NYT Trump Taxes Part 2 dropped tonight

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Among his lucrative advertising stunts was this:

Unilever, which was looking to promote a new version of its All brand laundry detergent, concocted an entire multiplatform marketing campaign around Mr. Trump. In addition to $850,000 the company paid him directly, tax records reveal, he earned $250,000 more from a public-relations firm Unilever hired to help run an ad campaign coined “Softness fit for a Trump.”

Unilever staged a publicity stunt outside Trump Tower in Manhattan, where Mr. Trump hoisted a laundry basket with an ad for “All Cleans & Softens” stuck to the front. He had taken a break from the rigors of “The Apprentice” to wash donated clothes for charity, Unilever claimed.

As part of his agreement, Mr. Trump cold-called journalists to talk up All detergent, telling a Boston Globe reporter, “Unilever is a great company” and “This is a product my mother used.” He also recorded voice-overs for an online game that was part of an All sweepstakes, in which a tiny digital version of Mr. Trump did laundry and squawked one-liners like, “The Donald can do the work of 40 dry cleaners!”

... In his zeal to squeeze ever more dollars out of Mr. Burnett’s golden goose, Mr. Trump signed on to an array of questionable products and services, including some that claimed to sell insights into his business expertise. The first year of “The Apprentice” was barely over when Mr. Trump pocketed $300,000 to speak at an event in Dayton, Ohio, where attendees paid $2,995 to learn the secrets of instant wealth from a company that was later accused in a lawsuit of running a Ponzi scheme.

This is some juicy stuff! It's about his involvement in product promotion - any product at all, as long as he made money from it - and his involvement in dodgy enterprises and real estate deals with some sketchy characters.