Why I published misleading information from Trump

Michael Cohen showed in great detail Wednesday how Donald Trump inflated his wealth for the media and his lenders and reduced it when it was to his advantage to pay less taxes. Missouri Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr. cited a 2017 Crain’s story reporting that the Trump Organization had submitted misleading information on its revenues to Crain’s since 2010.

I have a correction to make as the person who was the editor of Crain's New York Business from 1986 to 2009 (and a contributor since then). I knew back in the early 2000s that the information was false. Read to the end to find out why I kept publishing it.

In February 1990 the Donald's marriage to Ivana suddenly came apart amid accusations of infidelity. A bitter squabble played out in public over a prenuptial agreement in which Trump had promised Ivana the house they owned in Greenwich, custody of their three children and $20 million. Ivana wanted the money and Trump didn't want to pay it.

The question was, why not? Was it just bitterness about the way the marriage was ending, even though it was his affair with Marla Maples that was the tipping point for Ivana? Or was it that he didn't have the money?

It seemed absurd that he couldn't find $20 million. The first New York Times story about the breakup estimated Trump's net worth at between $1.7 billion and $4 billion, with $1.7 billion being Forbes' 1989 estimate. BusinessWeek had guessed $3 billion a few years before. Trump played a big part in shaping those assertions.

Trump and Ivana were the biggest story of the year. Tabloid sales soared and WNBC's ratings for its 5 p.m. newscast jumped by 50% because it featured the News' Liz Smith, who was breaking "scoops" daily from Ivana, while the New York Post's Cindy Adams did the same from the Donald.

So I was invited by Geraldo Rivera to be the "financial expert" on an hourlong show on the divorce. The program included none other than the famed psychologist Joyce Brothers, celebrity divorce lawyer Raoul Felder and five or six other people I can't remember. I prepared by re-reading the coverage and talked to one or two people. On the show I confidently declared, "Of course Donald can afford the $20 million."

Then I walked out of the studio with Felder. "You know a lot more about this stuff than I do," he said. "But I don't think he has the money."

Only weeks later, Trump's financial empire began to crumble. In May, Forbes retracted its previous estimate, having unearthed nonpublic documents that suggested a cash squeeze for the no-longer billionaire.

Felder was right and I was wrong. Donald Trump could not be trusted.

However, privately held companies are not required to disclose their revenues. The privately held companies list was (and is) one of the most popular publications by Crain’s and other regional business publications. We didn’t have the resources to research all 200 or so companies we ranked, nor the legal authority to audit them in any event. We hoped companies would be deterred from providing inflated numbers because it would get them in trouble with their bankers or suppliers or customers (which sometimes did happen). And we told readers the numbers were volunteered by the companies.

I will say this for Trump: He has made me wonder whether I made the right decision to keep publishing the list. Of course, he has forced all of us to rethink many of our beliefs.

Source: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/greg-david-new-york/why-i-published-misleading-information-trump