many investors to pull the plug on him, starting with NBC last summer and the list continues to grow.  Little wonder Trump had to liquidate assets to give his campaign badly needed money during the primaries.  Mark Cuban and others have opined that he simply doesn't have the cash to fund a general election campaign because he is nowhere near as rich as he says he is.  This goes a long way toward explaining why he doesn't release his tax returns.

The Donald has built an aura of wealth with his name in gold lettering.  He loves to tell everyone how much his golf courses are worth until it comes time to pay the taxes.  He then tries to claim the lowest value possible.  This grand illusion is what is driving his campaign.

At some point you would think persons would tire of all this bluster and hold Trump accountable, as they do others who have committed far fewer sins on the campaign trail.  Trump was calling Ted Cruz's undisclosed Goldman Sachs loan a "very big thing," yet Goldman Sachs is one of his creditors as well.  He also turned to Steve Mnuchin, a former GS partner, to help him with his campaign finances.  Hard to be more hypocritical than that.

No matter, the Donald just keeps going, tossing out new salvos on the campaign trail, hoping no one pays too much attention to these latest "hit pieces"  by the New York Times and Washington Post.  However, these stories are trickling through all the newspapers and web blogs, making it harder to run away from them.  All he can do is get his friends at Fox to blame the whole thing on Hillary Clinton, who they insist is using these stories to deflect attention away from her own misdeeds.  But, Trump is looking more exposed every day.

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