Reason 3 to Nix Trump: More Mental Lapses.
He is getting dotty. He will be 78 on election day, the average life expectancy for an American male, but humans age at very different paces.
According to Forbes, he has mixed up President Biden and former President Obama at least seven times in recent months. He has accused Biden, who just turned 81, of slipping into senility, but it looks he has aged faster upstairs than the current president, who is constantly on stage in challenging circumstances.
He said recently that he beat George W. Bush in a 2016 primary. It was Jeb Bush, the president’s brother.
He recently praised Viktor Orbán as the leader of Turkey. Orbán is the prime minister of Hungary.
He recently commented that President Biden would get us into WWII.
The gaffes are adding up, suggesting that he is losing it.
As an elder myself, there is not much you can do when your brain doesn’t work like it used to. You do workarounds so that you can function. That’s OK when you are on the sidelines, but not when you are the leader of the free world.
Reason 4 Against Trump: Funny Numbers
Based on his testimony at his business fraud trial in New York, it’s clear Donald Trump can’t count to 20 with his shoes on.
Trump oversaw financial statements that wildly overvalued his Mar-a-Lago Club for the purpose of obtaining loans at advantageous interest rates. For openers, Trump put the value of the tennis court there at $18 million. You or I could build one for a couple hundred thousand dollars, max.
The latest revenues reported from the club range from $21 million per year to $29 million. For most businesses, four times revenues is a rich valuation. That would put the resort at $120 million — tops.
Let’s double the value of Mar-a-Lago because of the power Trump’s brand. That gets Mar-a-Lago to a very high value of $250 million or so.
Yet Trump claimed in the context of the trial that this medium-sized resort of 125 rooms is worth $1 billion to $1.5 billion. Go figure.
His math is what he wants it to be.
According to Wikipedia, Trump paid $7 million for the property in 1985.
Also coming out of the New York trial is his valuation of his Seven Springs estate in Westchester County, New York. That development was planned for mansions that never got built. Nonetheless, his financial statements put the value of the bare property at $168 million.
The judge in this civil case has already concluded that Trump’s financial statements are fraudulent. The continuing trial is about whether the former president’s organization will pay a fine of $250 million and lose its permits to do business in New York.
My two questions to business people: Would you lend money to Donald Trump? Would you invest in any of his businesses?
Note that U.S. banks have mostly shut him off from new loans.
