[quote=Nickolai]It was common knowledge his life style was lavish and he needed a lot of cash, Real estate carries a lot of debt and doesn't generate a lot of cash. Therefore he needed to publish books, run a scam university, do a reality TV show, to generate cash to pay for his lavish life style. Just think of the cost of servicing his big jet airplane. The one with his name in big letters on the side and having a pilot and co pilot on stand by to fly him where ever he wanted to go. The cost of that alone would far exceed the cost of my lifestyle.
In 1990, Donald Trump’s empire and image were imploding. Running short on cash and having already missed a bond payment to the backers of his Trump Castle casino in Atlantic City, Trump was on the precipice of bankruptcy. If he defaulted on the loan, banks would swoop in, seize his prized properties, and sell them off to get their money back.
But those banks offered Trump a lifeline. They agreed to loan him more money so he could keep making payments on his various debts—under a few conditions. “The banks will name two executives to run the Trump empire, bar him from moving money among his companies without the banks’ permission, and limit him to a $450,000 allowance for ‘personal and household spending,'” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The Associated Press and other news outlets called the allowance “stringent.” But Wayne Barrett, the longtime Village Voice reporter, showed how ridiculous the sum actually was in his book, Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth. “The absurdity of his personal allotment—more than the salary of the chairman of the principal bank backing the deal, Citibank, and tallying $14,516 a day—baffled even real billionaires. ‘I have no idea how to spend $450,000 a month,’ said an anonymous one to the [New York Times.'”[/quote]
When the money gets into the kind of numbers you're referring to, bankers are very pragmatic.
If they believe there is too much (exposure) risk attached to debt management (as opposed to foreclosure), they'll go for a "bird in the hand."
Evidently, this was not the case with Trump -- they were shrewd enough to more or less invest in the man rather than hobble him by foreclosing on his properties, because, I would venture to guess, they're obviously much better judges of character and ability than you are.