Trump defaulted on his Puerto Rico golf course, leaving the territory a $33 million debt

[sandensea]

Long before Hurricanes Irma or María decimated much of Puerto Rico, the island was already in trouble. Earlier this year, faced with $123 billion in debt (and growing), the U.S. territory took the unprecedented step of essentially declaring bankruptcy.

Trump made it clear that he had little interest in helping Puerto Rico’s debt situation, tweeting on April 27 that "Democrats want to shut government if we don't bail out Puerto Rico and give billions to their insurance companies for OCare failure. NO!"

But according to PolitiFact Florida, Trump only exacerbated the problem.

The Trump International Golf Club Puerto Rico, which, according to Fortune, borrowed $26.4 million in government-backed bonds in order to pay for improvements, later defaulted on a $119,814 bondholder payment. In 2015, the club filed for bankruptcy, which is when Trump (who licensed his name to the property) desperately tried to distance himself from the place bearing his name.

“We have zero financial investment in this course,” Eric Trump told Bloomberg News in July 2015. “This has absolutely nothing to do with Trump. This is a separate owner. We purely manage the golf course.”

Except that Trump, according to BuzzFeed News, did pocket the hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees from the resort. And when the club defaulted on those bonds and declared bankruptcy, it left Puerto Rico taxpayers with a hefty $32.7 million bill to pay in order to clean up the soon-to-be-president’s mess.

At: https://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/346335/trump-golf-course-puerto-rico-default-33-million-tax-debt/?utm_source=share-fb&utm_medium=button

[SunSeeker]

1. K & R for exposure.

[Beartracks]

2. And now Trump mocks their debt problem.

What an asshole.

=============

[Judi Lynn]

7. He sails straight ahead, even after his father bailed him out of bankruptcy 3 or 4 times.

It's easy to see he learned nothing whatsoever from his experience. He remains an idiot.

Rushing in to ridicule this helpless country which has been in the coils of the US power machine forever is disgusting beyond belief.

[Midnight Writer]

3. I am afraid Trump and the Republicans are about to default on Puerto Rico again.

[Teddy Rattlesnake]

4. And...?

What else is new?

I'd be having a coronary if trumpty dumpty wasn't behaving like a d.....bag.

[kaotikross]

5. He's right though about one thing: PR is basically partly to blame.

Thinking anything he's proposing is going to make you any money and not fail miserably is a sucker bet, so this is also partly the fault of the PR officials who welcomed him and his cadre of turds with open arms when he wanted to build it. I do feel sorry for them, because like a lot of people, they bought his line hook and sinker. Of course HE made money, that's what he does. That's Trump: as long as he comes out ahead, it's great, tremendous. Believe him. It'll be fantastic. OH, what's that? You got screwed? Sorry, just business, but if you have some cash left he has a great new opportunity for you that'll make you rich! A tremendously fantastic deal of tremendous tremendousity!

[NCjack]

6. The US islands need a UN conference of donor nations to appoint a trustee (not USA) to administer

their reconstruction. If the trustee does a good job, then a plebiscite should be conducted to determine if the islands should remain with the USA or be transferred from USA to the trustee. For trustee, I think Cuba would be a good choice.

[raven mad]

8. And ignores them because "they have debt".............