Presumptive Republican Party Presidential nominee Donald Trump already has a more than iffy election season track record. He wasn’t exactly free of litigation and accusations before the election started, of course, but by entering into a legitimate presidential campaign, all of his skeletons are out of the metaphorical closet and into the public eye. From the revelation that he once supported climate control, to him calling a black person “my African American”, to the fact that he once had an all-out bromance with none other than Muammar Al Qaddafi, it’s almost like Trump didn’t even consider all the dirt in his background before running for the highest office in the land.
Basically, he has larger problems right now than Hillary Clinton ruthlessly dragging him on Twitter.
Now, an incredibly thorough investigation by USA Today reveals that Trump and his many companies repeatedly renege on contracts, avoid paying their employees, and disparage people’s work in order to avoid paying them the agreed upon amount – or any amount at all.
Among the many allegations against Trump, his corporations, and other members of his family, the most egregious accusations are as such:
- Failing to pay a family-run New Jersey cabinetry company $83,600 for their work on one of his casinos. They company went bankrupt without the revenue from the Trump contract.
- In total of the last 30 years, the number of total lawsuits against trump for non-payment is estimated to be in the many thousands.
- In only the last decade, Trump’s business have been cited for two dozen violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act for not paying minimum wage and overtime pay.
- During work one just one (one!) of his casinos, more than 250 contractors were not paid for their work, adding up to a total of nearly $70 million of unpaid labor.
- A real estate broker named Rana Williams claims Trump failed to pay her upwards of $700k for three years worth of commissions.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Trump family’s excuse is that the contracts were not fulfilled due to shoddy work or substandard practices. If anyone knows from substandard practices at this point, it’s definitely The Donald. If that excuse was actually the case for every single unpaid worker, then it’s safe to say those casinos probably wouldn’t have stayed standing and his point of pride Doral golf course would have stopped operating years ago.
As a reminder, Trump claims to be worth $10 billion or more. The saying goes that the rich stay rich because they spend money intelligently, but with this report it looks more and more like Trump stays rich because he routinely rips people off and ruins their businesses. T-to-the-Rump wasted no time responding to the allegations, which is now the norm whenever anyone speaks against him.
As expected, the media is very much against me. Their dishonesty is amazing but, just like our big wins in the primaries, we will win!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2016
Somehow, this election still has six months left before it’s over.
(via USA Today)