Why Trump is so petty about the NFL

[road2perdition]

[h=3]Story highlights[/h]

• Jeff Pearlman: Trump long tried, unsuccessfully, to own an NFL team
• Being denied what he wants is key to his hostility to NFL, Pearlman writes

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<q class="el-editorial-note" style="box-sizing: border-box; quotes: none; display: block; font-style: italic; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-size: 0.933333rem; line-height: 1.42857; padding-top: 10px; color: rgb(115, 115, 115);">Jeff Pearlman is the author of seven books, including his most recent, "Gunslinger: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre." His forthcoming book is about the history of the USFL. You can follow him on Twitter and listen to his podcast, Two Writers Slinging Yang. The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.</q>

<cite class="el-editorial-source" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: CNN, "Helvetica Neue", Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700;">(CNN)</cite>"Let him buy an NFL team and then he can decide who gets fired ... He can't fire anybody and that's the funny thing about it. He just doesn't have control over us and that's what bothers him the most, I think."

— Chris Long, Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle

The three men met inside a suite in New York City's Pierre Hotel.

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There was Pete Rozelle, the NFL's longtime commissioner.
There was Donald Trump, Manhattan-based real estate mogul and owner of the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League, which was in its second year.
There was Leslie Schupak, senior managing partner at KCSA Worldwide, the USFL's marketing and public relations firm. I spoke with Schupak on multiple occasions last year as I was reporting my eighth book, a look back at the long-defunct USFL.
The meeting, held in March 1984, concerned Trump's desire to possess an NFL franchise.Although he owned the Generals and spoke publicly of his love for the USFL, Trump (according to many people who knew him) anxiously wanted to ditch the upstart for the money and fame of the bigger league. Hence, said Schupak, Trump invited Rozelle (a man he knew casually through scattered social encounters) to meet, and had Schupak -- with whom he had bonded -- tag along.

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• [h=3][/h][h=2][/h]

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How Trump is changing sports coverage 02:54



Schupak remembered it well. "They arrive, and even before Pete can stop talking on a casual basis, Donald starts his diatribe on how great he (Trump) would be for the NFL, and what it would mean to the NFL to have him as a franchise owner," he said. "Donald is going on in his typical style, telling Pete Rozelle what he believes in, why he would be wonderful. It was typical Donald, in that Rozelle couldn't get a word in."
According to Schupak, Rozelle, who died in 1996, seemed to be under the impression Trump extended the invite to discuss relations between the two leagues. When he realized what Trump was after, he turned cold and blunt. "Mr. Trump," Rozelle told him, according to Schupak, "as long as I or any of my heirs are involved in the NFL, you will never be a franchise owner in the league."
The meeting ended shortly thereafter. Not surpisingly, Trump remembered the meeting very differently, in testimony he gave in 1984 during the USFL's antitrust case against the NFL (which we will get back to shortly). Trump told jurors that Rozelle promised him an NFL franchise.
He did not get one. Donald Trump was never a franchise owner in the NFL.
When many people first heard the President's comments in Alabama about owners needing to fire those who dare kneel during the national anthem, they presumed the words stemmed from racism.

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• [h=3][/h][h=2][/h]

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Steven Mnuchin's entire CNN interview 06:32



No question, Trump has made it plain over the years where he stands. From calling for a return of the death penalty after the arrest of the Central Park Five (and continuing to believe in their guilt even after DNA exoneration) to spending five years insisting Barack Obama was a Kenyan-born Muslim, to the recent Charlottesville vileness, Trump's history with regard to African-Americans, and indeed anyone who's not white, is dreadful.
Yet if Trump's anti-NFL stance is race-driven, it is also driven by an impulse that is arguably stronger, more personal and more difficult for him to control in himself: payback.
See, Donald J. Trump does not do "no" well. He never has. In his mind, he is a winner; a champion; a "really smart" person, and a vanquisher of those who oppose him. As we have seen repeatedly, he will stomp you and pummel you if you get in the way of his goals.
Real estate empire? Check.
Reality TV dominance? Check.
Presidency? Check.
NFL owner?
Never.
Trump first tried to purchase an NFL team in 1981, when he fronted a group that offered $50 million to buy the then-Baltimore Colts from Robert Irsay. When contacted by United Press International at the time, Trump said, "I have not given any offers for the team. Neither was I part of a group that did." This was categorically untrue. Irsay simply rejected the offer.
Four years later, as he loaded the Generals with one ex-NFL star after another, Trump (according to multiple interviews I've conducted) allegedly schemed to have the USFL fold and the NFL absorb his franchise for New York City. When that dream crashed, Trump convinced his fellow USFL owners to sue the NFL for anti-trust violations. He assured his peers that a victory was in the bag -- and he was right.
A jury awarded the USFL $1. With that, it was dead after three seasons.


What Trump's NFL, Curry remarks should signal to his base


In 1988, according to the Boston Globe, Trump had an opportunity to purchase the New England Patriots for approximately $80 million. Then Trump learned he would inherit the debts of the previous ownership -- and pulled out. It remains one of the worst business decisions of his life. The organization is now worth more than $3 billion, according to Forbes.
Finally, in 2014, Trump made a hard push to buy the Buffalo Bills. He found himself bidding against Terry Pegula, a natural gas billionaire who also owned the NHL's Buffalo Sabres. The organization was valued at $870 million, and Trump offered less than a billion. When Pegula came back with $1.4 billion, Trump once again shuffled away empty handed.
He did not, however, shuffle quietly. On October 10, 2014, the Bills had a press conference to introduce their new owner. Three hundred and seventy miles away in Manhattan, Trump tweeted while he watched Pegula speak. For some, it might ring familiar...
"The only reason I bid on @buffalobills was to make sure they stayed in Buffalo, where they belong. Mission accomplished."
<twitterwidget class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" id="twitter-widget-0" data-tweet-id="520673645501636609" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 500px; position: static; visibility: visible; display: block; transform: rotate(0deg); max-width: 100%; min-width: 220px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;">

Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump





The only reason I bid on @buffalobills was to make sure they stayed in Buffalo, where they belong. Mission accomplished.
3:34 PM - Oct 10, 2014

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And then:
"Wow. @nfl ratings are down big league. Glad I didn't get the Bills. Rather be lucky than good."
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Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump





Wow. @nfl ratings are down big league. Glad I didn't get the Bills. Rather be lucky than good.
3:39 PM - Oct 10, 2014

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When Trump began his run of tweets about the NFL this past weekend, many suggested that the league was serving as a handy target for the President to dog-whistle about to his base; that, with his high-risk North Korea chest-pounding, and Jared Kushner's emails, and the Russia investigation looming, he saw the sport and its players as convenient distractions.
Truth be told, Donald Trump views the league as he does Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton and anyone who dare stand in his path.
He sees it as an enemy.

 

[road2perdition]

[FONT=&quot]This isn’t the first time Trump has picked a fight with the NFL. And last time around, he lost spectacularly.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Trump’s football adventure began in 1984, when he bought the New Jersey Generals, part of the then-new United States Football League. The USFL, as chronicled in an excellent installment of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, was envisioned by founder David Dixon as a complement to the National Football League that would play in the spring, leaving fall to the NFL. For its first three years, the strategy seemed successful.

[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But it wasn’t enough for Trump. He pushed hard to shift the USFL to a fall schedule, where the USFL – with less talent and less public awareness – would go head-to-head with the bigger league.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The decision to switch to fall play immediately crippled several USFL teams, who wouldn’t be able to compete directly with local NFL teams. The league even turned down a lifeline in the form of lucrative TV offers to broadcast spring games.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But Trump’s plan was typically audacious and risky. Rather than organically grow a new league, he hoped to force an immediate merger with the NFL, which would provide huge returns for surviving USFL team owners. That goal hinged in part on an antitrust lawsuit alleging the NFL was an unlawful monopoly.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But things didn’t go Trump’s way. While the USFL technically won the antitrust case, the jury concluded mismanagement was mostly at fault for its problems. There was no merger and no buyouts. By 1986, the USFL was finished.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Trump’s current beef with the NFL has little direct parallel with his USFL days, and most current NFL owners weren’t around back then. But Trump is more than able to hold a grudge, so you can bet the episode is on his mind.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Football fans should remember it, too — because if it weren’t for Donald Trump, we might have pro ball year-round.[/FONT]

 

[road2perdition]

Trump is not racist caz he love all the peoples. Also, its the liberals that be the racist caz they not like

the white people much, unless they be gay or something that is. Just my opinion! Trump also likes the

football games caz it make him be happy! cheersgif<strike></strike>

Dude, you have to learn English. You're not funny you're just embarrassing lol. Maybe if I was in junior high I'd find you slightly comical. But more in a I'm laughing at you kind of way.

Come on, let's see it! One person to admit that Donald's petty and vindictive behavior is the reason behind his grudge against the NFL instead of patriotism like some falsely believe. Show us you can be objective and call a spade a spade. Otherwise you smell of bias and an agenda.

 

[Coldweather]

Dude, you have to learn English. You're not funny you're just embarrassing lol. Maybe if I was in junior high I'd find you slightly comical. But more in a I'm laughing at you kind of way.

Come on, let's see it! One person to admit that Donald's petty and vindictive behavior is the reason behind his grudge against the NFL instead of patriotism like some falsely believe. Show us you can be objective and call a spade a spade. Otherwise you smell of bias and an agenda.

Someone learn me my English in school and I did good in English, maybe not as gooder as you be in English but I be good. I believe that Trump is the best thing that happened to America caz he cut the taxes for the poor peoples and gave them jobs not just money. Trump Rocks! cheersgif

 

[road2perdition]

Someone learn me my English in school and I did good in English, maybe not as gooder as you be in English but I be good. I believe that Trump is the best thing that happened to America caz he cut the taxes for the poor peoples and gave them jobs not just money. Trump Rocks! cheersgif

lol...Okay okay. I agree Trump is good for America but I want his petty vendetta against the NFL isn't patriotism. That's the point here.

 

[Coldweather]

lol...Okay okay. I agree Trump is good for America but I want his petty vendetta against the NFL isn't patriotism. That's the point here.

​Oh, never mind. Thank you. cheersgif

 

[Greenbacks]

He's jealous that Trump has done more then the Hershey Bar

 

[mplastered]

This guy is a double talker

Another BS write up.

Bingo

 

[road2perdition]

He's jealous that Trump has done more then the Hershey Bar

I'm thrilled that Trump has done more than Hershey bar actually. Try again though...

 

[road2perdition]

He's jealous that Trump has done more then the Hershey Bar

Well I don't know if he's done more yet but he's on the right track. Jealous? Why would I be jealous lol. Another delusional fantasy of a extremist righty.

I have nothing invested in Obama or Trump. Only thing was that Obama was a Democrat so there's that but nothing to lose sleep over. Obama served 8 proud years. Trump has a long way to go before he can boast anything. And he's not taking over after a blundering Bush.

Again...Trump isn't your President alone he's mine too. Way to go Trump! I have always maintained that when he was elected he should be given the support of all Americans. So don't know where you get that I am hurting that he's President. It hardly affected me when Obama was in power for 8 years and hardly affects me that Donald is President now. You guys get too worked up over that kind of stuff.

I'll still call a spade a spade though. His petty grudge against the NFL is not patriotism but stemming from a major loss to the NFL years ago.

 

[road2perdition]

Not one person on this forum had the decency to acknowledge that it's Trump's petty and vindictive grudge not his patriotism. Not one. This is why the extremist rightys have no credibility and why the flock together in this room where they can back one another's nonsense up lol.

Okay. Well. That's awesome.

 

[Michelangelo]

Sorry man. It's only small minds that would think that a guy of Trump's stature would harbor a serious grudge over something that happened over 30 years ago. The guy is a billionaire AND President of the United States. He cares about the country that allowed him to work hard and smart to become fabulously wealthy. He is a patriot and doesn't like it when the clueless disrespect the flag and the anthem. I don't either, and it has nothing to do with any deal I had thirty years ago that went bad.

Your argument is unsupported by nothing but your bad conjecture.

 

[road2perdition]

Sorry man. It's only small minds that would think that a guy of Trump's stature would harbor a serious grudge over something that happened over 30 years ago. The guy is a billionaire AND President of the United States. He cares about the country that allowed him to work hard and smart to become fabulously wealthy. He is a patriot and doesn't like it when the clueless disrespect the flag and the anthem. I don't either, and it has nothing to do with any deal I had thirty years ago that went bad.

Your argument is unsupported by nothing but your bad conjecture.

On the contrary, it is the small minds that don't acknowledge how petty he is.

Also, the smart and wealthy, hard working Donald that you speak of was born into wealth. He wasn't some Joe off the street that built his way up from a small business. Not to mention he had many failed businesses and filed bankruptcy numerous times. Yet you believe he's an exceptional businessman. Okay, your choice.

He is a patriot. I believe that. But this NFL agenda has to to with a petty grudge not his patriotism. If you don't believe he can be that outrageously petty and vindictive then you don't watch a lot of tv or been in America very long. Talk to some old time New Yorkers that know how petty he has always been. Or I'll list a long list of examples. Look at his twitter wars. You tell me this guy isn't petty?

Come on man. At least be objective.

Your post is inaccurate, uninformed, naive and not supporting by any facts. Whereas I have shown a strong and realistic motive behind his actions. Facts. Not to mention a character background that is conducive to my stance.

Your post is littered with inaccuracies. You state he benefited from a country that allowed him to work hard and smart to become fabulously wealthy but he was born that way. Even then he had multiple bankruptcies and numerous failed businesses.

You want to respect somebody respect that average or poor American or immigrants that come here, get one shot at it (1 bankruptcy would cripple them and end their chances at success and wealth nevermind numerous bankruptcies) and work hard and invest wisely, start a small business and get wealthy. Guys that didn't have several lives to play with and if they lost it was game over.

Respectfully. I completely disagree with your post. I do agree he is a patriot though. But his patriotism isn't behind his petty vendetta against the NFL. If you don't believe he can be that petty you don't know his history. You would lose this argument against me I assure you.

 

[Buster]

Another mentally ill shut in mental midget that tries to degrade voters with the fact that they did not go to college...Yet he is so stupid he cannot even cut/paste an article correctly on a website...

 

[Enfuego]

Another mentally ill shut in mental midget that tries to degrade voters with the fact that they did not go to college...Yet he is so stupid he cannot even cut/paste an article correctly on a website...

Haha.

 

[road2perdition]

Trump Has Been Losing to the NFL for Decades

His NFL competitor failed. So did his bid to buy the Buffalo Bills. President Trump’s game remains selling his own imagined superiority to everyone and everything.

HARRY SIEGEL
TOMAS RIOS



09.26.17 5:00 AM ET



So President Donald Trump has taken back NBA champion Stephen Curry’s invitation to the White House, had his press secretary declare that it was a “fireable offense” for ESPN anchor Jemele Hill to call him a white supremacist in a conversation on Twitter, and called on National Football League team owners to fire players who refuse to stand for the national anthem. He also called those players he wants fired “sons of bitches,” because I guess he needed a heat check.
In each instance, the target of Trump’s petty ire was a black sports figure publicly rejecting his Make America Great Again siren song at a time when members of marginalized groups are speaking up about the existential threat posed by a president appealing to the surging tide of white supremacy. It is quite the trick for a president to publicly belittle African Americans while ignoring freshly ravaged Latino Americans in blacked-out Puerto Rico, but Trump somehow makes it seem as natural as jumping on Twitter to respond to whatever mess Fox News just reported.


But Trump is an equal opportunity grudge-holder and score-settler, whose call to fans to boycott the NFL is a direct shot at the wealthy white businessmen—many of whom supported his campaign—who rejected him from their club.
It was less than three years ago that Trump tried and failed to buy a NFL franchise. “The @nfl games are so boring now that actually, I’m glad I didn’t get the [Buffalo] Bills. Boring games, too many flags, too soft,” is how the Donald summed up his failure, which was really just a matter of Buffalo Sabres owner Paul Pegula outbidding him by a reported $400,000. “Football has become soft like our country has become soft,” said Trump on the 2016 campaign trail, clearly showing none of the classic behavioral traits of a rejected paramour.
Trump’s salty broadsides on the NFL, however, are more than just the reflexive stumping of a man who never met a failure he couldn’t recast into a confirmation of his own self-proclaimed superiority. About 34 years before he tried to buy into the league, Trump tried to go head-to-head with it. That playwent about as well as his bankrupted casinos, or his presidency so far.
The inaugural 1983 season of the United States Football League made clear the enormous challenge the upstart league had taken on. Despite solid ratings on ESPN and ABC and a league-wide average attendance of 25,000 per game, the league took on six new owners after its first season in order to offset losses via franchise fees. That was its first mistake. The second was allowing Donald Trump to purchase the New Jersey Generals franchise from Oklahoma oil magnate J. Walter Duncan.



“If God had wanted football in the spring he wouldn’t have created baseball,” said Trump soon after joining the minor league owners’ club. You see, even though Trump had bought an ownership stake in a spring football league, he considered the idea of spring-time football an unacceptable nod in the direction of the NFL’s primacy. All through Trump’s first season, he aggressively lobbied his fellow owners to switch to a fall schedule and challenge the NFL on its own terms despite the fact that the USFL’s on-field product was little more than a second-rate NFL. The idea, for Trump at least, was that the USFL could force a merger and the owners of the more valuable franchises would Trojan horse their way into the NFL owners’ club.

By preying on the league’s more weak-willed and less financially solvent owners, Trump eventually got the fight he so publicly thirsted after. The league switched to a fall schedule in 1986 even as it fell apart under the burden of its debts and mismanagement. Attendance and ratings quickly hit the basement. ABC withheld rights fees and ESPN demanded a contract renegotiation after the league violated its deals with both by moving franchises to smaller media markets in order to avoid direct competition with the NFL and pave the way for the hoped-for merger that would never even come close to fruition.


With the walls of his own hubris closing in on him, Trump resorted to anti-monopoly litigation against the NFL. He hired Harvey D. Myerson, a lawyer with little in the way of antitrust litigation experience but who mirrored Trump’s own boisterous persona, to lead the case. A jury ruled that the NFL did engage in monopolistic practices against the USFL and ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. Damages, after standard antitrust trebling and interest, totaled $3.76. Even Trump’s victory came with a public indignity that made him out to be just a bum in the eyes of the public. LeBron James surely agrees.
The USFL ceased operations in 1987. This came after the league’s owners turned down a combined $245 million in rights deals totalling $67 million annually from ESPN and ABC to pursue its quixotic litigation against the NFL. Donald Trump never even got his wish of going head-to-head with the NFL on Sundays as the league’s financial collapse was so rapid that it couldn’t afford to put on games for the planned fall schedule of 1986. It remains the most thorough and public failure of Donald Trump’s life and it’s quite obvious that he hasn’t forgotten a second of that years-long testament to the hopelessness of tilting at windmills.
In the same years that Trump—who boasted about shaking down New York Giants great Lawrence Taylor for nearly a million dollars in 1984 even as he told the IRS he’d made no income at all that year—was bringing down his fellow USFL owners in his failed bid to bring down the NFL, he was regularly palling around with black athletes and entertainers.
“People ask me, ‘Is he a racist?’” said Al Sharpton, who knew Trump socially when the then-real estate developer was often seen with heavyweight boxers and entertainers he needed to fight and play in his Atlantic City venues before those went bust. “It’s worse than that. He’ll use racism if it suits his purpose.”


“His obsession as far as I could tell is that he wanted to beat [Las Vegas hotel and casino magnate] Steve Wynn and have the big events in A.C. like they had in Vegas. And he couldn’t do that without black entertainers, but now all of a sudden those same guys are villains and pariahs. They’re whatever’s useful to him,” Sharpton, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination himself in 2004, told The Daily Beast in a phone interview on Monday.
“It’s no accident he’s in Huntsville, Alabama calling black mothers ‘bitches.’ Here’s a guy who stood by Mike Tyson” when the heavyweight was accused and then convicted of rape “calling fine, upstanding athletes sons of bitches because they are protesting police brutality and racial inequities.”
“He was never a very personable guy, but he’d come to the events and sit there and act like he was enjoying it. He was always a kind of guy, like Don King, who wanted to dominate the room, so it wasn’t like you’d sit and talk with him about life but he’d certainly socialize,” said Sharpton, who recalled that “when Mike Tyson bought a house in Connecticut and had a housewarming, I went and Trump was there but it was business. You’d meet guys like that all the time, who’d be there because they wanted to book the artists. It was business.”
It still is, says Sharpton. “I don’t think he believed it when when he was being friendly to all of us and I don’t think he believes now. I think he’ll do whatever works for him, and that makes it more dangerous.”
And so here we are, with a president calling for boycotts of the NFL while mostly ignoring the fact that athletes in every major sport are lining up to take public pot-shots at him.
While Trump will gladly play to the darkside of identity politics, it’s obvious that he’s also using his presidency to settle a decades-old grudge with the NFL. Let that wash over you: The most powerful man in the world is using his office to get even with a sports league by… being mean to its players and owners on Twitter?
The sad part is that it all makes a sick sort of sense. Donald Trump, a man bred to carry family grudges of every sort across time and space, has dedicated his life to sticking his name on gaudy monuments to self-promotion lest he ever consider his innumerable list of personal and professional failures.
After decades of failing up, Donald Trump wants for nothing, yet still feels he is due a certain status and acclaim, and is angered when those are questioned. That doesn’t make him a white supremacist, per se, but it is the shorthand demand of every garden-variety white supremacist: The correction of a social order that they believe has ceased to sufficiently favor them at the expense of others. It is an ideology based on a grudge against the other — other Americans! — that can only be settled through a radical restructuring of society to make things great again.
“I think his lounge act resonated because a lot of people who feel disconnected and left out misunderstood the chip on his shoulder, which is there because the real elites never accepted him,” said Sharpton. “He’s not one of the people left out—he just shares a common enemy with them, and I think he played to that but his policies are going to hurt the people who supported his act as much as they’re going to hurt us.”
This isn’t four-dimensional chess. Power is nothing more than a means of displaying power to Trump, and he is now the most powerful human on the face of the Earth.
The game is over for him. All that he has left is lording his victory over everyone who has or ever will dare question his primacy. That’s why he’s just as comfortable calling for a black female sports anchor to be fired as he is calling for the boycott of a league ruled by white men who rejected his bid to join their club. Both are just grudges to be settled and nothing more.

 

[road2perdition]

Another mentally ill shut in mental midget that tries to degrade voters with the fact that they did not go to college...Yet he is so stupid he cannot even cut/paste an article correctly on a website...

Strike a nerve with the college degree issue so much that you nitpicked a hastily done and botched copy and paste job? Lol. Well done sir! You deserve a yellow sticker! Good show!

Lol. Mental midget indeed.

 

[road2perdition]

Another mentally ill shut in mental midget that tries to degrade voters with the fact that they did not go to college...Yet he is so stupid he cannot even cut/paste an article correctly on a website...

by Tom Murse
Updated January 19, 2018

Donald Trump has portrayed himself as a successful businessman who has amassed a net worth of as much as $10 billion. But he has also led some of his companies into bankruptcy, maneuvers he says were designed to restructure their massive debt.
Critics have cited the Trump corporate bankruptcies as examples of his recklessness and inability to manage, but the real-estate developer, casino operator and former reality-television star says his use of federal law to protect his interests illustrates his sharp business acumen.
"I have used the laws of this country just like the greatest people that you read about every day in business have used the laws of this country, the chapter laws, to do a great job for my company, my employees, myself and my family,” Trump said in August 2015.
The New York Times, which conducted an analysis of regulatory reviews, court records and security filings, found otherwise, however. It reported in 2016 that Trump "put up little of his own money, shifted personal debts to the casinos and collected millions of dollars in salary, bonuses and other payments."
"The burden of his failures," according to the newspaper, "fell on investors and others who had bet on his business acumen."
[h=3]6 Corporate Bankruptcies[/h]Trump has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy for his companies six times. Three of the casino bankruptcies came during the recession of the early 1990s and the Gulf War, both of which contributed to hard times in Atlantic City, New Jersey's gambling facilities. He also entered a Manhattan hotel and two casino holding companies into bankruptcy.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows companies to restructure or wipe away much of their debt to other companies, creditors, and shareholders while remaining in business but under the supervision of a bankruptcy court. Chapter 11 is often called "reorganization" because it allows the business to emerge from the process more efficient and on good terms with its creditors.
One point of clarification: Trump has never filed personal bankruptcy, only corporate bankruptcy related to his casinos in Atlantic City. “I have never gone bankrupt,” Trump has said.
Here is a look at the six Trump corporate bankruptcies. The details are a matter of public record and have been widely published by the news media and even discussed by the president himself.

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[h=3]1991: Trump Taj Mahal[/h]

Trump opened the $1.2 billion Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City in April 1990. One year later, in the summer of 1991, it sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection because it was unable to generate enough gambling revenue to cover the massive costs of building the facility, particularly amid a recession.
Trump was forced to relinquish half of his ownership in the casino and sell off his yacht and his airline. The bondholders were awarded lower interest payments.
Trump's Taj Mahal was described as the eighth wonder of the world and the largest casino in the world. The casino covered 4.2 million square feet on 17 acres of land. Its operations were said to have cannibalized the revenue of Trump's Plaza and Castle casinos.
"Your wish is our command. ... Our wish is that your experience here be filled with magic and enchantment," the resort staff promised at the time. More than 60,000 people a day visited the Taj Mahal in its opening days.
The Taj Mahal emerged from bankruptcy within weeks of its filing but was later closed.

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[h=3]1992: Trump Castle Hotel & Casino[/h]

The Castle Hotel & Casino entered bankruptcy in March 1992 and had the most difficulty of Trump's Atlantic City properties in covering its operational costs. The Trump Organization relinquished half of its holdings in the Castle to the bondholders. Trump opened the Castle in 1985. The casino remains in operation under new ownership and a new name, the Golden Nugget.

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[h=3]1992: Trump Plaza Casino[/h]

The Plaza Casino was one of two Trump casinos in Atlantic City to enter bankruptcy in March 1992. The other was the Castle Hotel & Casino. The 39-story, 612-room Plaza opened on the Atlantic City boardwalk in May 1984 after Trump struck a deal to build the casino with Harrah’s Entertainment. Trump Plaza closed in September 2014, putting more than 1,000 people out of work.

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[h=3]1992: Trump Plaza Hotel[/h]

Trump's Plaza Hotel was more than $550 million in debt when it entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1992. Trump gave up a 49 percent stake in the company to lenders, as well as his salary and his day-to-day role in its operations.
The hotel, overlooking Central Park in Manhattan from its location on Fifth Avenue, entered bankruptcy because it could not pay its annual debt service payments. Trump bought the hotel for about $407 million in 1988. He later sold a controlling stake in the property, which remains in operation.

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[h=3]2004: Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts[/h]

Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, a holding company for Trump's three casinos, entered Chapter 11 in November 2004 as part of a deal with bondholders to restructure $1.8 billion of debt.
Earlier that year, the holding company posted a first quarter loss of $48 million, double its losses for the same quarter the previous year. The company said its gambling take was down nearly $11 million across all three casinos.
The holding company emerged from bankruptcy less than a year later, in May 2005, with a new name: Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. The Chapter 11 restructuring reduced the company's debt by about $600 million and cut interest payments by $102 million annually. Trump relinquished the majority control to bondholders and gave up his title of chief executive officer, according to The Press of Atlantic City newspaper.

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[h=3]2009: Trump Entertainment Resorts[/h]


Trump Entertainment Resorts, the casino holding company, entered Chapter 11 in February 2009 amid The Great Recession. Atlantic City casinos were also hurting, according to published reports, because of new competition from across the state line in Pennsylvania, where slot machines had come online and were drawing gamblers.

So somebody said in another thread that they admire Donald's hard work and smart business, taking advantage of America's great opportunities. He took advantage alright. He took advantage of the laws and loopholes to leave his investors hanging and filing bankruptcy 6 times! (and he has shown off about it too lol) Wow he's a real smart businessman. Not to mention the fact that he wasn't a self made man to begin with. He started off wealthy. So much for that.

This was just to enlighten the guy who was admiring him for his smarts and hard work...riiiight.

How's that for copying and pasting buster or whatever your name was. I sure struck a nerve with you about the college degree bit....I even center aligned this one for your viewing pleasure....

:howdy:

 

[road2perdition]

Petty and a bad businessman. Thank God for bankruptcies and becoming President to fill his pockets through corruption. Lol. Not to mention uneducated and racist Republicans that he played to get in office....

 

[road2perdition]

I can admit when I'm wrong. Yet not one Republican has acknowledged that this was a score to settle for Donald. A petty and vindictive grudge for his big failure and loss against the NFL. He will lose again too. Like a snake waiting in the grass he saw a weakness and he jumped at it to bite. You really think it was his patriotism knowing his ego and stubborn personality all these decades? Not to mention his history with the NFL?

Luckily he can't fuck with NFL or sports. American's love their sports and even if some stop watching the leagues are going nowhere. The players are going nowhere.

I expected this. Not one person had the balls to admit it. This was pure vindictive, petty behavior on Donald's part. The NFL prevailed before and will now. His divide and conquer scheme didn't work. He wrecked his businesses, he wrecked his own football league with his bad business ideas and it remains to be seen how he'll wreck America but at least he's filling his pockets with his corruption and conflict of interest business dealings.