Truth Social is tanking, here are 6 more times Donald Trump proved he's a business flop
| 04/02/24
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Far from being the business mogul with the Midas touch, former president Donald Trump has more of a black thumb when it comes to running a successful business empire.
Republicans were singing Trump’s praises last week after his net work jumped to nearly $7.5 billion when Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company for his far-right social media network Truth Social, went public. But just one week later, the stock has tanked, and considering how many of his other businesses have flopped, is anyone really surprised?
Last Tuesday, Trump Media’s stock price skyrocketed to $79.38, but by the end of April 1, it dropped down to $48.66, more than $30 lower than the high the week before. This meant that Trump’s shares were worth around $2.5 billion less than they were worth when the company started publicly trading,CNBC reports. The drastic nosedive in stock price is being attributed to Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) filings by Trump Media which reported a net loss of $58 million in 2023 and only $4 million in revenue that same year.
Truth Social may be the latest of his failed business, but it’s far from the first. Trump has filed for bankruptcy more times than we can count, and couldn’t even make a steak company profitable. With this many failed businesses under his belt it may be time to reconsider slapping your name on every business you start. Now that his social media company is circling the drain, let’s look back at some of his other business that have also gone the way of the dinosaur.
If you were lucky enough to never see the Trump Steaks commercial, you are probably unaware of just how similar it was to his Bible ad. #TrumpBibles #TrumpSteaks #TrumpIsACriminal pic.twitter.com/soTrQabVSr
— Peter Lewis 🇺🇲🇺🇦 (@PRL320) March 30, 2024
In 2007, Trump launched a line of steaks that were exclusively sold on Sharper Image and QVC to "deliver a taste of Donald Trump's luxurious lifestyle." In case you needed a reason to become vegan, that's gotta be it. Sharper Image discontinued the Trump Steak product line just two short months after it launched, and QVC wasn't far behind, the Washington Post reports.
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Trump Plaza, Trump Marina, and Trump Taj Mahal hotels and casinos in Atlantic City are all run by Trump Entertainment Report, but Trump exited the company in 2009, taking as much money out as he could and screwing over his investors at every turn. The casinos, which were all failures that filed for bankruptcy four times, could never draw enough gamblers to cover the massive amounts of debt he took out to start the businesses. But while the companies did poorly, Trump raked in the dough by collecting millions of dollars in salary, bonuses, and other payments and shifting his failures onto investors, the New York Times reports. So not only is he a lousy businessman, but he’s shady and underhanded, too.
#Trump paid off a huge #court #settlement before:
— Rose (@RoseofArlVA) April 2, 2024
$25M for #TrumpUniversity enrolled students. pic.twitter.com/wmyfbN5vmh
Don’t let the name fool you; Trump University was just a series of seminars, not an elite business school. It was never accredited, and students paid between $1,500 and $35,000 in seminar fees. Students claimed they had been defrauded and the whole thing fell apart. In 2018, a federal court approved a $25 million settlement for students who were duped by the so-called "university,” NBC News reports.
Old Trump Shuttle was horribly mismanaged: pic.twitter.com/Ties0VKNZ2
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) August 4, 2023
Back in 1989, Trump bought the failing Eastern Air Lines shuttle service for $365 million in the hopes of offering a luxury shuttle service from Washington and Boston to New York City. He covered the planes with his name — because, of course, he did — and gave the budget-friendly interiors a gaudy Trump-style makeover, but the money never came pouring in, and by 1992, the company had been turned over to creditors, Business Insider reports.
I’m pretty sure even Trump Vodka did better than his stock is doing. 😂
— Meacham (proud Vermin) 🌊 🌊 (@MeachamDr) April 1, 2024
In 2006, Trump launched his very own vodka, featuring a skyscraper-shaped bottle with a gold T on each side. But two years later, the business was shuttered, and Trump never realized his dream of having a T&T (Trump and tonic) become the most popular drink in the country, NBC News reports. The slogan for the vodka was “success distilled,” but with this pathetic foray into selling booze, it should have been “failure distilled.”
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Trump has been trying his hand at controlling the media with his own magazine for years. After two failed attempts he launched Trump Magazine in 2007, which focused on the yacht review, private jets and countless glossy photos of the former president himself. But by 2009, the quarterly magazine wold never print another copy again, Rolling Stone reports.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.