President Trump: Making America Great Again...

[Moliere]

Is he trying to say "underleveraged"? Because that would make sense. And it would be not particularly concerning, without more, that someone with billions in assets has leveraged $400 million in debt financing.

Yep, $400mm is pretty low for someone with $2.5b in real estate assets. It would be nice to have a real finance/economics person chime in a bit on this (where is Pelag?) because being in real estate and having a lot of debt isn't extraordinary, in fact, it's downright ordinary. Also, I'm not aware of a place on a tax return where you have to list all your debt and the name of the lender so I'm not sure him releasing his tax returns will help any, despite what the moderator or anyone else says.

[old_gregg]

underlevered is used interchangeably with underleveraged. $400m of debt is not a thing people should be talking or worried about.

[All-American]

underlevered is used interchangeably with underleveraged.

Good to know. Thanks.

[Joe Public]

Every REIT and RE partnership I interfaced with in a former life that owned class A commercial office properties like Trump Tower carried debt at 70+% of FMV of the asset. The debt partially amortized over the loan term, but a significant - always 50% or more of the asset value - balance was due as a balloon payment at the end of the term. The debt gets rolled at the end of the term and never gets paid off. It is completely normal in real estate to have billions of dollars of debt that is “coming due” within the next several years.

[Northwestcoug]

underlevered is used interchangeably with underleveraged. $400m of debt is not a thing people should be talking or worried about.

I didn’t know that. I was mocking Trump because I thought he was trying to say underleveraged. I humbly retract my mockery.

[Moliere]

Every REIT and RE partnership I interfaced with in a former life that owned class A commercial office properties like Trump Tower carried debt at 70+% of FMV of the asset. The debt partially amortized over the loan term, but a significant - always 50% or more of the asset value - balance was due as a balloon payment at the end of the term. The debt gets rolled at the end of the term and never gets paid off. It is completely normal in real estate to have billions of dollars of debt that is “coming due” within the next several years.

Stop being reasonable! Trump owes hundreds of millions to god knows who!!! He probably owes it to Putin personally or probably Hitlers estate or possibly Ken Lay (who is alive and living in the mountains of Colorado).

[PaloAltoCougar]

I thought the $400 million referred only to business debts coming due that are personally guaranteed, not total Trump business debt. I've been under the impression that the Trump business debt:equity ratio is far greater than 1:6. He's made a living off of OPM and heavy leverage, and I'm still of the belief that remains true, but I'm open to correction. The spectre of $400 MM in balloon payments coming due has to be concerning, but if RE values continue to rise over the next four years, probably not a problem--huge problem if the market tanks, though, as with his casinos in the 90's.

[Pelado]

Yep, $400mm is pretty low for someone with $2.5b in real estate assets. It would be nice to have a real finance/economics person chime in a bit on this (where is Pelag?) because being in real estate and having a lot of debt isn't extraordinary, in fact, it's downright ordinary. Also, I'm not aware of a place on a tax return where you have to list all your debt and the name of the lender so I'm not sure him releasing his tax returns will help any, despite what the moderator or anyone else says.

On business tax returns with sufficient assets, the business is required to report the debt on the balance sheet (schedule L), but is not required to list to whom the debt is owed. While there is no debt-reporting requirement on personal tax returns, total debt amounts can be estimated based on interest deductions claimed.

I thought the $400 million referred only to business debts coming due that are personally guaranteed, not total Trump business debt. I've been under the impression that the Trump business debt:equity ratio is far greater than 1:6. He's made a living off of OPM and heavy leverage, and I'm still of the belief that remains true, but I'm open to correction. The spectre of $400 MM in balloon payments coming due has to be concerning, but if RE values continue to rise over the next four years, probably not a problem--huge problem if the market tanks, though, as with his casinos in the 90's.

How the debt is structured is pretty important. The Times article said - going off my memory - that Trump's best performing real estate assets are ones that he doesn't control. It's possible that the vast majority of his real estate value is tied up in those assets and that the personally-guaranteed debts are secured by a subset of his assets that do not have adequate value to either refinance the debts or satisfy the debts upon liquidation.

That said, if he really does have a net worth of $2.5 billion, he could either refinance other assets or sell other assets to cover the debts coming due, such that he wouldn't have to come up with anything out-of-pocket. My guess is that his net worth is significantly less than he's said and that he has a much higher debt-equity ratio than he has said.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Another ringing endorsement for our Commander-in-Chief, this one from his former Chief of Staff, Major General John Kelly (ret,):

President Donald Trump "is the most flawed person" he's ever known."The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it's more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life," the retired Marine general has told friends, CNN has learned.

I think it's safe to say that no President, including Nixon, has ever been criticized as much by his own staff and appointed officials than Trump has been. Not even close.

[tooblue]

FBI probing whether emails in New York Post story about Hunter Biden are tied to Russian disinformation

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ia/3684342001/

"The unlikely account of how the emails surfaced raised immediate questions about Russian involvement, particularly because U.S. officials have warned that Russia – which backed Trump's 2016 campaign through hacking and a covert social media campaign – is interfering again this year."

[Commando]

FBI probing whether emails in New York Post story about Hunter Biden are tied to Russian disinformation

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ia/3684342001/

"The unlikely account of how the emails surfaced raised immediate questions about Russian involvement, particularly because U.S. officials have warned that Russia – which backed Trump's 2016 campaign through hacking and a covert social media campaign – is interfering again this year."

The GOP has already inoculated against those kinds of reports by continually referring to 2016's Russian botfarm interference campaign, although confirmed by U.S. and foreign intelligence, as a 'Fake Russian Hoax'

[BlueK]

"buttloads" as in tens of millions like Hunter and Joe got from the Chinese Commie Party?

Yeah like $40M from the inauguration fund unaccounted for.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rol...on-769774/amp/

[PaloAltoCougar]

Among the many things I'll look forward to if Trump loses are the presidential pardons that will not doubt be issued in December and January. I'll enjoy visualizing Trump's anger when he learns presidents can't pardon people for state crimes, including fraud, sexual assault, etc.

[Katy Lied]

Interesting. I thought any crime could be pardoned. I wonder if Trump will start a bidding war for pardons.

[frank ryan]

Ted stop pretending you give half a shit about corruption among politicians.