Many would-be presidents would love to be associated with Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman. But not this way.
Unlike Lincoln and Truman, Trump is becoming famous for not honoring his financial obligations. The Washington Post has reported that Trump has the cruel habit of saying profits from a certain venture—Trump: The Game, Trump Vodka, Trump University and his book “Crippled America”—will go to charity and then, instead, keeping virtually all the money for himself. Politico said such false advertising might make Trump guilty of deceptive business practices or fraud. The New York Times reported that Trump rolled some of his personal debt into his publicly traded casinos, which is anything but business as usual.
While Trump was paying himself millions a year, his casinos stiffed many small vendors, driving some into bankruptcy. Trump says he used the bankruptcy laws “brilliantly.” According to Timothy O’Brien, author of TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, Trump is a “huckster” who always grabs for every dollar he can. He is the consummate chiseler, a man who hasn’t given a nickel to his personal foundation since 2008.
Would-be presidents don’t always behave this way.
Lincoln and Truman were also businessmen. In 1833, Lincoln borrowed money to purchase a general store in New Salem, Illinois with his partner William Berry. The store failed quickly, leaving Lincoln with considerable debts. He vowed to pay back every penny.
In 1835, Berry died, with most of his debts still outstanding. Lincoln was not legally obligated to pay off Berry’s debt, but he did so anyway. It took years and he jokingly referred to his obligation as his “national debt.”
Trump, the self-proclaimed “king of debt” who thinks it would be fine for the nation to default on its debt just as he has on his commitments, might forgive Lincoln for suspending habeas corpus but he would never excuse him for “overpaying” creditors.
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The Truman & Jacobson men’s furnishings store went bust in 1922. Truman and his partner Eddie Jacobson decided they would not declare bankruptcy to avoid paying the $35,000 they owed. After three years of hard times, Jacobson gave up and filed for bankruptcy. But Truman soldiered on. In Truman, David McCullough writes: “Fifteen years after the store went under, Harry would still be paying off on the haberdashery, and as a consequence would be strapped for money for twenty years.”
Oh, Harry. Oh, Abe. What were you thinking? Why such honorable behavior?
If Donald Trump had behaved the same way, he might be headed to the White House rather than, presumably, the ash heap of history. Can you imagine what voters would think of Trump if, when his casinos filed for bankruptcy, he had paid every small creditor 100 cents on the dollar out of his own pocket? Whether the total was $5 million or $50 million, it was still, supposedly, chump change to Trump. And it would have been the best advertising buy in history. It would have made Trump a legend in both business and politics.
But doing so would have made Trump a loser or sucker in his own eyes. A loser like Lincoln. A sucker like Truman.
The need to always to be a winner, and make sure the other guy is the loser, will, paradoxically, probably stop Trump from winning the White House.
Andrew Feinberg is the author of Four Score and Seven (https://www.amazon.com/Four-Score-Seven-Andrew-Feinberg/dp/0692664009), a novel that imagines that Abe Lincoln comes back to life for two weeks during the 2016 campaign and encounters a candidate who, some say, resembles Donald Trump. He also writes a daily anti-Trump humor page at https://www.facebook.com/MeBabyDonDon.