Remember, all this fun ends on May 15.
“I’m a much bigger business man and have (a) much, much bigger net worth. I mean, my net worth is many, many, many times Mitt Romney,” Trump said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I built a very big net worth and I’d like to put that ability … to work for this country.”
Trump is only worth $2.7 billion, he’s not even one of the top 100 richest people in the world. He’s not a giant, not Rockefeller or Morgan or Carnegie. One thing I wonder, though, is if Republican support for him is based on his birtherism or on the idea that he’s just the kind of Galtian genius we need to beat back the moochers and looters.
Brazilian Rascal
False dichotomy. He can comfortably be both. See, if a self-made WASP business tycoon also knows Obambi was hatched out of a Kenyan coconut by a witch-doctor and then teleported to America to take the place of a deserving white baby in a lifetime of affirmative action, it’s plum gotta be true!
Omnes Omnibus
You will eventually use every line from this song as a post title.
Short Bus Bully
Trump is not only rich, he’s also on the teevee yelling at people. That makes him doubly awesome.
Also, last I checked $2.7B was still a lot of scrilla.
Still, that hair… Fuck me.
Maude
He screwed up a cassino. That’s hard to do.
The 2.7 billion is prolly what he’s worth on paper, like the ring he took back from one of his wives and it’s worth 2 million etc.
zach
Of course, bankruptcy protection is the greatest form of corporate welfare and Trump’s exploited that to take far more risks than he’d do in a purely Galtian world in which ultimate property rights would make you permanently enslaved to folks you’re in debt to.
MikeJ
@Short Bus Bully:
You a Judybats fan?
Citizen Alan
I think a lot of Repukes watch his lame-ass show and are so pig-ignorant that they think he can become President and just start randomly yelling “YOU’RE FIRED!” at people and America will magically get better. Phenomena like Trump are the reason I don’t fully believe in the 27% Crazification Factor. It’s not that 27% of Americans are crazy. I think the truth is that 27% of Americans aren’t actually human — they’re cows that have been strategically shaved, taught to stand upright, and stuffed into an “America First” t-shirt.
BD of MN
I’ll bite. What happens May 15th?
Jay C
1. What’s up on May 15?
2. Maybe Republican “support” for The Donald stems, rather, from their fundamental stupidity and reflexive political tribalism? I.e., he “articulates” the inchoate hatred for Obama/liberals/Democrats/The Other/their own marginalization, which is the main driver of Teabagger politics – AND he’s a rich guy with a reality-TV show.
Sadly, the latter is probably Trump’s main driver of support.
Poopyman
If it weren’t for the government bankruptcy laws, Trump would probably be at the bottom of a hole in the Jersey Pine Barrens. Or in the other end zone at Giants Stadium. So naturally, the Tea Party loves him.
lacp
Party on, dudes and dudettes!
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110417_ap_superrichseefederaltaxesdropdramatically.html?cmpid=41144277
Poopyman
@BD of MN:
CBS votes:
— Celebrity Apprentice 2012, or
— You’re Fired
Ie, he follows the money, or follows the adulation — for a time.
Comrade DougJ
@BD of MN:
He announces he won’t be running for president, on the finale of his tv show.
Common Sense
May 15th is the season finale of “The Apprentice”
RSA
I wonder what’s been holding him back so far? It turns out that he’s one of the least charitable very rich people in the world (even including Leona Helmsley).
Herb
If you’re born rich, having a large net worth doesn’t count for a whole lot…
And that applies to both Romney and Trump.
Nylund
The funny thing is, the SOP for any business is:
Borrow lots of money in the present to build something that will have enough value in the future to make it worth it.
Sounds a lot like what Krugman/Atrios say we should do regarding stimulus and infrastructure.
Buffalo Rude
He the Beltway’s Charlie Sheen. After all, politics is Hollywood for ugly people, right?
Omnes Omnibus
@RSA: I am going to guess that greed, selfishness, and a general assholishness are the primary factors.
Citizen_X
“I’m a much bigger business man”? “I built a very big net worth”? He sounds fucking retarded.*
He started with a $20 million present, inherited $400 mill, did his work during two of the biggest stock bubbles and one of the biggest real estate bubbles in this nation’s history, and he still went bankrupt (three times!) and fucked up running a cas1no. Some business genius.
*Apologies to the actually retarded.
manwith7talents
Yes Donald, your net worth is bigger, stronger, and more turgid than Mitt’s. Shall we have a public net-worth-measuring contest to prove it?
Nylund
Who wants to bet that Trump’s path from bankruptcy to billionaire involved a whole lot of borrowing to get things going again?
lacp
The birtherism is the deal. And I have to admit, I used to be somewhat annoyed at The Donald (how can you really work up a full-scale dislike for somebody that vapid?), but this is cool. We have Everything That Is Wrong With Capitalism being genetically spliced with Reality Television. What could possibly go wrong?
Tehanu
I’ve never understood this obsession with who’s bigger. Do you think his plan for the country will be titled “The Big Deal”?
zach
I don’t know about May 15th. Donald undoubtedly wants a piece of the televised debates; the first is on May 5th and he has to file for an exploratory committee by April 30th to be eligible. If this isn’t a particularly expensive thing to do, I don’t see why he stays out. And of course the other candidates will appreciate a chance to chide him on the birth certificate stuff and look like they’re fighting the extreme fringe of their party.
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937
A grifting liar plus a mean girl vocabulary. That’s the perfect resumè for the TeaTards®.
Stillwater
@Tehanu: Maybe as Pres. he could bankroll a show where 12 CCers have to propose legislative solutions to pressing problems of the Donald’s own devising, firing one per episode. CCer 1: “Save Medicare!” Donald: You’re fired!
I see some possibilities here.
CapMidnight
Plus, Trump‘s got electrolytes!
Elia Isquire
I wish I were worth a paltry 2.7 billion. :(
Tom Q
@zach: Mightn’t there be some issue for NBC re: those last few Apprentice episodes if he’s a candidate at that point? Like, an in-kind contribution? Colbert just got nailed with that this week, and he was totally joking.
BD of MN
@Common Sense:
The reason I asked is the link states the season ends May 22nd…
Carol from CO
Could it be that the donald is the best of the bunch who are running so far?
Nellcote
@zach:
He wants NBC to renew his show. Though if CNN continues to go full on teabagger they could hire him.
menu
2.7 billion? Oh I truly doubt that. He’s probably leveraged out the ass.
But— geez, 2.7 billion does not even get you in the top 100 these days?
Corner Stone
@Nylund: OPM, it’s a manual.
Corner Stone
I gotta tell you, there are other ways to critique him than by saying this.
MattR
@Tom Q: Pretty sure this is correct.
And I am looking forward to Colbert’s SuperPAC running commercials for Republican candidates using their actual quotes and votes to demonstrate what they really stand for. (At least I assume that is his plan if he can raise the cash)
Mo's Bike Shop
Don’t underestimate his Angry Dad appeal.
Larv
@zach:
I think that’s probably what they thought when Trump first started talking about running and spouting birther nonsense. But now that he’s pulling big polling numbers, I suspect the rest of the field is trying to figure out how to distance themselves from the birtherism without losing the birthers themselves. I mean, it’s one thing to tell the press that Trump doesn’t represent the Republican party when he’s polling at 5%, but it’s much harder to do so when he’s leading the polls. I can’t imagine that Trump’s numbers aren’t causing a lot of angina among Republican strategists.
MattR
@Larv: It seems like the attempted straddle is “I believe that President Obama was born in the United States but there is clearly something about his birth certificate that he is trying to hide”
RoonieRoo
I know many disagree with this but every time there is a new crazy leading the GOP pack I am once again convinced that it will be Rick Perry who wins the primary.
He is going to sit back while everyone watches the clowns spilling out of the clown car and when the clowns are all over the ground in a heap, he will declare.
He will come off as the only sane one. I know, I know all the crazy stuff he has said but my rebuttal is W! It didn’t matter what anyone tried to say about W before the election. Nobody listened and flocked to him like so many sheep.
Most of what W did as President, he did in Texas first in some form or another. What he did as President wasn’t a huge surprise to those of us in Texas.
Perry has courted the Tea Party for a while now and he can mask that insanity with a real charisma for the others. I hate the man but he genuinely has charisma.
zach
@Larv: Trump’s success and the extent to which it has anything to do with the birth certificate nonsense is based on name recognition and political fatigue amongst everyone polled who’s not insane. If any strategist is worried about having to appeal to that crew, they’re really deluded. People who are going to vote against Obama aren’t all idiotic racists, but the idiotic racists will vote against him regardless of whether they’re pandered to or not.
Eric k
All that needs to be said about Trump’s Business acumen is he went broke running a Casino, that is comically hard to do
Martin
Dude’s not worth $2.7B. I’m sure he has that in assets, but his liabilities knock that way the hell down.
And the Facebook guys could buy Trump and make him their bitch.
parsimon
Trump was on CNN’s “State of the Union”? They’re giving him the time of day? This is a new low, in all honesty. I suppose I’ll really start to worry about the state of the media if he shows up on “Meet the Press.”
Dee Loralei
I think May 15 is when NBC announces its fall TV schedule. So, even if Trump is planning to announce it on the finale, or announce when he’ll announce on his finale, we’ll know on May 15 if his show got renewed or not. And if it did, he ain’t running.
ETA: I vaguely remember during the 2008 cycle that the Mittster was worth 11 billion or so.
JGabriel
Romney’s networth is reportedly somewhere between $200-$500 million. That would put Trump at 5-14 times Romney’s net worth.
Sure, it’s a lot bigger. But not “many, many, many time” bigger.
I’m shocked to discover that Donald Trump is an exaggerator.
(Assuming $2.7B is correct for Trump’s worth — which I strongly, strongly, suspect is just as exaggerated.)
.
parsimon
Why is it relevant to anything at all to discuss Trump’s net worth, how large it is, whether it’s larger than anyone else’s, and so on?
I mean, come on. It’s dick-waving.
dmsilev
From Trump’s WIki article:
Oh my. A ‘double comb over’ (with a half twist, and a single-foot landing) and a germophobe. Are we sure that he isn’t a performance artist?
SRW1
@BD of MN:
Didn’t they say that’s the day Uncle Sam is gonna run out of dead presidents.
James E Powell
A very large number of Americans, not just Republicans, feel exactly this way. It’s why people like Scott Walker and Michelle Rhee can have broad support without ever showing positive results. People also like the take-no-prisoners style because it vicariously expresses their inchoate anger.
lol
The interesting thing is that Trump still can’t self-fund. Obama’s election campaign spent $750 million in 2008. The 2012 race will probably cost a billion.
Given that his net worth is $2.7 billion on paper, at best, would he really want to blow upwards of 30% of his fortune on a quixotic run for President? Probably not. But who’s going to want to give money to a billionaire?
Of course, if he just wants to play in the primary, that’s only a couple hundred million…
JGabriel
@James E Powell:
Good point. Excellent point, in fact.
It raises the question of why US politics is so driven by anger and whether anything can be done about it. I suspect similar subsections of angry people isolate themselves into right wing narratives in Europe, but they don’t control the political dialogue the way they do here — not since WWII anyway.
.
JGabriel
@lol:
Anyone who wants his ear and support for their agenda — i.e., primarily businesses that want deregulation, and maybe social conservatives.
.
Thomas
This attention whore’s best day, if he actually tried to run, would be the day announced. The media would have a 24-36 hour love affair with him like they did with Palin and then actual scrutiny would begin. You know a guy like Trump has numerous skeletons in the closet that would all come to light. You can’t be involved in New York real estate that long and miss all the dirt.
Moonbatting Average
@RoonieRoo: This. I would be shocked if Perry didn’t throw his hat in the ring, and if he did, I’m sure he’d do really well against the current crop of GOP mopes.
Steaming Pile
@Citizen Alan: Moo.
Hyperion
teh mind reels.
PurpleGirl
@Nylund: Oh, yes, it did. I remember the first time he filed for bankruptcy, Citibank was asked why they were loaning him money again and they answered something to the effect that they needed to protect their long-term interests.
PurpleGirl
(I couldn’t edit my comment #59)
TA: There were elements of his being able to make deals depended on him being able to spend freely and seeming to have unlimited resources to make the deals. So the bank advanced him a lot of credit.
Uloborus
@James E Powell:
Indeed, we see that attitude even among liberals on this very blog.
AAA Bonds
It’s a good thing that some of us like the take-no-prisoners style, because the rest of y’all clearly need us to make sure everyone remembers that the elite and powerful are always arrayed against the rest of us on a number of issues.
AAA Bonds
That said, can we please always use this story’s picture of Trump, in every post about Trump that anyone makes anywhere:
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/04/fake_presidential_candidates.html
Direct link:
http://i.imgur.com/Tnh7F.jpg
Matt Taibbi said it best: if you want to hit the astronomically egotistical at their points of insecurity, mocking physical ugliness is a great place to start.
SectarianSofa
I hope he runs. It’ll be even more fun than watching the Giuliani campaign implode was.
Litlebritdifrnt
Trump does not have a pot to piss in nor a window to throw it out of. He claims (as part of his net worth) 25% ownership of a casino that is $190 million in debt. You know 25% of $190 million debt is negative 40 million or so. His so called “wealth” is all smoke and mirrors. What he basically did is piss away his inheritance.
He is what we from the old country call “all fur coat and no knickers”. I believe the expression in the States (particularly Texas) is “all hat and no cattle” That is exactly what Trump is.
Comrade DougJ
@lol:
Yes, exactly.
Brain Hertz
I kept thinking of the classic Harry Enfield sketch series:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHo2pXO_XAI
sfrefugee
Donald Trump is a deadbeat. He is the poster child for bankruptcy abuse:
Yeah, seriously.
Bulworth
Yes.