What Exactly Is Donald Trump's Deal? Cont'd
Not since the creators of South Park openly challenged the Church of Scientology to sue them have I seen a more ballsy on-air confrontation of a litigious bully as John Oliver’s last night, which Conor embedded here.
Oliver’s takedown of Trump also reminds me of an excellent essay by William D. Cohan from our April 2013 issue. He details how Trump relentlessly inflates the value of his wealth and sues, or threatens to sue, people who scrutinize his actual wealth—all part of a concerted effort to maintain his brand as a tycoon with a Midas touch. Both Cohan and Oliver spotlight, for example, Trump’s failed lawsuit against a biographer for $5 billion because he claimed Trump was probably only worth about $150 to $250 million dollars—a fraction of the net worth that Trump claims, and one that “goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and with feelings,” Trump once said. Another example of his business logic:
[I]n 2005, he was paid $400,000 for a speech at the Learning Annex, but bragged on Larry King Live that his pay was actually more than $1 million because, as he explained in his deposition, the speech was promoted in billboard, newspaper, radio, and TV ads around New York City, creating extra value for his brand.
A reader quips:
They should have asked him if he paid taxes on the $400k or on the $1 million. That would have shown whether he was unclear on the concept or not.
Back to litigious Trump, this gem didn’t make it into Oliver’s segment:
Read more from The Atlantic:
This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
