Thread by @ProPublica

1/ We’ve been spending our afternoon going through @realDonaldTrump’s new financial disclosures. And we’ve noticed a few things…and plenty of things we’d like to know more about.

External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @OfficeGovEthics view original on Twitter

2/ Trump reported errors w/ last year’s disclosures, incl. undervaluing a loan from Bank of New York Mellon Trust. The loan, which was repaid last year, was actually worth between $1M and $5M, not $500K & $1M. We’ve asked @whitehouse & @Trump about it.

3/ All @realDonaldTrump’s assets are now held by his trust, which he owns and controls. As we’ve reported, Trump can pull $$ from it anytime, for any reason & without any immediate disclosure: propub.li/2rMcU9s

4/ Trump’s DC hotel reported $40M in revenue over last 12 months. That’s up from $19M listed on Trump’s previous disclosures, which spanned 16 months. There are no details about where revenue is from.
washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/…

5/ Trump Productions, which helped with The Apprentice and the lesser known dating show spin-off, Donald J. Trump Presents: The Ultimate Merger—had a good 12 months, reporting $2M in revenue, 2x what was listed last year.

6/ Golf Productions, a Trump company that promotes its golf business, didn’t report any revenue last year, but reported $270,000 this year. We don’t know where the revenue is from.

7/ Not all of Trump bizs are thriving. The amount of revenue listed from Trump’s new hotel brands, American IDEA & Scion: $26,667.

We looked into them last year & found lots of fizzled deals.
propub.li/2L8FGcC

8/ Comparing Trump’s previous disclosures to his new ones, we noticed that only two of Trump’s 15 golf courses list a substantial uptick in revenue: Trump Turnberry (Scotland) and Trump Doonbeg (Ireland).

Cc @Fahrenthold

9/ The Trump Organization’s in-house Realtor, T International Realty, reported almost $2.1 million in commissions--significantly less than listed last year.

Who’s paying isn’t disclosed.

10/ Then there are new businesses. One is T Retail LLC, an “online retail business; startup,” formed in May 2017. It reported $107K in sales.

It doesn’t name the actual sites. We’ve asked @Trump about it.

11/ There’s also Westminster Hotel Management LLC, a company that’s working w/ the Kushner-owned Westminster Hotel. It was formed in May 2017 & collected $20K in management fees.

@nytimes has written about it: nytimes.com/2018/03/10/bus…

12/ There’s also a clue about a new Kushner-Trump partnership in the works. SC Pier Village Management LLC was formed this past Dec. The Kushners have been in talks with the Trumps to manage a $200M Jersey Shore hotel called Pier Village: therealdeal.com/2018/03/11/kus…

13/ Trump’s disclosures also show he has created another new company: T Promotions LLC. It reported no revenue in 2017.

14/ @realDonaldTrump sold most of the stocks he had held in a Deutsche account and also took out millions he had held with a private equity firm, MidOcean Credit Opportunity Fund.

15/ Two small gifts to Trump were also reported, from pro golfers Kevin Streelman and Bryson DeChambeau: Golf clubs and bags worth $1,900.

16/ The biggest change for Melania, the First Lady: She collected between $100K and $1M in royalties for photos taken by Getty Images in 2017.

17/ Here’s the line showing @realDonaldTrump’s $100K+ reimbursement to Michael Cohen for @StormyDaniels:

Note the argument that they didn’t have to disclose the payment.

18/ The Office of Gov’t Ethics says 1. Trump *did* have to disclose Stormy payment 2. Should have done it last year. The ethics office has passed along those thoughts to… the DOJ.
nytimes.com/2018/05/16/us/…

19/ BTW, a word of warning for those going through the docs: The Trump Org has used revenue & profit interchangeably in the past, even though they’re...very different. propub.li/2L9Hr9c

20/ See anything interesting? Send us an email at [e-mail] or Signal: 347-244-2134. propub.li/2L6m8pf

21/ ADDENDUM TO TWEET #10 RE: T RETAIL LLC

So we looked into the mystery behind T Retail LLC, the “online retail business; startup” that popped up on @realDonaldTrump’s financial disclosure yesterday...and we found some clues.

22/ Turns out the company is registered in Delaware, Florida, New York, Louisiana, and Virginia. The last 4 states are where TrumpStore.com says it collects taxes. It sells $14 Trump deodorant and other Trump brand wearables.

23/ TrumpStore.com has been criticized for only collecting sales taxes in some states. It’s unclear why those four states are singled out for sales tax collection, but we’ve asked @Trump Org about it.

politico.com/story/2018/05/…

24/ We also have Qs about the 107K in income T Retail LLC reported. Records show TrumpStore.com was purchased by @Trump on Nov. 7, 2017. Which would mean it made $107K in just 2 months. Know something? Get in touch at [e-mail] propub.li/2L6m8pf