A real story of fake news: Trump's wealth
By Karen Tumulty
May 9 at 6:17 PM
... In 1985, Trump reported losses of $46.1 million from his casinos, hotels and apartment buildings, which hemorrhaged $1.17 billion over the next decade. “Year after year, Mr. Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer,” the Times wrote ...
The Times wrote the earliest classic of the genre with its first profile of Trump back in 1976. The story by society reporter Judy Klemesrud began: “He is tall, lean and blond, with dazzling white teeth, and he looks ever so much like Robert Redford. He rides around town in a chauffeured silver Cadillac with his initials, DJT, on the plates. He dates slinky fashion models, belongs to the most elegant clubs and, at only 30 years of age, estimates that he is worth ‘more than $200 million.’?”
Evidence suggests that figure was preposterous. As my colleagues Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher noted in their book “Trump Revealed,” Trump reported a mere $24,594 in income to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement that year and said he owed $10,832 in taxes ...
In December 1992, columnist Gail Collins, then at Newsday, described him as a “financially embattled thousandaire.”
An enraged Trump mailed her a copy of her column with comments scrawled throughout, including: “Gail- You are a dog and a liar.” He also drew an arrow pointing to her picture and wrote: “The face of a pig — no wonder you are so angry. I would be to. <sic>” ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/it-turns-out-trumps-business-success-was-a-media-made-myth/2019/05/09/eb22825e-71dc-11e9-8be0-ca575670e91c_story.html?utm_term=.e07b0529c153
