Category Archives: US

US

Trump business revenues plunged during pandemic, final disclosure reveals

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Former President Donald Trump’s business empire lost significant revenue during the pandemic, as the virus and the failed response to it cost his own interests money, according to a financial disclosure document released after he left office Wednesday.

Most of his core golf and hotel properties saw steep declines as the virus and lockdown restrictions kept consumers home and suspended discretionary travel.

Compared to his disclosure from the year prior, revenues at the Trump National Doral Miami golf course in Florida declined from $77 million to $44 million. Trump’s Turnberry golf club in Scotland saw revenues fall from $25 million to just under $10 million.

Revenues also declined from $40.5 million to $15 million at Trump’s hotel at the leased Old Post Office location in Washington, D.C.

Total revenue fell at the Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago hotel-condo last year, with hotel management fees tumbling from nearly $2 million to about half a million, and condo management fees rising slightly.

Business increased in some red state locations, such as his golf club in Charlotte, North Carolina, where revenues rose from $12 million to $13 million. Revenues at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida and new residence, rose $3 million.

But overall, the net impact was negative, with Trump’s declared revenue falling from a reported $445 million to $278 million.

The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment.

The documents detail the buying and selling of various bonds and exchange traded funds during 2020 as the S&P 500 index gyrated from 2,800 points at the beginning of the year, fell nearly 20 percent as the virus lockdowns and layoffs hit, then recovered to around 3,700 on Jan. 15, the day Trump signed the document.

The disclosure shows active loans at several banks, some of which, including Deutsche and Professional, have sworn off doing future business with Trump.

The documents show one financial institution, Investors Savings Bank, extending for one year the term of a loan set to expire in 2020 — at a slightly higher interest rate. The mortgage was for between $5 million and $25 million for Trump Park Avenue. The bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The document is a 79-page final glimpse of Trump’s reported finances as he returns to life as a private citizen and grapples with how to capitalize on his altered brand, post-presidency.

It also provides details about several gifts Trump and his family accepted last year. They include a $25,000 “bronze statue depicting flag raising over Iwo Jima” from a Denver-based veterans association, a Mac Pro from Apple CEO Tim Cook, and a $500 customized golf club from Dennis Muilenburg, the disgraced former CEO of Boeing.

Ben Popken

Ben Popken is a senior business reporter for NBC News.



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Winston Churchill bust and the White House

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Overheated, confusing and laden in the end with blatant racism, the case of the White House bust of Winston Churchill still persists.

An Oval Office redesign brought in new busts instead: Latino civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt.

In another era, the same decision caused outcry. American conservatives and even some British politicians declared it a major snub.

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, said it was because President Barack Obama “probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, claimed the decoration decision “foreshadowed everything that was to come the next six years.”

Boris Johnson, who was then mayor of London and is now prime minister, went furthest. He blamed the swap on the “part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire.”

The attacks were blatantly racist and also misleading. Obama officials were infuriated.

There are actually two identical Churchill busts, both by the British modernist sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein. One has been in the White House collection since Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. Another was lent by Prime Minister Tony Blair to the George W. Bush White House when the other one was being restored.

The one from Blair sat on display in the Oval Office until Bush departed. It was returned to the British government.

Under Obama, the White House-owned version was not displayed in the Oval Office; instead, Obama kept it outside the Treaty Room in the Residence, where he walked past it when he wanted to watch basketball on the weekends and evenings. He chose to put it there so he would see it during his personal time. He had a bust of King in the office.

He addressed the situation during his final year in office.

“I love the guy,” he said during a visit to London, adding later: “There are only so many tables where you can put busts. Otherwise, it starts looking a little cluttered.”

When Trump arrived, he returned Churchill to the Oval Office, much to the (proclaimed) pleasure of the Brits. Then-Prime Minister Theresa May, who was Trump’s first foreign visitor to the Oval Office, came armed with the UK version of the bust to present to Trump. Officials said the Trump team had requested it.

“We were very pleased that you accepted it back,” May told him.

Now, the bust is gone again. But Johnson, who is now Prime Minister and is hoping to cement strong ties with the new administration, does not appear to have the same reaction.

“The Oval Office is the President’s private office, and it’s up to the President to decorate it as he wishes,” a Downing Street spokesman said on Thursday. “We’re in no doubt about the importance President Biden places on the UK-US relationship, and the Prime Minister looks forward to having that close relationship with him.”

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Facebook’s oversight board will decide whether Trump should be banned

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Facebook (FB) has referred its previous decision to suspend former President Donald Trump’s posting privileges to its independent Oversight Board for review, the company said in a blog post Thursday.

Facebook said it wants the Oversight Board’s binding ruling on the matter given its significance.

“We think it is important for the board to review it and reach an independent judgment on whether it should be upheld,” wrote Facebook VP of global affairs Nick Clegg. “While we await the board’s decision, Mr. Trump’s access will remain suspended indefinitely.”

John Taylor, a Facebook Oversight Board spokesman, told CNN Business that, under its framework, the board will have 90 days to review the decision but “we expect to act more quickly than that.”

Facebook and Instagram banned Trump’s account from posting for at least the remainder of his term in office and perhaps “indefinitely” after his supporters stormed the US Capitol building to protest the election. Twitter, Trump’s preferred social media platform, banned him permanently.

In a blog post, the Oversight Board said Trump or his page administrators will be able to submit their feedback on the Facebook decision to the board as it contemplates whether to uphold or overturn Facebook’s decision.

“The Oversight Board launched in late 2020 to address exactly the sort of highly consequential issues raised by this case,” the board said. “The Board was created to provide a critical independent check on Facebook’s approach to the most challenging content issues, which have enormous implications for global human rights and free expression.”

Jamal Greene, a co-chair of the Oversight Board, told CNN Business that the case will be viewed and decided through three main lenses: whether Trump’s content truly violated Facebook’s own platform policies; whether Facebook’s decision is consistent with its own stated values; and whether Trump’s suspension largely aligns with — or undercuts — international human rights principles.

It will be the oversight board’s most high-profile and consequential case so far. The board, which was created to serve as a kind of Supreme Court for appealing and evaluating Facebook’s content moderation decisions, only started taking cases in the fall.

Kate Klonick, an assistant law professor at St. John’s University who studies technology and online speech, predicted many will view the case as Facebook’s “Marbury v. Madison moment,” referring to the pivotal US Supreme Court case that established the judicial system’s role in reviewing laws and government actions.

“The Board can establish its seriousness and jurisdiction/power over FB,” she tweeted. “That could be good for the Board but it also means that it’s very risky for establishing legitimacy, esp. so early in its history.”

Given social media platforms’ tendency to play follow-the-leader on consequential content enforcement decisions, the Oversight Board’s ruling could have vast ramifications, according to Evelyn Douek, a lecturer at Harvard University Law School.

“There is no greater question in content moderation right now than whether Trump’s deplatforming represents the start of a new era in how companies police their platforms,” she wrote in a blog post. “The past few weeks have also shown that what one platform does can ripple across the internet. … For all these reasons, the board’s decision on Trump’s case could affect far more than one Facebook page.”



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Border wall: Defense Department slams brakes on project as it reviews Biden order

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The Army Corps of Engineers, which provides direction and oversight of border projects, “will take the appropriate actions in accordance with the (executive order),” said Raini Brunson, a spokesperson for the agency.

Activity may still continue at sites over the next few days to make sure they stay safe, an administration official told CNN.

Biden took an immediate shot at one of his predecessor’s key legacies Wednesday evening when he signed a proclamation calling for border wall construction to come to an end.

“It shall be the policy of my Administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall,” Biden’s proclamation reads.

Over the last four years, billions of dollars had been put aside for additional barriers on the US-Mexico border, prompting a slew of lawsuits and pushback from environmentalists and Democratic lawmakers. Days from the end of his term, former President Donald Trump paid the wall a visit, citing it as an accomplishment of his administration.

The majority of the roughly 455 miles constructed during Trump’s presidency replaced old, dilapidated barriers with a new enhanced wall system, a marked difference from the fencing previously constructed in some regions. Forty-nine miles have gone up where no barriers previously existed, according to the latest figures from US Customs and Border Protection.

“(Wednesday’s) proclamation will likely result in what’s called a suspension of work on the border wall,” said Travis Sharp, a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “During the suspension of work, the contractor must keep track of any additional expenses caused by the delay, so that the government can potentially reimburse those expenses later.”

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Anti-government protesters in Portland smash windows, vandalize buildings

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Anti-government protesters smashed windows at Oregon’s Democratic Party headquarters in Portland after gathering for an Inauguration Day rally. 

A group of about 150 people marched to the Democratic Party headquarters on Wednesday afternoon as part of one of four protests taking place in the city.

Although the Portland Police Bureau said two of the protests remained “largely peaceful,” the other two “resulted in property damage and arrests.” Police reported that some of the demonstrators smashed windows and vandalized the Democratic headquarters building, leading officers to make “selective arrests.”

Portland Police Sgt. Kevin Allen said in a recorded video that eight individuals were arrested, with charges including felony mischief, possession of a destructive device and rioting.

Police recovered several weapons during the protest, including Molotov cocktails, knives, batons, chemical spray and a crowbar.

The crowd was dressed in all black, with several in helmets and body armor, while police officers wore riot gear, the Los Angeles Times reported. The newspaper described the protesters’ political views as “hard to pin down,” noting that they were self-described anarchists and had a banner that said, “We are ungovernable.”

While marching, the anarchists held a banner reading “We don’t want Biden — we want revenge,” referring to President Biden, who was sworn in hours earlier, as well as police killings of citizens. They also chanted “Black Lives Matter,” even though local leaders of the group said they did not want to be associated with the demonstrations. 

Protesters surrounded a man with umbrellas to prevent him from being recognized as he spray painted the building with anti-Biden slogans and drew anarchist symbol on windows and walls, according to the newspaper.

The demonstrators also tipped over garbage containers and lit one of them on fire, The New York Times reported.

A group of 150 people also descended on the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offices at 9 p.m., with police saying some had pepper ball guns, electronic control weapons similar to Tasers, shields and rocks, which were thrown at the building.

Portland police said that federal law enforcement worked to disperse that crowd. ICE did not immediately return a request for comment.

The New York Times reported that federal authorities used tear gas and pepper balls to regulate the crowd. 

“As always, we appreciate those who made your voices heard without resorting to criminal activity. We respect the rights of free speech and assembly,” Allen said in a video statement. “Going forward, we will monitor any future events where we have reason to think criminal activity will take place, without regard to the political perspective of those in the gathering.”

The Democratic Party of Oregon said in a statement it was “frustrated and disappointed” by the damage at its headquarters.

“We’re thankful that none of our staff were in the building at the time,” the party said. “This is not the first time our building has been vandalized during the past year — none of the prior incidents have deterred us from our important work to elect Democrats up and down the ballot, and this one will be no different.”

A protest of about 150 people also broke out in Seattle, with some demonstrators smashing windows and spray-painting anarchist symbols, including at a federal courthouse, according to The New York Times. The crowd chanted both anti-Trump and anti-Biden slogans, and a flyer distributed at the protests said, “A Democratic administration is not a victory for oppressed people.”

Portland endured more than 100 nights of consecutive protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. The demonstrations have become less frequent in recent weeks.



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