That would make sense—“how much” can be simply the amount whether it’s high or low, like @ctvoter said. Also for at least several years Trump has gotten a state tax credit for people who make less than $500K in income. He says it’s a mistake but that’s telling. I think Cuban’s basically saying the tax-return reticence could be due to income and not net worth.
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I thought behind all that apparent stonewalling he was actually trying almost frantically to telegraph something meaningful that wasn’t (directly) asked, namely, Trump gives every sign of being vulnerable to a liquidity squeeze. IOW, he’s not insolvent, but he appears to be illiquid. That’s a serious weakness that can be exploited. When he flat out said, “that’s not important”, I think he was hoping to be asked how a lack of liquidity might play out as the campaign progresses. He dropped several clues that Trump has a tendency to get in over his head by overestimating his brand (and by implication his luck).
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“that’s not important” – e.g., Trump’s worth. IOW, he’s suggesting that solvency is not what’s interesting. Liquidity is what’s interesting. Please ask me more about that…
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There are now dozens of widely publicized stories out there about Trump essentially telling contractors, vendors, customers and business partners/associates to piss off and forget getting much of anything they’ve been promised in payment for services rendered. Why in the hell people enter into a business agreement with him is a mystery. Who deliberately says “Ok, I’ll do this, but it’s too bad I’ll get a dime on the dollar for doing it.”?
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The main thrust of Cuban’s point is that you can argue any number of figures for net worth if you are fundamentally a brand and not an entrepreneur. For our purposes, the main question is how liquid Trump is and how much of Trump’s cash does Trump want to spend to see this through. And clearly the answers are not very liquid and not very much cash.
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I thought that too at first, but then I re-read it to mean that maybe Trump made too little in a given year.
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Mr. Cuban’s replies suggest he’s sitting at his desk with a copy of a letter from his attorneys stapled to a letter from Mr. Trump’s attorneys in his hand. Talking points memo indeed.
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“No US bank will do business wit him.” WHat does it say about him and his business acumen? What a terrific political ad this morsel of information will create.
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It’s interesting reading everyone’s take on this back-and-forth email exchange. I’m not sure I trust Mr. Cuban’s full assessment of Trump’s situation, but he did drop some juicy clues about how he feels Trump overvalues his own brand’s worth and, by extension, his own ability to sell that brand. From everything I’ve read over the past few months (here and numerous other places), I believe Donald J. Trump doesn’t have much liquid cash available for whatever. I think he and his various companies do own quite a bit of properties and holdings (though not too much in the way of the stock market, or at least not much discussed there), but that a lot of those properties are probably heavily mortgaged or used as assets to leverage other deals … making them untouchable until those other deals are paid off, completed, etc. I think there is a chance Mr. Trump is a billionaire (in worth), but not multiple times over. I think Mr. Cuban is dead-on when he says he believes Trump overvalues his brand – and therefore oversells his brand. Trump’s style of doing business makes me sick to the stomach. I honestly cannot understand why anyone would willingly do business with the man or his children. His business practices are criminal in nature and extremely immoral. Trump is far too blustery, sneaky, back-stabbing and litigious for me to even want to bake the man a cake. I’d be afraid he’d sue me because it didn’t meet whatever over-inflated expectations he decided on after the fact. Totally untrustworthy liar.
I want to thank @JoshMarshall for allowing us to comment on this particular Editor’s Blog. Thanks, Mr. Marshall.
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“He isn’t an entrepreneur. He is a brand.”
Smoke and mirrors. No substance. No standards. No principles. No ethics. Only smoke and mirrors shifting this way and that, wherever he needs them to go, to stroke or soothe his massive ego or build his “brand”. Truth, facts, and the consequences of distorting or discarding them are only irrelevant casualties. Trump is not presidential material. Regardless of financial circumstances, a president must be more than smoke and mirrors.
( I apologize if any pomposity crept in. I just finished up a deep discussion with a friend and I may have had some extra deep left over. 
)
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[quote=“sconosciuto, post:13, topic:39593, full:true”]
Mark Cuban: Don’t agree. He probably is embarrassed by how much he made in a given year. I don’t think it’s anything more than that.
GTFO with that bullshit, Mark.
[/quote]@kend90027
I dunno. I wonder about the opposite take: tRump might be embarrassed by how small his revenues were in given years. It runs counter to his narrative that he’s a super successful businessman. tRump properties bookings are down 59% from last year, and there may be other years showing a slump in revenues as well.
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You read that twice? Yawn.
I got the impression that the interview took place between him emerging from bed in the morning and having his first cup of coffee. That’s as close to one-word answers as you can get. He had no interest in expounding his points or making himself clear. I don’t know why Josh even bothered publishing it.
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I think I am glad I don’t hang out with billionaires, real or pretend.
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Not much meat on the bones here, really. Cuban seems as if he is making excuses for Trump, and didn’t he already say he is voting for him anyway? Gross.
I’ve met a few billionaires, and I have learned this. They are NOTHING like you and me in ANY regard. That’s why they’re billionaires.
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If that is actually the case, I would guess that the history of his treatment of shareholders and creditors in his Atlantic City casino endeavors might be a very good reason why. I wonder why Deutsche Bank would take him on, unless perhaps they are getting a high rate of interest for consenting to.
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I think you are not a defense lawyer and do not know any defense lawyers well. Just an observation, as a defense lawyer.
I’m not a defense lawyer and I am doubtful you are either because last time I sat through jury duty the real-life, not-just-on-the-internet defense lawyer running the defense team kept pounding away at the concept that we were supposed give the benefit of the doubt, on every doubt, to the defendant. Every doubt about the case had to be decided in favor of the defendant because if there’s a doubt about a point then that means the point hasn’t been proven… which gets his defendant to Innocent if not proven guilty.
This was the number one thing he was trying to get us to absorb and he repeated it to every single one of the 60 people in the jury pool.
It must have been a strategy he believed in.
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for those who don’t already know or won’t read the linked article… Trump promised the moon to Atlantic City and its residents/taxpayers. That banks would fall all over themselves to loan him money for his casino venture. That he would NEVER, EVER finance with junk bonds. That it would be a windfall for local businesses. That the casino would be a YUUUUGE success.
What he did once he got the deal done, was the exact opposite in every way of what he promised.
He could not get conventional financing so he used junk bonds.
A skywalk was built from parking to the casino so that neighboring businesses saw little benefit from pedestrian traffic related to the casino. The small businesspeople who worked directly for Trump’s casino, were stiffed left and right. Others left high and dry by the bankruptcy.
That anybody in this country would vote for this guy for president, is shameful.
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Seems Cuban was seriously taciturn, holding his cards real close. Yep, Trump is a brand, not a businessman. I have thought from the beginning of his run this is about burnishing the brand. Only later did he see the profit angle from running.
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I for one, am impressed Cuban might actually read our comments
Now, Mr Trump? Nah he wouldn’t bother with intelligent folk. He preferrs the less educated, the less well off. He said so.
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