He really is a Republican:
Over the last few years, according to interviews and hundreds of pages of court documents, the real estate mogul has aggressively marketed several luxury high-rises as “Trump properties” or “signature Trump” buildings, with names like Trump Tower and Trump International — even making appearances at the properties to woo buyers. The strong indication of his involvement as a developer generated waves of media attention and commanded premium prices.
But when three of the planned buildings encountered financial trouble, it became clear that Mr. Trump had essentially rented his name to the developments and had no responsibility for their outcomes, according to buyers. In each case, he yanked his name off the projects, which were never completed. The buyers lost millions of dollars in deposits even as Mr. Trump pocketed hefty license fees.
Those who bought the apartments in part because of the Trump name were livid, saying they felt a profound sense of betrayal, and more than 300 of them are now suing Mr. Trump or his company.
“The last thing you ever expect is that somebody you revere will mislead you,” said Alex Davis, 38, who bought a $500,000 unit in Trump International Hotel and Tower Fort Lauderdale, a waterfront property that Mr. Trump described in marketing materials as “my latest development” and compared to the Trump tower on Central Park in Manhattan.
“There was no disclaimer that he was not the developer,” Mr. Davis said. The building, where construction was halted when a major lender ran out of money in 2009, sits empty and unfinished, the outlines of a giant Trump sign, removed long ago, still faintly visible.
Mr. Davis is unable to recover any of his $100,000 deposit — half of which the developer used for construction costs.
Another casualty: his admiration for Mr. Trump, whose books and television show Mr. Davis had devoured. “I bought into an idea of him,” he said, “and it wasn’t what I thought it was.”
“It’s called a confidence game. Why? Because you give me your confidence? No. Because I give you mine. “
Steve
Trump’s best defense is that no reasonable person would think that the Trump name makes a project more likely to be successful.
Nutella
The funny thing is that anyone thought that having Trump’s name on a project was a good reason to invest in it.
Napoleon
What kills me is people think he has real money. This is a guy who appears on my TV in a mattress commercial.
swellsman
Yeah, well . . . sorry to hear about all these people who got screwed, but if these people are dumb enough to “revere” a blowhard like Trump – and make investment decisions simply because his name is attached — they are probably dumb enough that they would get screwed out of their money eventually.
Seriously, someone reads those books?
The Moar You Know
Holding a double-combover fat bully with a penchant for multiple marriages to disposable Eastern European 20-somethings in reverence means that you deserved to lose every dime that you placed in his sweaty, greedy, eager palms.
Hunter Gathers
I don’t know about you, but I am always looking to invest large amounts of cash in projects pimped by someone who has declared bankruptcy 3 times.
zmulls
The original American fallacy. Anyone that confident must have something going on.
Trump is a microcosm of everything unadmirable about America, every bad tendency and value system rolled into one person.
Xenos
I hate to blame the victim here, but any twerp who ‘reveres’ Trump surely had this coming, whether from Trump or some other grifter.
Reminds me of Annie Leibovitz, who lost most of her money with Madoff and then proceed to invest everything else she had with another ponzi scheme, and lost that, too. Some people are determined to get ripped off.
Anniecat45
“The last thing you ever expect is that somebody you revere will mislead you,” said Alex Davis.”
I’m trying hard, but I’m not coming up with much sympathy for someone who reveres Donald Trump.
NonyNony
There’s your problem right there, Alex Davis (38). It should be the first thing you suspect.
Better to revere people who are long dead. Even then they can mislead you but at least they aren’t around to talk you into putting up a half million dollars for a shady land deal.
jrg
If we lived in a meritocracy, this moron would not have had money for the $100K deposit to begin with.
Joel
A fool and his money…
geg6
@Xenos:
THIS.
I am usually a very compassionate person, but come on, people. You trust your life savings to the guy with a double combover, a reality tv show, and multiple bankruptcies? I have trouble finding my compassion. Musta misplaced it, somewhere over there where poor people with no medical care are.
Violet
Is this person for real? Where did he grow up? Utopia?
PeakVT
There’s something about real estate that makes a lot of bright people very stupid.
cyntax
His casino went broke. How can his involvement in a business project be anything but the kiss of death?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Paging Mr Davis, paging Mr Davis, there’s a Mrs Palin calling for you on line 1…
debit
I know that before Trump decided to go full metal teabagger, when I thought of him, I thought of his shilling for Pizza Hut. It’s hard to revere someone who claims that Pizza Hut makes good pizza. Now I just think “short fingered vulgarian.” Thanks to whoever came up with that.
Citizen_X
Sigh. Time to dust off that old saying for Mr. Davis: Maybe your purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.
Yevgraf (fka Michael)
You want a real Trump laugher? From NRO via FR:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2718733/posts
I’ll go there – Donald Trump is a fraud – a con man. He is a lying sack of shit who will steal your money and lie to you.
El Cid
__
I know that when I choose to place my faith in someone, it’s going to be a shady, loudmouthed, tacky real estate sham artist with such a clear record of failure and fraudulent boastful claims.
If that doesn’t sum up the persona of Jesus Christ, I don’t know what does.
ThresherK
@The Moar You Know: “The last thing you ever expect is that somebody you revere will mislead you,”
Isn’t that basically what The Great Oz (Greenspan) said when the masters of the universe didn’t behave in 2006-9 like they did in Atlas Shrugged?
Yevgraf (fka Michael)
@Violet:
Wingnutopia. This is the breed that constantly howls for tax cuts while bragging about how he works harder and smarter than anyone else.
Violet
I saw one of Trump’s books at a garage sale last weekend. Didn’t think it was worth the 25 cents they were trying to get for it.
bkny
sorry, but no sympathy for the idjits seduced by that vulgarian. trump’s as bad as paris hilton — slapping his name on any and all endorsement deals offered him. paris has hair extensions; perhaps with all the attention paid to the donald’s hair — he should market some trump toupees…
Violet
@Yevgraf (fka Michael):
Ha. I read that as, “who will steal your mommy and lie to you.” I guess that works too.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
Yup. I came to a full stop when I read, “somebody you revere will mislead you.”
Your problems begin right there, Skippy.
Mandramas
@>Joel:
That, sir, is the essence of Capitalism.
LGRooney
@zmulls: If I may bring the juvenile, I prefer in this case to go with phallicy. It is generally more appropriate for someone who loves to
liebrag about how big are his projects or the size of the wad in his pocket… methinks.… every damned minute, Mr. Barnum!
LGRooney
And, can I add that I think we’re too damned smart for this planet?
Suffern ACE
@Violet: How does he think they get people to revere them in the first place? It’s not a magic potion.
Yevgraf (fka Michael)
@bkny:
Au contraire – Paris Hilton probably isn’t going to lie to your face and steal from you.
It is an important distinction.
JCT
Ack– don’t pollute that great flick by associating it with a Trump thread.
Endless reverence for bombastic assclowns who assure you that you too can have it all with little effort. It’s the American Way.
And I’m with everyone else — how can anyone revere Donald Trump?
ChrisNYC
How delicious is it that less than a month ago David Brooks called Trump a person of “enormous accomplishment” and then wrote, “I would never want to live in a country without people like him.”
Steve
@debit: Conversely, Donald Trump’s House of Wings was one of the best SNL skits in recent memory. If only I could find the video…
trollhattan
Also, too, not only is it pathetic people convey all kinds of Übermensch qualities onto Famous Folks via projection, they do so with Famous Folks’ kids. Teh Donald, Franklin Graham, Rand Paul, teh Bush boyz…none of them would qualify for employment beyond Dominos day shift manager on their own merits.
Yay for us.
Culture of Truth
To be fair to our naive investors, these people have a good case for being conned, and going after Trump’s deep pockets. The project failed, but his image and the impression that he would stand behind it clearly helped sell the product.
tomvox1
Wait… Trump is not what he appears to be and lacks character & scruples? Disappointing! Next you will all tell me Atlas Shrugged has no practical application in the real world and Newt Gingrich is not really a patriot but an opportunistic grifter. May 13th, you are a cruel bitch goddess of disenchantment…
maya
Trump is just the current Messiah of Mammon. Don’t get impatient, folks, another will be along shortly.
Zifnab
Personal Responsibility!
Buyer Beware!
Why didn’t you know better, you stupid rube?!
Ayn Rand would have a seething fit if she found out you were defaming one of America’s greatest makers by insinuating he should be burdened by additional regulations on how he can advertise these properties. Maybe if we hadn’t taxed the poor developers into the ground and burdened them with hefty regulations and government baggage, Mr. Davis wouldn’t have missed out on what sounds like a really amazing real estate deal.
I blame all those fat cat Washington politicians, and Davis would be a fool to blame anyone else otherwise.
Peter
Oh, good, we’re talking about Trump. I was hoping I’d get an excuse to link this.
Mark S.
If you think Mr Davis is an idiot, make sure to read the second page of the article where it talks about people who paid $35,000 to enroll in Trump University.
Culture of Truth
Also, I read some of these statements as spin. They want their deposits back, he has deep pockets (‘Apprentice’ money) and key to their case is their reliance on him.
SpotWeld
Why do people give Trump money? Becuase they’ve been told he’s smart and important.
Why do people tell them that? Becuase Trump has paid them to say things like that.
How can Trump afford to pay people to do that? Becuase people give them thier money.
Go back to start
sukabi
why on earth would you invest in property or whatever that had Trump’s name on it? It’s not like he doesn’t have a very public history with filing bankruptcy at the drop of a hat… It’s also not like he doesn’t go out of his way to prove repeatedly that he’s a know-nothing blowhard.
I swear our water is being spiked with lead…our people keep getting stupider by the minute.
David
Does Trump Tower even sound better than The Birther Building?
Culture of Truth
@Mark S.:
That is indeed kind of a jaw-dropper
Violet
@bkny:
Paris Hilton has spent time in jail. Has Donald Trump? I don’t think he has, although he should.
bkny
@Violet: lol … good point.
Shoemaker-Levy 9
Bad day at Balloon Juice. A couple more ABL related spittle-a-thons. Doug trying desperately to get anybody interested in Mitch Daniels. One about pathetic, aging senators. Two or three open threads. Now John with one about the irrelevant Donald Trump. Oh well, can’t hit a home run every time, and at least there was a decent conversation starter about the Ensign affair. Maybe we’ll get lucky and some real news will be generated this afternoon.
giltay
There’s a Trump Tower going up in Toronto. I would be most pleased not to have his name associated with my fair city.
passerby
Welcome to Trump’s House of Games where P.T. Barnum meets D. Mamet.
Good god. There’s a sucker born every minute. It doesn’t just happen to rich folk, the commercial banks treat rank and file Americans like marks as a matter of business and call it “banking services”.
Neal
He pulled the same shit here in Tampa. The Trump Tower was going to be the tallest building in our fine city, yadda yadda yadda…and several years later it’s still just an empty lot along the Hillsborough River. Dude is a joke.
NonyNony
@Culture of Truth:
Oh absolutely – and I hope this kind of shit causes Trump to go through yet another bankruptcy proceeding.
Just because the mark dumb that doesn’t mean that the con should get a free pass. He’s still a shady dirtbag and I continue to hope that he’ll have to pay for being a shady dirtbag.
PurpleGirl
@giltay: I feel sorry for Toronto. His name is on too many buildings here in NYC.
boss bitch
@Mark S.:
Now THIS is dumb.
jonas
Isn’t this a little like someone suing Michael Jordan because buying a pair of his name-licensed Nike sneakers didn’t turn him in to an NBA star? I understand that the case here is about the plaintiffs’ allegedly being deceived about the nature of Trump’s involvement with the development, but even if these condos had been built by Trump’s company, would it have made any difference? Can they point to a development built by Trump himself down the road where everything was completed on time and the tenants now have a ton of equity and are doing great? I don’t think so.
I hope the state AGs totally ream him on his bullshit “university,” though. Those people were scammed and should get their money back along with damages.
Juicetard (FKA Liberty60)
@bkny: I think that is an insult to Paris Hilton, who at least has the class and honest dignity to market herself as a vapid socialite.
ruemara
I have never, ever understood the fascination with Trump. He’s a loser with sales skills. Possibly the best thing his dad could have done for him is disinherit him so he’d have to actually work.
Cat Lady
The first 20 commenters beat me to it. Anyone who can look upon the bloated orange visage of Trump with anything other than sheer contempt, never mind reverence, should be picked clean then pantsed. The only proper media response to Trump now is “show us your hairline”.
Gus diZerega
@Juicetard (FKA Liberty60): Agreed.
And it is very very hard op have much sympathy for those so easily impressed by Donald Trump, though I have managed to do so, and so have won a small spiritual victory in developing compassion.
Just Another Geek
@Neal: Same deal, same kind of lawsuits. He leased his name to development, nobody bothered to let the suckers know that it wasn’t being developed by Trump.
Trump’s an asshole and a con artist, but the idea that somehow the buyers deserve to be screwed for falling for what appear (from a distance, at least) material misrepresentations strikes me as a bit, well, Libertarian. Glibertarian, even.
boss bitch
I wish this guy had talked to me first. I am not a business expert but my views of Donald Trump, well the view that was sold to the masses, changed when I saw that he was selling bottled water. I was especially surprised at how cheap the product looked. For a guy that’s all about the very very very best, the bottles were basically Poland Spring type plastic bottles with his pouty mug on the label. It was tacky and made me think that he must be going broke to do something like this.
Kilkee
In an interview with Rolling Stone this month The Donald offers the following revelations re his famous hair: (1) he shampoos with Head & Shoulders (!); (2) he lets his hair air-dry, for approximately an hour; (3) he does NOT comb it forward.
Ha ha ha ha ah!
trollhattan
O/T Who’s gonna pray for Huckabee? Now you can.
http://www.prayforhuckabee.com/
Yevgraf (fka Michael)
@SpotWeld:
This sort of acceptance is a cultural defect among white people, particularly older white people. Witness commercials for products and services to old people, and the number which have guys like Fred Thompson and Wilford Brimley.
GVG
You know, my first reaction was just like everybody else’s. My second is that this is a bogus lawsuit, I don’t think these people could really have been that impressed with Trump. He is noted for going bankrupt spectacularly multiple times and blowing his wad on really flashy junk. I think they are just looking for people to sue for money. I just don’t find this believable and rump isn’t the only liar out there.
debit
Hey, I love Wilford Brimley and I’m not… Oh my god. I AM OLD.
Somewhere, Ivanka takes offense.
Culture of Truth
I hope Trump makes the argument that had he been more involved they still would have been crap.
Seriously though, in this case Trump did not sell a bad product, it turns out the product, misleadingly sold, was not his at all. And his direct involvement was important to the buyers because it not unrealistically representated a kind of insurance policy that it would be less likely to go to shit, or that, with his money and public image on the line, he would at least stand by it and see it was actually built.
Martin
There is no reverence in business, only profits. Republicans should stick to revering Jesus, not CEOs.
Violet
From the last page of the article:
Trump is a charlatan and has been for a long time, but an agreement about licensing his name that is supposed to be kept confidential and hidden from prospective buyers, leading them to think he is a developer, sure seems like it should be illegal.
Also:
Yeah, duh. You think?
Kilkee
@trollhattan: Oh, I did.
That was fun: telling Huck why he should stick with his FauxNews grifter schtick. AND telling him that it was God’s “still, small voice” that was telling me what to tell him.
ppcli
People are acting as if Isbell, Davis, etc. lost out on this deal. Not so. Anybody who “reveres” or “trusts” Trump is so cement-head stupid that in the normal course of things they would have lost not only *all* their money but all their children, a couple of limbs, at least one cornea and several internal organs. So by getting involved with Trump they actually ended up doing much better than they had any right to expect. Trump should be suing *them*.
Martin
@GVG: When you put your name on something, you own it. It doesn’t matter what everyone held in their heart – as soon as it was a Trump™ property, it was Trumps responsibility to meet his end of the deal. And buying into a Trump property knowing that the guy fails constantly, and using the courts as your business strategy is not inappropriate. In fact, Trump does that all the time.
aimai
@jonas:
No, I think its a little like suing a company that marketed a pair of sneakers that Michael Jordan is actually wearing, or advertising that Michael Jordan will come over and tie your shoes for you, and then having that company default on the promise. Perhaps a better example would be having the company explicitly market the shoe as one that Michael Jordan “designed” to “be the best basketball shoe in the world” and then discovering that it was an old pair of Keds that had been discontinued thirty years ago.
aimai
Culture of Truth
Or, it’s like paying $10,000 to spend a week at “The Michael Jordan Basketball Camp” and he’s at the sales pitch for 2 hours talking about how he loves to run basketball camps and when you get there he isn’t there and you’re told to read the fine print.
trollhattan
@aimai:
Do you remember the Spike Lee Nike Air Jordan ad that showed Mike doing amazing Mike things intercut with Lee saying “You can buy these” (showing the shoes) “But you can’t do this” (showing a Mike thing).
The last honest ad.
trollhattan
@Kilkee:
Bless you, my child. :-)
Mike G
“The last thing you ever expect is that somebody you revere will mislead you”
Let me guess – this guy is a Teabagger and it’s somehow Obama’s fault.
It depends what he reveres Trump for — does he admire him for being a tasteless, bullying asshole who gets rich by ripping off everyone around him?
PurpleGirl
I sort of followed Trump for many years. He tookover a failing development project in West Palm Beach many years ago, finished it and proclaimed it was stupendous, great, whatever but it was on the land side of the intracostal waterway and it took years before it was full.
He bought an older industrial building in Chicago, an old newspaper office-printing plant and was going to develop it into luxury something or other. It took years before he could finish it. (Actually I’m not sure if he did finish it.)
He has not always had a good feel for the real estate markets outside of NYC. After he bought Mar A Lago, the estate of the late Marjorie Merriweather Post (Post cereals heiress), I believe he wanted to build homes on part of the estate but the locals (that area of Palm Beach on the Atlantic Ocean) didn’t like the idea. The gold course and
gelfling545
@GVG: But just imagine the defense – Trump’s lawyers having to say that no one should have entered a deal based on their client’s reputation as he is a known screw-up.
Vickie Leonard
Laugh about this poor fool if you must. But the visual blight of the Trump Tower Apartments disaster in Ft. Lauderdale is huge and horrible. It’s heartbreaking and right smaack on the main drag by the beach.
South Florida is suffering terribly economically.
I was told the bldg. is now owned by FDIC. Oh good, we left wing taxpayers get to rescue the Trump labeled disaster.
NonyNony
@aimai:
No – the problem with all of these examples is that they make the allegations of fraud here on Trump’s part sound trivial and innocuous when they emphatically are not.
If you really want to use a Michael Jordan analogy – it’s more like getting you to buy in as a partner for a basketball team where you’ve been told that Jordan is investing his own money in the team and that he’s on board to train the team himself. And then you find out that he’s actually just getting paid to come in, put his name on some letterhead, shake some hands, have his picture taken and tell people that he’s training the team.
If Trump knowingly put his name on a land deal to sucker investors in via the “Trump Brand” then we’re talking about fraud. Not the kind of fraud where a disappointed 12 year old finds out that Air Jordans don’t really let you jump 12 feet into the air – the kind of fraud where if Trump didn’t dot his i’s and cross his t’s exactly right on the contracts he might actually have legal consequences.
PurpleGirl
@PurpleGirl:
The golf course and club were the alternative to building houses at Mar A Lago. The Palm Beach people were okay with that.
(My keyboard’s batteries died and I had to go buy new ones… the trouble with a wireless keyboard and mouse.)
KXB
“He bought an older industrial building in Chicago, an old newspaper office-printing plant and was going to develop it into luxury something or other. It took years before he could finish it. (Actually I’m not sure if he did finish it.)”
The Chicago Trump Tower is finished, and in my opinion, it is a sleek looking building that adds nicely to the skyline. But, like other luxury properties, many of the floors are empty. It opened just as housing was going bust. Thankfully, since Trump does not live here, my guess is that he had little to do with the day to day effort it took to get the building complete.
PurpleGirl
@KXB: Ah, thank you for that information. I remembered reading about the start of the project and some problems he was having at that time. Then I didn’t (or haven’t) seen articles about it being finished. That may be one of last developments that he actually had money in.
Paul in KY
@The Moar You Know: Truer words have never been written.
(doffs cap)
Gozer
@Violet: What I’m trying to figure out is how are these very obvious morons making their money?
I sure as shit don’t have 150k to throw around and I’m positive I (along with most of the posters here) am smarter than these people. I can’t figure it out. Someone explain it to me please.
asiangrrlMN
No sympathy for these people–and I usually bleed sympathy. What other people said before me–why the fuck would anyone trust Trump?
@ChrisNYC: Thank you for reminding me of that asshat’s nauseating fluff piece on Trump. I wish Brooks had invested in one of Trump’s building. That would have been just punishment.
@Gozer: Inherited. Married into it. Lottery. Any or all of the above.
invisible_hand
“house of games” is a fantastic movie.
Paul in KY
@Gozer: They inherited it, just like The Donald.
Jon H
$5 says Alex Davis is also a Randian who considers himself a superlative producer.
Jon H
@PurpleGirl: “He bought an older industrial building in Chicago, an old newspaper office-printing plant and was going to develop it into luxury something or other. It took years before he could finish it. (Actually I’m not sure if he did finish it.)”
I believe that was the Sun-Times building, which was fugly, and not a particularly good use of the land given the prime location by the river not far from the Michigan Avenue shopping area.
Likely too big, and definitely ill-timed, but not too horrific. I mean, it’s not gold, after all.
Carol from CO
Anyone who admires Donal Trump has to be a loser to begin with.
Geeno
@Joel:
… were real lucky to get together in the first place.
gex
It’s almost as if people don’t understand capitalism. The people at the top don’t get rich by dealing fairly and honestly with people. Whether it is property dealings or employers ratcheting down pay, laying people off, and reaping record bonuses. If you are looking up at someone in this context, you are looking at someone who takes more from you than they give back. The math is simple.
greenergood
Please read and spread the word: Trump is insinuating his evil tentacles into east coast Scotland, wrecking an environmentally sensitive area to build ‘the best golf course in the world’ (where have we read this before?), all based on the idea that his grandmother came from Scotland (West coast – islands). This guy is a complete crock of shite
http://www.trippinguptrump.com/
priscianus jr
@tomvox1:
libarbarian
@gex:
This isn’t Capitalism and these guys aren’t Capitalists.
Crony Capitalism invalidates Capitalism as much as Social Darwinism invalidates Darwinism.