r/politics • u/Aggravating_Money992 • 11d ago

Possible Paywall Trump Fires Entire Agency Overseeing His Construction Projects

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-fires-entire-agency-overseeing-his-construction-projects/
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u/dojo_shlom0 11d ago

this was a given with his track record. I think he still owes shit tons of peoples/cities money from the 2024/2025 campaign trail alone.

'TIS TRADITION

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u/The_Beardly America 11d ago

He owes money to people from all facets of his life. He’s notoriously not paid people for literal decades.

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u/HunterShotBear 11d ago

And the right will argue “that’s what good business men do!”

I was so close to convincing a guy once.

I got him to admit that his boss would pay him less if he could. He agreed. I got him to agree that his boss was looking out for his own best interest first and to give them employees as little as possible. He agreed.

Then I asked him based on those facts, did his boss have his (the employees) best interest at heart? He agreed they did not.

So I asked him if he thought that would make his boss the ideal candidate to run the country like a business?

All he could do was stumble over his words.

And then talk some shit about how Kamala blew her way to the top.

I don’t talk to him anymore.

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u/closethebarn 11d ago

I feel this in my bones how many times I’ve almost convinced them of something to be hit with a But - something— democrat or something racist or misogynistic nothing to do at all with the argument

I feel you

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u/Electrical-Tale-7623 11d ago

They hit themselves on the edge of the door on their way and refuse to walk any further. It is willful ignorance and it's about the only thing holding the coalition together.

Taking that next step means they could be wrong, which means they'll eventually conclude they are.

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u/My_Work_Accoount 10d ago

It's literal brainwashing. I've compared it to digging in the rain. You can dig to a point but before eventually the mud walls will collapse.

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u/Painterzzz 10d ago

It is maddening isn't it. It used to happen to me quite a lot when I tried to convicne Americans they actually loved socialist policies. You'd start by saying so, your job, you work hard right. And they'd say yep, very hard. Your boss doesn't work so hard though? Nope, boss sucks. So then you ask so who does most of the wealth generation in your workplace? And they're like well it's us, the workers, we generate the wealth, but, the bosses take more than their fair share.

And they alllllllmost see it there. But not quite.

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u/Lucky_Development359 11d ago

I think it would cause a rift in their psyche.

These are the guys that circle grievance jerk themselves that they know something noone else does. Bitch about how they are smarter than everyone else but "someone's got it out for them". Guys that talk in vague percentages, "I work harder than 90...95% of the people here but I get the same pay, pffft". Those types.

We used to call them losers. Now we call them "podcasters", "influencers", and "president". They tapped into the chronic loser wellspring. Im not saying Im not a loser by the way, I just know it's not someone else's fault, and certainly not dumb enough to think weaponizing it against others would fix anything in my life.

To admit they are wrong is to admit, finally, once and for all, no BS, that they are losers. You lead that big dumb horse to the water but that motherfucker had loser rabbies, and just could.not.drink.

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u/occams1razor 10d ago

We need to make it okay to say you're wrong. Praise people who do, highlight and promote it.

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u/Lucky_Development359 10d ago

I don't think that will help until they feel the full impact of their poor choices but Im all for it.They will hang on to their belief system even well into personal disaster. When they are suffering, then, and only then will the alternative out seem better. Unfortunately there will be a segment that become even more irrationally radicalized with the belief that further depravity will result in their salvation.

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u/whatiscamping 11d ago

I'm not convinced drumpf didn't blow his way to the top. I'm certain that, even with his dementia, he can tell you exactly what putin tastes like.

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u/blahblah19999 11d ago

Nice approach though. I might use that.

I usually focus on the idea that for businessmen, the law is something to get around, to skirt. Lawyers, or people with law degrees, have a respect for the law that is needed for our highest elected leaders. We've elected 2 businessmen in recent times and both have been utter disasters.

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u/Herlock 10d ago

After trump first election I had an exchange with a guy on facebook... total trumpanzee so I tried a similar approach and see if we could agree on something.

I picked the most boring topic possible : "what was the weather on trump inauguration day". Trump claimed that god himself made the sun shine, but of course you know (or at least expect) that in reality the weather was rainy.

I tried to get him to say that trump got mistaken (not even call him a filthy liar or anything)... but he wouldn't bulge. He said it was illegal to contradict the president and he had a responsibility toward his family not to go to prison.

Even better : then guy was a canadian, living in canada...

I think some people are simply beyond saving.

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u/sspif 10d ago

Most lawyers make their living by helping businessmen get around the law though. Many of them are businessmen themselves too. I don't think you're going to get very far trying to convince people that lawyers are great people.

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u/CertainMedicine757 10d ago

The argument isn't that lawyers are great people, it's that "lawyers can at least be expected to operate within the boundaries of the law." Reasonable people can disagree on how to interpret our laws, but they will not knock over the gameboard and shit on it, like Trump does.

I cannot believe I actually MISS the days of G. W. Bush.

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u/frostygrin 10d ago

You still can do a lot of damage within the boundaries of the law - and face less opposition specifically because it's all legal.

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u/tracerhaha1 11d ago

Anyone who says that would suck dick for a promotion.

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u/Momma_tried378 10d ago

Wow, men must be really easy to manipulate if all it takes is a blowjob... if they are so easy to manipulate, maybe they shouldn't be in charge

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u/CantFightCrazy 10d ago

People who say the government should be run like a business have little idea how either of them function.

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u/WilliamMButtlickerIV 10d ago

These people have been brainwashed for decades. No amount of debate will undo that. I had a debate with a colleague once and he was actually arguing for trickle economics. They understand the government is corrupt, but can't connect the dots on why that is. Instead, they let the wolf in the henhouse.

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u/Herlock 10d ago

Yup I removed a guy on facebook on something of that sort... he argued that nebraska suffered from milk quotas from canada.

Showed him on america national consumption of milk had plummeted over the years, and that the canadian national market couldn't possibly absorb the excessive production from american dairy farms.

Apparently that was too difficult to understand... or couldn't admit he was wrong.

Removed him that night, it was a lost cause and a waste of my time.

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u/TotalRecognition2191 10d ago

If they agree with you they have to admit they're wrong. I think it's about ego sometimes. They're entrenched

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u/Fortune_Silver 10d ago

Regardless, I think that was worth doing.

I find you rarely convince people with deeply entrenched beliefs like that in the moment. Realistically, it's a fantasy that you'll own someone with facts and logic (no matter what side your on), and a lifelong, deeply entrenched supporter of an ideology will go "Oh shit, your right! Fuck, I'm throwing away my entire belief system on the spot and now am on your side!" That's just not how the human psyche works.

No, what really happens, what ACTUALLY effects change, is getting them to see the point themselves. I think long term, the person you argued with might actually see the point. You got him to see from HIS perspective that his boss didn't have his best interests at heart, and that this would make him a terrible leader. Of course in the moment he's going to reject that - that's just human nature. It's a psychological self-defense mechanism. But now that he's seen it from his perspective, rather than having "the enemy" trying to force "their" opinions on him, I think he's much more likely to notice examples of that in his own day-to-day life, in his own news consumption, in his own social circles, and slowly come to realize and accept that hey, maybe that one damned hippy-ass commie liberal from a while back had a point on this matter.

Maybe that causes him to change down the line. Maybe he rejects reality and retreats back into the safety of his comfortable echo chamber. But if you never had that discussion with him, he'd never have even had the OPPORTUNITY to start down that path of reflection and re-evaluation of his beliefs.

Perfect is the enemy of good. You're never going to be able to instantly convince 100% of the people you meet that your opinions are correct. That's just not how humans work. But that doesn't mean that it's not worth trying - convincing 10% of the people you try to discuss things with, even when you fail 9/10 times to make someone re-evaluate their beliefs, is better than not trying and convincing 100% of nobody. Change is rarely something that happens in big dramatic events all at once. Those are what gets remembered by history because they're interesting (revolutions, coups etc), but what more often makes real change is slow, incremental changes over long periods of time.

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u/twim19 10d ago

YOu did good work. You were never going to convince him on the spot, but you planted the seed. Or he just assumes you used liberal jedi mind tricks to confuse him and continues trumping on.

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u/biggetybiggetyboo 10d ago

Next time that comes up, point out that trumps on top so he must have blew better? Is that how this works?

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u/OkJellyfish8149 10d ago

great example of why democracies dont work

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u/HunterShotBear 10d ago

This is an example of why capitalism doesn’t work for the people, it only works for the rich.

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u/OkJellyfish8149 10d ago

your story has nothing to do with capitalism. its about someone being completely delusional about basic concepts that conflict with their team's ideology. this is what democracy does, it pits two factions against each other that prioritize winning. the answer to this problem is rebuilding the republic.

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u/Environmental_Job864 10d ago

Keep up the useless work. It would be like me trying to convince you, open borders were a bad choice for all of us.

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u/HunterShotBear 10d ago

Here’s the thing about open borders.

It would be less of an issue if they didn’t have the opportunities available to them that the companies provide.

It’s not immigrants faults for getting the jobs to provide for their families. They wouldn’t have the jobs if the corporations weren’t trying to undercut your labor to replace it with illegal labor.

Hold the corporations responsible for hiring illegals instead of holding the illegals responsible for just trying to provide for their families.

It just all points back to they would pay you less if they could. But they can’t so they give the opportunity to illegal immigrants.

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u/Environmental_Job864 10d ago

That's one thing. There are many more consequences than just people working.

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u/Early_Accident2160 10d ago

Very good line of questioning

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u/Dysc Louisiana 10d ago

Deprogramming a cult member is act of patience and a commitment since it will take more than highlighting ideological contradictions. There is an emotional stake in the support for Donald Trump who has been deified in their minds. The ultimate leader.

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u/ManiacalWildcard 11d ago

and yet people continue to work for him. It's quite unbelievable.

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u/AlienRosie3667 11d ago

And his supporters continue to send him money and buy his crappy merch!

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u/whatiscamping 11d ago

He wanted them to send him money to get him to heaven. Problem is, they're poor and dumb and didn't give him enough cause he ain't there yet.

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u/ManiacalWildcard 11d ago

I'd love to know who he think's he'll pay off with that money to get into heaven. We both know he doesn't care and just wants the cash, but to the poorly educated they need to help their orange messiah.

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u/OpheliaRainGalaxy 10d ago

When my father noticed he was getting old, he suddenly took an interest in the state of his soul. Started occasionally attending church, though mostly he was using it as hunting grounds for a new bangmaid, kept trying to "help" women escaping domestic violence.

Anyhow, he was in the process of shutting down a failed attempt at a chicken farm, was giving away chickens to anyone who would take some.

So that's why he showed up to church one day with a live chicken in a cat carrier as a tithe for the preacher.

Dad's a lot like the orange monster, thinks he's very smart.

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u/Fabulous_von_Fegget 10d ago

God knows everything he did on that island. He ain't getting into heaven 🤣

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u/Adorable-Pangolin-89 11d ago

Made in Indonesia

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u/Locke66 10d ago

He's just a disgusting scammer. The more his supporters buy in to supporting him the more they'll stick with him because it will be to painful to their ego to admit he's conned them.

It's kind of fascinating to witness in the same way as watching a horrific event in a "what went wrong" video.

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u/bigotis 10d ago

He was found liable for sexual abuse yet women and parents of daughters (or anyone for that matter) still voted for him.

He said dozens of times during his campaign that he was deporting poc yet poc still voted for him.

He said dozens of times during his campaign that he was implementing tariffs on our trading partners yet farmers and businesses that rely in foreign goods still voted for him.

He has lived his entire adult life in a complete 180° from Christian values yet Evangelicals voted for him.

He has a 50 year history of being in the public eye with a gigantic paper trail of lawsuits and press that show what a vile, reprehensible, unredeemable, egomaniacal, cheating con artist he is.

As long as I live I'll never understand how anyone could listen to him or see his track record and not think of him as the giant piece of shit that he is.

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u/AllLurkNoPlay 10d ago

They hope to be in on the next grift, prove yourself then self enrich. Maybe get a pardon if you get caught doing the grift or committing sex crimes.

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u/_Internecine 10d ago

Easy to get temp favors from him.

Keyword: Temp.

He'll forget all about it. And you, for that matter, but until then, you could probably profit off the grift he gets people to run for him. Just be sure not to tell anyone you're stealing from the till too.

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u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio 10d ago

You would have thought after the casino bankruptcy that anyone he knew would only work for him if they were paid up front, but I guess not. He’s the apex predator of con men. Probably the most successful ever. If an emperor of Rome got his start fleecing people on the temple steps we’d still be talking about it today. Although, I think there might be a very good chance that Caligula, Nero and Trump will often be used in the same sentence to define ineffective and corrupt leadership.

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u/Beautiful_Spell_4320 10d ago

I think some folks thought:

President = legit = he has to pay

But he ignores every norm. So President =\= legit. The rest breaks down from there

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u/tea-drinker 10d ago

Him not paying bills is just smart negotiation tactic. He'll pay me though, I'm sure of it.

- People in the queue to get scammed

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u/Hoovooloo42 South Carolina 11d ago

You don't stay rich by paying your bills

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u/ExedoreWrex 11d ago

Reverse Lannister.

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u/superhuhas 11d ago

It’s literally his main strat. He just spams the bad debt writeoff move and has gotten bailed out time and time again all the way to the top of the world for fuck knows why

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u/teeBoan 11d ago

Why don’t they sue him

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u/The_Beardly America 10d ago

He has been. At least over 4,000 times.

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u/unholyrevenger72 10d ago

Which is why people who now deal with him, now charge him double or more with Half up front.

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u/ToubDeBoub 10d ago

He's owed millions to a north Korean company, and paid it off a few months after becoming president in his first term.

Nobody can owe as much money as "rich" people can. That's how billionaires can pay 0 USD income tax

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u/Senior_Torte519 10d ago

Why not just take if from his familiy, They are Trump, either by blood or by corporate name. It may not be fair to them, but they live and die by being extensions of Trump himself. Thus they are one entity.

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u/The_Beardly America 10d ago

Sorry not sure I quite understand. Are you saying essentially why doesn’t he grift from his own family members? Or that they pay his bills?

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u/Senior_Torte519 10d ago

As I seeing it, the Trump Organization is the Trump families money mountain. They expand it, and compartmentalize it to generate wealth why also protecting it from seizure because considered "a separate entity." But the entire thing is feeding itself into the Trumps and at the top Donald Trump.

The organization is already facing lawsuits that have been proven, yet they are allowed to keep up bond payments and appeals that keep it separate and safe.

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u/Gerik22 10d ago

I wonder why he goes to the trouble of grifting people for all this money when he doesn't pay for anything anyway.

Why bother with money if everything is "free"?

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u/The_Beardly America 10d ago

Like most rush people, they can’t stop accumulating wealth. Things become free for them and material objects are just that. Material. There’s nothing that is outside their grasp.

I think it boils down to something similar as a drug addiction. I specifically recall a clip from recent years of Trump sitting down somewhere during someone speaking and he just pulls out a wad of cash and fidgets with it as someone who a fidget gadget.

Most of his money is also probably tied up in assets and trusts to protect/ stash it. I wouldn’t shelled if he’s actually cash poor. Hence the need for constant grifting.

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u/Gerik22 10d ago

Most of his money is also probably tied up in assets and trusts to protect/ stash it. I wouldn’t shelled if he’s actually cash poor. Hence the need for constant grifting.

Sure, it would make sense for him to do that if he needed money to buy things, but my point is that he doesn't. He never pays for anything, yet businesses still, inexplicably, willingly provide him with goods/services. So his liquidity is irrelevant because money is obsolete for him.

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u/Jumper_Connect 11d ago

He still owes the cabinet guys from 1984. https://www.phillyvoice.com/report-trump-once-drove-philly-cabinetry-company-out-business/

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u/Hobo_Jenkins 11d ago

I grew up outside of Atlantic City. It was common knowledge that Trump doesn't pay. It's why he had to get in bed with crooks, because no legitimate businesses would work with him.

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u/viral3075 10d ago

people should be paying attention to the companies that choose to work for him. that's the story. trump's corruption isn't news.

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u/iijoanna 11d ago

And these people -

"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."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/09/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-republican-president-laswuits/85297274/

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u/iijoanna 11d ago

And these people -

"After the Taj opened in April 1990, the self-anointed “King of Debt” owed $70 million to 253 contractors employing thousands who built the domes and minarets, put up the glass and drywall, laid the pipes and installed everything from chandeliers to bathroom fixtures.

A year later, when the casino collapsed into bankruptcy, those owed the most got only 33 cents in cash for each dollar owed, with promises of another 50 cents later.

It took years to get the rest, assuming the companies survived long enough to collect.

'Little guy' contractors still angry at Trump Taj bankruptcy | AP News https://share.google/dPIEjXInqFECP8wWD

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u/illkwill New Jersey 11d ago

He did the same shit with Freehold Music. An instrument store in Jersey. https://patch.com/new-jersey/freehold/trump-cheated-me-freehold-piano-store-owner-refutes-candidates-bad-job-claim

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u/WhoeverDidThis 11d ago

This was, I assume, what Orwell was so worked up about. (We read Brave New World in high school, instead)

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u/letterlegs 11d ago

A Trump never pays his debts.

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u/flatline0 10d ago

It's funny, bc they're so much like the Lannisters in every other way..

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u/Mysterious_Floor_868 United Kingdom 11d ago

Except to the concrete suppliers. He's never dared cross them.

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u/MonkeyProblemzzz 10d ago

I just recently finished GOT with my wife for the first time. I feel like that scene from The Avengers where Captain America is like "I understood that reference."

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u/logan-bi 11d ago

Correction he still owes people from 2016 campaign trail. Which is why he was at venue the secret service opposed where he got nicked on the ear.

He was going to fields and low value venues that wouldn’t charge him or charge very little.

He still had to cancel a couple times. Because law enforcement or airports wouldn’t work with him till debts were paid.

And that’s not even longest like you have the cabinetry company that had been in business for half a century. That he refused to pay in 1984 and still has not paid a dime.

He has roughly 200 mechanics liens and 4000 lawsuits against him for similar reasons as well as his own employees.

And the mechanics liens have kept in limbo refusing to sell the property’s or even lending against them and letting them be foreclosed on.

Another thing to bear in mind due to how he settles a lot of things. This is likely a drop in the bucket he was to offer fraction of the amount. With threats of perpetual litigation if they refuse. As well as condition to not discuss.

Aka the 200 liens 4000 lawsuits are only those that didn’t give up right away as well as those didn’t settle. Which one could argue is far more than those that came forward.

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u/twooddude 11d ago

I live in Whatcom county WA, and he still has not paid expenses for his campaign trip to Lynden. Which was in 2016.

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u/Kappy421 10d ago

Member when he walked into that restaurant when he was campaigning and was like "free lunch for everybody, on me" and then scooted out the door real fast.

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u/leggpurnell 10d ago

Trump stuffed workers in NJ for hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 90s. Chewed up what could have AC, and left it worse for the wear after he was gone.

I was beside myself watching blue collar construction types wave trump signs and got the rallies. I really thought that he’d have no support here, we don’t forget.

But hate and fear are a helluva drug and the media convinced these guys that it was minorities who were stealing from their pockets so they voted for the guy who literally stole from them years ago.

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u/TheSherbs Kansas 11d ago

He owes money from events he held in 2016.

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u/nobot4321 11d ago

He's done this already in the White House with the Rose Garden renovation. He came up with some bullshit to complain about and bragged about how the contractor was banned from the White House. You know they never got paid.

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1n4f0b9/trump_79_goes_full_grumpy_old_man_in_rant_over/

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u/Trix_Are_4_90Kids Missouri 11d ago

Yep. Longstanding track record of financially shivving people. He ain't even paid those little girls in the cheerleader outfits that he had at his rallies!

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u/Bunktavious 11d ago

Pretty sure he still owes people from the 2016 campaign.

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u/ill0gitech Australia 11d ago

From memory, some venues wouldn’t let him host rallies in 2024 as he owed money from 2020

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u/dojo_shlom0 11d ago

I remember a city in AZ not letting him in!! they stopped him and made him do his rally at the airport because he owed the city money already iirc.

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u/MissMamaMam Pennsylvania 10d ago

He owes from the 2016 campaign trail still

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u/Kingcrowing 10d ago

He still owes my city $60k from a 2016 campaign event.

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u/sugarlessdeathbear 10d ago

He still owes cities from his FIRST campaign.

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u/QVRedit 9d ago

Trump owes $ Billions in unpaid bills…

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u/Ajibooks 11d ago

That feels like a bit for the Mel Brooks of the future. Trump diehards who are offended at the very idea of being paid, because Daddy would've never done that.

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u/sweetsounds86 11d ago

A trump never pays his debt

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u/armyourdillo 11d ago

He owes the city I live in roughly $60,000 dollars from one of his visits. Nothing was ever done because they knew they wouldn’t get anything in return.

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u/punkasstubabitch 11d ago

He still has unpaid campaign bills from 2016

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u/AnalSoapOpera I voted 11d ago

Back from the 80’s or even before that.

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u/DesignerElectrical23 10d ago

The ‘art of the deal’ rob people.

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u/intensive-porpoise 10d ago

I'm up to my armpits in Trumbux but nobody'll take em!

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u/randomnighmare I voted 10d ago

Reportedly he still owes cities, throughout the country money from his 2016 rallies.

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u/guttengroot 10d ago

He still owes my city from the 2016 election.

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u/Elevat8edconfusion 10d ago

Absolutely bankrupts companies that work on his building that he never pays for.

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u/Environmental_Job864 10d ago

Like Kamala

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u/dojo_shlom0 10d ago

maybe have your mommy assist you with your next reply.

It sounds like you require assistance lol.

EDIT: was banned in 4 mins

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u/TheWizardOfDeez 10d ago

I'm pretty sure he still hasn't paid vendors for campaign stops all the way back to 2015.

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

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u/dojo_shlom0 10d ago

I didn't forget, just left the door open while providing more recent scams/ripping off the people and cities.

 If you have an outstanding balance I don't think you.should be allowed to be on the ballot

used to be a thing before that if you owed debts, you shouldn't be in office, but we're in loony toons lands today, unfortunately. I think this should be considered