Page 58 - Forbes Magazine-October 31, 2018

FORBES DONALD TRUMP

mortar retail, shaving more than $100 million off his for-
tune—and no amount of bully-pulpit Amazon-bashing will LAGGING BEHIND
change that.
But the third factor comes from how Trump the president CHANGE IN NET WORTH SINCE 2015:
Donald Trump: –$1.4 bil (–31%)
affects Trump the brand. Those familiar with him saw his
2016 run as a surreal marketing strategy, and Trump has said Average Forbes 400 member: +$1.7 bil (+24%)
as much, telling Fortune way back in 2000, “It’s very possi-
CHANGE IN NET WORTH SINCE 2017:
ble that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and
Donald Trump: $0
make money on it.” Since his unexpected ascent to the White
House, Trump has tried to leverage the trappings of the pres- Average Forbes 400 member: +$600 million (+7%)
BASED ON FORBES 400 MEMBERS IN 2015 AND 2017.
idency to benefit his commercial projects, from visits to his
golf courses to hosting summits at Mar-a-Lago to launching
a new hotel-licensing business aimed at his voters. much of its clientele from the Northeast, where Trump was
“My father made a tremendous sacrifice when he left a and is especially unpopular. “At the time there was a lot
company that he spent his entire life building to go into pol- of talk about comments that Trump had made,” says Jeff
itics,” counters Eric Trump, who now comanages the Trump Dugas, who attended the event. “Nobody was extremely
Organization on behalf of the president, in a statement to surprised.”
Forbes. “Everything he does is for the good of the American Big names like Nascar and the PGA Tour also pulled busi-
people—he has zero involvement in the Trump Organization ness from the club. After Trump won the election, Doral lost
and quite frankly to suggest otherwise is outrageous.” (Eric 100,000 booked room nights, according to someone who
Trump himself, however, told Forbes shortly after the inau- knows the resort’s business. While revenues for the Miami lux-
guration that he would provide the president bottom-line ury hotel market jumped 4% overall in 2017 according to the
updates “probably quarterly.”) data analytics firm STR, Doral’s revenues fell by an estimat-
Either way, Trump’s mixture of politics and business has ed 16%. And that was before a deranged gunman wandered
proved to be a net loser for him so far. In further polarizing into the lobby earlier this year, draped an American flag over
the country, he has also further polarized his business—to the the front desk and began shooting at the chandeliers before he
tune of an estimated $200 million hit against his net worth. was apprehended by police.
Understanding how that has happened offers a fresh window Overall, revenue at the president’s U.S. golf properties fell
into the state of Trump Inc.—and
Trump’s America.
WHAT TRUMP REALLY OWNS
IN MAY 2016, A DOZEN OR SO
HIS NAME IS ON A LOT OF SKYSCRAPERS. BUT MANY OF THEM ARE
golf course appraisers settled in JUST LICENSE DEALS—MEANING DONALD TRUMP DOESN’T OWN ANY
at Trump National Doral, the PART OF THE BUILDING. HE DOES OWN A PORTION OF THE SPACE IN
president’s 643-room Miami MANY OTHER PROPERTIES, INCLUDING THESE NINE.
mega-resort, for a few days of
seminars and golf. At the time,
Trump was steamrolling through
the Republican primaries while 27 %
bashing Mexicans, Muslims and
even the pope. So it was no sur-
prise when, inside his resort, the
conversation turned to how the
tumult was affecting Trump’s golf 24 %
businesses. %
A top Doral executive, of all 6
people, was willing to provide an
answer. According to three wit-
nesses, he told the room of ap-
praisers that business at the re-
sort—whose revenues were as
big as Trump’s ten other U.S. golf TRUMP PARC EAST, NYC TRUMP PARK AVENUE, NYC TRUMP WORLD BUILDING ILLUSTRATIONS BY HARRY CAMPBELL FOR FORBES
courses combined—was suffer- 15 condos, retail space 17 condos, retail space (Capital One, TOWER, NYC
(Pret A Manger) New York Sports Club) 37th-floor condo, retail space
ing because of the campaign. (UN Plaza Grill, The World
Historically, Doral had drawn Bar), 76-space garage

64 | FORBES OCTOBER 31, 2018