As we’ve all come to learn, there are two kinds of evil billionaires. There is the Peter Thiel-type, who patiently and discreetly manipulates the legal system over many years in order to exact ice-cold and targeted revenge on his most despised enemies. The other sort, exemplified by President-For-Life-In-Waiting Donald Trump, lives his life in a maelstrom of litigiousness: suing and getting sued by just about everyone he meets. For Trump, lawsuits are not a secret weapon, they are a lifestyle.
Yesterday, USA TODAY published an impressive analysis of legal filings across the United States finding that Trump and his businesses have been involved in at least 3,500 lawsuits during the past three decades. Perhaps unnecessarily, USA TODAY notes that “[t]he sheer volume of lawsuits is unprecedented for a presidential nominee.” Among the report’s findings:
• The New York State Department of Finance has obtained liens on Trump properties for unpaid tax bills at least three dozen times;
• About 1,600 of the court cases involved lawsuits against alleged deadbeat gamblers at Trump casinos; and
• Trump and his enterprises have been named in almost 700 personal-injury claims.
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Trump’s GC has made two claims about his organization’s involvement in litigation: 1) it’s all simply “a cost of doing of business” and 2) “we have far less litigation of companies of our size.” This week’s report lays waste to both notions:
USA TODAY analyzed the legal involvement for five top real-estate business executives: Edward DeBartolo, shopping-center developer and former San Francisco 49ers owner; Donald Bren, Irvine Company chairman and owner; Stephen Ross, Time Warner Center developer; Sam Zell, Chicago real-estate magnate; and Larry Silverstein, a New York developer famous for his involvement in the World Trade Center properties.
To maintain an apples-to-apples comparison, only actions that used the developers’ names were included. The analysis found Trump has been involved in more legal skirmishes than all five of the others — combined.
Oh, but then of course:
