Claims Made in the “Who is Donald Trump” Viral Video-Truth!, Disputed! & Outdated!
Summary of eRumor:
A YouTube video titled “Who is Donald Trump” makes a number of claims about the 2016 presidential candidate’s personal, political and professional history.
The Truth:
Claims made in the “Who is Donald Trump” video are true, outdated and disputed.
The “Who is Donald Trump?” video was posted on a YouTube channel by TestTube News shortly after Trump announced his candidacy for president.
The video makes a number of claims about Donald Trump’s personal, political and professional background in an effort to answer the question, “Who is Donald Trump?”
Let’s take a look at some of the specific claims made in the “Who is Donald Trump?” video:
Donald Trump’s Inherited a Real Estate Fortune from His Father-Truth!
Donald Trump’s father, Fred C. Trump, was a successful real estate developer in New York City from the 1960s until the time of his death in 1999.
During that time, Fred Trump built more than 27,000 apartments and row houses around New York City. The estimated value of his estate when he died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease in 1999 was as much as $300 million, according to his obituary.
Donald Trump has argued that he inherited a (relatively) small amount of money from his father in comparison to his current net worth, which is true.
But Trump also inherited his father’s real estate development company, which helped him build his current net worth.
Donald Trump Filed for Business Bankruptcy Four Times-Truth!
This one is true, but Donald Trump has never filed for personal bankruptcy.
Trump filed business bankruptcy in 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2009.
Still, Trump argues that he has “never went bankrupt” and was simply using “the laws of the country” to make savvy business decisions. In a 2011 interview with ABC News, Trump said:
I never went bankrupt. And let me just tell you. If you look at our great businesspeople today, Carl Icahn, Henry Kravis, (UNINTEL)– Leon Black of Apollo. All of them have done the same. They use and we use the laws of this country, the bankruptcy laws, because we’ll buy a company. We’ll have the company. We’ll throw it into a chapter. We’ll negotiate with the banks. We’ll make a fantastic deal. We’ll use those. But they were never personal. This is nothing personal. You know, it’s like on the Apprentice. It’s not personal. It’s just business. Okay? If you look at our greatest people, Carl Icahn with TWA and so many others. Leon Black, Linens-n-Things and others. Henry Kravis. A lot of ‘em, everybody. But with me it’s “Oh, you did–” this is a business thing. I’ve used the laws of this country to pare debt. In one case, with the casinos, which I don’t– which I haven’t even run for many years. But I did very well with the casinos, very well. But then what happened with Atlantic City was Philadelphia happened, lots of other places happened, Delaware and such. And what I did is reduce the debt from a billion eight to like $300 and some odd million, by using intelligently the laws of this country. Now, people could say, “Oh, gee, isn’t that terr–” I never declared– this is nothing to do with me, personally. This is just a business. I haven’t even run these things. I only owned a piece of them. I didn’t own the whole thing. I owned a piece of them. But if you look at our greatest businesspeople, most of them, in order to pare debt or change a company or change a structure, most of them and many of them and some — the best ones, and I name some of ‘em. I could name 25 more…
Donald Trump’s Net Worth-Disputed!
Claims about Donald Trump’s net worth remain disputed.
Trump himself says that he’s worth more than $9 billion, but Forbes has estimated that Trump is worth about $4 billion. Forbes describes the discrepancy:
The major difference: his brand. Trump claims that his brand and brand-related deals are worth some $3.3 billion. We value his brand at just $125 million; we give him another $128 million in management fees for Trump-branded hotels. Another major discrepancy is golf courses: Trump has been advocating for a valuation for his chain of American golf courses as high as $800 million. Independent valuation experts tell us our figure of $200 million is much closer to the mark. The other difference is properties under development. Trump claims nearly $300 million here; we don’t give properties full build-out value until they’re actually fully built and running.
Trump’s actual net worth is disputed because of the value he places a higher value on the Trump brand than others have. You would have sell off all his assets to find Trump’s actual net worth.
Trump Once Proposed a 14% tax on Americans Worth $10 million –Truth!
This one is true.
In 1999, as a possible candidate for the Reform Party, Donald Trump laid out a plan to levy a one-time 14.25% tax on every American worth more than $10 million.
That would have generated $5.7 trillion, enough to wipe out the national debt in 1999, CNN reports:
The net worth tax is the cornerstone of Trump’s economic plan released Tuesday morning.
“No one has put forward a plan to make this country entirely debt free as we enter the next millennium,” Trump said in a written statement.
“The plan I am proposing today does not involve smoke and mirrors, phony numbers, financial gimmicks, or the usual economic chicanery you usually find in Disneyland-on-the-Potomac,” Trump said.
Trump would exempt the value of an individual’s principal home from the net worth total.
“By my calculations, 1 percent of Americans, who control 90 percent of the wealth in this country, would be affected by my plan,” Trump said.
“The other 99 percent of the people would get deep reductions in their federal income taxes,” he said.
Donald Trump Switched from Pro-Choice to Pro-Life-Reported as Truth!
Donald Trump has publicly flip-flopped positions on abortion, but he has implied that he was secretly pro-life all along.
Trump described himself as pro-choice during a 1999 appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press”:
“Look, I’m very pro-choice. I hate the concept of abortion. I hate it. I hate everything it stands for. I cringe when I listen to people debating the subject, but you still — I just believe in choice … I am strongly for choice, and yet I hate the concept of abortion. I am pro-choice in ever respect, but I just hate it.”
He made similar comments that year on Fox News as he considered a presidential run on the Reform Party ticket. Also, in 1989, Trump co-sponsored a dinner to honor the leader of the National Abortion Rights Action League but did not attend the event, the National Journal reports.
However, during the first Republican presidential debate in 2015, Trump said he was pro-life. He alluded to the idea that he’d previously described himself as pro-choice because of business relationships he had at the time.
Supports Full Drug Legalization to Generate Taxes for Education-Truth! & Outdated!
It’s true that Donald Trump once called for the legalization of drugs, but, again, he has changed his position on the issue over the decades.
Trump first made the comment about drug legalization in 1990, the Miami Herald reports:
Billionaire New York developer Donald Trump said the nation’s drug enforcement effort is “a joke” and repeated his call for the legalization of drugs Friday during a luncheon held by the Miami Herald.
“We’re losing badly the war on drugs,” Trump said. “You have to legalize drugs to win that war. You have to take the profit away from drug czars.”
Tax revenues from a legalized drug trade could be spent to educate the public on the dangers of drugs, Trump said during a speech at the newspaper’s Company of the Year Awards luncheon.
By 2015, Trump had backed off that position. In an address at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump said that he didn’t even support legalization of pot.