You state with certainty that “Trump was worth less than $5 million,” but also had an “inheritance above and beyond a trust fund.”

Well…which is it? You claim he is lying, but also claim he had more money when it convenient, and less money when it also is convenient for whichever story you want to tell.

He obviously has plenty of money which he got without his dad’s help.

If your dad gave you $5,000, have you turned it into $3 million? Because Donald did. Except on a bigger scale.

So let’s get this straight. We are supposed to think less of Trump based on the millions or billions in his net worth, most of it self-created over a lifetime.

On the other hand, we are not supposed to notice that the last president never held a significant job in the productive world – leaving aside the communist agitator (sorry, “community organizer”) and don’t-worry-about-showing-up ‘just vote present’ state legislator gigs.

Got it.

Tax returns are not balance sheets.

Great. So you understand why PrivCo’s research on the Trump Organization’s employment and revenue streams is not dispositive.

As you can see for yourself, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission had access to Trump’s assets and liabilities.

Long/short: “Trump was worth less than $5 million”

Are you making the point that we should be giving Donald even more respect for business strategy than he gets now?

Tax returns are not balance sheets.

“He” is playing thimblerig with his readers. Fred Trump developed residential properties and avoided Manhattan. His son develops commercial real estate and resorts.

Sure, Trump had a nest egg to start. But he was anything but coddled by his father. Read a biography of him such as this one, written by a relatively fair although non-flattering non-fan.

a journalist who has no basis to make that claim independently of research conducted by other staff at Forbes for over 30 years,

He cites Fred Trump’s will; “the father retained legal ownership of his residential empire until his death in 1999.” Without these properties, Donald Trump would only be worth 7-figures during those years.

He also cites “a 1981 report from the New Jersey Casino Control Commission” who had access to his tax returns and debt:

Trump’s personal assets consisted of a $1 million trust fund that Fred Trump provided to each of his children and grandchildren, a few checking accounts with about $400,000 in them and a 1977 Mercedes 450SL.

He’s just a daddy’s boy pretending to be a real man.