• Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Donald Trump’s claim he would invest £1bn in a golf resort was misleading, according to the man who helped broker the deal.

    Well yeah.

    Why have people continually believed this man’s lies and fraud for decades now? So many people who should know better.

    He has fucked over everyone he could his whole life but so many people seem to think, “well he won’t fuck me over.”

      • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        So this isn’t at all in response to what you wrote or this specific situation, but your comment spurred this out of me regardless, so feel free to ignore.

        To clarify, the small business owners that he regularly screws aren’t “greedy,” they’re jumping at a chance to grow their business. I fell for this trap once, the billionaire even flaunted to me about how he was in the process of suing his former partners because they “screwed him.” Well, I wanted so badly for the deal to be real (because it would mean growing my business to the point that I could hire on employees, talking maybe a dozen or so $22/hour jobs that would have meant solidifying the business. I could finally invest in some much needed machinery, find a better location… so many things I wanted to do with that sale) that I ignored all the red flags. Ended up getting royally screwed, lost everything. Business, assets, all of it. Gone.

        Chalk it up to inexperience, and naivety of trusting a billionaire to operate in good faith and in accordance to the contract he signed (and to a greater extent naivety that our justice system worked for poor people). But greed? I wouldn’t call it that.

        • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          If an extreme desire to grow your business to a degree that it clouds your judgement ISN’T greed … you should revisit the definition of greed.

          Not all greedy people are rich.

          • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Man i trusted someone to do what they signed a contract SAYING they would do. I wasn’t over charging them, I wasn’t doing anything shady besides trusting someones word. I’m not the one who deliberately fucked over a small business, that’s the other guy. I trusted someone rich to pay me what they owe and I got fucked.

            But yeah just call me greedy, cool.

            • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              If they signed a contract, ream their ass in court.

              If you signed a contract that cannot be enforced in court … again, blinding greed or rampant stupidity for a business owner.

              • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                I took that contract to 3 lawyers, all said the same thing, “they’re too rich to sue. they’d stretch the legal battle out for years, you’d have to cover all our fees, and even if you won, they probably wouldn’t pay anyway because they’re rich enough to have their assets held by another entity.”

                Now who’s being naive?

        • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
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          9 months ago

          thats a lot of words to say ‘its not greedy to grow your business’, but i would counter your greed clouded your own naive judgement. which , to my point, is only human.

          who are you trying to convince?

        • PissChrist@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          Good comment but you just fleshed out a real life scenario where a rich grifter fleeced you by appealing to your greed. You just replaced the word greed with “growing your business”. Im not greedy, I have good REASONS! Donald has damn good reasons for his behavior as well, probably “growing his business”, and certainly doesnt see himself as greedy.

          See also; The only moral abortion is my abortion

          • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            yeah i did nothing but trust someone who signed a contract saying they would pay me for the goods and services i provided. I didn’t do anything shady, I trusted someones word, and I lost everything because of it. but yeah, I’m greedy. wtf is a small business owner supposed to do, turn down every opportunity because the person their dealing with is rich? That for some reason the failing of the justice system to account for rich people abusing the court system to fuck over small business, and you’re saying it’s MY FAULT they did that to me?

            “well you shouldn’t have trusted him”

            do you say that to rape victims too?

            • hermitix_world@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              People don’t become rich by being ethical. Not blaming you for not being aware, but everyone needs to realize that trusting rich people is a bad idea.

    • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Because the secret truth of the world is: rich people are the dumbest motherfuckers on this planet because they’ve been challenged the least, yet moronic humans CONSTANTLY assume they must be rich because they “earned it”.

      The problem is with human stupidity.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I don’t know that ‘stupid’ is the right word. I think it’s arrogance and ignorance that no one could possibly cheat them because they’re rich and powerful. They might be smart in other ways, but their narcissism makes them make stupid choices.

        • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Yea that’s fair. I do tend to use generic terms like “stupid” when a decision is so asinine as to be a stupid decision regardless of motivation … but intent always matters.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      Back in the '80s we knew he was a scumbag. We laughed at him and his antics.

      I can’t understand how he can still get people to believe him.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I don’t get it either. When The Art of the Deal came out, there were tons of stories about how it was all bullshit. And there was also the Central Park Five thing.

  • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Let’s file this under N for No Shit.

    Also, I doubt they were hoodwinked by Trump. They were probably hoodwinked by some high up official who fucking knew Trump wouldn’t be good for it but got all the kickbacks ahead of time.

    • mipadaitu@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Promised kickbacks, but also never got them.

      Cause even people who work for him get screwed.

      • Wrench@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        No, I actually believe he “pays” his kickbacks, except never in a way that actually costs him money.

        I’m sure he gives his benefactors free memberships in his country clubs, free stays at his properties, government positions, private sector positions in his companies, and more importantly, his other allies companies.

        SCOTUS appointments didn’t cost him a dime, but earned him the undying loyalty of the federalist and most of the GOP.

        He wheels and deals favors, not cash. And ever since he took the GOP and the country by the balls, he hasn’t even bothered with the favors part unless he really has to.

    • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Can confirm, live nearby to where it happened and was aware of all the shit going down at the time… Trumps planning permission was denied initially until the local government came in and forced it through anyway.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    9 months ago

    The Trump Organization has previously said it spent around £100m on the Aberdeenshire golf resort but its latest accounts show the facility has a net book value of £33.2m and 81 employees.

    In addition to the golf course, the original proposal also included approval for a 450-room hotel, 950 holiday apartments, 36 golf villas and 500 houses for sale.

    None of these elements, and the thousands of new jobs promised, have materialised so far - and the golf resort has yet to turn a profit, racking up £13.3m in losses since it opened.

    The scale of the grift is the most impressive aspect.

    Edit: I don’t know why the app I’m using is fucking up the quote format. I tried to include line breaks. Apologies.

  • Kben@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    Watched a documentry about this before Trump became president.The man is a lying scumbag who treats people like shit.How he conned his way into the whitehouse astounds me.

  • stoly@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I know this all happened before Trump got into politics, but it still seems like a strange thing to be surprised by.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      He was well known for not paying his bills and tanking businesses that he was involved with long before he got interested in politics. Yet people still think he’s trustworthy or some sort of business genius.

      • stoly@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        They think the same thing about Elon so I guess you can’t trust the judgement of many people.