Step 1:
Contract with a small business

Hire small businesses to build parts of your casinos. These aren’t big firms--they’re small, local mom-and-pop operations. The kind of folks who, if they crossed you, would probably be in a lot of trouble. Use businesses like Triad Building Specialties to install toilet partitions or Edward J. Friel Company to build cabinets. In Florida, hire a local business owned by an 82-year-old immigrant to install the chandeliers in your private club. These folks are working hard every day to feed their families -- so it would be almost caricatureishly horrible if you were to, say, deliberately try to not pay them. But who would do that?

STEP 2:
After said task is completed, don’t pay their invoice

When the job’s done, just don’t acknowledge the invoice. It’s that simple!  You may say to yourself, “well, hey, Art of the steal dot biz, that’s a jerk move! These people worked hard and deserve to be paid!”

Well see, that’s because you’re a “good person.” There’s no room for that here.

And when they come to you to say “Hey there, millionaire! You didn’t pay me!” call them in for a meeting that goes down something one that Edward Friel in Atlantic City attended:

“After submitting the final bill for the Plaza casino cabinet-building in 1984, Paul Friel said he got a call asking that his father, Edward, come to the Trump family’s offices at the casino for a meeting. There Edward, and some other contractors, were called in one by one to meet with Donald Trump and his brother, Robert Trump.

Or John Millar...also in Atlantic City.

One of the hardest hit was John Millar, a marble supplier who was owed $3.9 million.

As he was walking into a meeting with contractors to share strategies about how to deal with Trump, landscaper Herman Caucci asked him what he planned to do: Stick it out in hopes of getting all he was owed, or take cash at a discount?

"I don't know, Herman, I need the money," Caucci recalls Millar responding before the March 1990 meeting. "I don't know what's going to happen to us. We could lose everything."

They’ll show up to the meeting unsure of what to expect, but that's when you hit ‘em.

STEP 3:
Give them two options: sue, or settle for less money.

Okay, so this is the magic. The artistic part of the deal, if you will. When the contractor, who again, we should remind you, is a small business person -- probably with an adorable middle class family who depends on the income they derive from the work they do -- shows up, tell them they’ve got a choice.

1. They can sue you, and they’ll probably be so awash in legal fees that it won’t even be worth it.

Or

2. They can accept a fraction of what they’re owed.  

Look, these small businesses are just the little guy, running against your million dollar, soon-to-be-bankrupt real estate company. They’re powerless. ALL THE BETTER.

For example, in Florida:

After the wedding, Jacobsen repeatedly tried to get Trump and the resort to pay the remaining $17,000 owed to him. But the tycoon would not settle up. So Jacobsen took his story of being stiffed by Trump to the Palm Beach Post. After the article ran—it was headlined, "The Big 'I Do' Leaves Some Dues and Don'ts"—Trump berated the columnist who wrote it by phone, insisting that he hadn't paid the bill because Jacobsen had done a poor job installing the chandeliers.

Or in Atlantic City

Caucci, who himself was owed more than $500,000, says Millar agreed to take 10 cents on the dollar, but court documents suggest he got about 30 cents on the dollar over the next year. Millar is deceased. His family wouldn't respond to repeated calls for comment.

Either way, the money wasn't enough. Millar eventually had to lay off workers, shut down his business Avalon Commercial, close many of his retail stores and borrow from friends to make ends meet, according to court documents and Millar's lawyers and former employees.

Or...also in Atlantic City.

“HE ALMOST bankrupted us,” says the retired owner of a construction business on the east coast. Thirty years ago he ran a small business with around ten employees, which was hired by Donald Trump to work on an 11-month project at his Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. It was the biggest contract, by far, that the business had ever had. The builders worked as they had never done before to complete the job on time. As soon as they finished, Mr Trump stopped paying. He owed around $200,000 of a bill totalling about $700,000, a huge sum for a small company.

Hit ‘em with the hard choice.

STEP 4:
Watch the small business sink

So, you’ve told these small businesses to take pennies on the dollar of what they’re owed. A bigger company with some more clout would probably sue you--you could never get away with it. But these businesses? They’re powerless...and now broke. You get an easy savings, but the small businesses? Well...they didn’t do so well.

Take John Millar, the marble craftsman in Atlantic City.

Millar eventually had to lay off workers, shut down his business Avalon Commercial, close many of his retail stores and borrow from friends to make ends meet, according to court documents and Millar's lawyers and former employees.

Or the Cabinet Builder at his Atlantic City Harrah's.

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.”

Or another bathroom partition installer

George Jenkins, the bathroom partition man who had to lay off his brother, was shocked when Trump balked at paying the $232,000 he was owed, according to his daughter, Beth Rosser. Her father never made it out of seventh grade, she says, and built his businesses on trust, no contracts. He died in 2010.

Per a recent USA Today investigation, there’s literally hundreds more examples of Trump facing liens and lawsuits for unpaid bills.

And sure, some 82 year-old immigrant won’t be able to pay his bills. And sure, a man may have to lay off his brother.  But that’s capitalism, baby! You’re onto your next project. Sit back, relax, enjoy your millions, and don’t worry about the working families you just hosed.

The bottom line is this:

This was his strategy. He could have hired a big company to do this work, but he hired the little guy -- small businesses and vendors -- and then used his power to force them to accept pennies on the dollar of what they’re owed. His business strategy was literally taking advantage of middle class families.  As the Newark Star-Ledger put it, he’s a “master grifter.” Donald Trump talks a lot about how he’s fighting for the little guy, but at the end of the day, the only guy he’s fighting for is himself.