The following twitter thread is from Dan Alexander the Trump reporter at Forbes who has written a book called “White House Inc.” The NYT story discusses thevast sums of money Trump owes and has little way of paying back. Alexander lays out a list of all his debts. He owes more than a billion dollars and most of it is coming due in the next few years:
1/ The New York Times #TrumpTaxReturns story is terrific. I had about a million thoughts as I was reading though. I’ll be annotating those here, in this thread, for the next few hours.
2/ Story starts with this bombshell, that Trump paid just $750 in taxes in 2016 and another $750 in 2017. Shocking numbers for someone who we estimate is worth $2.5B. (Yes, you can still be really rich and disclose a tiny income or even huge losses. More on his net worth later.)
3/ Then we get to this part about the current state of his business, which highlights the amount of debt that Trump has coming due. We actually already know a lot about his debt — far more than most people who follow the news might think. Let’s pause here and dig into it.
4/ We’ll start at Trump’s old home, Trump Tower, where he owes $100M. This document shows that it has a $100M loan against it, with a 4.2% interest rate, due 9/6/2022. Trump, as you can see, has not paid down a dime of the principal.
5/ Then we’ll go to 40 Wall Street, where he owes $139M, split into several chunks. You can see the interest rate on all are 3.665%, and all of those come due on 7/6/25. Total debt accounted for so far: $239M million.
6/ We’ll next look at 1290 Ave. of the Americas, in which Trump owns a 30% interest alongside publicly traded Vornado. VNO discloses that there’s $950M of debt against it in doc below. Due in Nov 2022. Trump’s 30% share then equals $285M. Total debt accounted for so far: $524M.
7/ Then we’ll consider 555 California St., in which Trump also owns a 30% interest alongside Vornado. VNO discloses there’s $543M against that building, with a 5.1% interest rate, due Sep 2021. Trump’s 30% share is then 0.3 * 543 = $163M. Total debt accounted for so far: $687M.
8/ Now let’s look at Doral, Trump’s golf resort in Miami. It has 2 mortgages against it, totaling $125M. Both mature in 2023 and have variable interest rates. You can see the first pages of the mortgages, with the amounts circled, here. Total debt accounted for so far: $812M
9/ There’s also a loan against the DC hotel. The mortgage, which you can see below, lists it at $170M. The NYT reports that the balance is $160M. Trump may have paid down some principal here. We’ll use the NYT figure for our tally. Total debt accounted for so far: $972M.
10/ In New York, Trump owes a combined of $20M against a two smaller properties, Trump Plaza ($13.2M) and Trump International Hotel & Tower ($6.5M). Total debt accounted for so far: $992M
11/ At Trump Park Ave, where Ivanka and Jared used to live (in a condo owned by Donald), there’s another loan, which was at $15.3M in 2010, according to the doc below. Trump has been paying that one down. Probably closer to $10M now. Total debt accounted for so far: $1 billion.
12/ In Chicago, Trump lists two loans on his financial disclosure report. One for $25-50M and one for $50M+. These are complex liabilities that I won’t go too much into right now, but that’s another $75M+ in debt. Total debt accounted for so far: $1.1 billion.
13/ Trump has other small loans against a golf club in DC, one in New Jersey and a couple of mansions. Those add up to about another $35M or so in additional debt. The total accounted for still rounds to $1.1 billion. A lot of that, as the NYT story says, is coming due soon.
14/ Going to to take a break to write a story. I’ll be back when I’m done, with a LOT more to say about this great reporting from the New York Times.
Originally tweeted by Dan Alexander (@DanAlexander21) on September 27, 2020.
By the way —