Two weeks ago, the PGA announced it was moving one of its events from Donald Trump’s golf resort near Miami to Mexico City, prompting Trump to go into one of his classic hissy fits. Officially, the PGA said that it was having a hard time attracting sponsors due to Trump’s frequent cases of diarrhea of the mouth. Well, an investigation by USA Today revealed one other, more fundamental reason. It seems that Trump could potentially have the course yanked out from under him for not paying the painters. It’s one of several instances over the last three decades in which the Donald has refused to pay for work done on his many properties.
The investigation found dozens of lawsuits, liens, judgments, and other legal actions arising from claims that Trump and his businesses haven’t paid people for their work. One of them is The Paint Spot, a Miami-area paint supplier. The Paint Spot’s owner, Juan Enriquez, fought Trump for two years over work it did at Trump National Doral Miami. Finally, Enriquez had enough, and took the Donald to court.
During the hearing, the manager for Doral’s general contractor said that Trump had decided he’d “already paid enough” money to The Paint Spot, and therefore, they weren’t getting another penny from him. Combined with this and other evidence, the judge gave Trump an ultimatum on May 20–cough up more than $34,800 by June 28, or else it will be sold out from under the Donald. In other words, Trump may be about to lose a resort he just bought three years ago over the equivalent of a rounding error on his balance sheet.
While Trump’s lawyers have filed a motion to delay the sale, The Paint Spot has actually gotten further than many of the people stiffed by Trump over the years. The investigation uncovered numerous cases where Trump has bottled up workers and small businesses in court for years after refusing to pay them. As strong as their claims are on paper, Trump’s financial resources are far more than they can even begin to match. They are forced to walk away, settle for far less than what they’re owed, or go out of business.
A typical case is that of Philadelphia cabinetmaker Edward Friel. His company landed a contract to build several cabinets at Harrah’s Trump Plaza in Atlantic City. He completed the work for $83,600 in 1984–but never saw a penny. Even though the general contractor approved it, Trump refused to pay. Friel refused to take this lying down, and wanted to sue. However, a lawyer told him that it wouldn’t be worth the effort, since Trump would simply drag things out in court. Friel’s company filed for bankruptcy five years later.
This is very telling on a number of fronts. For one, Trump is running almost entirely on his record as a businessman. There were already several questions about his business record, given that he has filed for bankruptcy five times in the last 25 years. But if he has a habit of stiffing workers as well, you really have to wonder if he can be trusted to handle our money.
Additionally, Trump has claimed his proven record as a job-creator will serve him well in bringing jobs back to our shores. But as the investigation shows, he frequently refuses to cough up amounts that seem picayune to him, but are life and death for many workers and small businesses. It begs the question–does he really care about the average worker? After reading this story, it’s obvious that he doesn’t.
