June 09, 2016, 11:11 am[h=1]Roseanne Barr: 'We would be so lucky' if Trump won[/h]
By Rebecca Savransky
Comedian Roseanne Barr is rooting for presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump to win the general election over likely rival Hillary Clinton.
"I think we would be so lucky if Trump won," she told The Hollywood Reporter.
"Because then it wouldn't be Hilary."
Barr added, however, that the election system is "all fixed."
"I think Hillary [Clinton] probably got the receipt, because she paid for the Oval Office," she said. "And both Trump and Bernie are playing the heel for Hillary."
She went on to slam Clinton, saying the former secretary of State is friends with "everybody that gives her any goddamned money."
"The fact is, you don't get to be the nominee without taking a lot of dirty money," she said.
"You might be the best f—in' person on earth, but if you're hanging out with criminals who do bad things, that matters a lot."
She then praised Trump for financing his own campaign.
"That's the only way he could've gotten that nomination. Because nobody wants a president who isn't from Yale and Harvard and in the club. 'Cause it’s all about distribution," she said.
"When you're in the club, you’ve got people that you sell to. That's how money changes hands, that's how business works. If you've got friends there, they scratch your back and blah, blah."
Trump is saying that the "order of law matters," she responded, when asked if she thinks he will act in people's interests.
"And Trump is saying people will have to be vetted, we'll have to have legal immigration. It's all a scam," she said.
"I mean, illegal immigration. When people come here and they get a lot of benefits that our own veterans don't get. What's up with that?"
By Rebecca Savransky
Comedian Roseanne Barr is rooting for presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump to win the general election over likely rival Hillary Clinton.
"I think we would be so lucky if Trump won," she told The Hollywood Reporter.
"Because then it wouldn't be Hilary."
Barr added, however, that the election system is "all fixed."
"I think Hillary [Clinton] probably got the receipt, because she paid for the Oval Office," she said. "And both Trump and Bernie are playing the heel for Hillary."
She went on to slam Clinton, saying the former secretary of State is friends with "everybody that gives her any goddamned money."
"The fact is, you don't get to be the nominee without taking a lot of dirty money," she said.
"You might be the best f—in' person on earth, but if you're hanging out with criminals who do bad things, that matters a lot."
She then praised Trump for financing his own campaign.
"That's the only way he could've gotten that nomination. Because nobody wants a president who isn't from Yale and Harvard and in the club. 'Cause it’s all about distribution," she said.
"When you're in the club, you’ve got people that you sell to. That's how money changes hands, that's how business works. If you've got friends there, they scratch your back and blah, blah."
Trump is saying that the "order of law matters," she responded, when asked if she thinks he will act in people's interests.
"And Trump is saying people will have to be vetted, we'll have to have legal immigration. It's all a scam," she said.
"I mean, illegal immigration. When people come here and they get a lot of benefits that our own veterans don't get. What's up with that?"
[h=2]I have seen her judgment. I've seen her toughness.' President Obama endorses Hillary Clinton - who then gets into a Twitter war with Donald Trump and the RNC[/h][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT]President Barack Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton today. In a video shot Tuesday that was not released until today, after his meeting at the White House with Bernie Sanders, Obama praised Clinton. 'I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office. She's got the courage, the compassion, and the heart to get the job done,' the president said. Obama said in the video - praising her ability to 'fight'. Within minutes she did precisely that, getting involved in a Twitter spat with Donald Trump, who accused the president of wanting 'four more years of Obama', prompting her to respond: 'Delete your account.'
Of course, the idiot is Wrong Again. Time to start looking for the Birth Certificate again.Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 4h4 hours ago
Obama just endorsed Crooked Hillary. He wants four more years of Obama—but nobody else does!
[h=2]President Obama Job Approval
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[h=3]Polling Data[/h]
| Poll | Date | Sample | Approve | Disapprove | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RCP Average | 5/13 - 6/8 | -- | 49.2 | 47.1 | +2.1 |
| Gallup | 6/6 - 6/8 | 1500 A | 53 | 43 | +10 |
| Rasmussen Reports | 6/6 - 6/8 | 1500 LV | 49 | 50 | -1 |
| Reuters/Ipsos | 6/4 - 6/8 | 1716 A | 49 | 47 | +2 |
| IBD/TIPP | 5/31 - 6/5 | 908 A | 51 | 42 | +9 |
| Quinnipiac | 5/24 - 5/30 | 1561 RV | 49 | 48 | +1 |
| The Economist/YouGov | 5/20 - 5/23 | 1393 RV | 45 | 52 | -7 |
| NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl | 5/15 - 5/19 | 1000 RV | 51 | 46 | +5 |
| ABC News/Wash Post | 5/16 - 5/19 | 829 RV | 47 | 51 | -4 |
| FOX News | 5/14 - 5/17 | 1021 RV | 48 | 49 | -1 |
| CBS News/NY Times | 5/13 - 5/17 | 1300 A | 50 | 43 | +7 |
[h=6]- JUNE 09, 2016 -[/h][h=1]INGRAHAM: TRUMP HAS THE ‘MAGIC SAUCE’ TO WIN[/h]LifeZette
Donald Trump can be the "champion" Americans need in a way that Hillary Clinton cannot, LifeZette Editor-in-Chief Laura Ingraham said Wednesday on Fox News' "Special Report" in an analysis of the presumptive Republican nominees's post-election speech Tuesday.
In his remarks following the California primary, Trump called out Hillary and Bill Clinton for making "hundreds of millions of dollars" selling various "favors" and "contracts."
Ingraham suggested Trump could beat the likely Democratic nominee by fine-tuning his approach on the issues where Hillary repeatedly falls flat with voters.
"I think the way that he wins is to stress economic populism, redoing a trade regime that has been disastrous for the middle class, talking about sensible and pragmatic, not wishful thinking foreign policy," Ingraham said, adding that Trump should also point out "that despite [Hillary's] great staging and her great crowd last night Hillary could not and did not point to one accomplishment in foreign policy as secretary of state."
Ingraham said though Hillary is "a talented person" and "very smart," Trump has something extra that she lacks.
"But Trump has the magic sauce. He just has to sprinkle it on the issues, and then he has to serve it up in a very pleasing, interesting, and sometimes provocative and entertaining way," Ingraham said.
Ingraham noted that voters "want to feel like there's a champion for them" and the billionaire businessman "began to do that last night ... much more," which was what she'd "needed for some time."
"I for one think it was a very good first step," she said.
Donald Trump can be the "champion" Americans need in a way that Hillary Clinton cannot, LifeZette Editor-in-Chief Laura Ingraham said Wednesday on Fox News' "Special Report" in an analysis of the presumptive Republican nominees's post-election speech Tuesday.
In his remarks following the California primary, Trump called out Hillary and Bill Clinton for making "hundreds of millions of dollars" selling various "favors" and "contracts."
Ingraham suggested Trump could beat the likely Democratic nominee by fine-tuning his approach on the issues where Hillary repeatedly falls flat with voters.
"I think the way that he wins is to stress economic populism, redoing a trade regime that has been disastrous for the middle class, talking about sensible and pragmatic, not wishful thinking foreign policy," Ingraham said, adding that Trump should also point out "that despite [Hillary's] great staging and her great crowd last night Hillary could not and did not point to one accomplishment in foreign policy as secretary of state."
Ingraham said though Hillary is "a talented person" and "very smart," Trump has something extra that she lacks.
"But Trump has the magic sauce. He just has to sprinkle it on the issues, and then he has to serve it up in a very pleasing, interesting, and sometimes provocative and entertaining way," Ingraham said.
Ingraham noted that voters "want to feel like there's a champion for them" and the billionaire businessman "began to do that last night ... much more," which was what she'd "needed for some time."
"I for one think it was a very good first step," she said.
[h=6]JUNE 09, 2016 -[/h][h=1]TIME FOR THE LEFT TO STOP EXCUSING VIOLENCE AGAINST TRUMP SUPPORTERS[/h]Real Clear Politics
"My nose is broken. I have bruises and scratches all over. I got knocked in the head a lot," San Jose's Juan Hernandez, 38, told me. He suffered a mild concussion. That's the price Hernandez paid for attending the infamous Donald Trump rally in San Jose last week at which protesters were seen burning flags and Trump hats, pelting a supporter with an egg and mobbing people who were doing what civics teachers tell students citizens are supposed to do. For his trouble, Hernandez was called names, beaten and bloodied. For dessert, he got to hear politicians suggest it was the fault of his candidate that thugs beat him up. When liberals are on the receiving end, this is known as blaming the victim.
Hernandez does not fit the stereotype of a Trump supporter. He is gay (and a proud member of Log Cabin Republicans) with Mexican roots. He likes Trump's aggressive way of talking, although he thinks the billionaire could be a bit more refined as, for example, when Trump criticized the "Mexican" judge presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University. He knows Democrats who don't like that he's Republican. Now that he's pro-Trump, Hernandez confided, "I have more people against me than I did when I came out as gay."
Talking by phone just before he attended a rally designed to goad San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo (a Hillary Clinton supporter) and Police Chief Edgardo Garcia "to accept" responsibility for failing to protect Trump supporters, Hernandez described what it was like to leave the Trump rally with a friend. The police presence had dissipated. He saw protesters pick out supporters and sucker punch them. Then he spied six or seven men.
"As soon as I locked eyes with them, I knew we were next." Hernandez determined to protect himself by making sure he did not fall down; then the mob would start kicking him.
"They allowed the police to just stand there," said Hernandez. The chief says police were right to maintain the "skirmish line." The mayor issued a statement promising authorities will investigate and prosecute offenders. Liccardo assured me city officials are "looking for ways to do better." Hernandez says that detectives have shown him photos of suspects; he believes they're serious about arresting and prosecuting violent protesters. Police already have arrested four offenders. The San Jose Police Department is soliciting more information from witnesses. Liccardo told me he expects more arrests shortly.
That's all good, but it's not good enough. It's time for Democrats to stop blaming Trump when left-wing activists pummel his supporters. Liccardo denied that he blames The Donald, even as he offered up his "underlying concern" that Trump's "divisive rhetoric will encourage thugs." Clinton likewise faulted Trump for "inciting violence." Bunk. Trump is responsible for making pro-illegal immigration activists and others angry, but he is not responsible if they choose to intimidate, even beat up, his supporters.
When you call Democrats on their absolution for thugs, they dutifully protest that they do not approve of violence. I don't think they're angry with left-wing activists for throwing punches. Methinks their real objection is, as Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told the Los Angeles Times, violent protest is "a tactical mistake."
"My nose is broken. I have bruises and scratches all over. I got knocked in the head a lot," San Jose's Juan Hernandez, 38, told me. He suffered a mild concussion. That's the price Hernandez paid for attending the infamous Donald Trump rally in San Jose last week at which protesters were seen burning flags and Trump hats, pelting a supporter with an egg and mobbing people who were doing what civics teachers tell students citizens are supposed to do. For his trouble, Hernandez was called names, beaten and bloodied. For dessert, he got to hear politicians suggest it was the fault of his candidate that thugs beat him up. When liberals are on the receiving end, this is known as blaming the victim.
Hernandez does not fit the stereotype of a Trump supporter. He is gay (and a proud member of Log Cabin Republicans) with Mexican roots. He likes Trump's aggressive way of talking, although he thinks the billionaire could be a bit more refined as, for example, when Trump criticized the "Mexican" judge presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University. He knows Democrats who don't like that he's Republican. Now that he's pro-Trump, Hernandez confided, "I have more people against me than I did when I came out as gay."
Talking by phone just before he attended a rally designed to goad San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo (a Hillary Clinton supporter) and Police Chief Edgardo Garcia "to accept" responsibility for failing to protect Trump supporters, Hernandez described what it was like to leave the Trump rally with a friend. The police presence had dissipated. He saw protesters pick out supporters and sucker punch them. Then he spied six or seven men.
"As soon as I locked eyes with them, I knew we were next." Hernandez determined to protect himself by making sure he did not fall down; then the mob would start kicking him.
"They allowed the police to just stand there," said Hernandez. The chief says police were right to maintain the "skirmish line." The mayor issued a statement promising authorities will investigate and prosecute offenders. Liccardo assured me city officials are "looking for ways to do better." Hernandez says that detectives have shown him photos of suspects; he believes they're serious about arresting and prosecuting violent protesters. Police already have arrested four offenders. The San Jose Police Department is soliciting more information from witnesses. Liccardo told me he expects more arrests shortly.
That's all good, but it's not good enough. It's time for Democrats to stop blaming Trump when left-wing activists pummel his supporters. Liccardo denied that he blames The Donald, even as he offered up his "underlying concern" that Trump's "divisive rhetoric will encourage thugs." Clinton likewise faulted Trump for "inciting violence." Bunk. Trump is responsible for making pro-illegal immigration activists and others angry, but he is not responsible if they choose to intimidate, even beat up, his supporters.
When you call Democrats on their absolution for thugs, they dutifully protest that they do not approve of violence. I don't think they're angry with left-wing activists for throwing punches. Methinks their real objection is, as Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told the Los Angeles Times, violent protest is "a tactical mistake."
[h=2]The Donald looks to ditch his female problem as three women launch a super PAC and hope to raise $30 million to drive up female support[/h]
Three of Donald Trump's female supporters will announce on Thursday a new super PAC to help the presumptive Republican nominee build support among women.
[h=2]Trump characterized the American people's solidarity with Israel as strong and its commitment to Israel's security as "of paramount importance."[/h]
Donald Trump.. (photo credit:REUTERS)
publican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Thursday condemned an attack on civilians in Tel Aviv as an act of terror backed by the "uncivilized world," warning that as president, extremist militant organizations such as Hamas will find "no refuge" on his watch.
In a statement, Trump said he awaits details of the event, which involved at least three Palestinian perpetrators shooting nine Israeli civilians in a popular Tel Aviv market. Four victims have died.
"Just as fast as the condolences arrive from the civilized world is the praise arising out of the uncivilized one," Trump said.
"Hamas praised the attack, calling the attackers 'heroes.' Reports out of Hebron indicate that residents of the terrorists’ hometown lit up the night sky with celebratory fireworks. One Palestinian 'news organization' even referred to the shootings, in which the assailants dressed up as observant Jews, as a 'Ramadan treat.' The leader of Hamas called the injured terrorist a 'hero.'" "How despicable!," he added.
Trump characterized the American people's solidarity with Israel as strong and its commitment to Israel's security as "of paramount importance."
He seemed to place some blame for the attack not just on Hamas, but on the Palestinian Authority, the local governing body in the West Bank from which the attack's perpetrators allegedly emerged.
"To address terrorism "— and address it we must!," he said, "we must recognize the parallel horror of the culture of religious hatred that permeates many Palestinian quarters. From schools that indoctrinate toddlers to grow up to kill Israelis to the daily menu of hate that spews forth from various 'news organizations,' change is long overdue in the Palestinian territories."
"Let us begin the arduous task of creating a future where peace can take root and terror finds no refuge," he added.
Donald Trump.. (photo credit:REUTERS)
publican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Thursday condemned an attack on civilians in Tel Aviv as an act of terror backed by the "uncivilized world," warning that as president, extremist militant organizations such as Hamas will find "no refuge" on his watch.
In a statement, Trump said he awaits details of the event, which involved at least three Palestinian perpetrators shooting nine Israeli civilians in a popular Tel Aviv market. Four victims have died.
"Just as fast as the condolences arrive from the civilized world is the praise arising out of the uncivilized one," Trump said.
"Hamas praised the attack, calling the attackers 'heroes.' Reports out of Hebron indicate that residents of the terrorists’ hometown lit up the night sky with celebratory fireworks. One Palestinian 'news organization' even referred to the shootings, in which the assailants dressed up as observant Jews, as a 'Ramadan treat.' The leader of Hamas called the injured terrorist a 'hero.'" "How despicable!," he added.
Trump characterized the American people's solidarity with Israel as strong and its commitment to Israel's security as "of paramount importance."
He seemed to place some blame for the attack not just on Hamas, but on the Palestinian Authority, the local governing body in the West Bank from which the attack's perpetrators allegedly emerged.
"To address terrorism "— and address it we must!," he said, "we must recognize the parallel horror of the culture of religious hatred that permeates many Palestinian quarters. From schools that indoctrinate toddlers to grow up to kill Israelis to the daily menu of hate that spews forth from various 'news organizations,' change is long overdue in the Palestinian territories."
"Let us begin the arduous task of creating a future where peace can take root and terror finds no refuge," he added.
It's simple really. If a town lights up the sky to celebrate a terrorist attack you blow up the town without worrying about what Obama, the UN or the al Guardian might say.
"Hamas praised the attack, calling the attackers 'heroes.' Reports out of Hebron indicate that residents of the terrorists’ hometown lit up the night sky with celebratory fireworks."
And (shhh) don't tell anyone the town HEB-ron comes from the word HEB-rew. We wouldn't want anyone to think the Arabs are land thieves!
"Hamas praised the attack, calling the attackers 'heroes.' Reports out of Hebron indicate that residents of the terrorists’ hometown lit up the night sky with celebratory fireworks."
And (shhh) don't tell anyone the town HEB-ron comes from the word HEB-rew. We wouldn't want anyone to think the Arabs are land thieves!
No surprise the con man fraud is also a stiff: Wonder if Larry walters of Vegs is related to Billy?
Donald Trump’s Business Plan Left a Trail of Unpaid Bills
Hardball tactics from the presumptive Republican nominee’s real-estate career had some suppliers claiming he shortchanged them
Donald Trump sat with then-wife Ivana at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, in 1987. PHOTO: TED THAI/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
By ALEXANDRA BERZON
Updated June 9, 2016 4:52 p.m. ET498 COMMENTS
Donald Trump often boasts on the presidential campaign trail that hardball tactics helped make him a successful businessman, an approach many voters say they admire. Those tactics have also left behind bitter tales among business owners who say he shortchanged them.
A review of court filings from jurisdictions in 33 states, along with interviews with business people, real-estate executives and others, shows a pattern over Mr. Trump’s 40-year career of his sometimes refusing to pay what some business owners said Trump companies owed them.
A chandelier shop, a curtain maker, a lawyer and others have said Mr. Trump’s companies agreed to buy goods and services, then reneged when some or all were delivered.
Larry Walters, whose Las Vegas drapery factory supplied Mr. Trump’s hotel there eight years ago, said the developer, Trump Ruffin, wouldn’t pay for additional work it demanded beyond the original contract. When Mr. Walters then refused to turn over some fabric, sheriff’s deputies burst into his factory after Trump Ruffin sued him. Trucks took the fabric away.
MORE ON TRUMP’S BUSINESSES
Mr. Walters said he never had payment problems with other casino or hotel clients. A review of Las Vegas court records showed no other legal disputes over payments involving him. Mr. Walters agreed to a settlement with Trump Ruffin that was about $380,000 short of what he said he was owed, court records show. He settled, he said, because “they were going to drag it on for many, many years.”
Mr. Trump, in interviews with The Wall Street Journal in May, said “I love to hold back and negotiate when people don’t do good work.” He said of Mr. Walters that the developers “were unhappy with his work.”
“If they do a good job, I won’t cut them at all,” Mr. Trump said of businesses he contracts with, saying “it’s probably 1,000 to one where I pay.” He said he occasionally won’t pay fully when work is simply satisfactory or “an OK to bad job…If it’s OK, then I’ll sometimes cut them.” In dealing with public projects such as bridge-building, he said, “that should be the attitude of the country.”
“I pay thousands of bills on time,” he said, adding that suggesting otherwise is “disgusting.”
Payment disputes aren’t unusual in the construction industry, where aggressive developers sometimes leave behind dissatisfied vendors and contractors. Billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, chief of Las Vegas Sands Corp., for example, has been involved in payment disputes with contractors concerning his Venetian casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Sands declined to comment.
Yet Mr. Trump’s withholding of payments stood out as particularly aggressive in the industry and in the broader business world, said some vendors who had trouble getting paid.
It is “a strong-arm tactic that is frowned on,” said Wayne Rivers, a small-business consultant in construction. The tactic is more common in Northeast construction than in other regions, he said, and is abnormal in much of American business.
Mr. Trump pushed the approach beyond construction and into day-to-day casino operations, said Jack O’Donnell, president of Mr. Trump’s Plaza casino in Atlantic City in the late 1980s. “Part of how he did business as a philosophy was to negotiate the best price he could. And then when it came time to pay the bills,” he said, Mr. Trump would say that “ ‘I’m going to pay you but I’m going to pay you 75% of what we agreed to.’ ”
Nicolas Jacobson, owner of Classic Chandeliers in West Palm Beach, Fla., here in 2006, was involved in a payment dispute with Donald Trump over chandeliers. PHOTO: GARY CORONADO/PALM BEACH POST
“In our business it’s very difficult to operate that way. You’re dealing with people on an ongoing basis. Every time you order with them you can’t screw them because they won’t be your suppliers anymore,” Mr. O’Donnell said. Executives at the casino paid vendors fully despite Mr. Trump’s directives, he said, and “it used to infuriate him.”
Alan Garten, general counsel of the Trump Organization, said he didn’t know Mr. O’Donnell and that his account “is certainly not a company philosophy.” He said there is “no question that as a company we are demanding, but we are fair.” He declined to discuss specifics of cases the Journal brought to his attention. “To pick these needles out of a haystack, I don’t think is a fair story.”
Mr. Trump said the only unusual thing about his approach was that he pays bills faster than normal businesses. He said he sometimes gives bonuses for great work, and he agreed to provide names of such vendors. His spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, gave the Journal a list of 10 companies. Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg later said the list was of satisfied vendors who hadn’t gotten bonuses.
The Journal reached seven companies on the list. All said they had positive dealings with Trump companies but hadn’t gotten bonuses. The other three didn’t respond to requests for comment. Ms. Hicks then provided two other names. Both said they got bonuses. One, Lou Rinaldi, owns a Westchester, N.Y., pavement business and said he has worked on golf courses and other projects for about 15 years for Mr. Trump, who he says is a long-time golfing buddy. Mr. Trump has sometimes given him bonuses and handed cash to job-site workers, he said. “He would throw some money over the top,” Mr. Rinaldi said, and would say, “great job, here you go.”
Hardball career
Mr. Trump has written frequently about playing hardball. “You have to be very rough and very tough with most contractors or they’ll take the shirt right off your back,” he wrote in his 1987 book “The Art of the Deal.” In his 2004 book “Trump: Think Like a Billionaire,” he wrote to “always question invoices.”
Among Mr. Trump’s satisfied suppliers is Bart Halpern Inc., a Manhattan fabric company that sold upholstery, drapery and pillow material to Trump projects including the Las Vegas hotel. Bozena Dziewit, its director of hospitality sales, said it has always collected full payments promptly from Trump companies. “We always have a very good experience.”
Mr. Trump’s best-known payment dispute was in Atlantic City in the early 1990s, when Trump executives told contractors working on his Taj Mahal casino they should agree to accept less than full payment or risk becoming unsecured creditors in bankruptcy court. In 1991, the Taj filed for bankruptcy.
Mr. Trump said in a Journal interview last year that those who lost out in the Taj probably wouldn’t have had jobs or contracts in the first place if it weren’t for him.
Vendors with legal muscle have sometimes had better luck collecting, including several that sued Trump University, the now-defunct real-estate school. The MGM Grand in Las Vegas sued Trump University in Clark County, Nev., court in 2009 for allegedly failing to pay a $12,359.51 fee for a canceled event. The casino was paid and dropped the suit, an MGM spokesman said.
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A federal judge unsealed court documents in a fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump's now defunct real estate school, Trump University. WSJ's Shelby Holliday highlights three key findings. Photo: Zuma Press
Mr. Trump said of Trump University’s bills: “Everybody has been paid in full. I didn’t have to do that either. I wouldn’t have to pay anybody if I wanted to be cute.”
Some small businesses, such as Classic Chandeliers in West Palm Beach, Fla., decided they couldn’t afford to fight. In 2004, Mr. Trump chose 5-foot-wide chandeliers with 75 bulbs from the store, said Judith Jacobson, who said she designed the fixture and worked there with her ex-husband, Nicolas Jacobson, the owner.
Mr. Trump’s representatives negotiated to buy three chandeliers for his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for $34,000 total with a 50% down payment, according to court records. “The fact that he was Trump,” Ms. Jacobson said, “my ex-husband said ‘OK, we wouldn’t have any problems with someone who has the means.’ ”
Mr. Trump later sued Classic Chandeliers in Palm Beach County, Fla., court saying he shouldn’t have to pay in full because the company didn’t install the chandeliers properly. Mr. Jacobson, whose last name was spelled Jacobsen in the lawsuit, denied the claim.
Court records show the suit was dropped in 2006 after a planned mediation. Ms. Jacobson said Mr. Jacobson agreed not to be paid in full rather than accumulate legal fees. A review of Palm Beach County court records showed no other payment disputes involving Classic Chandeliers. The shop later closed. Mr. Jacobson died in 2015.
Mr. Trump said of Mr. Jacobson: “He was terrible, that guy…He didn’t do the job properly.”
Larry Walters’s drapery factory in Las Vegas became involved in a payment dispute over an agreement to supply Trump International Hotel & Tower, pictured here in 2008. PHOTO: ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES
A onetime competitor of Mr. Jacobson’s, owner Jack Shea of Reward Lighting said he had a “fabulous relationship” with Mr. Trump, to whom he said he sold chandeliers without payment problems. Mr. Shea occupies Mr. Jacobson’s former storefront and once bought some of his former business assets.
New York real-estate broker Barbara Corcoran, a frequent guest on the show “Shark Tank,” wrote in a 2003 book that Mr. Trump refused to pay her and associates a commission on a $100 million investment in a New York City real-estate project she helped secure in 1994. Of monthly payments he agreed to make over three years, she wrote, he paid two.
Mr. Trump sued in New York County to cancel remaining payments and recover alleged damages after Ms. Corcoran’s associates were quoted in a profile of him in New York magazine, court records show. The judge ruled against him.
Ms. Corcoran’s then-lawyer, Richard Seltzer, said: “He took advantage of the legal system to try to avoid debts.” Mr. Seltzer, former chairman of real-estate litigation at law firm Kaye Scholer LLP, said Mr. Trump’s approach to business agreements is common only among a small subset of privately-held New York development companies he has encountered but rare in the broader world of real estate and business.
Mr. Trump said he sued Ms. Corcoran because her firm violated a confidentiality agreement and “it wasn’t a big deal.”
Lawyer David Hopper, who worked for Trump Organization and other Trump companies, sued in Virginia federal court claiming that in 2011 they owed him $94,511.35 in legal fees. After invoices from Mr. Hopper went unfilled for more than 60 days, Trump representatives had told his firm the bills were “too high” and it should agree to cap its fees or reduce them by 70%, according to court filings. In response, Mr. Hopper withdrew from representing a Trump company in a federal case.
After a Trump lawyer called Mr. Hopper’s work “shoddy” in a local publication, Mr. Hopper filed his suit, alleging defamation and breach of contract. Trump lawyers responded that the business didn’t owe the money and denied defaming him. The parties settled, drafting a statement that the Trump Organization “appreciated” Mr. Hopper’s services. Mr. Hopper declined to comment.
Mr. Trump said: “We thought he was charging too much.”
Some vendors who did collect said Trump companies delayed payments beyond reason. Ted Sargetakis finally got paid 61 days late after many phone calls to collect a balance of more than $50,000 on fabric his Utah company, Silver State, sold to Mr. Trump’s Las Vegas hotel. “Typically for the larger customers, plus or minus a few days is not unusual,” he said, “but to be 30, 60, 70 days late, that’s out of the norm.”
Mr. Trump said he hadn’t heard of Silver State. “Is that a long time?” he asked of a 70-day delay, adding that “I pay thousands of bills on time.”
Mr. Walters’s drapes
In Las Vegas, Mr. Walters’s drapery dispute took a bizarre turn when the sheriff’s deputies presented a court order demanding he hand over fabric his company, Catalina Draperies, was using to make curtains, bedspreads and pillow covers for Trump International Hotel & Tower, being built on the Strip.
The original order in 2007 had been for $702,958, court records show. Trump Ruffin, managed by Mr. Trump, pressed Mr. Walters to hurry, repeatedly asking for extra work, Mr. Walters said in court testimony and other court records.
With the project mostly finished, the company paid Mr. Walters around $553,000 for a job he said had grown to $1.2 million with extra orders and with material he provided, according to court documents. In March 2008, Trump Ruffin rejected his invoices for the extras, Mr. Walters told the Journal this year. He stopped the work and kept the fabrics as collateral.
The company sued him to obtain the fabrics. Trump lawyers said in legal filings Mr. Walters didn’t have proper paperwork to prove he was owed much of the money and had agreed to provide the material.
Mr. Walters told the Journal he had complied with demands for extras, even without formal documentation, because he trusted the Trump company and hoped for more of its business.
Bill Langmade, CEO of Purchasing Management International, the agent that worked on behalf of Trump Ruffin on Mr. Walters’s billing, said the onus is on vendors to have proper paperwork.
Mr. Walters settled in 2008 for $185,000, court records show, collecting $823,000 in total before legal fees. In 2011, he closed the business, blaming the economic slump and Mr. Trump. “We had been fighting the economy,” he said. “We thought Trump was our salvation.”
Donald Trump’s Business Plan Left a Trail of Unpaid Bills
Hardball tactics from the presumptive Republican nominee’s real-estate career had some suppliers claiming he shortchanged them
Donald Trump sat with then-wife Ivana at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, in 1987. PHOTO: TED THAI/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
By ALEXANDRA BERZON
Updated June 9, 2016 4:52 p.m. ET498 COMMENTS
Donald Trump often boasts on the presidential campaign trail that hardball tactics helped make him a successful businessman, an approach many voters say they admire. Those tactics have also left behind bitter tales among business owners who say he shortchanged them.
A review of court filings from jurisdictions in 33 states, along with interviews with business people, real-estate executives and others, shows a pattern over Mr. Trump’s 40-year career of his sometimes refusing to pay what some business owners said Trump companies owed them.
A chandelier shop, a curtain maker, a lawyer and others have said Mr. Trump’s companies agreed to buy goods and services, then reneged when some or all were delivered.
Larry Walters, whose Las Vegas drapery factory supplied Mr. Trump’s hotel there eight years ago, said the developer, Trump Ruffin, wouldn’t pay for additional work it demanded beyond the original contract. When Mr. Walters then refused to turn over some fabric, sheriff’s deputies burst into his factory after Trump Ruffin sued him. Trucks took the fabric away.
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Mr. Walters said he never had payment problems with other casino or hotel clients. A review of Las Vegas court records showed no other legal disputes over payments involving him. Mr. Walters agreed to a settlement with Trump Ruffin that was about $380,000 short of what he said he was owed, court records show. He settled, he said, because “they were going to drag it on for many, many years.”
Mr. Trump, in interviews with The Wall Street Journal in May, said “I love to hold back and negotiate when people don’t do good work.” He said of Mr. Walters that the developers “were unhappy with his work.”
“If they do a good job, I won’t cut them at all,” Mr. Trump said of businesses he contracts with, saying “it’s probably 1,000 to one where I pay.” He said he occasionally won’t pay fully when work is simply satisfactory or “an OK to bad job…If it’s OK, then I’ll sometimes cut them.” In dealing with public projects such as bridge-building, he said, “that should be the attitude of the country.”
“I pay thousands of bills on time,” he said, adding that suggesting otherwise is “disgusting.”
Payment disputes aren’t unusual in the construction industry, where aggressive developers sometimes leave behind dissatisfied vendors and contractors. Billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, chief of Las Vegas Sands Corp., for example, has been involved in payment disputes with contractors concerning his Venetian casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Sands declined to comment.
Yet Mr. Trump’s withholding of payments stood out as particularly aggressive in the industry and in the broader business world, said some vendors who had trouble getting paid.
It is “a strong-arm tactic that is frowned on,” said Wayne Rivers, a small-business consultant in construction. The tactic is more common in Northeast construction than in other regions, he said, and is abnormal in much of American business.
Mr. Trump pushed the approach beyond construction and into day-to-day casino operations, said Jack O’Donnell, president of Mr. Trump’s Plaza casino in Atlantic City in the late 1980s. “Part of how he did business as a philosophy was to negotiate the best price he could. And then when it came time to pay the bills,” he said, Mr. Trump would say that “ ‘I’m going to pay you but I’m going to pay you 75% of what we agreed to.’ ”
Nicolas Jacobson, owner of Classic Chandeliers in West Palm Beach, Fla., here in 2006, was involved in a payment dispute with Donald Trump over chandeliers. PHOTO: GARY CORONADO/PALM BEACH POST
“In our business it’s very difficult to operate that way. You’re dealing with people on an ongoing basis. Every time you order with them you can’t screw them because they won’t be your suppliers anymore,” Mr. O’Donnell said. Executives at the casino paid vendors fully despite Mr. Trump’s directives, he said, and “it used to infuriate him.”
Alan Garten, general counsel of the Trump Organization, said he didn’t know Mr. O’Donnell and that his account “is certainly not a company philosophy.” He said there is “no question that as a company we are demanding, but we are fair.” He declined to discuss specifics of cases the Journal brought to his attention. “To pick these needles out of a haystack, I don’t think is a fair story.”
Mr. Trump said the only unusual thing about his approach was that he pays bills faster than normal businesses. He said he sometimes gives bonuses for great work, and he agreed to provide names of such vendors. His spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, gave the Journal a list of 10 companies. Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg later said the list was of satisfied vendors who hadn’t gotten bonuses.
The Journal reached seven companies on the list. All said they had positive dealings with Trump companies but hadn’t gotten bonuses. The other three didn’t respond to requests for comment. Ms. Hicks then provided two other names. Both said they got bonuses. One, Lou Rinaldi, owns a Westchester, N.Y., pavement business and said he has worked on golf courses and other projects for about 15 years for Mr. Trump, who he says is a long-time golfing buddy. Mr. Trump has sometimes given him bonuses and handed cash to job-site workers, he said. “He would throw some money over the top,” Mr. Rinaldi said, and would say, “great job, here you go.”
Hardball career
Mr. Trump has written frequently about playing hardball. “You have to be very rough and very tough with most contractors or they’ll take the shirt right off your back,” he wrote in his 1987 book “The Art of the Deal.” In his 2004 book “Trump: Think Like a Billionaire,” he wrote to “always question invoices.”
Among Mr. Trump’s satisfied suppliers is Bart Halpern Inc., a Manhattan fabric company that sold upholstery, drapery and pillow material to Trump projects including the Las Vegas hotel. Bozena Dziewit, its director of hospitality sales, said it has always collected full payments promptly from Trump companies. “We always have a very good experience.”
Mr. Trump’s best-known payment dispute was in Atlantic City in the early 1990s, when Trump executives told contractors working on his Taj Mahal casino they should agree to accept less than full payment or risk becoming unsecured creditors in bankruptcy court. In 1991, the Taj filed for bankruptcy.
Mr. Trump said in a Journal interview last year that those who lost out in the Taj probably wouldn’t have had jobs or contracts in the first place if it weren’t for him.
Vendors with legal muscle have sometimes had better luck collecting, including several that sued Trump University, the now-defunct real-estate school. The MGM Grand in Las Vegas sued Trump University in Clark County, Nev., court in 2009 for allegedly failing to pay a $12,359.51 fee for a canceled event. The casino was paid and dropped the suit, an MGM spokesman said.
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Mr. Trump said of Trump University’s bills: “Everybody has been paid in full. I didn’t have to do that either. I wouldn’t have to pay anybody if I wanted to be cute.”
Some small businesses, such as Classic Chandeliers in West Palm Beach, Fla., decided they couldn’t afford to fight. In 2004, Mr. Trump chose 5-foot-wide chandeliers with 75 bulbs from the store, said Judith Jacobson, who said she designed the fixture and worked there with her ex-husband, Nicolas Jacobson, the owner.
Mr. Trump’s representatives negotiated to buy three chandeliers for his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for $34,000 total with a 50% down payment, according to court records. “The fact that he was Trump,” Ms. Jacobson said, “my ex-husband said ‘OK, we wouldn’t have any problems with someone who has the means.’ ”
Mr. Trump later sued Classic Chandeliers in Palm Beach County, Fla., court saying he shouldn’t have to pay in full because the company didn’t install the chandeliers properly. Mr. Jacobson, whose last name was spelled Jacobsen in the lawsuit, denied the claim.
Court records show the suit was dropped in 2006 after a planned mediation. Ms. Jacobson said Mr. Jacobson agreed not to be paid in full rather than accumulate legal fees. A review of Palm Beach County court records showed no other payment disputes involving Classic Chandeliers. The shop later closed. Mr. Jacobson died in 2015.
Mr. Trump said of Mr. Jacobson: “He was terrible, that guy…He didn’t do the job properly.”
Larry Walters’s drapery factory in Las Vegas became involved in a payment dispute over an agreement to supply Trump International Hotel & Tower, pictured here in 2008. PHOTO: ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES
A onetime competitor of Mr. Jacobson’s, owner Jack Shea of Reward Lighting said he had a “fabulous relationship” with Mr. Trump, to whom he said he sold chandeliers without payment problems. Mr. Shea occupies Mr. Jacobson’s former storefront and once bought some of his former business assets.
New York real-estate broker Barbara Corcoran, a frequent guest on the show “Shark Tank,” wrote in a 2003 book that Mr. Trump refused to pay her and associates a commission on a $100 million investment in a New York City real-estate project she helped secure in 1994. Of monthly payments he agreed to make over three years, she wrote, he paid two.
Mr. Trump sued in New York County to cancel remaining payments and recover alleged damages after Ms. Corcoran’s associates were quoted in a profile of him in New York magazine, court records show. The judge ruled against him.
Ms. Corcoran’s then-lawyer, Richard Seltzer, said: “He took advantage of the legal system to try to avoid debts.” Mr. Seltzer, former chairman of real-estate litigation at law firm Kaye Scholer LLP, said Mr. Trump’s approach to business agreements is common only among a small subset of privately-held New York development companies he has encountered but rare in the broader world of real estate and business.
Mr. Trump said he sued Ms. Corcoran because her firm violated a confidentiality agreement and “it wasn’t a big deal.”
Lawyer David Hopper, who worked for Trump Organization and other Trump companies, sued in Virginia federal court claiming that in 2011 they owed him $94,511.35 in legal fees. After invoices from Mr. Hopper went unfilled for more than 60 days, Trump representatives had told his firm the bills were “too high” and it should agree to cap its fees or reduce them by 70%, according to court filings. In response, Mr. Hopper withdrew from representing a Trump company in a federal case.
After a Trump lawyer called Mr. Hopper’s work “shoddy” in a local publication, Mr. Hopper filed his suit, alleging defamation and breach of contract. Trump lawyers responded that the business didn’t owe the money and denied defaming him. The parties settled, drafting a statement that the Trump Organization “appreciated” Mr. Hopper’s services. Mr. Hopper declined to comment.
Mr. Trump said: “We thought he was charging too much.”
Some vendors who did collect said Trump companies delayed payments beyond reason. Ted Sargetakis finally got paid 61 days late after many phone calls to collect a balance of more than $50,000 on fabric his Utah company, Silver State, sold to Mr. Trump’s Las Vegas hotel. “Typically for the larger customers, plus or minus a few days is not unusual,” he said, “but to be 30, 60, 70 days late, that’s out of the norm.”
Mr. Trump said he hadn’t heard of Silver State. “Is that a long time?” he asked of a 70-day delay, adding that “I pay thousands of bills on time.”
Mr. Walters’s drapes
In Las Vegas, Mr. Walters’s drapery dispute took a bizarre turn when the sheriff’s deputies presented a court order demanding he hand over fabric his company, Catalina Draperies, was using to make curtains, bedspreads and pillow covers for Trump International Hotel & Tower, being built on the Strip.
The original order in 2007 had been for $702,958, court records show. Trump Ruffin, managed by Mr. Trump, pressed Mr. Walters to hurry, repeatedly asking for extra work, Mr. Walters said in court testimony and other court records.
With the project mostly finished, the company paid Mr. Walters around $553,000 for a job he said had grown to $1.2 million with extra orders and with material he provided, according to court documents. In March 2008, Trump Ruffin rejected his invoices for the extras, Mr. Walters told the Journal this year. He stopped the work and kept the fabrics as collateral.
The company sued him to obtain the fabrics. Trump lawyers said in legal filings Mr. Walters didn’t have proper paperwork to prove he was owed much of the money and had agreed to provide the material.
Mr. Walters told the Journal he had complied with demands for extras, even without formal documentation, because he trusted the Trump company and hoped for more of its business.
Bill Langmade, CEO of Purchasing Management International, the agent that worked on behalf of Trump Ruffin on Mr. Walters’s billing, said the onus is on vendors to have proper paperwork.
Mr. Walters settled in 2008 for $185,000, court records show, collecting $823,000 in total before legal fees. In 2011, he closed the business, blaming the economic slump and Mr. Trump. “We had been fighting the economy,” he said. “We thought Trump was our salvation.”
