Out-on-bail real estate fraudster, under-the-table sex-worker-payer, and Republican front-runner Donald J. Trump can not resist bragging and lying about how rich he is. The guy who called the White House "a real dump" when he moved in to let us know he is used to REAL luxury can not resist running his mouth. Forbes acquired an audio recording of Trump in a 2015 interview doing the thing he blamed on others.
Trump is setting himself up for a big fall. Attacking the judge presiding over your non-jury damages assessment after already having found your organization did commit the fraud it is accused of is not likely to get you a positive outcome. There is real jeopardy for the Trump family fortune. Most of Trump's "empire" is the imagined value of his properties. After being auctioned off in a firesale to pay his penalties and debtors off, there may not be any Trump fortune left to speak of. You can be certain that Trump already uses campaign funds to pay for everything he possibly can, not what little money he can access.
"This is the entire floor of Trump Tower, just so you understand," Trump said in the interview. "This isn't like, I'll show you. Now, this wraps all around the building. All around the elevators. And I have three times three. So there's like 11,000 feet on a floor. So I have three. So 33,000—and I have the roof."
In fact, the total square footage of the apartment was just under 11,000 square feet.
Forbes also notes that the recording undercuts Trump's claims made at the trial that he had personally noticed the problem and had ordered his accountants to correct it.
"In fact, Forbes uncovered the square-footage discrepancy and informed Weisselberg and McConney that the apartment was 10,996 square feet in February of 2017," writes Forbes. "The Trump Organization nonetheless continued to use the incorrect square footage on a net-worth statement dated mid-March. Forbes then published an article headlined 'Donald Trump Has Been Lying About The Size Of His Penthouse' in May 2017. It was only after that story came out—while Donald Trump was in the White House—that the Trump Organization changed its calculation to reflect the true square footage of the apartment."
Trump lies and lies to his benefit. It appears he's come to the end of that road, at least as a real estate mogul.
