Trump’s Business Record Proves He’s No Leader


When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, one of his biggest selling points was his identity as a businessman. He told the country that because he had made billions, he knew how to “Make America Great Again.” But here's the inconvenient truth: Trump’s business record is riddled with massive failures, bankruptcies, lawsuits, and shady dealings. If we’re going to judge a man’s leadership by the fruits of his labor, Trump’s business empire shows he's no leader worth trusting.

Let’s start with the basics. Donald Trump has had six corporate bankruptcies—not just one or two. These weren’t minor stumbles; they were major collapses involving casinos, hotels, and entertainment companies. His Atlantic City casino empire was especially disastrous. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Trump opened the Trump Plaza, Trump Marina, and Trump Taj Mahal—all of which ended up in bankruptcy court. He over-leveraged them with junk bonds and left investors and contractors holding the bag (Mider).

And it wasn’t just bad luck. Experts and financial analysts repeatedly warned that the casino business was already oversaturated in Atlantic City. But Trump pressed forward recklessly, driven more by ego than sound business sense (O’Brien). This wasn’t leadership—it was hubris.

Trump University is another glaring failure. Advertised as a real estate education program, it ended up being a massive scam. Students paid tens of thousands of dollars expecting real mentorship from Trump himself. What they got were upsell tactics and poorly qualified instructors. The program was so fraudulent that Trump eventually agreed to pay $25 million in legal settlements to former students without admitting wrongdoing (Eder).

Then there’s Trump Steaks, Trump Airlines, Trump Vodka, and even Trump: The Game—all failed ventures. Time and again, Trump slapped his name on a product, promised luxury and success, and left behind a trail of disappointed investors, unpaid bills, and broken promises. If Trump had been a small-time business owner, these missteps might be understandable. But he inherited hundreds of millions from his father and squandered much of it on risky, flashy, short-sighted projects (Barstow et al.).

Leadership requires vision, wisdom, humility, and the ability to learn from failure—not just repeat it while blaming others. Trump’s businesses tell a story of someone who used bankruptcy as a strategy, exploited loopholes, and left ordinary people—employees, small contractors, students—damaged in the fallout.

More than that, real leadership is about accountability. Trump rarely takes responsibility. Whether it's the Trump Organization facing criminal indictments, or his business partner Allen Weisselberg going to jail for tax fraud, Trump always plays the victim or shifts blame (Ben Protess et al.). A leader doesn’t hide behind lawyers and branding when things go wrong. A leader owns his mistakes. Trump never has.

If business is Trump’s résumé for the presidency, then let’s be honest: it’s a record of reckless mismanagement, not success. We wouldn’t hire a CEO with that track record to run a company, much less lead a nation. America deserves better than a man who builds towers of debt, not trust.

Works Cited

Barstow, David, et al. Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father. The New York Times, 2 Oct. 2018, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes-fred-trump.html.

Eder, Steve. Trump University Lawsuit Settlement Approved by Judge. The New York Times, 31 Mar. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/03/31/us/politics/trump-university-lawsuit-settlement.html.

Mider, Zachary R. Trump’s Atlantic City Hotels Were Doomed by Bad Strategy and Worse Timing. Bloomberg, 4 Oct. 2016, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-04/trump-s-atlantic-city-hotels-were-doomed-by-bad-strategy-and-worse-timing.

O’Brien, Timothy L. TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald. Warner Books, 2005.

Protess, Ben, et al. Trump Organization Found Guilty in Tax Fraud Scheme. The New York Times, 6 Dec. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/nyregion/trump-organization-convicted.html.

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