Trump's brand is 'stagnant' as his businesses continue to lose money: report

Aside from an initial burst of enthusiasm for his still-to-launched "TRUTH SOCIAL" media platform -- whose stock is already dropping -- NPR reports that Donald Trump is still bleeding cash and that the Trump brand remains too toxic to create any substantial cashflow for the former president.

As the report notes, Trump's worth -- which plummeted to the point where Forbes dropped him from their list of the 400 wealthiest -- is tied up in buildings that are struggling to find tenants, with the former president filling empty storefronts in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan with shops hawking merchandise promoting his one term in office.

According to NPR's Andrea Bernstein, "Trump Tower embodies the contradictions of Donald Trump's business, post-presidency. There's a cache to sell, but also, an extremely polarizing brand," adding, "Donald Trump did not put his name back on many company documents after his presidency; [CFO Allen] Weisselberg, who was indicted for 15 felonies, removed his own name from some corporate documents; only Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump's names remain on many management filings."

According to the piece, based upon a report from Forbes, Trump is being pulled down because he is "heavily tied up in businesses such as office rentals and retail that are struggling post-pandemic," with one Forbes analyst saying the former president would be $4.5 billion richer today had he been smart and sold off his properties when he first became president and invested the money.

Add to that, "Trump's problems extend beyond New York City. In the years before he became president, Trump went on a spree of buying up golf resorts. Though golfing spiked in popularity as a result of the pandemic, Trump resorts from Doral, Fla., to Doonbeg, Ireland, have faced a loss of conference and tourism clientele. Trump's brand licensing business is largely stagnant. His hotel in Washington lost $74 million while he was president, Congress recently reported."

One customer who recently ventured into a Trump property and then admitted that she never would have set foot in it had she known.

"Gail Norwood, a retiree from Alabama who had just shopped with her granddaughter at the Gucci store which rents ground floor retail space on Fifth Avenue, refused to go into the main building," Bernstein reported.

"I won't enter the floors. I will not even walk on the ground. I feel that strongly," Norwood said adding that she was unaware the Gucci store she patronized with her daughter was located in a Trump property. "I did not know that. I might've waited out here and sent her in."

You can read more here.