Receipt for Trump Millionaire seminar
In 2006, after a layoff, I decided to investigate Real Estate with my son, who had been selling mortgages but wasn’t doing well at it. We went to several Real Estate seminars, one of which was headlined by Donald J. Trump.
I remember 3 things from Trump’s presentation at this “One Weekend Can Make You a Millionaire” Seminar. One was a statement that if you ask an accountant who is any good how much a property or project is worth, he will reply, “How much do you want it to be worth?”. That is how Trump can say he is worth $10 Billion.
The thing I found most interesting about the seminar was Trump’s account of how his first bankruptcy felt. He recalled being asked for money by a panhandler, and thinking how that guy was worth $700 Million more than he was at the time. But mostly, that bankruptcy is a valuable business tool if you run out of money, not to be afraid of it or put it off, as it lets you pass your losses on to others who can maybe afford it, and to keep your operations and your other projects going as long as you have your deals structured correctly.
But the most memorable thing I remember was the lawyer. It was standard at these real estate seminars to have a lawyer there selling corporation services, which are needed in the real estate business. Usually, they highlight setting up Nevada corporations, or sometimes Wyoming or another state. The one at Trump’s seminar was a little different. Trump ended his spiel by telling the audience that the next presentation was by a Lawyer who had saved him a lot of money by helping him to structure his deals properly, and we really ought to sign up for his program, all of these are great programs but you especially need this one. Trump then turned the floor over to “his lawyer” for a presentation that mostly focused on the virtues of hiding your money using Cayman Islands accounts and transactions.
Did I mention that at these seminars, the presenters and seminar operator get paid mainly by the sales spurred by the presenters, and Trump was the only presenter I remember at any of these seminars who wasn’t directly selling anything? So I suppose it is possible Trump just endorsed the guy to make some money. But what he told the hundreds of people there was that this Lawyer, with his Cayman Islands accounts, was a key part of how Trump accumulates his money.
