Trump’s Business Record

A deep look at Donald Trump’s business record. Successes. Failures. Patterns. And the mystery of his net worth.

Beyond his flash and brash appeal, Donald Trump’s big claim to readiness for the presidency is his business record. Trump the builder. Trump the dealmaker. Trump the multi-billionaire. So how good is he, really, on the business front? His name is all over, that’s for sure. There are successes. But also failures. Those bankruptcies and more. What does that record tell us about the man and how he works in the world? This hour On Point, the business record of Donald J. Trump.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Timothy O'Brien. executive editor of Bloomberg View and Bloomberg Gadfly. Former editor and business reporter at the New York Times. Author of "TrumpNation." (@TimOBrien)

Michael Kruse, senior staff writer for POLITICO. (@michaelkruse)

Washington Post: Inside Trump’s Palm Beach castle and his 30-year fight to win over the locals — "The patriarchs of this quiet island of millionaires threw up roadblocks when Donald Trump swooped in and turned its historic oceanfront Mar-a-Lago mansion into a private club. The town council, seeing Trump as an ostentatious outsider, handed him a list of restrictions as he sought to transform the property in the 1990s. Membership, traffic, party attendance, even photography — all would be strictly limited. But Trump undercut his adversaries with a searing attack, claiming that local officials seemed to accept the established private clubs in town that had excluded Jews and blacks while imposing tough rules on his inclusive one."

Bloomberg View: Dear Mr. Trump: I'm Worth $10 Billion, Too — "Donald and I haven’t been in touch much recently. But when he announced his presidential run last month, waving a document showing a net worth of more than $8.7 billion, I paid attention. When he filed with the Federal Election Commission last week, his net worth had risen $1.3 billion over the course of a month to $10 billion. A warm glow washed over me."

POLITICO MAGAZINE: Donald Trump’s Art of the Fail — "Over these last 40 lime-lighted years, Trump has won a lot, but he has lost a lot, too—four corporate bankruptcies, two failed marriages and a vast array of money-squandering business ventures. He lost his signature Trump Shuttle airline to his lenders. His self-branded casinos in Atlantic City struggled consistently to turn profits. In each case, though, he has heeded a form of the advice he gave that day to Sprague: Never acknowledge failure. Never admit defeat."