Donald Trump Is Understating His Debt by $500 Million

[EC]

It’s the one thing he’s not bragging about.

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump has said dealing with the nation’s $18 trillion debt will be easy. One reason: Trump could just choose to ignore it. That appears to be how Trump has dealt with some of the debt on his own balance sheet.

You’d think that disclosing the total amount one owes would be an essential line item in any net worth statement, but that figure appears nowhere in Trump’s most recently released balance sheet. The Donald does list a category called “loans and mortgages,” but that number surprisingly excludes the debt Trump has on a number of buildings that he is a partial owner of, as well as debt he carries on a pile of assets that Trump says are worth over $300 million, but he just labels as “other.”

In a previous story, I found that in public financial disclosures, Donald Trump was counting revenues from golf courses, hotel rooms, and sundry sources as “income.” Since Trump didn’t subtract salaries, utilities, maintenance and all the other routine costs, the big numbers he’s trumpeting aren’t income at all, but gross sales. Just as he was overstating his income, his financial statement appears to be understating the size of his debt. The Donald clearly believes that the public deserves no more than a murky view of his own debt picture.

(For another look at Trump’s wealth read: A Look Inside Donald Trump’s Lavish $200 Million ‘Palace’)

Through heavy digging, Fortune identified the loans Trump has on these other buildings that are not included on his released balance sheet. Add to the loans and mortgages he does disclose and Fortune has determined that Trump’s total debt balloons to nearly $1 billion, or about double what he specifically acknowledges he owes. And it could be even larger.

What’s more, Trump, even though he says he isn’t, by Fortune‘s calculations appears to be ignoring debt when calculating his equity in two of his most prestigious properties that are at the heart of his commercial office portfolio. He claims that portfolio is worth $1 billion. But factor in debt and it may only be worth half of that. Put it together and you get a better picture of why Trump is likely worth no where near the $10 billion he says he is.

To understand why, you have to see how I get there.

First, let’s look at take a look at the size of his true debt load. In a balance sheet unveiled on June 16th of last year, the day he announced his candidacy, Trump declared a net worth of $8.7 billion, a figure updated in the July release to “in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS,” the only words emblazoned in capital letters.

The June balance sheet does list debt of $503 million, which is labeled “loans and mortgages,” a seemingly modest figure for a tycoon of his self-declared “massive” wealth. But a lot more debt is connected to his buildings than Trump is letting on. In fact, Trump is subtracting the mortgage amounts to arrive at the equity figure for some holdings. Others he is presenting at full value. But it appears that only the loans on the properties that are held at full value are making into that $503 million number.

Read more: http://fortune.com/2016/03/23/donald-trump-debt/

[Frank Cannon]

Trump is likely worth no where near the $10 billion he says he is.

I'll say. One of his many Wall Street banks that he owes money to recently did a full accounting to see how much more he could borrow. They calculated his net worth at $788 million, not even a billion.

[A-Lert]

Trump is likely worth no where near the $10 billion he says he is.

I'll say. One of his many Wall Street banks that he owes money to recently did a full accounting to see how much more he could borrow. They calculated his net worth at $788 million, not even a billion.

That poor destitute bassturd. :odrama:

[libertybele]

We already knew he was a liar and a fraud why should the issue of his net worth or debt be any different?

[NavyCanDo]

We already knew he was a liar and a fraud why should the issue of his net worth or debt be any different?

WE know he is a liar, a fraud and using the playbook from Saul Alinsky far better than Obama ever could -  and  playing his followers for fools.  But they are ignoring all Truth, and have tossed in the trash the conservative constitutional  principles they once held sacred. Their primary principle now is "The end justifies the means" - even they are becoming Alinskyites.

[Bill Cipher]

Well, at least he's already familiar with the accounting shenanigans the government uses to hide the true state of the deficits and the debt.

[ABX]

Trump is likely worth no where near the $10 billion he says he is.

I'll say. One of his many Wall Street banks that he owes money to recently did a full accounting to see how much more he could borrow. They calculated his net worth at $788 million, not even a billion.

Not to defend Trump, but for someone of his wealth, his actual net worth is difficult to have a single, concrete number on. Especially when the worth is tied up in assets.
Trump's main asset is his name, and when he shoots for a net worth on the high side, he includes future right selling potential of his name (described in several of his books on how to get loans to buy property- estimate your future potential as your value to banks, not your current earnings, this lets you get bigger loans). This value measurement, however, is just speculative. Much of his value is also tied up in property, I would bet most is. Even though he doesn't actually own a lot, what he does own, valued on the high side could easily get to the $10B range.

Of course, with property value, you'll get two vastly different numbers. In one case, you'll get the number he uses to report to Forbes and brag on for how rich he is. On the other hand, when it is time to report the value for tax purposes, he'll shoot for the low side to save money there. I bet he could make the $10 Billion look like $1 Billion with just a little accounting.

The real question we should be asking that no one really has picked up on yet, is what is the average value of his liquid assets. Liquid assets, ie bank accounts, etc, are assets he can write checks on right now.  He may be worth $10 Billion in all the property he owns, but he may only have $5 Million in actual liquid assets.

That's one reason why it is important that he release his tax returns. He claims to be self-funding (even though we know he isn't, he is taking donations like everyone else), what he is giving are just loans. He has written checks around $12 Million as of 1Q. What if we see that he normally doesn't have $12 Million in liquid assets? Then the question can rightly be asked where the money is coming from to fund his campaign. Are people writing him personal checks, then he is in turn, 'loaning' his campaign the money from that- skirting campaign finance laws- aka Charlie Trie? Even if he has those liquid assets, releasing his tax returns will possibly show if his campaign loans are coming from people personally investing in him. If he started receiving multi million dollar deposits from XYZ banker starting in August that he normally didn't get, and ironically it matched the loan he gave to his campaign, then we have some major shenanigans.