About The "Great People" Trump Hires

Trump isn't ever going to build a wall. He's not even a builder; he's a wheeler-dealer and a marketing man. When Trump repeats, ad nauseum, how he'll hire the greatest and most competent people, there is a record to go back and look at-- not just the serial bankruptcies, but also the hundreds of law suits he's been involved in for hiring incompetent and dishonest characters in every company he's ever run, from the farce that was called Trump University to the luxury towers he's built in Florida and Panama. We'll come back to Florida in a minute but let's look at NPR's report about Trump's "great people" (by which he must mean "vicious predators") in his Panama City boondoggle:

The directors of the Trump Ocean Club met July 28 on urgent business. They needed to fire Donald Trump.

The building’s residents and condo owners had invested in the namesake, a 70-story waterfront tower along Panama Bay, on the strength of Trump’s reputation. But during the four years that Trump Panama Condominium Management LLC had managed the property, Central America’s largest building, a team installed by the Trump family was accused of running up more than $2 million in unauthorized debts, paying its executives undisclosed bonuses and withholding basic financial information from owners, according to an Associated Press examination.

The Trumps had done all of this through fine-print chicanery, the board said. A clause in many residents’ purchase agreements prevented them from voting against the Trump company’s wishes. That allowed the Trumps to install their top employee as chairman and the residents’ representative on the board-- even though the Trumps’ actual stake in the building’s residential area was merely a storage closet on the 15th floor.

...Whether wheeling and dealing with Wall Street bankers, debating political rivals or running a condo association, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has advanced his interests by leveraging his outsized reputation, canniness and aggression. The Trump Organization’s adventures in Panama provide a window into how these traits have filtered into his business empire-- and the style of management that could be expected in a Trump White House. Transparency and close attention to expenses are not strengths. Squeezing the most from contractual language is.

Not too far from the tree: On Fox and Friends this morning, Trump's son Eric told viewers that "The one thing about my father-- and I see this every day in our business-- he picks incredible people. I think he would have the greatest cabinet in the history of cabinets. He would get people from the private sector; he'd get the best of every respective industry... He picks unbelievable people. His whole cabinet would be the best; they be the brightest. They would be the doers. They'd be practical people. He picks amazing people and they really run very hard for him."

Wherever you go that has seen a Trump project, you will always find that he hires the shoddiest and most untrustworthy people-- not "the greatest people" he's always claiming. Just ask the people who were sucked by the Trump name into buying in the luxury condominium complex, Trump Hollywood Tower at 2711 So. Ocean Drive in Hollywood, Florida and at the Villa Largo complex in Boynton Beach. As usual, law suits have been raging for years, many caused by Trump hiring Patrick Murphy's shady company, Coastal Construction of South Florida, which installed the cheapest and most dangerous drywall from China.

After moving into the condominiums, the Villa Largo homeowners noticed noxious odors, corrosion of pipes and wiring and experienced television and computer failures, according to the suit.

Through investigation and testing, the plaintiffs discovered that the drywall used in their homes was manufactured in China and emits several sulfur compounds known to cause the problems the homeowners experienced, according to a 2009 U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission report cited in the complaint.

“Not only did we think this is an appropriate amount given RCR's liability, there was also a risk that the insurance carrier may not have to put in any money at all,” Mason said. “We have the participation of RCR's insurance carrier, which is critical to getting this done.”

As part of the proposed settlement, the $4.8 million will be given to the plaintiffs as part of a distribution plan to be submitted at the completion of the case. An unspecified amount of attorneys' fees and expenses, not exceeding one-third of the total settlement amount, will also come from the fund.

No one in their right mind thinks Patrick Murphy-- recently found to be among the least effective members of Congress-- is "among the "greatest people," except maybe Donald Trump, a disreputable pack of Wall Street banksters and, of course, fellow New York scam artist Chuck Schumer. Imagine Murphy in a Trumpish cabinet!