'Lethal threat to his brand': Expert says Trump being kept up at night by one legal case
Former President Donald Trump is staring down the potential death of his name brand in the civil fraud case against him in New York, said The New York Times' Susanne Craig on MSNBC Friday.
Anchor Alicia Menendez opened the segment with a clip from Trump in a deposition, admitting that he sees his brand as central to his net worth.
"If I wanted to create a [financial] statement that was high, I would have put the brand on it," said Trump in the clip. "You look — I became president because of the brand. Okay? I became president. I think it's the hottest brand in the world. I think my brand value is probably my greatest asset, even though it gets tarnished by people like this suing me. Maybe it gets hotter."
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"Donald Trump tipping his hand as to why this case, more than almost any other — and he has a lot of cases to choose from — has gotten under his skin so badly. Why this case seems to be keeping him up at night," said Menendez. "That's because it's a lethal threat to his brand, a brand that as you just heard him say on the record, under oath, he believes got him elected. A truth bomb that is both poignant and potentially legally very powerful."
"I want to ask you about Donald Trump talking about how his brand helped get him elected," Menendez asked Craig. "Why is that important here?"
"Yeah," said Craig. "I have to say, you said something I think off the top, I think he's become a lethal threat to his brand. And I think it's really important to talk about his brand, because when you think about his brand, for years it was a consumer brand, and it was very valuable. I've seen a lot of studies of the Trump name went on a building, it would increase, you know, the price of the building... The hotels are really nice. That's how it was always measured. Experts say now when you think of the Trump brand, it's a political brand. That's not to say there's not worth in it, but once you go down that route, you've got detractors and it becomes something else."
"It was interesting just in some reporting I've been doing, I talked to somebody repeatedly who got a call from the Trump team saying, would you testify in this civil case for us?" said Craig. "And they wanted to have this individual talk about the consumer brand and the value of it. And the person declined because they are no longer tracking it as a consumer brand. So, I would argue for Donald Trump to talk about his brand now, there should be a reset about exactly what it's worth. It's not to say that it doesn't have value, but it is worth a lot less when he was a hot commodity coming out of 'The Apprentice' years in 2004, '05, '06 and '07."
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