cstu said:
The more I find out about Trump's business, the more I realize he's not very good at the actual business of real estate investing.
Just saw a segment on CNN (Wolf Blitzer show), with the first senator to publicly endorse him? He stated American don't care about taxes, but was corrected (fact checked) that polls show people do care whether or not Trump releases his taxes by an overwhelming, 3-1 majority. He was also questioned why he would say the nearly billion dollar loss deduction was taken because the business environment at that time ('95) was nearly depression-like. The host noted that simply wasn't true, business was booming then. Senator than switched up and said he didn't care, it was 20 years ago and irrelevant to more substantive issues.
IMO, if he is running on his business prowess, than the last question ABSOLUTELY is relevant. If he is a charlatan, than that cuts off at the knees a key reason voters are supposed to favor him (in the world of his campaign - another of dozens or hundreds of examples where because he has said/done so many contradictory things, it is literally impossible for his surrogates to be consistent - invariably, he will have said or done the opposite of what they are currently espousing, especially ridiculous and absurd when the faces of the spin that are hounding Clinton about family infidelity, such as Giuliani and Christie, were THEMSELVES plagued by this exact same issue, completely, shamelessly hypocritical).
Multiple analysts have said it appears that Trump knows next to nothing about economics and accounting, based on past interactions and reports of them. For just one example, his massive blunder in buying up three casinos in Atlantic City that would be in the position of directly competing against each other.
Did anybody else watch The Choice Frontline Doc on PBS. It was amazing how the through line of their character and personality was shaped and evident at such an early age. A few things that stood out for Trump. Someone said he was basically the same person as when he was in first grade. Also, when he lost the federal trial on discriminatory rental practices (TWICE, though without being forced to admit guilt), he spun it as a "win". Now, if he was forced to no longer code apps with C for colored and rent to black applicants, he didn't "win". His approach was to keep saying he won over and over, with the thinking that eventually people would believe it if they heard it often enough. In a related point, he thought there was no such thing as bad advertising, because being in the news they would remember HIM, but after a while they would no longer remember WHY they didn't like him. This is a dicey strategy in a modern election with legions of fact checkers to remind many WHY they are skeptical of his equivocations, double talk, contradictions, etc.