Fake News Says Trump Lost over 1 BILLION Dollars over 9 years

Whatever you think of him as president, his business record raises basically every red flag out there. We know that he started out with significant familial wealth. We also know that while some of his business ventures may have been strategic bankruptcies (the Trop?) others almost certainly were not (the Plaza?)

I think most of us know that GAAP depreciation can be manipulated to accelerate expenses, but if that is what he was doing, why didn't he continue to manipulate tax law and prevent the bankruptcy of profitable properties through mergers and other strategies?

The combination of the business facts that we do know, the things he has fought to obscure, and the admission of people at Forbes, which is far, far from a liberal magazine, that they now think he was BSing them lead me to believe that it is the truth. Remember, virtually no bank except Deutsche would touch him for the past 20 years, and they've had some pretty significant 'know your client' violations, as well as shoddy project lending issues.

I know nothing for sure, but mosaic theory leads me to believe that there is something funny going on. I am unsure what. It could be funny money financing. It could be business failure propped up by money from Daddy. (and Fred was an amazingly successful developer) or it could just be that he's only worth $500m instead of $10b. (gasp)

I honestly would like an intelligent continuation of this discussion based on tax law, behavioral finance, and general investment discussions, and will respect anyone who does so, regardless of their conclusions. Can anyone who just has a generic tribal reaction please go elsewhere? I doubt there are many on this forum who would identify as a 'liberal', and I do not. Posts like moneytrail's above do not advance the discussion.