2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumDeeply in debt to Russia, Donald Trump may have only run for President to avoid bankruptcy
http://www.dailynewsbin.com/opinion/deeply-in-debt-to-russians-donald-trump-may-only-be-running-for-president-to-avoid-bankruptcy/25398/Since the revelation that the Russians may have hacked the Democratic Party email servers in order to try to sabotage the United States Presidential election in favor of Donald Trump, and his own sons admission that hes increasingly in debt to the Russians, its raised the question of whether Trump is anything more than a political and financial patsy of Vladimir Putin. It also raises the deeper question of whether Trump, whose debt load has exploded over the past year, may have only run for President in order to prevent his shaky empire from collapsing into bankruptcy.
Its already been well documented that American banks are no longer willing (source: Wall Street Journal) to loan money to Donald Trump due to his pattern of strategically not paying his bills or repaying his debts when he thinks he can get away with it. And yet hes managed to nearly double his debt load (source: Bloomberg) over the past year by borrowing a flurry of funds from overseas investors. Why have these foreign bankers been willing to make the risky move of loaning money to Trump if they know theres a strong chance it wont be paid back? The short answer is that they have been gambling that they were buying influence over the United States government if Trump became President.
That in turn calls into question why Donald Trump chose this election cycle to finally enter politics, after spending decades threatening to do so. Throughout the general election, he proved consistently unwilling to take the steps needed to broaden his appeal enough to compete for undecided voters, and instead seemed to be merely going through the motions of having snarky fun while remaining in the race until the end. Even though he ended up winning the Electoral College vote (barring a rebellious Electoral vote on December 19th), he ran such a lackadaisical campaign that he lost by nearly three million votes. Thats not a sign of someone who was looking to win. Its a sign of someone who was just playing the part for other reasons.
Throw in the fact that Donald Trump spent the entire election refusing to release his tax returns to the public even after it caused him endless grief and distrust among voters, and it raises the question of just what hes hiding. Is he far more in debt than we know? Has he been taking out these loans from foreign investors simply to cover for his existing deep debt so he can avoid yet another bankruptcy? Did he enter the race last year simply because he knew that it would make it easier for him to secure loans from foreigners? What happens if he now takes office, owing money to so many foreign governments and foreign investors?
Even if Donald Trump had lost this election, hed have managed to milk his status as the Republican nominee to the tune of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in overseas loans. Unless hes willing to release his tax returns and allow the American public to see what financial secrets hes been hiding, just how deeply in debt he is, and how much of it he owes to the Russians among other hostile nations, its fair to ask if his entire campaign and now would be presidency has been one desperate long con aimed at keeping himself out of yet another bankruptcy. If you enjoy Daily News Bin, consider making a contribution:
WhiteTara
(30,180 posts)and collection of his debt. Oh, wait, this is the debt payment, the US.
Baitball Blogger
(48,124 posts)Identity politics, considering.
Wounded Bear
(60,708 posts)good job America, you're gonna be paying the vig on Donald's debt to the Russian Mafia.
flamingdem
(39,929 posts)A new word for me -
Vigorish, or simply the vig, also known as juice, under-juice, the cut or the take, is the amount charged by a bookmaker, or bookie, for taking a bet from a gambler. In the United States, it also means the interest on a shark's loan. The term originates from the Russian word for winnings, выигрыш vyigrysh.
Wounded Bear
(60,708 posts)ucrdem
(15,714 posts)Grifter con artist extraordinaire. One for the record books even. The fact that the skids were dutifully greased by the VRWC which may or may not include active Russian participation (I'm skeptical) is a tribute to their pathological hatred of the Clintons. Would they make the US a universal laughing stock and endanger the survival of the planet just to get their Hill hate on?
Well, I guess we know the answer.