Trump Spreads Business Failure Far and Wide

By - Jjohn02 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46674203.

Trump has filed for corporate bankruptcy four times and believes his multiple business failures qualify him to run a country with a GDP of almost 17 trillion dollars. His business failures have not only been fodder for Democratic opponents, but his inability to make money without getting handouts from the federal government has also been cause for Republicans to complain.

At one of the Republican debates, presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina accused Trump of running up "mountains of debt" during four corporate bankruptcies.

A look at the statement by Politifact found Fiorina's statement about Trump's bankruptcies to be "mostly true."

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Carly Fiorina

Presidential candidate

Says Donald Trump was "forced to file for bankruptcy not once, not twice, four times."

In a debate. – Wednesday, September 16, 2015

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Interestingly, The Donald wanted viewers to believe his business failures were a good thing rather than a sign that he has no business running a business. During the debate, Trump said:

"Out of hundreds of companies, hundreds of deals, I used the [bankruptcy] law four times, made a tremendous thing. I’m in business. I did a very good job."

So, to Donald Trump, driving a company into the ground and using untold millions of taxpayer dollars to support his failures is a "good job."

His corporate bankruptcies have included:

• The Trump Taj Mahal in 1991
• The Trump Plaza Hotel in 1992
• Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts in 2004
• Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009

Unfortunately, Trump's quack business sense not only cost taxpayers money, but it also robbed small businesses all over the country of their livelihoods. Trump's projects have left a deep ocean of shuttered businesses that were forced to close because of rampant bankruptcies and refusals to pay even when his companies weren't in federal court begging for approval to stiff creditors, employees, and subcontractors.

While you could probably argue that Trump has been involved in quite a few business ventures, which might mean his ratio of business success to business failure is "good," no one responsible (or even partially responsible) for losing hundreds of millions of dollars over and over again could ever be considered someone doing a "very good job."

In a recent investigation by USA Today, the newspaper found that "hundreds of people" involved in Trump projects haven't been paid, and some have gone out of business as a result.

An article on the investigation revealed:

"Donald Trump often portrays himself as a savior of the working class who will 'protect your job.' But a USA TODAY NETWORK analysis found he has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades — and a large number of those involve ordinary Americans, like the Friels, who say Trump or his companies have refused to pay them."

Trump routinely brags about the size and worth of his businesses. No surprise. But he's also been accused of inflating his worth to impress business partners while simultaneously deflating the value of his properties during tax assessments.

It's worth noting that Trump has maintained a high degree of animosity for his "haters," and even once denied going bankrupt...

Haters, stop saying I went bankrupt, it is not so. I never went bankrupt...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 20, 2013

There's a good chance The Donald was trying to argue that he never underwent personal bankruptcy, but does that really matter when your name is on the corporation that files for corporate bankruptcy?

You can't simultaneously disavow responsibility and involvement in devastating business failures while also bragging about your business prowess and how you did a "good job."