Donald Trump: Bad business that’s bad for you.  

Working families haven’t had a raise in years. Our economy is growing, but for millions around the country, they’re not feeling it. For the middle class, the stakes in this election couldn’t be higher.

Or steaks. Steaks too. 

Yes, that guy hawking steaks wants  to run the economy. How’s he making the sale? By trying to convince you of his business acumen--his mastery of “The Art of the Deal.” 

Here’s the problem: he was bad at it. Sometimes he was bad at it in that he made a lot of money while hurting a lot of people. But most of the time, he was just bad at it.

How bad? Here’s what people who know stuff used to say:

 4 People Who Think Donald Trump Is Bad At His Job 

Why would they get that impression?

Well, first…

Want to know how to increase your wealth faster than Donald Trump? Throw your money in a Vanguard account…and leave it. According to the Associated Press, Donald Trump’s wealth has grown 300% since 1987. And really, good for him. That’s great. 

Except the S&P 500--an index of the top 500 publicly traded companies has grown 1336% in that same time period. 

Heck, even if you compare Trump with other wealthy folks...his wealth grew by a smaller amount. 

Sad. 

We’re not here to begrudge Donald Trump’s mediocre success. Good for him. But here’s the thing: Donald Trump is a below-average successful businessman who got rich by hurting a lot of people.  

He’s Mitt Romney but bad at his job. 

For just one example, let’s go to Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Atlantic City

This New York Times headline pretty much says it all.

It’s a long article, and it’s worth the read, but here’s pretty much what you need to know.  

Donald Trump’s Casinos were pretty bad at making money. 

Between 1997 and 2002, revenue at Donald Trump’s Atlantic City casinos fell by 1%. Non-Trump Casinos averaged an 18% rise. 

According to the Times, if Trump had matched his competitors, he probably could have turned a profit. Instead, his casino company never logged a profitable year. Which has a lot to do with why…

Trump Drove his Casinos into Bankruptcy...four times. 

Take it from one of his investors…

“People underestimated Donald Trump’s ability to pillage the company. He drove these companies into bankruptcy by his mismanagement, the debt and his pillaging.”

–Sebastian Pignatello, who once invested $500,000 in Trump Casinos.

Or his investment bank…

“The Trump name does not connote high-quality amenities and first-class service in the casino industry. Rather, the failure to pay one’s debts, a company that has lost money every year, and properties in need of significant deferred maintenance and lagging behind their competitors.”

–Lawyers for Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Trump’s investment bank. 

Honestly, we’re not even sure how it’s possible to lose money running a casino. It’s a casino!

His Dad had to bail him out once.

In one deal, Fred Trump had to bail his son out...by buying $3.3 Million in poker chips.

By December 1990, when Mr. Trump needed to make an $18.4 million interest payment, his father, Fred C. Trump, sent a lawyer to the Castle to buy $3.3 million in chips, to provide him with an infusion of cash. The younger Mr. Trump made the payment, but the Casino Control Commission fined the Castle $65,000 for what had amounted to an illegal loan.

(Okay, this is being a little generous to Donald – he’s been bailed out by his family multiple times. We just know you don’t have all the time in the world to read this).

THE BANKS EVEN HAD TO LEGALLY LIMIT HIS SPENDING

Seriously. Donald Trump was on a monthly allowance so he’d be forced to pay his debts.

The poor baby.

Here’s the thing: while Trump was being bailed out by banks, who limited his personal spending to a...paltry...$450,000 per month, he was still not paying small businesses, who struggled to recoup their losses and in some cases went under. 

Trump Hurt a Lot of Small Businesses

As part of his bankruptcy filings, Trump restructured his debts...on the backs of the small businesses he contracted. Here’s just one of the dozens of business owners in the area who were affected.

Beth Rosser of West Chester, Pa., is still bitter over what happened to her father, whose company Triad Building Specialties nearly collapsed when Mr. Trump took the Taj into bankruptcy. It took three years to recover any money owed for his work on the casino, she said, and her father received only 30 cents on the dollar.

It goes beyond just his bankruptcies: Trump made shorting small businesses part of his plan. 

In the 1980’s, Trump contracted Edward J. Friel Company to do woodwork in the Harrah’s at Trump Plaza. He shorted the company almost $84,000 on a $400,000 contract, which according to Friel’s grandson, “began the demise” of the company. 

The unpaid bill took a huge chunk out of the bottom line of the company that Edward ran to take care of his wife and five kids. ‘The worst part wasn’t dealing with the Trumps,’ Paul Friel said. After standing up to Trump, Friel said the family struggled to get other casino work in Atlantic City. ‘There’s tons of these stories out there,’ he said.  The Edward J. Friel Co. filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 5, 1989.  Says the founder's grandson: ‘Trump hits everybody.’

And while there are countless similar stories, these businesses often would have no real legal recourse.  In 1987, Trump hired Eric Silverstein’s sign-painting company to paint for the opening of Trump Plaza. It was an $800,000 contract, and according to Silverstein, Trump refused to pay any more than 50% of it. He didn’t have the funds to sue, and he took the loss.

The Bottom Line: HE’S MAKING MONEY OFF OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU

Donald Trump is a fundamentally bad businessman, and to the extent he has made money, he’s done it in part by hurting middle class families and small businesses. His bankruptcies have left contractors and small businesses holding the bag.

This is a key point for how Trump views the world: all that matters is his bottom line. He doesn’t care if he crushes a small cabinet maker or if, overall, projects fail spectacularly to get there. Donald Trump has tried to take advantage of every small business, every hand out, and every bankruptcy law he could. And while this may make him a below-average successful real-estate developer, it would make him a pretty awful President. 

He’s already talked about defaulting on our national debt, which would cause an unprecedented financial crisis. The kind of thinking he used to become a mediocre businessman is the kind of thinking that would ultimately leave you holding the bag. And his economic acumen seems to be just as poorly thought out as his business acumen. If we listened to Trump’s economic plans, a new analysis says we’d be barreling straight toward a recession that would cost 3.5 million jobs.

So how does the way he got rich influence his policy proposals?  It’ll sound familiar. They all seek to help billionaires – and millionaires like Donald Trump--at the expense of working families. We’ll have more on that soon.