Trump's 'brand' is dead and he may have to hold a 'fire sale' on prized properties: report https://www.rawstory.com/trump-brand/ According to Bloomberg's Tim O'Brien, Donald Trump is about to leave the political minefield over a second impeachment trial and enter a new minefield where he is faced with enormous loans coming due at a time when the Trump "brand" could hardly be more toxic. As the only president to be impeached twice exits the Oval Office next week, Trump will turn his full attention to his financial situation valued at over $3.4 billion but heavily loaded down with debt. With Deutsche Bank announcing earlier in the week that they will no longer lend to Trump and his Trump Organization, and Signature Bank saying it has started closing Trump's personal accounts before calling for the president to resign, the president will find far fewer options when it comes to loans than when he entered office in 2016. According to OBrien, who has reported extensively on Trump's finances for years, the president shouldn't expect to be able to trade on his name as he seeks financial help. "What does the Trump brand represent?" he wrote for Bloomberg. "And how valuable has it been, really — even before the president alienated half of the country and untold millions overseas, bungled the federal response to a deadly pandemic and got himself impeached for the second time by convincing a confederacy of dunces, thugs and white supremacists to lay siege to the Capitol?" The answer, he suggests, was that the Trump name was already damaged for branding purposes before the election after a string of spectacular failures including a "university" that was shut down after being deluged with lawsuits. "Do you remember Donald J. Trump Eyeglasses, Donald Trump Regency Collection lighting, Select by Trump coffee, Success by Trump cologne, Trump Home mattresses and furniture, Trump Ice bottled water, Trump Steaks, Trump: The Game, Trump Vodka, or the Donald J. Trump Signature Collection of underwear, ties, shirts and suits? Does the Trump PrivaTest at-home urine test ring a bell?" he wrote before pointing out that the majority of Trump's wealth is tied up in high-profile properties like Trump Tower in New York City at a time when commercial properties are facing a downturn due to the COVID-10 9 pandemic. Adding to that are the president's golf courses that have been bleeding money even before the PGA announced it would no longer hold any more tournaments at Trump-owned properties. All of this may force the president, who is looking at a reported $421 million in loans to come due in the next two years, to sell off some of his more valuable assets., O'Brien writes. "Urban real estate, now sideswiped by Covid-19, is the core of Trump's wealth, and has generated some of his most lucrative streams of income. As is his wont, he has saddled his holdings with lots of debt. Forbes estimates Trump's total indebtedness to be about $1.1 billion, and about $900 million is coming due over the next four years, some of it this year," he explained. "Trump is not broke, as some have speculated in recent months, but he could wind up in a very nasty cash squeeze. If his properties don't generate enough money to pay down the debt, he'll have to sell something — and may have to unload trophy properties in fire sales that leave him with less than he might have secured if he'd sold them just a year ago (or if he had properly divested his businesses before he was inaugurated in 2017). If the economy continues to struggle in coming months, the valuations of everything Trump owns will be tested."
It’s Trump’s Money, Not His Brand, That Should Worry Him Brother, can you spare a dime? Now even Deutsche Bank says no. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/a...p-s-money-not-his-brand-that-should-worry-him The Trump Organization and its namesake are going to be financially squeezed after the current president of the United States leaves office next week. But I suspect most of the company’s challenges won’t involve the Trump “brand” that has drawn so much speculation. After all, what does the Trump brand represent? And how valuable has it been, really — even before the president alienated half of the country and untold millions overseas, bungled the federal response to a deadly pandemic and got himself impeached for the second time by convincing a confederacy of dunces, thugs and white supremacists to lay siege to the Capitol? There is a long list of Trump-branded junk that has failed to take flight. Do you remember Donald J. Trump Eyeglasses, Donald Trump Regency Collection lighting, Select by Trump coffee, Success by Trump cologne, Trump Home mattresses and furniture, Trump Ice bottled water, Trump Steaks, Trump: The Game, Trump Vodka, or the Donald J. Trump Signature Collection of underwear, ties, shirts and suits? Does the Trump PrivaTest at-home urine test ring a bell? You may remember Trump University (an online education scam), the Trump Network (a multi-level marketing scheme) and the Trump Foundation (a philanthro-scam), but only because those three enterprises made headlines for malfeasance. And as anybody in business school or a prison will tell you, scams are not good brand-building tools. Trump also jabbered about being a luxury purveyor to the most discerning and affluent buyers, but much of the flotsam he peddled was decidedly middle-market or involved properties packaged for arrivistes. The Trump-branded casinos in Atlantic City are all long gone, devoured by mismanagement and bankruptcies. There’s a Trump-branded hotel in Las Vegas, but it is run by its co-owner. Some of the most prominent Trump-branded hotels and golf courses in the U.S and overseas were stumbling even before the pandemic hit, unable to perform well despite featuring that name out front in theme park-sized letters. Trump directly controls most of his hotels and golf courses. Some of the other one-offs that belly-flopped or disappeared were owned by someone else who paid Trump a licensing fee for his name, or were made by someone else who slapped Trump’s name on the product. But those fees and gimmicks never amounted to a sizeable portion of Trump’s wealth. They were good for visibility and helped with promotion, but weren’t gold mines. The hotels and golf courses are more financially meaningful, but still aren’t the biggest sources of his wealth. And therein lies the tale. Trump’s holdings, initially sprung from the wealth and connections he inherited from his father, are worth about $3.2 billion, according to Bloomberg News. Just five properties — all of them commercial or residential buildings — account for about $1.9 billion, or 60%, of that amount. Four are in Manhattan. Trump Tower is among them, as are 40 Wall Street and 502 Park Avenue. Another one, 6 E. 57th Street, is a cavernous retail space that used to house NikeTown. But Nike Inc. moved out three years ago, and the lease is up for renewal in 2022. Know anybody who wants to rent a massive, brick-and-mortar retail space even after the pandemic ends, regardless of whose name is on it, much less Godzilla’s? Urban real estate, now sideswiped by Covid-19, is the core of Trump’s wealth, and has generated some of his most lucrative streams of income. As is his wont, he has saddled his holdings with lots of debt. Forbes estimates Trump’s total indebtedness to be about $1.1 billion, and about $900 million is coming due over the next four years, some of it this year. Trump has personally guaranteed about $421 million of this debt, according to the New York Times. Trump is not broke, as some have speculated in recent months, but he could wind up in a very nasty cash squeeze. If his properties don’t generate enough money to pay down the debt, he’ll have to sell something — and may have to unload trophy properties in fire sales that leave him with less than he might have secured if he’d sold them just a year ago (or if he had properly divested his businesses before he was inaugurated in 2017). If the economy continues to struggle in coming months, the valuations of everything Trump owns will be tested. Two of Trump’s most valuable holdings, perhaps worth about $685 million, are minority stakes in San Francisco and New York buildings that Vornado Realty Trust controls — stakes Trump acquired through a series of fortunate accidents. If he needed to raise cash by selling them, he’d have to rely on Vornado’s founder, Steven Roth, to cut a deal. Unlike Trump, Roth is a major New York property owner, and many of the most prominent members of the New York real estate community have long looked askance at the president. It’s unclear whether Roth would want to play ball. Trump’s golf courses and resorts, worth about $430 million, benefitted from his presidency because he steered government business there, and his position made them magnets for influence peddlers. But they were still plagued by problems, including the coronavirus. Golf’s popularity and growth had already begun to plateau when Trump entered the business, and marquee holdings such as his course in Doral, Florida, have withered. Those aren’t branding problems, per se. They’re strategic and financial failures. Privacy Policy and Terms of Service and to receive offers and promotions from Bloomberg. Trump’s effort to orchestrate a political coup, and the insurrection he fomented, complicate matters further. The broader business world is turning its back on him, and reliable allies such as the PGA of America and Deutsche Bank AG are belatedly abandoning him. While the PGA’s about-face may hurt Trump’s pride more than his wallet, Deutsche Bank is a very different separation. Real estate guys need banks to finance deals. Major banks long ago cut ties with Trump after he stiffed them for billions in loans. Only Deutsche Bank stuck with Trump through scandal, failures and litigation. The bank’s farewell will cost him. New York City is cutting its ties with Trump as well, pulling the plug on some relatively less glamorous operations that Trump runs for about $17 million a year. Trump and his brand are deeply unloved by many in New York — he is now a Florida resident — but he was born there and the kiss-off also probably hurts his pride, even if it doesn’t hurt his bank account as much as his troubled real estate. Two other people don’t care about Trump’s brand: the New York State attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney. Both are investigating Trump, his children and his business for possible financial, tax and accounting fraud. These existential threats will become more pressing when Trump loses the White House’s legal and institutional protections. One market in which the Trump brand remains a sure-fire money-maker is politics. Since Election Day, Trump has discovered he can monetize lies about election-rigging by soliciting contributions to an “election defense fund” from supporters. He raised at least $207 million before shutting that effort down, and he’ll surely revisit the same money geyser again. Running the long con is very much on brand for Trump — and pays better than mattresses or steaks.
Since most of this he did to himself..not much sympathy... he had an opportunity to bring in the best minds and run a decent administration but chose to go the realty TV route and got brainwashed to focus only on his most rabid base and care only about ratings and popularity. thing is the people most willing to kiss your ass always have evil intent to do so and he was too weak and arrogant to see that. So post presidency damage to his business is all on him and he has to live with it... since his children are equally braindead on this matters let them reap what they sow.
Debt cloud hangs over Trump post-presidency https://thehill.com/policy/finance/534588-debt-cloud-hangs-over-trump-post-presidency President Trump faces an increasingly challenging financial future after he leaves the White House on Wednesday. Trump is on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars of debt, most of it due within the next four years, and the legacy of his presidency may leave him with few options to pay it off. In the wake of the Capitol riots, the New York City government and the PGA of America backed away from business arrangements with the Trump Organization, sapping future income from the debt-laden president. Three banks have announced they’re cutting ties with him — including Deutsche Bank, his biggest creditor — limiting his ability to refinance debt. “It strikes me that the president is going through a collapse of his financial goodwill,” said John Pottow, a commercial law professor at the University of Michigan. “There's a bunch of corporate actors who are running away from him, like Deutsche Bank, so I think the last thing they want to do is to refinance him,” Pottow added. If more banks deem Trump a toxic client, he could face daunting obstacles in navigating his debt. Trump owes creditors at least $315 million, mainly through mortgages for Trump Organization hotels, resorts and golf courses, according to his 2020 financial disclosure. A Forbes analysis of Trump’s finances, however, found that Trump likely owes at least $1 billion to creditors, some of which he has personally guaranteed. “Debt he's personally guaranteed means that those lenders can get access to all the equity he owns in all of his other companies,” said J.W. Verret, a financial law professor at George Mason University and former House Republican aide who supported President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign. “His personal wealth can take a hit,” Verret added. Trump still holds considerable wealth through his business and claimed to have at least $1.4 billion in assets in last year’s financial disclosure, a self-reported document that is not audited by the federal government. Just $5.8 million of his holdings appear to be in cash or other assets Trump could quickly liquidate in a crunch, according to an analysis by The Hill. A full picture of Trump’s financial health is impossible to assemble without the tax returns and other financial documents he has refused to release for years. Even so, experts say that based on what is known about his wealth and obligations, the president could face a barrage of lawsuits and collection attempts that could ultimately lead to personal bankruptcy. “Absent the consent of the lenders, he has no option other than filing for bankruptcy,” Pottow said. “I mean, that's just the way it works. If you owe someone money and you can't pay it, then they can either forgive it or they can sue you.” Trump, who anointed himself “the king of debt” in 2016, borrowed heavily to finance his empire of hotels, resorts, skyscrapers and golf courses. The president has argued that the amount of debt he owes is common for a man of his wealth and industry and has regularly used provisions of the tax code that help real estate developers write off losses. While Trump was able to tap millions in borrowed money to expand his business and bolster his image as a cunning dealmaker, experts say he did so at severe personal risk. The New York Times reported in October that Trump personally guaranteed hundreds of millions lent to him by Deutsche Bank, using his own assets as collateral to purchase properties and refinance other debt with the scandal-ridden lender. Deutsche Bank has several ways to collect on Trump’s debt, most of which matures in 2023, according to Trump’s financial disclosure. The bank could sue Trump if he fails to pay the debt by the time it matures, backtrack on its decision to cut ties with Trump and refinance, or sell the debt to another lender. Professional Bank, which also recently cut ties with Trump, likely has similar flexibility with the at least $5 million in debt the president owes through a mortgage on a house he owns in Palm Beach, Fla., according to his financial disclosure. That’s likely to put Trump in a financial bind. “Oftentimes, borrowers will simply roll over the loan, which means they just swap the loan for a new loan,” said Phillip Braun, a finance professor at Northwestern University. “Trump may have difficulty doing that because no one wants to provide him with new credit. So that's a serious problem for him,” Braun added. Trump has faced dire financial straits before and may still have ways to maneuver out of his looming debt troubles. Other creditors could purchase Trump’s debt at a steep discount and give him more time to pay it off. “At the end of the day, they're not going to light money on fire because they're angry at Donald Trump,” Pottow said. “If they have a reasonable restructuring proposal that's going to get them paid off without undue risk, they will come to a deal,” Pottow added. Trump could also start selling off properties or stakes he holds in real estate projects to cover his cash crunch, though Braun said the president may be more likely to turn to the courts as he has in the past. While Trump’s financial liabilities may be manageable for now, potential legal trouble might make his debt insurmountable. New York state prosecutors are ramping up their investigation into Trump’s business dealings, which could lead to criminal charges. The attorney general of Washington, D.C. has sued the Trump Organization over the use of funds from the president’s 2016 inaugural committee, and legal experts say Trump could face charges related to the Capitol riots. Verret said that, along with steep legal fees, a criminal indictment could prompt Trump’s creditors to speed up the collection of his personally guaranteed debt under certain debt covenants. “As this pressure grows, the pressure on the lenders to accelerate payments grows, which limits his ability to get loans from anyone else,” Verret said. “I don't know if he's in a debt spiral yet, but I have to figure that’s where this is headed,” Verret added.
If banks like DB are being serious about not doing business with DJT (and its not just temprorary virtue signaling), then he's done. According to a friend, there's also now investigations on whether he conducted bank fraud by mismarking the value of his NY estate.
I think DB is still under federal investigation from Trump/Russia money ties. This is almost certainly virtue signaling to Biden's team