I’m Confused

Forbes says Trump is a billionaire:

21/ We'll start, again, inside Trump Tower. In 2019, it produced a net operating income of $13.3 million, as you can see on the document below. pic.twitter.com/LmjwfCQkSc

— Dan Alexander (@DanAlexander21) September 28, 2020

But that’s not what the NYT report says at all:

I mean... this guy is a better burgermeister than either a businessman or a president pic.twitter.com/pDgRkYj9ai

— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) September 29, 2020

And while Forbes notes the Net Operating Income (NOI) is where the NYT analysis goes wrong (so far? NYT reporting has just begun), @Diogenes” argues RE valuation is NOI/value (so, another wrinkle):

(6) Even if most of his NOI is from office buildings, it’s hard to see them worth more than $700-800M in today’s market. The hotels and golf courses are at best worth another $200-300M. See this(from 2016) on the 1.1M sq ft 40 Wall Street, Trump’s biggest office property. pic.twitter.com/o75ejd4vwY

— Diogenes (@WallStCynic) September 28, 2020

And now the next (not other; there are more to come) revelation (or just evidence of what was largely known) is the fact Trump got $400 million from Daddy, but was nearly broke when TV 📺 came calling.

Tax Records Reveal How Fame Gave Trump a $427 Million Lifeline - The New York Times https://t.co/jgxloSmivW

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 29, 2020

According to this article, Trump earned $230 million marketing his name after “Tge Apprentice,” and this was a major source of income for several years. What kind of billionaire real estate mogul has to do that?  This is a guy who needed a TV show to pay his bills and who ran a casino into the ground and who set up a charity just so he could steal from it. How was he ever a billionaire?

(And yes, feel free to read all the Twitter threads 🧵 for the full analyses of each author. I feel like I’m listening to blind men describe an elephant. And then NPR today reported on it as if Trump had merely used the tax laws cleverly. You know, when only 1 “rich guy” does it, and other rich guys don’t, it ain’t because Trump has clever lawyers. By now we know he doesn’t. Maybe the stories of Trump’s wealth ain’t just so, NPR? Maybe?)