This week, yet another Trump branded and managed hotel went bankrupt. Just four years ago, Trump (and his family) cut the ribbon on the 65-story Trump International Hotel & Tower Toronto. Most of the financing for it came from a Russian-born billionaire. And now, a bunch of middle-class investors who bought condos in the tower got screwed.
Trump is not the project’s developer or even an investor; one of his partners, a Russian-born billionaire who got rich in Ukraine’s steel industry, controls the firm that’s in default. The Trump Toronto is still a posh hotel, and even though nearly two thirds of the tower’s condo units remain unsold, they’re still upscale residences. Still, the saga of the property’s glittering rise and rapid fall is classic Trump, featuring a tsunami of litigation and bitterness, money with a Russian accent, and a financial wreck that probably won’t hit its namesake particularly hard.
Trump has vowed to run the country the way he runs his businesses, and Trump Toronto is yet another reminder that his businesses do not always run smoothly.
It is likely that after the bankrupt hotel is sold off, Trump’s name will be removed from it. Trump’s name has become a liability.
