Donald Trump Cut Deals with Banks and Pulled Cash Out of Casinos to Weather Credit Crisis in the 1990s

Hmm, sounds like real world experience, something the current occupant of the White House sorely lacks.

At WSJ, "Trump and His Debts: A Narrow Escape":

On Labor Day weekend in 1990, as Donald Trump faced the worst crisis of his career, he and Wilbur Ross Jr. headed to Atlantic City, N.J., for talks at Mr. Trump’s opulent Taj Mahal casino, which had just opened but was already on the verge of missing a bond payment.

Mr. Ross, as an expert on distressed assets, represented bondholders. Mr. Trump brought him to the seaside town for talks, in a helicopter bearing the name “Trump” in giant red letters.

“The bondholders were obviously quite angry,” Mr. Ross says. “Their initial inclination was to throw the rascal out.”

The chopper landed on a helipad near the boardwalk. Instantly, people swarmed around a waiting car, thinking Mr. Trump was in it. “They were shoving video cameras at it…It was amazing the adulation he got from the crowd,” Mr. Ross recalls.

“It changed my whole opinion. That memory stuck with me and got me to the conclusion that the Taj Mahal stripped of Trump the individual would likely be a lot less successful than the Trump Taj Mahal with Donald.”

In 1990, Mr. Trump, though known publicly as financially savvy and very rich, was in deep financial trouble. He and his companies owed $3.4 billion and couldn’t make the payments. That posed the risk of lenders seizing his hotels, casinos and other assets.

Worse, $830 million of the debt carried his personal guarantee. Creditors, if they wanted, could force him into personal bankruptcy.

He survived. Today he is a billionaire, who cites his wealth and success as a reason that, as president, he could make America “great again.” Mr. Trump has no government record to weigh. One way to gauge the kind of president he might be is to examine his business career, and particularly how he dealt with its biggest crisis...

It's fascinating.

Keep reading.