Contrary to what many people may believe, Donald Trump is not a very impressive businessman. Not only has he had six businesses that went bankrupt, several of his other ventures failed and faded away. The now defunct Trump University was sued for defrauding students, and Trump settled for $25 million. The Trump Ice bottled water generally can’t be found alongside other bottled waters in stores. Although lobbyists and foreign governments funneled money into the Trump International Hotel during the first Trump presidency, the hotel still lost an estimated $74 millionand was sold. This is far from a complete list of Trump’s failed ventures.

Donald Trump has been wealthy all of his life largely because he received $413 million from his father. The New York Times reports, “Much of this money came to Mr. Trump because he helped his parents dodge taxes.” It is much easier to make additional millions if one already has hundreds of millions. As scholars have observed, wealth begets more wealth.

Donald Trump’s real talent is his ability to get people to believe things that are not true. One of his biggest successes in this area is the idea that he is a tremendously successful businessman. Because Trump has gotten people to associate his name with luxury and success, he has been able to make millions licensing his name. Businesspeople pay Trump to put the Trump name on their ventures. This creates a feedback loop where these businesses that are not owned and managed by Trump give the public the impression that Trump owns more businesses than he actually does. It feeds into the image of him as a successful businessman.

Trump convinced many Americans that he would apply his supposed skill in business to address the problems facing the country. But as with many of his actual businesses, we may end up with a bankrupt country instead.  

Trump is using his power as president to bully, extort, and receive financial favors from companies and countries. For example, Trump has sued companies that depend on the government for contracts and mergers or that simply want to avoid a battle with the Trump administration. So far, Trump has made $90 million from these suits. Justin Sun was under federal investigation. He invested $75 million in Trump’s World Liberty Financial company. Then the federal government paused its investigation. The United Arab Emirates pledged to invest $2 billion in World Liberty Financial. The UAE is now able to purchase advanced artificial intelligence........

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