How Donald Trump Blew Through Most of His Inheritance- Part-02
After receiving hundreds of millions (mostly before and around 2000),
Donald Trump lost or mismanaged a huge portion through bad investments, lavish spending, and repeated business failures.
Here’s the real timeline:
📈 Key Points for Part 02
🔵 1980s – Early 1990s: The Empire Expands... and Collapses
- Aggressive expansions into casinos, hotels, airlines — fueled by massive debt.
- Flashy projects like:
- Trump Taj Mahal Casino (Atlantic City, opened 1990 — cost over $1 billion)
- Trump Shuttle (failed airline venture)
- Plaza Hotel (bought 1988 — bankrupt by 1992)
- By 1991, Trump was personally $900 million in debt.
- His businesses began filing for bankruptcy — a pattern that continued into the 2000s.
🔵 Lavish Personal Spending
- Private jets.
- Luxury yachts (the "Trump Princess").
- Gold-plated penthouses and mansions.
- Even as businesses collapsed, Trump kept up appearances.
🔵 Shady Financial Moves
- Shifted personal debts onto business entities using “consulting fees” and questionable write-offs.
- The New York Times reported:
- Between 1985 and 1994, Trump lost more money than almost any other American taxpayer — over $1 billion in reported losses.
📉 Final Result
By the early 2000s, despite having inherited over $400 million, Donald Trump was nearly out of cash — and surviving mainly by selling his name (“Trump” branding) rather than running profitable businesses.
"By the early 2000s, Trump couldn’t even get a loan from an American bank."
📢 Next up: Trump’s Art of the Deal Chronicles — Part 03:
The Deutsche Bank Lifeline: How Trump Found a New Bank — and New Trouble.