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 Mechanic was representing Gucci, and the luxury retailer was
already sold on opening a flagship store in what was unquestionably
a prime location. But the salesman in Trump still couldn't resist
pumping it up in his sales pitch. "He said it was the best retail
space, in the best retail building, on the best corner, in the best
city in the world," Mechanic recalled.
Mechanic still has a copy of Trump's book, "The Art of the Deal,"
which the billionaire inscribed during the visit: "To the greatest
real estate lawyer in the world, best wishes, Donald."
Anyone who has witnessed Trump's meteoric surge to the top of the
2016 Republican presidential field is familiar with that style of
Trump Talk - a mix of bullish optimism and hyperbole. It may in part
explain his rise in the polls. While his competitors gravely list
the country’s ills, Trump tells voters how fantastic everything is
going to be once he's president.
He has pledged to be "the greatest jobs president God ever created,"
to be "better on women's health issues" than Democratic frontrunner
Hillary Clinton, to seize Iran's oil reserves, to beat up on China
while making "them like us," to force Mexico to pay for a new
2,000-mile (3,219 km) wall along its border with the United States,
and to round up and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants.
But campaigning for the White House is different than hawking
commercial real estate. Trump's penchant for exaggeration could
backfire - he risks promising voters more than he can deliver.
Trump himself has recognized this risk, calling out in "The Art of
the Deal" former presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan for
overpromising. More recently, this week on Twitter, Trump referenced
former President George H.W. Bush's infamous "Read my lips: no new
taxes" pledge.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Trump indicated
he understood he would have to tone things down over the long haul
of the presidential campaign, saying he would have to be a "little
more selective" in the things he says.
Nevertheless, Trump's over-the-top style has its admirers.
For Vincent DeVito, a lawyer who has worked on Republican
presidential campaigns, Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great
Again," says it all.
DeVito said Trump was trying to address a feeling of malaise in the
country. He dismissed the idea that the billionaire was overhyping
his abilities.
Those trying to gauge how Trump's hyperbole could help or hurt his
chances of winning the White House could look at his business
record.
Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen said Trump’s record of success was
"proof positive of Mr. Trump’s character and capabilities."
'TRUTHFUL HYPERBOLE'
Optimistic exaggeration, which Trump called "truthful hyperbole" in
"The Art of the Deal," is a hallmark of the cutthroat New York real
estate world where many developers, accustomed to ramming their way
into deals, puff up their portfolios.
"A little hyperbole never hurts," he wrote. "People want to believe
that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most
spectacular ... It's an innocent form of exaggeration - and a very
effective form of promotion."
For Trump, exaggerating has always been a frequent impulse,
especially when the value of his Trump brand is disputed. In some
instances, braggadocio has served him well, in other cases it has
backfired.
In the early 1990s, when a recession swept away large portions of
his New York real estate empire, Trump fought with creditors and
their lawyers to hold on to his interest in properties like the
Plaza Hotel, financed by loans he'd had to personally guarantee.
In one boardroom packed with bankers and lawyers, according to three
people familiar with the scene, Trump tried to argue that his name -
which was attached to several buildings that lenders were
threatening to possess - was worth more than they were
acknowledging. Many multiples, he said.
A lawyer for one of the creditors shot back: The cash flow estimates
on the properties were demonstrably negative. So, many multiples of
a negative number would make a larger negative number, the three
sources recounted.
Ultimately, Trump's creditors eventually decided not to repossess
some of his properties because they weren't worth the costs
associated with the repossession, one of the sources said.
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"Every successful individual throughout history has had at one point
in their lives a downturn," Trump's lawyer Cohen said. "Mr. Trump's
was the result of a down market in real estate during the 1990s. The
true test of a man's capability is how he deals with that adversity
and where he is today."
Since the 1990s, some investors in Trump projects have complained
the developer overpromised investors on their potential returns.
Investors who bought junk bonds to help finance the Trump Castle
casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, filed a class action suit
accusing Trump and his company of misrepresenting its financial
health when the value of the bonds plummeted.
Trump denied any liability, arguing that the investors were fully
informed of the risk involved. The suit later settled for an
undisclosed sum.
More recently, pending suits by condo owners in the Trump Toronto
Hotel and retirees who spent thousands to attend courses offered by
the now-defunct Trump University accuse Trump and his business
partners of promising far more than they can deliver.
In the case of the Toronto property, investors in condos complained
they were given overly optimistic projections of what they could
earn and were not informed that they would have to pay commercial
taxes on the property. Trump University customers said in a suit
they were promised appearances and instruction by Trump but
encountered only a cardboard cutout of the real estate mogul during
weekend sessions on business success in a hotel ballroom. In both
cases, Reuters obtained and reviewed copies of the lawsuits and
subsequent court filings.
Trump and his lawyers have said the pending suit over Trump
University is baseless. His lawyer Alan Garten called it "totally
lacking in any merit." [ID: nL1N1031T2]
A judge dismissed Trump from liability in the Toronto suit, saying
it was his Canadian partners who had overestimated potential
earnings on the property and that Trump had merely licensed his
name, but lawyers for the plaintiffs say they plan to reintroduce
the claim in an appeal.
PRESIDENTIAL SETUP
Washington of course is no stranger to hyperbole.
President Barack Obama was criticized for telling voters they would
be able to keep their insurance plans intact under his healthcare
overhaul, Obamacare, when in fact they couldn't. And Republicans in
the House and Senate have yet to fulfill their promise to swiftly
repeal the very same healthcare legislation once they took control
of Congress, which they did in the 2014 midterm elections.
Anger over those failures is partly what’s driving Republican voters
toward Trump: In surveys, many respondents say they no longer trust
elected officials. But Trump's sweeping pledges could also be
setting him up for a fall.
Trump may be promising too much, said Michael Wissot, a Republican
strategist and lecturer at the University of Southern California.
"Convincing Mexico to pay for a fence along our border is
unrealistic," he said. "Deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants
is a logistical nightmare. These are examples of putting himself in
a very precarious position even if he were successful," he said.
Recently Trump has been talking up his similarities to Reagan. Both
were once Democrats. More important, both spent years in front of
the camera, honing their images.
But almost 30 years ago, Trump viewed Reagan with a more jaundiced
eye.
"He is so smooth and so effective a performer that he completely won
over the American people," Trump wrote of Reagan in "The Art of the
Deal." "Only now, nearly seven years later, are people beginning to
question whether there’s anything behind that smile."
(Reporting By Emily Flitter and James Oliphant; Additional reporting
by Alastair Sharp in Toronto, editing by Ross Colvin)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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