Trump’s Embarrassing $3.1M Business Failure Revealed

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For the sixth year in a row, Trump Turnberry — the Trump Organization’s golf resort in Scotland — has reported a loss. This time around, according to filings with Scottish authorities that cover the entirety of the 2019 calendar year, Trump Turnberry lost some £2.3 million via issues like depreciation, amoritisation costs, and ongoing capital expenditures, The Scotsman reports. In U.S. dollars, Trump Turnberry’s 2019 losses amount to about $3.145 million — and these numbers, The Scotsman notes, don’t even cover the period of time in which the global COVID-19 pandemic seriously undercut the hospitality industry around the world.

Since Trump assumed ownership of the Turnberry property in 2014, the property’s losses have ballooned to a total of nearly £45 million, which translates to almost $61.528 million in U.S. dollars. Around the same time as the latest dismal financial report covering Trump’s Turnberry property, Trump’s other Scottish resort, which is situated in Aberdeenshire, also reported major losses of £1.1 million, which is about $1.5 million in U.S. dollars. Trump’s Aberdeenshire property has now been reporting losses for eight years in a row. Notably, Trump Turnberry’s losses did apparently shrink from 2018 to 2019 — the year-end reports covering 2018 indicated single-year losses of a whopping £10.77 million, or $14.7 million, for the property.

For 2019, £3.79 million — or $5.182 million — of gross losses stemmed from depreciation “caused by the transfer of assets classed as ‘under construction’ during Turnberry’s latest refurbishment,” The Scotsman reports. Remarkably, throughout Trump’s time as president, Trump Turnberry has raked in a whopping nearly £300,000 (or about $410,000) in U.S. government money from sources including the Secret Service along with the State and Defense Departments. Golf Recreation Scotland — the corporate entity under which Trump Turnberry operates — apparently owes some £113.4 million, or $155 million, to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust (its parent company), highlighting the close financial relationship of the outgoing president to these business operations. At no point during his presidency has Trump actually financially detached himself from his businesses.

The Trump Organization’s U.S. operations have been under scrutiny. New York state Attorney General Letitia James has been investigating the business’s apparent improper adjustments to valuations of its assets, which were meant to help the company get financial benefits like tax boons. For instance, James’s office has been targeting the company’s apparently grossly inflated valuation of a conservation easement on one of its N.Y. properties.