Trump appointments are feeding at the Taxpayers' Trough is massive numbers as if they're anointed. It should not be the responsibility of outside groups to research this level of corruption and abuse. Where are the Republicans? Republicans continue to prove themselves incapable of oversight and incapable of governing.
Trump watches as Steven Mnuchin is sworn in as Treasury Secretary. (photo: Getty Images)
This should not be a partisan issue if Carl Icahn violated the law, yet Republicans are turning a blind eye to violations of law by Trump cronies.
Carl Icahn. (photo: Getty Images/NYT)
Democrats Turn Up the Heat on Carl Icahn Stephanie Griffith, ThinkProgress Griffith writes: "Democrats in Congress are demanding answers from Carl Icahn over his recent sale of steel-related securities just days before President Donald Trump announced hefty new tariffs on steel imports - a well-timed stock dump lawmakers say might have been illegal." READ MORE
CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE FOR MORE THOUGHT-PROVOKING ARTICLES
A Department of Defense Inspector General report investigating allegations that the Air Force illegally retaliated against one of the pilots concerned about F-22 hypoxia issues reveals how difficult it is to protect military whistleblowers.
“If the Pentagon is really serious about making the F-35 affordable, they will stop buying them until the design has been completed and verified effective,” said Dan Grazier at the Project On Government Oversight, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog.
No action was taken against those names in the Panama Papers - tacit approval for violating US legislation?
NO TAXES PAID!
The lengthy list includes ROBERT MERCER who is running attack ads against Senator Elizabeth Warren. Many Negative Posters on her facebook page are FAKE POSTERS or BOTS....do they originate from ROBERT MERCER?
The Paradise Papers keep delivering. A trove of leaked documents on the world’s elite. The commerce secretary. Apple. More. We’ll dive in.
The massive leak of offshore financial records called the Paradise Papers is causing heartburn in super-rich circles this week. Billions and billions of dollars stashed in tax havens, brought to light. Some strange bedfellows, too. The Queen of England is in there. And Madonna. Bono. But also the US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, with lucrative ties to Vladimir Putin’s circle. Apple, with a huge stash abroad. This hour, On Point: troubling ties and tax avoidance revealed in the Paradise Papers. --Tom Ashbrook
Guests:
Gerard Ryle, director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. (@RyleGerard)
International Consortium Of Investigative Journalists:Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Benefits From Ties To Putin's Inner Circle — "U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr. has a stake in a shipping firm that receives millions of dollars a year in revenue from a company whose key owners include Russian President Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law and a Russian tycoon sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department as a member of Putin’s inner circle."
New York Times:After A Tax Crackdown, Apple Found New Shelter For Its Profits — "Apple has accumulated more than $128 billion in profits offshore, and probably much more, that is untaxed by the United States and hardly touched by any other country. Nearly all of that was made over the past decade. The previously undisclosed story of Apple’s search for a new tax haven and its use of Jersey is among the findings emerging from a cache of secret corporate records from Appleby, a Bermuda-based law firm that caters to businesses and the wealthy elite."
BBC:Apple's Secret Tax Bolthole Revealed — "The world's most profitable firm has a secretive new structure that would enable it to continue avoiding billions in taxes, the Paradise Papers show. They reveal how Apple sidestepped a 2013 crackdown on its controversial Irish tax practices by actively shopping around for a tax haven. It then moved the firm holding most of its untaxed offshore cash, now $252bn, to the Channel Island of Jersey."
New York Times:Kremlin Cash Behind Billionaire's Twitter And Facebook Investments — "Behind Mr. Milner’s investments in Facebook and Twitter were hundreds of millions of dollars from the Kremlin. Obscured by a maze of offshore shell companies, the Twitter investment was backed by VTB, a Russian state-controlled bank often used for politically strategic deals."
We will start our this month's fund-raising drive soon so it's an appropriate time to talk about why we chose public funding, (Reader Support) rather than rely on commercial advertising revenue.
There is no doubt with our readership we could make more money by accepting advertising than by surviving on donations alone. If it was just about "making money" that would be easy. But it's not just about making money. It's about our future, about the future of the community we serve and about change for the better.
This community-based news agency that we have all built, Reader Supported News, does not have the muscle of the larger commercial news organizations, but power does not come from muscle alone. Great power can come from participation, and community involvement. That what we get from our Reader Supporters.
By turning down the advertisers, we travel down a harder economic path. Consequently we have to work harder to raise our budget. Don't be alarmed by the urgency. We live in urgent times.
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Wilbur Ross. (photo: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg)
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Denies Paradise Papers' Claims Despite Evidence
By teleSUR
07 November 17
Ross’s press secretary, James Rockas, said that the commerce secretary's holdings will not interfere with his government responsibilities.
fter being implicated in Paradise Papers, a trove of over 13 million leaked offshore files that first came out Sunday, Wilbur Ross, U.S. President Trump's commerce secretary and whose financial stake in a Russian shipping company with links to President Vladimir Putin's close allies has brought close scrutiny, has finally come out to defend his shadowy offshore business.
"There is nothing wrong with it. The fact that it happens to be called a Russian company doesn’t mean there is any evil in it," Ross told the BBC on Monday.
The Paradise Papers shed light on secretive offshore tax havens, which are technically legal, but are used for the purposes of tax evasion by stashing and hiding large sums of money in offshore businesses or holdings.
Ross is known to have holdings in the Russian shipping company, Navigator, which has made millions from the Russian gas company Sibur. Kirill Shamalov, Putin's son-in-law, is one of the board members of the company.
Ross’s press secretary, James Rockas, said that the commerce secretary's holdings will not interfere with his government responsibilities.
"Secretary Ross recuses himself from any matters focused on transoceanic shipping vessels," he said.
Kirill Shamalov is also the son of Nikolai Shamalov, who is a long time friend of the Russian president. Shamalov has a 3.9 percent stake in the firm. Some of the other major shareholders in the company include Gennady Timchenko along with Leonid Mikhelson who have been targeted by U.S. sanctions.
Karen Dawisha, the director of Russian and post-Soviet studies at Miami University, Ohio, stated that one would assume Putin gained from the companies run by his family members and associates.
"Shamalov is a very important member of Putin’s circle and there is no question that he is closely trusted," Dawisha told the Guardian. "He was not well trained for the job at Sibur, but he was well connected."
Per the Navigator-Sibur deal, two ships were used to move the Sibur gas to Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe from the Russian port of Ust-Luga located west of St Petersburg. But after Ross joined the Trump administration, the partnership flourished to four ships, doubling the number of ships, the Guardian reported.
Rokas has repeatedly tried to distance Ross from the Sibur deal that took place in February 2012.
"No funds managed by WL Ross & Co ever owned a majority of Navigator shares," Rokas said in a statement.
But, Navigator's August 2012 press release titled,"WL Ross Agrees To Acquire Majority Stake In Navigator" indicates otherwise.
According to the 2016 annual report of the firm, Ross affiliated entities had a 31.5 percent stake in the company but the value of Ross's personal holdings remain unclear.
UK Labor Minister, Jeremy Corbyn, has suggested that those implicated in the Paradise Papers and who "puts money into a tax haven to avoid paying tax should acknowledge the damage it does to society," BBC reported.
Shaukat Aziz, the former prime minister of Pakistan )2004-2007), is one of the many new faces to surface as part of the 9-month long investigation that formed the Paradise papers. Some other Asian figures that have emerged as part of the investigation include India's serving Member of Parliament, Ravindra Kishore Sinha, Indonesia Opposition party leader, Prabowo Subianto, Indian tycoon, Vijay Mallya, and the Indian member of parliament, Sachin Pilot, implicated in the Rajasthan Ambulance scam along with a few other Indian leaders.
Ross -- who has long railed against “bad trade deals” and the decline of manufacturing jobs in America -- made a fortune purchasing bankrupt businesses and flipping them for a profit. In August Trump named Ross to his economic advisory council. Now, pending Senate approval, he will serve as the liaison between Trump and the business community.
The son of a New Jersey school teacher and a judge, Ross attended Yale and considered a career as a fiction writer until a summer internship on Wall Street steered him toward finance. After an getting an MBA from Harvard, he spent two decades heading Rothschild Inc’s bankruptcy advisory business, where he represented investors in Trump’s failing Taj Mahal casino in the early 1990s. Ross and Carl Icahn convinced bondholders to strike a deal with Trump, who some investors wanted to push out, which allowed Trump to retain control of the property.
We have one more chance this Independence Day to stop the GOP’s health care repeal before it sickens, bankrupts, and even kills many of us. Remember: grassroots pressure works.
Health Care Maneuvers
GOP’s Plan B for Obamacare – repeal first, replace later – began with quiet push from Koch network. LA Times:“The influential Koch network, backed by the billionaire industrialists, floated the idea most recently at a retreat last weekend in Colorado Springs, Colo., where key conservative lawmakers heard an earful from frustrated GOP donors about the party’s failure to deliver on their signature campaign promise. Among those attending the gathering at the luxurious Broadmoor Hotel was Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who has been working with the White House behind the scenes on the idea.”
Ohio governor calls out GOP attempt to buy off moderates with ‘anemic’ opioid funds. ThinkProgress:“Gov. John Kasich dismissed the $45 billion fund for opioid treatment that some Republicans have floated as a potential ‘sweetener’ for moderates as completely insufficient to address the problem… according to Kasich, that amount would not come close to solving the problem. ‘That would give me a billion over ten years? Not even quite that. It’s anemic. As I said to Senator Portman at one point, it’s like spitting in the ocean. It’s not enough.'”
Queer dance party descends on McConnell’s house, dancing with anger over health care repeal. City Paper:“A swanky stretch of C Street near the Capitol in Washington, D.C. is blocked by a raucous crowd dancing in front of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s house on an unseasonably cool summer evening. As music blasts from loudspeakers, the scene resembles a Pride block party as about 50 members of the LGBTQ community and their allies attempt to dance away their fears and anger over McConnell’s so-called health care bill, which was negotiated in secret.”
Trump Outrage
Trump tweets may incite violence against journalists. WaPo:“President Trump, who has reveled in his confrontational style with the news media, sparked fierce debate Sunday over whether he is inciting violence against journalists by posting a doctored video clip showing him bashing the head of a figure representing CNN. Trump’s latest provocation in his war with the media brought denunciations from Democrats, and some Republicans, who warned that the president’s conduct could endanger reporters as he seeks to undermine public trust in reporting about his administration.”
LA marchers call for Trump impeachment. LA Times:“Several thousand protesters marched through downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, waving signs and chanting, ‘Down, down, down with Trump — up, up, up with the people’ as they urged Congress to impeach the president. The peaceful demonstration was one of dozens of events held across the country Sunday, aimed at voicing displeasure with Trump and his White House.”
Bill to create panel that could remove Trump from office quietly picks up Democratic support. Yahoo News:“House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have privately counseled their more militant members to forswear talk of impeaching President Trump, telling them the political support for such a step simply doesn’t exist in the GOP-controlled Congress. But 25 House Democrats, including the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, are now pushing an equally radical alternative: They are backing a bill that would create a congressional ‘oversight’ commission that could declare the president incapacitated, leading to his removal from office under the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
Dozens of states reject Kobach’s call for sensitive voting records. NPR:“More a dozen states said Friday that they would not, or could not, give a White House commission looking into voter fraud detailed voter registration data as requested. By Saturday, the number of states refusing to fully comply had doubled.”
Conflicts of Interest
DOJ corporate compliance watchdog resigns citing Trump’s conduct. The Hill:“A top Justice Department official who serves as a corporate compliance watchdog has left her job, saying she felt she could no longer force companies to comply with the government’s ethics laws when members of the administration she works for have conducted themselves in a manner that she claims would not be not tolerated.”
Trump ethics aide under fire for allowing billionaire Carl Icahn to skirt ethics rules. Common Dreams:“In a letter to the White House on Thursday, the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) warned that a top Trump administration ethics official may have violated the very rules he is required to enforce by allowing billionaire investor Carl Icahn — who has frequently advised President Donald Trump on a variety of issues — to skirt financial disclosure requirements. The business mogul has been profiting immensely from his position as informal advisor to President Trump.”
With the help of industry insiders and lobbyists, Scott Pruitt is rapidly changing the EPA. Salon:“Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt has only held the job for four months, but he has already made regulatory rollback’s ‘larger in scope than any other over so short a time in the agency’s 47-year history,’ according to the New York Times. Over 30 environmental rules have been undone, delayed or blocked.”
More from OurFuture.org:
Save Health Care for Nevada’s Small Businesses. Peter Frigeri:“GOP Senators like Nevada’s Dean Heller can take a stand for small businesses and working people by rejecting any plan that hurts not only communities and the economy, but also worsens the lives of tens of millions of ordinary people.”
Water, Jobs & Justice. Judith LeBlanc:“Judith LeBlanc, director of the Native Organizers Alliance, talks about “Water, Jobs & Justice” at the People’s Summit in Chicago with David Hunt, Lashaya Darisaw, Dennis Houlihan and other speakers.”
Campaigning & Governing for Transformational Change. Roger Hickey:“Roger Hickey, co-founder of Campaign for America’s Future, talks about “Campaigning & Governing for Transformational Change” at the People’s Summit in Chicago. Other speakers include Joe Salazar and Rep. Mark Pocan.”
Multi-Front Organizing for the Political Revolution. LeeAnn Hall:“LeeAnn Hall, co-director of People’s Action, talks about “Multi-Front Organizing for the Political Revolution” at the People’s Summit in Chicago. Other speakers include Linda Sarsour, Elisheva Johnson and Tomas Robles.”
Down-Ballot Revolutionaries. Amanda Weaver:“Amanda Weaver, executive director of Reclaim Chicago, speaks about “Down Ballot Revolutionaries” at the People’s Summit in Chicago, Illinois, with Khalid Kamau, Laurel Wales and other progressive organizers.”
Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast and OurFuture.org are projects of People's Action.more »
For years, Donald Trump has claimed to be a successful businessman. In fact, the claims about his success, coupled with gloating about his supposedly massive wealth, helped win Trump the presidency, as many Americans thought that a successful business owner would have the knowledge and experience necessary to lead the country.
Would those people who voted for Trump because of his business acumen feel the same way, though, if they knew one of his resorts had been caught up in a money laundering scandal?
In March of 2015, President Trump’s Taj Mahal Casino Resort was fined $10 million by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network for “willful and repeated violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).”
A statement issued by the Treasury Department explained that the Trump Taj Mahal Resort had “admitted to several willful BSA violations.” The following were included in these violations:
‘Violations of AML program requirements, reporting obligations, and recordkeeping requirements.’
The statement also points out that the resort had “a long history of prior, repeated BSA violations cited by examiners dating back to 2003.” FinCen also fined the resort $477,700 in 1998 for “currency transaction reporting violations.”
FinCen Director Jennifer Shasky Calvery said about the situation:
‘Trump Taj Mahal received many warnings about its deficiencies. Like all casinos in this country, Trump Taj Mahal has a duty to help protect our financial system from being exploited by criminals, terrorists, and other bad actors. Far from meeting these expectations, poor compliance practices, over many years, left the casino and our financial system unacceptably exposed.’
In addition to the $10 million penalty, the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort was also required to conduct periodic audits to ensure it was complying with its anti-money laundering program and provide those reports to FinCEN and its Board of Directors.
The Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort was already in trouble prior to the money laundering accusations, as Trump had filed for bankruptcy in September 2014.
The resort was eventually bought by billionaire and current adviser to the President Carl Icahn in February 2016, and it was only then that Trump relinquished ownership of it, just a few months before he officially announced that he was running for president.
Things didn’t get better for the Trump Taj Mahal after Icahn’s purchase, though. Icahn was unable to make a deal with union workers over health insurance and pension benefits, and the resort was forced to shut its doors for good.
Trump was voted into office by the many people who saw him as the man who would “make American great again.” If some of those people had been aware of his failed business ventures, though, things might be different.
A video about the Trump Taj Mahal’s failure can be seen below, via YouTube.
Love him or loathe him, ‘the Donald’ is the man of the moment. He defines himself as the ‘archetypal businessman’: a rags to riches American dream made real. His bluff, swagger, and unrestrained self-belief have taken him to the top of the political greasy pole.
Donald J. Trump is one election away from the most powerful job in the world.
The circus that surrounds Trump is a carnival of controversy. It feeds on fear, ignorance, and wishful thinking. It has the support of a rambunctious blue collar audience hungry for change. Trump’s rhetoric is divisive and dangerous but his appeal is easy to see. He’s the man who promises to make America great again. He’ll get the difficult deals done. He’ll reinvent the political wheel. He’s 100 per cent certain of it.
Hair. Hubris. Histrionics…
The hubris is glorious, immodest, unashamed, and usually a Politifact ‘pants-on-fire’ storm. What can’t be denied is the power of the brand. Trump’s ego is as large as the giant letters that adorn his many properties. He considers himself to be the smartest businessman on the block. The truth is a little bit more complicated and convoluted, as this tale of Donald’s dabble in the casino world will prove.
Are you betting on Trump? It might be worth sticking a few chips to one side…
As Trump’s presidential run gathers pace, history is being rewritten and much of the New York City property developer’s past is being swept under the carpet.
Visit the official Trump website today and there is no mention of his former gaming company Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts (now known as Trump Entertainment Resorts). His real estate portfolio has a section that links to past properties. There’s no record of his adventures in New Jersey. No Taj Mahal. No Castle. No Plaza.
Betting on the casino business was a gamble. Did it pay off?
The truth is: the Republican party has a mixed approach to gambling. On one hand, we have Las Vegas casino mogul and Republican party donor Sheldon Adelson, who is ferociously opposed to online gaming because he wants to protect his land-based casino business interests.
On the other hand, there are the ultra-conservative Christian congressmen, like UIGEA sponsor Jon Kyl and Jim Leach, who want to ban online gambling and casinos forever on purely moral and religious grounds. Trump is rumoured to be in favour of regulated onlinecasinos and gambling.
The copy on Trump will churn and churn until election day, with pundits picking over this presidential wannabe’s past like vultures.
This week, we are putting the spotlight on Trump’s gamble with casinos. He may not be a player at the casino property tables any more but his early portfolio was a deck stacked with some serious pleasure palaces. Here’s our guide to Donald’s casino winners and losers.
Silk Rags to Riches
Trump was born in Queens, New York City, in 1946. In 1974, he became president of his father’s property business. Fifteen years later, he inherited his ‘rags’: a fortune of between $40 million and $200 million.
Trump’s early business dealings were mainly in the real estate sector, specifically condos, apartment buildings, and government sponsored housing projects. He said: “It’s tangible, it’s solid, and it’s beautiful. It’s artistic from my standpoint and I just love real estate.”
In the 1980s, the Trump brand continued to gain momentum, with more than 270 businesses bearing the Trump name. From vodka and airlines, to mail order steaks and beauty pageants, brand Trump was ladled on thick. The ideas may not worked but everyone knew who was pulling the strings.
In the early days, Trump had a fantastic reputation for bringing in projects under budget and ahead of schedule. His no nonsense approach to business would often leave contractors in tears and suppliers short-changed.
Despite this, in 1990, the Trump Organisation was $5 billion in debt. Trump had to be saved by a bailout and debt deferment by more than 70 banks. If they had called it in, it could have been Cruz – Clinton.
One of the core reasons that Donald got into deep water was his problematic ownership of three Atlantic City casinos: the Trump Taj Mahal, The Trump Plaza, and the Trump Castle (latterly the Trump Marina).
Place your Bets, Gentlemen Please…
Trump’s first Atlantic City boardwalk hotel is also his most controversial. In his biography The Art of the Deal, Trump boasts of fast-tracking the licensing process by reducing the standard one year background investigation to just six months.
He did this by threatening not to build the casino, unless New Jersey’s attorney general John Degnan gave the project a green light. Degnan was aware of the damage that would be caused to Atlantic City’s lucrative gaming industry if the project stalled. He fast tracked Trump and granted him a gambling licence.
Now licensed, construction started in 1982. Harrah’s joined the project, to operate the property. The 614 room hotel opened on May 14, 1984. Five months after opening, the Harrah’s Boardwalk Hotel changed its name to Trump Plaza.
One of the reasons for the name change was to differentiate Trump’s hotel from the low-rolling Harrah’s venues. Trump built 85 luxury suites, to serve the 60,000 sq ft casino. Unfortunately, they rarely saw any action as the whales continued to flock to the blackjack tables of Las Vegas.
Paltry Profits
In the first half of 1985, the Trump Plaza made pre-tax profits of a paltry $144,000. The result was a meltdown between Trump and his partners. The outcome was a $70 million buy out. It cut Harrah’s loose and gave Trump the momentum he needed to claim the title of casino king of Atlantic City.
Trump continued to commit to the Atlantic City casino cause and spent a further $62 million acquiring the Plaza’s neighbouring plot, which included a brand new Hilton hotel. The Hilton Hotel group had been denied a gambling license, due to alleged links to organised crime. Trump jumped in and the Trump Castle was born.
Trump Castle had five good years. It was the setting for the game shows Yahtzee and Trump Card. It was also the scene of the notorious $10 million baccarat battle with Japanese whale Alio Kashiwagi.
Kashiwagi was a whale with yakuza connections who Trump had been courting. Kashiwagi eventually obliged but – to Trump’s horror – stayed at the Castle for just two days and left the casino with $6 million in chips. Trump got the Japanese businessmen back a second time and – this time – Kashiwagi crashed, paying back the $6 million and another $4 million on top. Kashiwagi didn’t get to regret his actions. He was murdered with a samurai sword in 1992.
The Cooler
Even with players like Kashiwagi, by 1990 business had started to head south for Trump. Casino revenues at the Plaza and Castle were turning sour. Ironically, the meltdown was due mainly to the newly opened Trump Taj Mahal. Donald appeared to be shooting Donald in the foot.
The Taj Mahal had been in Trump’s sights ever since the original owner and developer James Crosby died in April 1986. The hotel was still unfinished and Crosby’s heirs lacked the knowledge to finish such a major construction job.
With two Atlantic City casinos to his name, Trump was the obvious takeover choice and purchased a controlling stake for $79 million in July 1987. He was appointed chairman of Resorts International and now controlled his third boardwalk hotel.
To finish the hotel’s construction would cost nearly a billion dollars. Resorts International couldn’t find the necessary $550 million so Trump jumped in and offered to buy the entire business. Following a series of legal wrangles and boardroom battles, Trump finally purchased the Taj Mahal for $273 million, added an additional $675 million to finish the job. It opened on April 2, 1990.
The Taj Mahal claimed to be the largest casino on the planet and billed itself as the ‘eighth wonder of the world’. At the time, it was the most expensive casino ever built. The chandeliers alone cost a cool $16 million.
With 2012 rooms, 4.2 million sq ft of enclosed space, and Michael Jackson starring in the opening night show, the hotel put Atlantic City on the map. It also was the beginning of the end for Trump’s big casino gamble.
Trump was over-leveraged. He’d issued nearly a billion dollars in junk bonds to keep the casinos afloat. The Trump Taj Mahal filed for bankruptcy one year later in 1991. The Plaza also restructured its debt and submitted for bankruptcy in 1992. It was the same story at Trump Castle, as investors were paid off with shares in the failing business.
It was far from over, however. Trump doesn’t like to lose. In 1995, he established Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts as a publicly traded company and reacquired all three casinos. The Trump Castle was rebranded as the Trump Marina.
All through the business dealings, Trump had managed to keep making a profit. His Taj Mahal deal included a package that awarded him a bonus despite the casino losing millions every year. Profit and loss were calculated without taking into consideration the massive loans incurred by the business. Without the debt, they showed a profit. Trump got his bonus.
Trump also paid himself a huge wage and made sure that the bars all stocked his Trump Ice bottled water. The brand was everywhere as the walls came crashing down.
Floating the business gave the business a wash of finance but the excessive borrowing was still too much. The company filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy protection four times in 1991, 2004, 2009, and 2014.
Today both the Marina and the Plaza are no longer. The Taj Mahal is owned by investor Carl Icahn who dreams of making the iconic hotel great again. The hotel has been neglected for a long time. $15 million has been allocated for immediate repairs and there is a possible $100 million on the sidelines.
Atlantic City has always played second fiddle to Las Vegas. For a brief moment in the late 1980s, Donald Trump made the boardwalk big again. Trump earned a personal fortune but left a trail of devastation in his wake.
Too much debt caused his casino experiment to fail but canny, clever, negotiating kept Trump on top. Atlantic City is still struggling but Donald is almost at the top of the ultimate game. Love him or hate him, you have to respect his stamina and tenacity. President Trump? Would you bet on it?
fter being implicated in Paradise Papers, a trove of over 13 million leaked offshore files that first came out Sunday, Wilbur Ross, U.S. President Trump's commerce secretary and whose financial stake in a Russian shipping company with links to President Vladimir Putin's close allies has brought close scrutiny, has finally come out to defend his shadowy offshore business.
