Law Firm that handled Donald Trump's taxes drops him

[JaegerBrah]

Donald Trump returns to his company this week as it faces a deepening crisis, with key properties bleeding revenue and its bankers, lawyers and customers fleeing the company.

Financial disclosure forms, filed by the former president as he left office, revealed that his hotels, resorts and other properties had lost more than $120 million in revenue last year, as the pandemic forced long-term closures and kept customers home.

Those losses were worst in the places where Trump could least afford it: His Washington hotel, which has a $170 million loan outstanding, saw revenue drop more than 60 percent. His Doral resort in Miami — also carrying a huge debt load — saw a 44 percent drop.

On Thursday, the company’s troubles grew: One of its banks and one of its law firms said they would cut their ties with the Trump Organization. They are the latest in a string of vendors and customers who severed their relationships with the company after Jan. 6, when a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol directly after he addressed them at a rally.

The picture emerging shows the inversion of Trump’s fortunes since 2015, when he entered politics promising to remake the country in the image of his growing, swaggering business.

Now, Trump returns to a business remade in the image of the country he led: beleaguered, indebted and toxically politicized.

“He faces some very serious problems that have been building in recent years and I think are going to come to a head now that he’s left office,” said Bert Ely, a banking consultant who has testified before Congress on financial matters.


President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, depart the White House for the last time Wednesday. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Trump’s prized Doral resort is in steep decline, according to company documents, showing his business problems are mounting

Ely said the Trump Organization is a relatively small operation, which relies heavily on the work of others — lawyers and real estate brokers, and investors who paid to have Trump’s name on their buildings. Now, some of those outsiders are pulling away. “He’s done enormous reputational damage to himself,” Ely said.

The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Trump still owns his company. But it is unclear when — or even if — he will return to his old role as the company’s day-to-day leader. On Thursday, while Trump was seen playing golf at one of his courses in Florida, the Trump Organization’s website still listed Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump as the company’s leaders.

The new financial disclosures, filed routinely by an outgoing president, show that the company is facing one of its darkest hours, as the coronavirus hammers the tourism industry.

Overall, Trump listed specific revenue figures for 47 different companies, including his golf clubs, hotels and New York City park properties. Combined, revenue at those companies declined more than 35 percent last year, according to a Washington Post analysis.

There were bright spots: Revenue at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, a members-only operation in Palm Beach, Fla., that is now doubling as the former president’s home, increased 13 percent. And Trumpstore.com, which sells T-shirts, candles and bath bombs bearing the former president’s name, reported that its income doubled, to $1.9 million.

Ballrooms, candles and luxury cottages: During Trump’s term, millions of government and GOP dollars have flowed to his properties

But there were also sharp declines at three of Trump’s most important properties: his D.C. hotel, his Doral resort in Florida, and his Turnberry resort in Scotland. Their combined revenue fell from $149 million in 2019 to $71 million last year, a drop of more than half.

Trump faces more than $400 million in outstanding loans, including more than $290 million on Doral and the D.C. hotel.

Ironically, the future of those businesses could depend on the man whose victory Trump tried to overturn: President Biden.

That’s because Biden’s success in speeding up vaccinations for the coronavirus will play a major role in determining how fast the hotel and travel industries recover. In addition, because Trump’s D.C. hotel is located in a federally owned building, the Biden administration is his landlord. If Trump seeks to renegotiate his lease, or to get federal approval for a sale of the building, he will be dealing with Biden’s General Services Administration.

On Thursday, White House spokesman T.J. Ducklo declined to comment about how the Biden administration will handle Trump’s hotel.

In the meantime, on Thursday, Trump’s company continued to lose key partners — including banks and lawyers that had stuck with it through the lowest points of Trump’s political career.

“We no longer have any depository relationship with him,” said a spokesperson for BankUnited, a Florida-based bank where Trump had kept more than $5 million in money-market accounts. On Thursday, BankUnited said it was closing those accounts. It declined to say why.

The decision meant that, since the attack on the Capitol, Trump had lost three of the four banks that held his largest deposits. Signature Bank and Professional Bank cut their ties earlier this month. The fourth bank, Capital One, has declined to comment.

Also Thursday, Trump lost one of his best-known law firms: Morgan Lewis, which has represented Trump on tax issues since before he ran for office. One Morgan Lewis partner, Sheri Dillon, had become a well-known defender of Trump, appearing with him in 2017 at a news conference in Trump Tower, next to a pile of papers and folders that were supposed to represent Trump relinquishing control of his businesses.

“President-elect Trump wants there to be no doubt in the minds of the American public that he is completely isolating himself from his business interests,” Dillon said then.

But on Thursday, the firm said that relationship was ending.

“We have had a limited representation of the Trump Organization and Donald Trump in tax-related matters. For those matters not already concluded, we are transitioning as appropriate to other counsel,” Morgan Lewis spokeswoman Emily Carhart said in an email. She declined to give a reason.

Dillon was also involved in the Trump Organization’s handling of an estate called Seven Springs in suburban New York, where the company obtained a $21 million tax break through a “conservation easement” — essentially, a promise not to develop some of the land in exchange for a tax benefit. Now, Trump’s dealings with Seven Springs are the focus of two state-level investigations, by the Manhattan district attorney and the New York attorney general.

The decision by Morgan Lewis marked at least two law firms that have cut ties with Trump’s company since Jan. 6. The first, Seyfarth Shaw, announced its decision last week.

This week, the news site American Lawyer reported that a third firm, Alston & Bird, was also ending its work with Trump’s company. Alston & Bird declined to answer questions from The Washington Post.

In the immediate wake of the attack on the Capitol, the Trump Organization lost two of its real estate brokers, its e-commerce vendor, its chance to host the 2022 PGA Championship golf tournament, and its hopes of hosting another golf tournament, the British Open. Also, New York City said it will end the Trump Organization’s contracts to run a carousel, two ice rinks and a golf course in city parks — contracts that brought the Trump Organization $18 million in 2019.

Backlash to riot at Capitol hobbles Trump’s business as banks, partners flee the brand

Elsewhere, two major tenants in Trump’s office building on Wall Street, the Girl Scouts of Greater New York and a tuberculosis-fighting charity called the TB Alliance, said they were seeking to leave the building. The Trump Organization has not said whether it will let them break their leases.

The backlash to Trump’s actions has even hit the smallest of Trump’s business partners, including the organizers of a triathlon — the Tri at the Trump — held at Trump’s golf course outside Charlotte.

“It was all on track before the Capitol,” said Chuck McAllister, the founder of the event, which he expected to attract 450 athletes and 1,000 spectators.

But then, McAllister said, the Capitol attack caused sponsors and vendors to pull out. He had to cancel the event. It was actually the second time he had to cancel the event because of political backlash against Trump: In 2017, he canceled a previous triathlon after Trump said there were “very fine people” among white-supremacist protesters in Charlottesville.

But he came back to Trump, and got burned again.

“It is deja vu. It’s like Groundhog Day,” McAllister said. He said he was unsure whether he would come back in 2022. “The name’s toxic. It’s toxic to some people. That’s never going to change.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...19d_story.html

They're really determined to bury this man and aren't letting up in the least. Trump is a perceived liability and no longer protected by the presidency, so I expect more of this to continue.

[AlwaysFocus]

Thats what happens to people who try to get into politics and are not part of the swamp first.

[ElrondHubbard]

Thats what happens to people who try to get into politics and are not part of the swamp first.

That's what happen to criminals who are too stupid and narcissistic to realize that not everyone approves of their criminality.

[Mercworx]

That's what happen to criminals who are too stupid and narcissistic to realize that not everyone approves of their criminality.

^^^^^


Meanwhile this man probably voted for Hillary and Biden.


They say with age comes wisdom but idk.

[Phil9]

Ivanka gonna be giving out handies to support Donald’s ******** addiction soon when they go broke.

[Ironmanlet]

Bru, cliffs.....

[AlwaysFocus]

That's what happen to criminals who are too stupid and narcissistic to realize that not everyone approves of their criminality.

who joe biden? you feelin ok man?

[BunkerBoy]

Ivanka gonna bne giving out handies to support Donald’s ******** addiction soon when they go broke.

She will be using her hands, Donald will be using his throat.
He already got plenty of practice in serving Putin

[anonymous]

^^^^^


Meanwhile this man probably voted for Hillary and Biden.


They say with age comes wisdom but idk.

It's a staggering achievement to make it to nearly 70 without understanding the fundamentals of how the world works.

[Jasonw1178]

There are plenty of law firms and banks that will take him. If banks and such keep making political standings they are going to end up getting the consequences at some point.

Imagine you work at a bank. Just a man trying to make a living. The bank you works for is involved in politics and refuses to do business with people with conservative values. Democrats make a bold plan that puts the lives in danger of many conservatives. You are driving along and someone guns you down because you are apart of the financing of the democratic party.

Bringing religion and politics to the workplace is a bad idea.

[NitrogenWidget]

There are plenty of law firms and banks that will take him. If banks and such keep making political standings they are going to end up getting the consequences at some point.

Imagine you work at a bank. Just a man trying to make a living. The bank you works for is involved in politics and refuses to do business with people with conservative values. Democrats make a bold plan that puts the lives in danger of many conservatives. You are driving along and someone guns you down because you are apart of the financing of the democratic party.

Bringing religion and politics to the workplace is a bad idea.

more like you will be laid off because the banks it's target audience is 75% liberals sucking on the government teet and the libs they stupidly lent money to default because they could never really afford the payments in the first place.



T

[AlwaysFocus]

Bringing religion and politics to the workplace is a bad idea.

its happening more and more i dont get it

[N0rds]

So fukin stupid.


Remember how Obama WEAPONIZED THE IRS, and used it against his political enemies?


I do

And I know that these weaponized alt-left trump-hating IRS chuds would have BURIED trump before he even got into office, if they could find a SINGLE discrepancy... SRS, if there was even 3 CENTS off on his taxes he would have been in ClubFed by now.

The fact that they haven't been able to find chit, and from the taxes we HAVE seen from Trump, is that not only is he CLEAN AS A WHISTLE, but he pays FAR more in taxes than Clinton, Obama, and WAY more than cuckboy Sanders himself pays...

[Mr Beer]

Oh dear, actions have consequences, what a shame

Personally I think he'll be alright for money, because while plenty of people absolutely detest him, I'd guess about 30 million cultists still think he craps gold. He's smart enough to leverage that for income, plus if there's one thing Trump knows, it's how to navigate a bankruptcy while still maintaining control of personal assets.

Legal issues on the other hand, they might bury him. Will be really interesting to see what crops up in the next 6 months or so.

[BeginnerGainz]

its happening more and more i dont get it

Thanks to the social media everyone is a politician these days....

Absolutely pissening