Posted By: coeur-de-lion
Re: This is not a good deflection . . . .
YOU started the discussion of value by pointing out how much Trump ran over budget building the Trump tower.
My point -- that you ignored -- was that Trump was an incompetent manager and "builder" who knew very little about construction and building. Either he incompetently estimated the cost of construction (DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO PRODUCE A REALISTIC BUDGET - see below) or he incompetently managed the construction or both. Res had to defy several of Trump's change orders as too costly or too stupid during construction. THAT was my point. The TT should have cost $100 M but Trump mismanaged it up to $200.
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Trump can't do Realistic Budgets:
1. Casino experts warned Trump about overbuilding in Atlantic City. One expert warned him that he needed to allocate more space to the small gambler (the main source of casino profit) and less space to the whales and Trump ignored him and built out half-ass backwards. Trump installed EXPENSIVE "My Precious" chandeliers and glitz and glitter all over the place. The same expert said that the casino would make money for the 2-month Grand Opening and then never again show a profit because of the enormous debt Trump incurred at high interest rates and the cannibalization that harm all of his casinos.
The analyst published that in his financial report. Trump sued and forced his employer to fire him, which they did. The result? Two months of profit and ZERO profitable months thereafter. The analyst sued for damages and won.
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2. Trump OVER paid for the Plaza Hotel and he admitted it. Experts warned him that he was planning to spend too much money on glitzy renovations. He ignored them and installed MORE glitzy, expensive "My Precious" chandeliers. The Trump Plaza was never profitable and became another one of Trump's bankruptcies.
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3. Trump Shit-tle, Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, Trump University, ...
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"Hey, Imp. Your posts are too long."
THE HISTORY OF TRUMP'S BUSINESS FAILURES IS TOO LONG.
Brief summary: If Trump had invested the $413 M he inherited from his father in Index Funds, he would be worth MORE today than he currently claims to be worth. EVERYTHING TRUMP TOUCHES DIES. (Including the Republican Party.)
Now you want to switch the valuation to how much of the building Trump STILL owns?
YOU are the one who raised the issue of the CURRENT value. Your point was to show that the OVER budget TT still increased in value. Point taken. Did you stop to consider that an ON budget or UNDER budget TT would have been an even smarter move?
The aggregate value of the building includes ALL of the space, regardless of who owns it. Trump has operational control, but there is a lot of space that he sold outright to residents and no longer owns.
Forbes calculated the PART of the tower owned by Trump at $471 million. Obviously, the ownership of each individual apartment that does not belong to Trump belongs to someone else, and it would be inappropriate to try to include that additional value in the part of the building owned and operated by Trump.
I don't have the Forbes article so I don't know what they were or were not estimating. The cost for someone to buy the ENTIRE building from top to bottom, including buying out the condo owners? YOU INCLUDED the value of all 263 condos in YOUR estimate. This disagreement won't be settled w/o more detailed info about the various estimates.
Trump still owns the retail space, so why do you have an issue with him selling merchandise within that retail space.
The examples taken from the wikipedia article were just SOME of the abuses that show that Trump doesn't give a flying fuck about contracts, regulations, and so on. In order to get a tax break, he agreed to the allocation of some public spaces which included the benches. UNILATERALLY, Trump decided to remove the benches and put in Trump merch instead. HE VIOLATED HIS CONTRACT WITH THE CITY OF NEW YORK. **THAT** was the point. (He installed a flag pole at Mar-a-Log that violated local zoning laws. I forget how that was settled. And MANY other "I'm above the law" violations.
The ADA attorneys shake down everyone who has even the smallest violation. Obviously, it was cheaper to pay the fine than to lose the revenue, just like the millions of Democrats who paid the Obamacare penalty because it was cheaper than paying the exorbitant premiums.
You are thinking of Lauren Boebert who I posted about the other day. For three years before entering Congress, her family did not have health insurance.
You seem overly obsessed with the small shit. This just shows that you and the Dems are always grasping at straws to try to make others believe that Trump is a lot worse than he is. I don't blame you. If was a Biden fan, I would probably do the same thing, but of course, I would never be a fan of someone who's mind is not lucid.
I reply with specific rebuttals to the grandiose but succinct LIES that you and willy and Lost and others post.
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It is currently the House Republicans who are obsessed with "small shit" while important legislation languishes. Boebert was conducting a Congressional investigation into whether public urination in DC is a crime or not while there were mass shootings going on.
http://twitter.com/AZ_Brittney/status/1641517517960278016 Lauren Boebert is more concerned with public urination than gun violence.
(Just citing a twiitter quote instead of any of a dozen lengthy articles on Boebert's BIG ISSUE.)
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Comer is fixated on ~$20 M of income income that Hunter! Hunter! Hunter! over several years but has ZERO interest in $4 B that Kushner received from Middle East governments that can be directly tied to such Presidential decisions as the Saudi Arabia blockage of Qatar. Kushner's management fee on his Middle East investment fund will be more than $25 M per year, a percentage deemed to be double the standard rate on similar investment funds. (I guess the Saudis just like Kushner for all that he did for them while he was in the WH.) Just the "small shit."