Inflating and deflating
This one is funny, in the usual “but horrifying” way Trump things are funny.
Heh heh heh. In 2015 his apartment was 30 thousand square feet, in 2017 it was 11 thousand square feet. Did it shrink in the laundry or what?
Tip Jar
Back in 2015 he was measuring his apartment using his own tiny little feet. In 2017, someone bought Trump a ruler.
I would say it is more likely due to hitherto unknown relativistic effects. Trump could easily have done something to cause one of its dimesions to fall flat on its face, leaving it a shingle short of a load, so to speak, and causing it to wholly or partly drift off into a different universe.
I think that it could be a new form of downsizing. Could catch on.
My guess is that 30,00 square feet reflects the size, but 10,996 sf reflects the layers of gold flake.
@3, well we all know that if it’s not gold it’s not real.
Using google earth you can measure the area of the tower block. It’s approximately 12,300 sq feet. That doesn’t account for facade depth, building core, service areas, common areas and any other exclusions. Those can be substantial in a building of this type. This would be consistent with the claim of three whole floors on the one hand, and a claim of only effective used area on the other. I suspect that the triplex also includes offices and facilities for key staff, areas dedicated to adult family or other uses. I suspect neither figure is actually ‘true’.
I don’t understand the motive behind this.
GW, the allegation is that when reporting his net worth to Banks and investors he uses over inflated means of doing so. Both specifically in issues like exaggerating how much of the building he is personally using (as opposed to his company), but also just saying that a building is worth $200M, when fair market value might be more like $120M. Then, when reporting assets to regulatory or tax authorities, he lowballs values. The building might become $90M for example. It’s fraud on the one hand and tax evasion on the other.
GW @5 Overinflate value to secure loans (that they would later default on), and underestimate value when tax time comes, particularly when you go into politics and want to hide your crookedness. They don’t often mention how many other people the Trump Organization screwed over too, not just the banks. There’s a reason Donnie Dipshit didn’t want to fork over his taxes.
Rob @6, Cross post, yes exactly.
Putting aside things like misdeclaring areas used by his company or whatever, the issue is that building valuation is by nature speculative. The only way to determine the value of a building on a given day is to sell it. You can estimate the value by looking at the sale price of comparable buildings in the area in recent times and adjusting for various factors, but that’s a very inexact and inherently subjective process. people like Trump routinely take advantage of that and will only fall foul of authorities if they are stupid enough to gloat about it or make such extreme swings in value frequently over a sustained period. The core crimes (fraud and tax evasion) are both white collar crimes that I understand require proving intent – that Trump or others knew what they were doing was illegal and did it anyway. That means it’s going to be tough for the prosecutors because they not only have to demonstrate the fact pattern of under/over valuation, but will have to either find documentary or testimonial evidence that Trump et al intended to break the law. Given Trump’s well known antipathy to documentation and the surprising loyalty shown by his employees, this will be tricky. We can live in hope I guess.
Got it, thanks!
I’d say it shrank in the laundering.
Trump’s problem is reminscent of Richard Nixon’s, and his futile efforts to keep the hounds of justice away. One memorable cartoon had Nixon dangling over a cliff, his only support a miserable tuft of grass held in one hand, while the other marked a series of ever-closening lines not to be crossed by the relentless onward advance of the Chief Justice, and with Nixon yelling ‘not a step closer!!!’.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/19/us-capitol-riot-trump-documents-national-archives
Thanks for the clean-up Ophelia!