Publicity whore Donald Trump -- who has been married three times and is now married to a woman more than 20 years his junior -- is criticizing Anne Hathaway for breaking up with Raffaelo Follieri amid allegations that he is a con artist.
Trump opined that "She hasn't remained very loyal to him, has she? So when he had plenty of money, she liked him, but then after that, not as good, right?"
Right: women should stand by their men when they're exposed as liars and con artists. I guess that the reason he feels that way is that if women didn't stay in relationships with phonies, he wouldn't be able to keep a lady! Here's the thing Donald: do you honestly think that your latest wife, Melania, is with you for reasons that have nothing to do with money? Is she in it for the hair? Or your rapidly expanding gut? Everyone's entitled to their delusions, Donald, but do you really think your wife would stay by your side if you were arrested on charges of fraud? I doubt it.
Here's the personal finance advice: integrity is generally not compartmentalized. If you're in a relationship with someone who lies to other people to get their money, or lies to you about money, that's a serious form of infidelity, and likely indicative of other problems: liars lie because they're liars.
The idea of Donald Trump giving relationship advice is almost as ridiculous as the idea of him giving business advice, given how poorly so many of his ventures have done. I leave you with this video of Rosie O'Donnell explaining everything that is wrong with him.
Ladies and gentleman of the jury, I present to you exhibit 424A in the case of The People v. Donald Trump. Florida developer Jorge Perez -- who built a billion dollar fortune as a Cuban exile starting with nothing -- recently came out with a book of real estate advice called Powerhouse Principles: The Billionaire Blueprint For Real Estate Success.
I'm only about 40 pages into it and so far it's nothing special. But after a foreword from Donald Trump, there was nowhere to go but up. Trump started his one-page foreword with praise that still managed to come across as self-aggrandizing: "The one person who could teach me something about real estate is Jorge Perez."
What? The one person? Did Donald Trump really just say that there is no one who can teach him anything except for Jorge Perez? There's no question that Donald Trump's an expert in the savvy selection of wealthy parents, losing money operating a casino, and resurrecting his career by playing a caricature of a mogul on a sitcom -- I mean, reality show. But real estate?
The New York Post reports that the NYPD is conducting an internal affairs investigation into assault charges filed against a woman involved in ousting Donald Trump's son from the board for the condo he lived in. The Post reports that NYPD investigation documents say the charges were "beefed up" as a result of pressure from The Trump Orgainzation.
Eugenia Kaye was accused of punching the building's resident manager in the eye. According to a statement filed by a police officer who arrived at the scene, Daniel Gozalez, the assaulted manager, "was pressured by the Trump organization to beef up the complaint against Ms. Kaye to have her arrested, because she had Donald Trump Jr. ousted as a board member of the building."
What does Donald Trump have to say about this? He called Kaye a "terrible person" but added that he knows "nothing about it." If that seems like somewhat of a contradiction to you, it does to me too. There's a juicy tale on condo association intrigue somewhere in here, but there aren't currently enough details available.
This post from Gothamist has some of the reasons Ms. Kaye got Trump Jr. kicked off the board. To many, just having Donald's Trump blood running through your veins should be a good enough reason to get the boot.
Donald Trump is having trouble with his plans to build a $2.5 billion golf resort in Scotland.
Basically, the hearty Scots see through his schtick and don't want anything to do with him. They're so sick of him that they actually threatened him with a fine for using a seal without registering it -- a violation of a completely un-enforced law from 1672.
Now The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that Trump has renewed his battle for the hearts and minds of Scotland, by visiting his mother's birthplace on a remote Scottish island Monday. He took a private jet and stayed all of three hours.
Ivanka Trump -- the daughter of comedy icon Donald Trump and a director at his flailing casino company, Trump Entertainment Resorts (NASDAQ: TRMP) -- is back from a trip to Israel where she was scouting out possible investment opportunities.
In an interview with Haaretz.com, she said that it was her first trip to Israel and that she saw tremendous opportunities for investment in Israel. If you care about her opinions on the US market, she feels that "now is the time to buy" and that prices will "go right back up."
It was only a few years ago that the Israeli government established the laws to make real estate investments trusts available there. Excellence Investments' "REIT 1" became the first REIT to trade on the Tel Aviv stock exchange.
Once an Israeli REIT lists its stock on the US market as an ADR, American investors will have an easy opportunity to follow Ivanka into Israel.
Today's stock market rally may be more of a relief run than anything, but the end of day strength of late has been hard to ignore. Today we saw a huge drop of almost 9 million barrels of oil that caught traders off guard, but interestingly enough the oil markets dropped considerably. Combine that with a slightly higher revision to Q1 US GDP to +0.9% and all of a sudden the recession isn't looking so serious. These are the major US index closing levels:
Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRMP) has sold its Trump Marina Hotel to New York-based Coastal Marina for $316 million. In a self-congratulatory press release, Trump chairman "Donald J. Trump" said that the hotel "has been an important part of our company with a loyal customer base and a dedicated team."
Well then it's good news that they sold it. In the past year, shares of Trump Entertainment Resorts have gone from $16 to as low as $2.29. The stock is up more than 20% today, but it's still a tiny fraction of its former high. Who knows: maybe if they sell all the important parts of the company the stock will go back over $5. Trump Entertainment Resorts really is that bad, having reported a pre-tax loss of $249 million last year.
But good news for my fellow Donald Trump haters: Coastal Marina is planning to rename the hotel "Margaritaville." Trump Entertainment CEO Mark Juliano commented that "The execution of this transaction will provide us with additional financial flexibility to effectively master-plan the future path of our company in the midst of an overall transformation which has already been marked by many successes."
Reality check: the company has lost $252 million since inception. Whatever its "many successes" are, they have been heavily outweighed by failures.
The clown prince of real estate -- Donald Trump, or The Donald, or Donald J. Trump when he wants to be extra pretentious -- is suing Crescent Heights Diamond (is it too early to nominate companies for worst name of the year?) for using his good name to promote a 70-story tower in Tel Aviv and then stiffing him on the royalties.
According to the New York Post, "Trump charges that after he tirelessly promoted the project, Crescent Heights stiffed him by selling the land for which it paid $44 million in April 2007 to another development company for $80 million -- a profit of $36 million."
Trump told "Page Six" that, "They announce with tremendous fanfare that Trump is their partner. Then, instead of building, they flip the site. They used my name to pump up the value, then made a big profit. We put this site on the map, and under the contract they are obligated to complete the project. They are not good representatives for the great state of Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves." Crescent said the lawsuit is without merit.
It was a thrilling -- and badly needed -- reminder that it's possible to be unsuccessful in business by underestimating the intelligence of the American people.
While wandering through the clearance section at Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS), I stumbled on a stack of copies of Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life, Donald Trump's newest book published in October of last year. The price? $4.99, a steep discount from the $26.95 listed on the jacket. A look inside shows that this book is a first edition, first printing -- meaning that the publisher -- Collins -- badly overestimated demand.
I opened to a random page and -- no joke -- this is the first line I read: "With Rosie O'Donnell it got a lot worse. Rosie O'Donnell is a total degenerate." We then get to read five pages about how horrible Rosie is and also, of course, how great Donald Trump is.
But wait! In a sign that Trump may actually have some sense of taste, Celebrity Apprentice has turned down O.J. Simpson's request to appear on the next season.
Donald Trump has a new show in the works: naughty girls are sent to a finishing school where they learn the manners they'll need to behave like socialites. Sounds tasteful.
Now The New York Daily News is reporting that Mr. Trump, as he likes to be called, is looking to get Eliot Spitzer's call girl, Ashley Alexandra Dupre, to come on his show. Jo Piazza's Full Disclosure column writes that "A production source confirmed that the group reached out to the singing floozy and former call girl on Thursday, but have yet to hear back from her. But The Donald told us that he would love to get the chance to class her up in front of a national audience."
Where to begin? I'd be willing to bet that Ms. Dupre already has infinitely more class than The Donald. He is the one who needs to be sent to finishing school. Is a man who goes on WWE, calls Rosie O'Donnell "a pig," and has been married 3 times, really in a position to be putting anyone through charm school? This is to say nothing of his heinous coif, personality, and numerous failures in the business world.
I'm sure this show will be a flop with or without Ms. Dupre, but here's my advice to her: If you go on TV with Donald Trump, having sex with Eliot Spitzer for $5 thousand per hour could be seen by some people out there as the classiest thing you've ever done.
The proxy statement for flailing Atlantic City casino operator Trump Entertainment Resorts (NASDAQ: TRMP) is out. Just for fun, I'm including below the stock chart the company showed investors in its 10-K filed with the SEC -- which provides evidence of what a destroyer of value this company has been since its predecessors reorganized in 2005.
And yet its namesake, Donald J. Trump, has made quite a bit of money as it bleeds red.
Mr. Trump was paid $2 million for serving as chairman in 2007 -- a sum that I would say is completely undeserved, given the company's lack of performance while he devoted his time to sparring with Rosie O'Donnell on daytime talk shows. And then there's this gem:
This post is one of several on business heirs apparent. Let us know in the comments whether you think about Ivanka Trump, and be sure to check out the other heir apparent posts.
Ivanka Trump, 26, daughter of Donald Trump, is an heir apparent to her dad's real estate and entertainment holdings. Her business title is the vice president of real estate development and acquisitions at the Trump Organization, which is a holding company for many of Trump's businesses (Trump's casinos are part of Trump Entertainment Resorts (NASDAQ: TRMP).
Ivanka, while arguably the most famous of Trump's children, isn't his only heir apparent. Her siblings Donald, Jr., and Eric are also currently executive vice presidents, according to Wikipedia. But she stands out as the one likely to claim the top job given her love of the limelight -- she is a frequent cover girl and has appeared on the Apprentice -- as well as her oft-proclaimed drive to succeed in business.
However, I for one am getting sick of all the talk about her heir apparent status. Money-losing casinos, licensing deals for everything from hotels to cologne, and a TV show that's been in rapid decline since the end of its first season? That empire? What's second prize, 50 shares of Bear Stearns?
Today's New York Times contains a full-page ad for Donald Trump's The Celebrity Apprentice. Right below a picture of his wildly unattractive visage, we read -- in italics and bold -- that "Once again, Donald Trump's 'The Apprentice' comes out on top," followed by some pretty obscure statistics cherry-picked to show that the show is actually a hit: #1 among 18 to 49-year-old adults on Thursday nights three times, for example.
The ad also brags about the ratings success of the first season of Trump's show -- which was way back in 2004. Taking out full-page ads to rest on your laurels is a pretty interesting marketing strategy.
What's interesting is that, by more objective standards, The Celebrity Apprentice is a flop. PerezHilton reported that the number of viewers watching the show declined a shocking 26% from its premier to its second episode. The 8.2 million viewers the show attracted in its second week was less than half of what the original Apprentice got in its prime.
Here's a tip to NBC and "Mr. Trump": if you have to take out full-page ads with obscure statistics to try to convince people that your show is a hit, your show is a flop.
In a related story, Trump Entertainment Resorts (NASDAQ: TRMP) closed on Tuesday at $3.43 -- a year ago it was trading over $17 a share. Hey Donald, put that in your full-page ad.
New York-based Saks Inc. (NYSE: SKS), the operator of Saks Fifth Avenue department stores, reported that its fourth-quarter profit almost doubled, helped by solid sales, cost controls, and one-time gains.
Earnings came to $39.5 million, or 26 cents per share, during the period that ended February 2, compared with $21.5 million, or 14 cents per share, in the same period of the prior year. Sales rose almost 5% to $999.7 million in the fourth quarter. Analysts had expected EPS of 20 cents on revenue of $993.61 million, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.
For the year, Saks earned $47.5 million, or 31 cents per share, compared with $53.7 million, or 40 cents per share, a year earlier. Sales rose to $3.28 billion, almost 12% higher than the previous year.
"I remain very positive about the long-term prospects for the luxury sector and specifically for our Saks Fifth Avenue business, " said Chief Executive Stephen Sadove. However, privately-held Neiman Marcus Inc., which reported fiscal second-quarter results today, saw only a modest rise of 8% in profits and 6% in revenue.
Ladies and gentleman of the jury, I present to you exhibit 424A in the case of The People v. Donald Trump. Florida developer Jorge Perez -- who built a billion dollar fortune as a Cuban exile starting with nothing -- recently came out with a book of real estate advice called 
Ivanka Trump -- the daughter of comedy icon Donald Trump and a director at his flailing casino company, 
Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc.
The clown prince of real estate -- Donald Trump, or The Donald, or Donald J. Trump when he wants to be extra pretentious -- is suing Crescent Heights Diamond (is it too early to nominate companies for worst name of the year?) for using his good name to promote a 70-story tower in Tel Aviv and then stiffing him on the royalties.
It was a thrilling -- and badly needed -- reminder that it's possible to be unsuccessful in business by underestimating the intelligence of the American people.
Donald Trump has a new show in the works: naughty girls are sent to a finishing school where they learn the manners they'll need to behave like socialites. Sounds tasteful.
Ivanka Trump, 26, daughter of Donald Trump, is an heir apparent to her dad's real estate and entertainment holdings. Her business title is the vice president of real estate development and acquisitions at the Trump Organization, which is a holding company for many of Trump's businesses (Trump's casinos are part of 
Today's New York Times contains a full-page ad for Donald Trump's The Celebrity Apprentice. Right below a picture of his 
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