A "good businessman" is one who succeeds in making his business stable and profitable, and hopefully growing. But that cannot include all of the definition. A good businessman should be ethical and deal fairly with people, whether vendors, customers, employees or others.
Donald Trump probably doesn't meet the "good businessman" definition sheerly on the criterion of making money, since - as analysts have pointed out without rebuttal for more than a year - his inheritance invested in an index stock fund would have outperformed his actual income growth. (The big difference is that he would not have gotten as much ego satisfaction out of it.)
But here let's talk about what a risky character he is to get into business with. Especially if your business is smaller than his.
The stories have circulated all over the place, but last June USA Today scooped up many of them into a collection of 60 lawsuits, "along with hundreds of liens, judgments, and other government filings reviewed by the USA TODAY NETWORK, document people who have accused Trump and his businesses of failing to pay them for their work. Among them: a dishwasher in Florida. A glass company in New Jersey. A carpet company. A plumber. Painters. Forty-eight waiters. Dozens of bartenders and other hourly workers at his resorts and clubs, coast to coast. Real estate brokers who sold his properties. And, ironically, several law firms that once represented him in these suits and others."
These cases do not fall into one single pattern, rather running out over a broad range of activity which has in common a failure to pay people who are owed money.
There have been, over the last decade or so, a couple of dozen citations for minimum wage or overtime payment requirements. There have been upwards of 200 mechanic's liens filed against property on which they worked but were not paid. (At least one of these was in the $1 million range.)
USA Today reported, "On just one project, Trump’s Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, records released by the in 1990 show that at least 253 subcontractors weren’t paid in full or on time, including workers who installed walls, chandeliers and plumbing.
The actions in total paint a portrait of Trump’s sprawling organization frequently failing to pay small businesses and individuals, then sometimes tying them up in court and other negotiations for years. In some cases, the Trump teams financially overpower and outlast much smaller opponents, draining their resources. Some just give up the fight, or settle for less; some have ended up in bankruptcy or out of business altogether."
Here's another case that went even further: "One drapery factory owner, Larry Walters, told The Wall Street Journal that his company was hired to supply Trump's Las Vegas hotel eight years ago. But Walters said that the developer, Trump Ruffin, refused to pay when it demanded additional work that went beyond the original contract. Walters said that when he withheld some fabric, Trump Ruffin sued him and authorities burst into the factory and hauled the fabric away in trucks."
Trump hasn't denied such roughhouse - and obvious unfair - practices. The Wall Street Journal last spring reported him as saying "that he sometimes doesn't pay vendors and business owners if their work was merely satisfactory — 'an OK-to-bad job'."
Sounds from here like doing business with Donald Trump is a good way to lose a lot of money and maybe your business. (That's of a piece with why American banks have largely quit doing work with him.)
In my business I sell books, mostly for payment up front. Under some conditions, if I consider the buyer trustworthy, terms might vary. On some large orders, I've done half up-front and half on-delivery deals, and never got burned. But that requires at least a measure of trust. After reading about Trump's business history, I'd have to insist on full cash up front, no returns. He'd simply be too risky to do business with any other way.
Now picture him in charge of the federal budget.