would actually be impossible because nobody could ever match the exploits of Don the Con as we learned from the latest Mea Culpa Podcast from Michael Cohen:
-Cohen says Don the Con and his mob is under investigation by no less than 3 entities: Southern District of New York, New York Attorney General's Office, and New York City District Attorney.
-Those investigations are looking into bank fraud, money laundering, insurance fraud, criminal tax fraud, and falsification of business records. That is why The Con is challenging attempts to access his financial records and why he desperately is seeking to remain president.
-That is just New York. Other jurisdictions are waiting for the second Don the Con is no longer president to commence with the lawsuits and subpoenas. There are still the outstanding emoluments clause lawsuits filed by Washington DC and Maryland.
-On the tax side, the investigation into Don the Con's sketchy $72 mil tax credit was temporarily suspended when he became president.
-There are other legal issues The Con faces such as obstruction of justice from the Robert Mueller probe and directing the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.
Now, onto an interview with Dan Alexander who covers Don the Con for Forbes Magazine.
-In Alexander's opinion, the most inflated value of Don the Con's properties is 7 Springs. DtC says it is worth 270 million. Most optimistic value would be $50 million. Realistic value is $30 million.
-Called the claimed size of DtC's 5th Avenue property a lie. DtC says its 33,000 plus the roof, so it should be called 40,000 square feet. True size is under 11,000 square feet.
-Alexander looked at 150 tenants who pay $177 million dollars in rent every year to DtC. 4 are foreign government entities, 17 are under federal investigation, 30 are collecting money from federal contracts totalling 8 billion dollars, 35 companies are lobbying the federal government, and at least 20 of those 35 are lobbying DtC personally.
-Government of Qatar is likely using a shell company to pay DtC. Space rented by Qatar started after DtC became president. There is furniture there but that is about it. It does not appear that the space has ever been used. When DtC took over as president, he stated Qatar was a terrorist nation. After they started paying rent, DtC flipped and started commending Qatar for fighting terrorism.
-It is suspicious that as well as renting office space for no reason, Qatar was part of a group that bailed out and purchased a building owned by Jared Kuschner that was previously known as the worst deal in NY real estate history.
-Other presidents would have just divested their investments prior to taking office to eliminate the possibility of ethical concerns.
-DtC's most profitable holding is 555 California Street but that was not by design. DtC wanted to build a television city. DtC has 30%. Controlling interest is owned by a Hong Kong investor. Investor balks at the idea of television city and wants them to be office buildings. DtC sues and even gets someone to backup DtC's wild idea by saying he would have paid more money than the investor. DtC loses the fight because he is only a minority investor and is "forced" to follow the direction of the majority. The end result of this property is that it becomes the best investment of DtC's life.
-If DtC would have sold all his properties and put them into the S&P 500, he actually would have been hundreds of millions of dollars ahead, avoided political/ethical questions, and eliminated his business troubles. But DtC's goal for being president was to use it as a marketing tool for his brand. What then happened was his brand value decreased.
-Cohen tells the story about how DtC was told that inflating the value of his properties might not be such a good idea because his family would not be able to pay the estate tax should DtC die. DtC just dismissed the warning and said it was their (his children's) problem. Alexander says normally somebody that age would have started passing their wealth onto their kids to lessen the impact of estate taxes in the future. DtC though has pretty much has kept everything for himself.
-Alexander is impressed that the NYTimes acquired the membership list of 2/11 of DtC golf clubs since that information is not easy to find. Still, that leaves a big hole in finding out who is a member and who could be influencing DtC.
-Doral Golf Club was making $15 million a year. Then DtC insulted the Mexican community, so nearby Univision stopped having functions there. Same applied the smaller groups who hosted gatherings there. Now, Doral might only cover the interest of the property's loan.
-Alexander does not think DtC's DC hotel is able to cover even the interest payment over there.
-DtC has $900 million in loans due within the next 4 years which would lead to even more questions about being compromised should be remain in office.
-DtC and billionaire Phil Ruffin took out a $30 million against the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas. Shortly after, large amounts of money are shifted to his 2016 presidential campaign. DtC makes a $10 and $2 million donation to the campaign, so it looks like the money they borrowed was used to finance the campaign. It would be illegal if they could prove that Ruffin was the reason they were able to get the loan, and that he was donating more than then maximum of $2800.
-DtC put up $66 million in 2016 for his presidential run. He put up zero in 2020.
-Cohen notes that the only financial institutions willing to lend money to DtC are Deutsche Bank and Ladder Captial who happens to employ the son of DtC's CFO Allen Weisselberg.
-DtC aides once drank a thousand dollars worth of Malt Liquor at Mar-a-Lago and charged it to taxpayers.
-Even though DtC is not putting any of his own money into his campaign this year, his company is charging the campaign for expenses like IT, legal expenses and nickel & dime stuff for a total of $2.3 million. So basically, the campaign donations he is receiving is going to pay for his company's expenses. Alexander says DtC could have just donated $2.5 million to the campaign himself so it would balance out if he were to be criticized. DtC declined to do that.
-Cohen said at one time, DtC's suggested that he was going to give away all the profits from doing business with foreign governments to the US Treasury in recognition of the emoluments clause. Not only did this not happen, the amount flowed was under-reported and shocking high.
-Bank of China (which is 70% owned by China) pays DtC 1.9 million a year for rental space. Just the profit from this one deal is more than 3 times what DtC's company claimed as being all the profits across all their businesses. Hence, the under-reporting.
-When the issue of his business conflicting with the presidency first came up, DtC said he would not be discussing business with even his kids. A month later after that press conference in 2017, Eric said he was going to discuss business matters with his father.
-They also said they were going to review all new transactions for possible conflicts, but that plan excluded 2 properties that are the most profitable to DtC. That essentially means that parties that contribute over 1/2 of his rental income were not reviewed and could be source of ethical violations.
-Alexander concluded that DtC's plan was to never have oversight into his business dealings while being president. Instead, the plan was to just use the presidency as a business.
-Cohen says DtC never expected to win in 2016. He might not have even wanted to win. DtC's reason for running was to use the campaign as the "greatest infomercial in the history of American politics".
-Bank of China according to Michael Cohen was going to move out of Trump Towers by 2019 and had already found space a few blocks away at half the price. Instead, they stayed but why? Maybe because their majority owner is the government of China. One possible theory is that the bank could have downsized and is renting less space now, but there seems to conflicting statements with that reasoning.
-Cohen thinks after IRS is done, DtC's readjusted tax bill will be $300 million + interest & penalties which could end up at $600 million. DtC would likely do some refinancing as well as sell off properties. Cohen does not believe DtC will sell Mar-a-Lago to raise money unless he has to. DtC thinks Mar-a-Lago is worth $500 million. Alexander says it is worth about $180 million.
Amazingly, there are still people who support Don the Con.