Trump business blunder is costing him over $1 million a month: Forbes

As if Donald Trump doesn't have enough problems as he pays a phalanx of lawyers to represent him in multiple trials and investigations, his Trump Organization -- also the subject of a $250 million New York inquiry into tax fraud -- is shelling out an extra $1 million-plus per month because the former president didn't have the foresight to see an economic calamity on the horizon.

According to Forbes business analyst Dan Alexander, the former president and real estate developer made a big business miscalculation right after leaving office that centers on a three-building office complex in San Francisco.

As Alexander explained, "Trump has held a 30% interest in the property for years alongside publicly traded Vornado Realty Trust, which owns the rest. In May 2021, the partners secured a $1.2 billion, variable-rate loan that provided them with more than $600 million of cash."

At that time, he noted, inflation was already showing signs of exploding which made a variable-rate loan risky and, as the report explains, Trump's partner in the deal saw the coming storm and protected himself by swapping his part for a fixed rate of 2.26% rate – while the former president sat on his hands.

"Initially, Trump’s strategy looked smart, as he began with a roughly 2% interest rate while Vornado paid 2.26%. But in early 2022, after the Fed realized that inflation was not going to go away on its own, it jacked rates—and sent Trump’s interest expenses soaring," the report notes before adding, " America’s most famous real-estate tycoon is now contending with an estimated 5.93% rate at the property, putting him on track to hand over $21 million of annual interest expenses, $13 million more than he would if he had followed Roth’s lead and locked in a fixed rate at the outset."

As a result, Alexander is reporting, "The Trump Organization is now on pace to pay an estimated $51 million of interest across all of its properties this year, roughly 30% more than it paid the year Trump left the White House."

You can read more here.