The Donald Trump Score Card

Article from April 2016.


The Man Who Beat Donald Trump
How Marvin Roffman told the truth, was punished for it—and then fought back.
By MICHAEL KRUSE
April 25, 2016

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/06/business/dismissed-in-trump-case-analyst-is-awarded-750000.html

excerpt:

"What happened next was straight out of Trump 101. The “people I don’t take too seriously,” he had written in 1987 in The Art of the Deal, “are the critics—except when they stand in the way of my projects.” Roffman was in the way. Trump bombarded him with invective, threatened to sue his employer, demanded his firing and then publicly assailed him some more. The fact that Roffman’s assessment was grounded in reality—that he would prove to be right—didn’t stop Trump from attacking Roffman. It was the reason for it.

Three days after the quote in the Journal, Roffman was fired. What happened after that, though, was unusual. In the long history of the leading Republican presidential candidate’s use of disparagement, intimidation and forceful warnings of litigation, there is no person quite like Roffman. He filed a lawsuit against Trump and won a clear victory—a fat check drawn on a Donald Trump account."

 

Article from 1990.


Analyst Fired After Trump Critique

excerpt:

"Marvin Roffman, an analyst for 16 years with Janney Montgomery Scott Inc., was fired last Friday. Roffman said he had refused Trump’s demand that he retract comments made to the Wall Street Journal about what he deemed gloomy prospects for Trump’s Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City, N.J."

 

Roffmans predictions were correct. All of Trump's casinos failed.

 

https://www.npr.org/2016/10/04/496596466/how-donald-trump-lost-916-million

excerpt:

"Pomerantz believes Trump's overall losses in the 1990s were probably greater than $900 million. But there's no way to know for sure without seeing Trump's federal tax returns. He's the only major party candidate in the last 40 years who hasn't released them."

 

Article from 2016.


https://www.npr.org/2016/10/04/496596466/how-donald-trump-lost-916-million

excerpt:

"I was able to use the tax laws of this country and my skills as a businessperson to dig out of the real estate depression when few others were able to do that," Trump said.

But former employees and business associates say Trump himself was also to blame.

"All the assets that he bought — the shuttle, his real estate — he believed he could make a lot of money on them," said Alan Pomerantz, a lawyer who represented dozens of banks in negotiations with Trump in the early 1990s. "He was wrong. His judgment was wrong."

At one point, Trump owed $3.4 billion. He was personally on the hook for more than $800 million.

Pomerantz said investors lost big while Trump claimed the tax benefits for himself: "By doing that kind of very risky business — by being a gambler, if you will — he took an inappropriate risk for other people's money."

 

Trump didn't attend Cheney funeral.

Neither did Vance.


Trump won't attend former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney's funeral

 

Trump's latest escalation.


Trump tells airlines Venezuela's airspace is 'closed in its entirety' in latest escalation
There was no immediate response from Venezuela, which maintains authority over its own airspace.
By Freddie Clayton
Nov. 29, 2025, 9:32 AM EST

Trump tells airlines Venezuela's airspace is 'closed in its entirety' in latest escalation

 

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/08/nx-s1-5602884/drug-smuggling-boats

excerpt:

The Trump administration has justified the strikes by declaring drug cartels to be "unlawful combatants " and said the U.S. is now in an "armed conflict" with them. Trump has said each sunken boat has saved 25,000 American lives, presumably from overdoses. The boats, however, appear to have been transporting cocaine, not the far more deadly synthetic opioids that kill tens of thousands of Americans each year.

Sean Parnell, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, said in a statement to the AP that the Defense Department has "consistently said that our intelligence did indeed confirm that the individuals involved in these drug operations were narco-terrorists, and we stand by that assessment."

 

Trump mental deterioration continues.


Trump’s hate-filled rant ignores facts on immigrant crime and economic benefits

excerpt:

“Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for ‘prey,’” the US president said.

He added, with open racism, that Ilhan Omar – a member of Congress from Minnesota – was “always wrapped in her swaddling hijab” and suggested she had married her brother.

 

Trump’s hate-filled rant ignores facts on immigrant crime and economic benefits

excerpt:

"In his post, Trump also claimed that immigrants and their children “are supported through massive payments from patriotic American citizens who … put up with what has happened to our country, but it’s eating them alive to do so”.

“A migrant earning $30,000 with a green card will get roughly $50,000 in yearly benefits for their family,” Trump added.

His claim is flatly contradicted by data showing that immigrants are significant contributors to the US economy. In 2023, undocumented immigrant households contributed $89.8bn in federal, state and local taxes, while holding $299bn in spending power, according to the AIC."

 

US small businesses sound alarm over Trump’s tariffs amid crucial holiday season

excerpt:

“Whatever price increases you’re seeing in the holiday industry for your Christmas trees, for your lighting, for your other decor, this year will be small compared to next year, if tariff relief isn’t given for the 2026 season,” added Hendricks. “American manufacturing has never done Christmas goods, so it’s not responsible for taking away any jobs.

“The supply chain for Christmas items is simply too complex, and [it] would take billions of dollars in decades to build that infrastructure to move that production here. And then, even if you did, the workforce is not sufficient to support it.”

 

US small businesses sound alarm over Trump’s tariffs amid crucial holiday season

excerpt:

Tariffs have hit some small businesses especially hard, as they often have smaller margins – and are less able to absorb costs, or secure exemptions – than bigger firms.

Jared Hendricks has run Village Lighting Co in West Valley City, Utah, which specializes in holiday lights and decorations, for over 20 years. He estimates his tariffs costs are approaching $1m so far this year.

“At this point, we’ve kind of transitioned from working for profits to working for tariffs,” said Hendricks. “We are just in business to pay off our tariff debt.”

 

Trump pardons Henandez who was convicted of drug trafficking because he says Hernandez was treated unfairly.


Trump says he plans to pardon former Honduran President Hernandez for 2024 drug trafficking sentence

excerpt:

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he will be pardoning former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who in 2024 was convicted for drug trafficking and weapons charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

The president explained his decision on social media by posting that “according to many people that I greatly respect,” Hernandez was “treated very harshly and unfairly.”

 

Past immigration crackdowns in the U.S.


https://www.npr.org/sections/planet...expulsion-act-railroads-immigration-crackdown

excerpt:

"The Economic Effects of Chinese Exclusion

Historians have found that the economies of towns suffered after they kicked out their Chinese residents.

Eureka, California faced all sorts of economic problems. "For most white residents, the financial loss was immediate," writes Jean Pfaelzer in her book Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans. Businesses lost workers. "Some went into debt to pay higher salaries to new white employees." Landlords lost tenants. Stores lost customers. Chinese entrepreneurs had run the laundries in the town, and now people were stuck with dirty clothes. Chinese vegetable growers had provided the town with its produce and their disappearance meant no more fresh veggies. "White residents tried their hands at growing their own vegetables but complained about their poor results, the lack of variety of food, and the rotting produce that was shipped north from San Francisco," writes Pfaelzer."

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/planet...expulsion-act-railroads-immigration-crackdown

excerpt:

"Mining is maybe more zero sum than other parts of the economy. There's a fixed level of stuff in the ground and one person's gain in finding valuable minerals is another person's loss.

But Qian's study suggests most of the economy didn't work this way. It was not zero sum. Chinese workers actually improved the economic lives of most white workers and businessmen."

 

Trump wants Asfura to run Honduras.

He already has Trump-friendly Bukele in El Salvador and Arevalo in Guatemala.

He praises Milei of Argentina (whom he gave $20 billion of 'America First' taxpayer money to prop up the Argentine peso).

Trump wants to oust Maduro from Venezuela and appears to be starting a military blockade to do it.


A Honduran president flooded the US with drugs. Trump wants his party back in power

excerpt:

With the staunchly pro-Trump Nayib Bukele in El Salvador, and Bernardo Arévalo in Guatemala, who has cooperated with the US government, it would give Mr Trump allies in all three countries that make up the Northern Triangle, a key passage for drug, human and arms trafficking.

“It would make a lot of sense [for Mr Trump],” Carlos Solar, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said.

“They could combine security, they could put a stop to the migrants... it would turn the whole triangle towards Trump, rather than having this Left-wing government, which doesn’t allow him to have more of a security control over the Northern Triangle.”

 

That's saying it mildly.

Trump wants to run the entire western hemisphere and the other half also.

Consolidation of power of the entire western hemisphere in addition to the U.S. government and business.

He's friendly with Putin and the Saudi royals, giving him power in the other hemisphere.

 

Trump's official White House webpage keeps saying 'Reawakened Warrior Spirit'.

Apparently they think that's impressing the public.

 

Trump talks like he will release his MRI.


Trump says he'll release MRI results but doesn't know what part of his body was scanned

 

Trump issues ultimatum to Maduro.


Trump gave Maduro ultimatum to flee Venezuela as land operations loom: report