Only in the US can a spoilt billionaire who has repeatedly ripped off ordinary people become a folk hero. Here is a man who was found to have created a whole University to defraud people out of millions of dollars - which he admitted and paid out for. Here is a man who has avoided £400 million in tax over the last two decades - who doesn't pay his way in society. Here is a man who has bankrupted countless subsidiary companies yet still claims he is a business success. Here is a man who openly asks for violence against dissenting voices and journalists. Here is a man who runs for the Conservative party - which is all about the sanctity of marriage - while paying hush money to a prostitute he cheated on his wife with. Here is a man who claims if he likes a woman he can grab her by the pussy.
The list of things which make this guy deplorable is endless. Why on Earth are you backing him? All these things I list are facts. There is no arguing with them. Yet, what, your opinion of the inflated orange cookie monster - the guy who tried to bully a whole Scottish village so he could build a golf course - is that he is great?
My brain is melting.
This the introduction to Trumped. An epic David and Goliath tale of money, power and resistance. A small Scottish community battle Donald Trump’s dream to create the world’s greatest golf course in their backyard.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hb0prf
This episode 8 the Epilogue. Those in between detail the machinations of Trump.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hmls55
"FORMER US president Donald Trump, his companies, and some executives have been found to have fraudulently inflated the valuations of non-existent Scottish golf club properties by up to £200 million.
The Herald reports this was part of a scheme to dupe banks and to borrow more at lower rates.
It comes as it emerged the Aberdeen club’s operating company has run at a deficit since it opened in 2012 and has amassed total losses of more than £13 million in the ensuing 11 years.
A US judge found it had been wrongly stated that 2500 homes had already been built as part of a project associated with the loss-making Trump International Golf Club in Aberdeen.
There was planning permission to build only 500 and no development had taken place.
The Trump Organisation had been accused by New York Attorney General Letitia James of inflating prices by producing false financial statements that inflated Trump’s net worth.
The Attorney General said this was “particularly egregious in light of Trump’s decision to indefinitely postpone all development plans” after the Scottish Government approved nearby offshore wind farm plans.
Trump has recently been ordered to pay nearly $355m to New York state for lying about the values of his properties as part of “material fraudulent misstatements,” including those which relate to the housing development associated with the Trump International Golf Club in Aberdeen.
