Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to the Pastors Leadership Conference at the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016. (Credit: AP / Evan Vucci)
At Monday night’s debate, Donald Trump was called out for stiffing the people who work for him.
Trump has been accused of failing to pay hundreds of contractors. And so far, he hasn’t seemed very sorry. When asked about failing to pay someone by Hillary Clinton this week, Trump replied, “Maybe he didn’t do a good job, and I was unsatisfied with his work.”
I take that attack personally. I’m one of the many small business owners who’ve been used by Trump, exploited and forced to suffer a loss because of his corporation’s shady practices.
My relationship with Trump began in 1989, when he asked me to supply several grand and upright pianos to his then-new Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. I’d been running a music store for more than 30 years, selling instruments to local schools and residents. My business was a family affair (my grandsons still run the store). And I had a great relationship with my customers — no one had ever failed to pay.
I was thrilled to get a $100,000 contract from Trump. It was one of the biggest sales I’d ever made. I was supposed to deliver and tune the pianos; the Trump corporation would pay me within 90 days. I asked my lawyer whether I should ask for payment upfront, and he laughed. “It’s Donald Trump!” he told me. “He’s got lots of money.”
But when I requested payment, the Trump corporation hemmed and hawed. Executives avoided my calls and crafted excuses. After a couple of months, I got a letter telling me that the casino was short on funds. It would pay 70 percent of what I was owed. There was no negotiating. I didn’t know what to do — I couldn’t afford to sue the Trump corporation, and I needed money to pay my piano suppliers. So I took the $70,000.
Losing $30,000 was a big hit to me and my family. The profit from Trump was meant to be a big part of my salary for the year. So I made much less. There was no money to help grow my business. I had fewer pianos in the showroom and a smaller advertising budget. Because of Trump, my store stagnated for a couple of years. I felt like I’d been taken advantage of. I was embarrassed.
Today, when I hear Trump brag about paying small-business owners less than he agreed, I get angry. He’s always suggesting that the people who worked for him didn’t do the right job, didn’t complete their work on time, that something was wrong. But I delivered quality pianos, tuned and ready to go. I did everything right. And then he cheated me. It’s a callous way to do business.
Trump keeps saying that it’s time we got a businessman to run the country. Of course, I think it’s important to find someone who can bolster the economy, but I also think we need a president who cares about small-business owners, and about honoring his commitments. That’s not Trump.
J. Michael Diehl is the retired owner of Freehold Music Center in Freehold, New Jersey. He wrote this for The Washington Post.
Get enough money up front to cover the costs of whatever it is. Don't be impressed because it's "somebody famous".
If the deal looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Not much sympathy here from me; welcome to the world of socialites.
I worked for a loan company for a couple of years on the west coast. Most of the deadbeats were movie stars....
I don't get the author's math. He said he was stiffed for $30K which was a large part of his salary, it shrunk his advertising budget, he couldn't buy more pianos, and couldn't grow his business. That certainly is a small amount of money to spread over all those items.
Without knowing exactly the details of the deal, if there was one, I wouldn't comment.
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Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug.
Unless and until you are going to address Hillary's character and 30+ years of lying, corruption, stealing, etc, then i really don't care about some of Trump's business deals gone bad. Soooo, yeah. You are straining on a gnat and swallowing a planet.
We have courts to deal with these things. He accepted the $70K as payment in full. Part of being in business is negotiating and dealing with contracts and vendors.
Nor do i care about Trump's tax returns. He's rich. What else do i need to know? He actually made money by earning it. Of course, you don't seem to care how Hillary has made hundreds of millions since leaving the WH flat broke. You don't seem to care that she sold access to one of the highest offices in the land to the highest bidder. Oh, but, but, but....some deal with a piano vendor went bad! Wink, wink! Nothing to to see here with Hillary bobbing her head , falling down the steps and lining her treasure chest with money from billionaires and foreign dictators!
I don't get the author's math. He said he was stiffed for $30K which was a large part of his salary, it shrunk his advertising budget, he couldn't buy more pianos, and couldn't grow his business. That certainly is a small amount of money to spread over all those items.
Without knowing exactly the details of the deal, if there was one, I wouldn't comment.
I'm having trouble with it, too. In one paragraph, it was an unexpected sale, and in another, it affected his salary and everything else. He doesn't say he actually took a loss, it says he didn't make a profit. A store normally makes 30-50% on the markup, so he shouldn't have lost money.
As a small business owner, I would never front a $100K order without getting paid up front. That was a mistake.
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LawyerLady
I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.
And I love the way he assumes Trump runs the day to day operations of the companies. Executives failed to return his calls. Trump probably never even knew about it.
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LawyerLady
I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.
And I love the way he assumes Trump runs the day to day operations of the companies. Executives failed to return his calls. Trump probably never even knew about it.
And that was my other thought. Are people that dumb that they think a CEO of a multi billion conglomerate gets involved in decorating a casino?
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Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug.
And I love the way he assumes Trump runs the day to day operations of the companies. Executives failed to return his calls. Trump probably never even knew about it.
And that was my other thought. Are people that dumb that they think a CEO of a multi billion conglomerate gets involved in decorating a casino?
I would be surprised if Trump did NOT micromanage a $100,000 contract.
The CEO sets the tone for the organization.
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The Principle of Least Interest: He who cares least about a relationship, controls it.
So why not pay? This is a pattern. His organizations screw people.
But, yet you absolutely REFUSE to shine the light of day on Hillary's corruption, lies, stealing, etc.
What people do not get is in business, deals and modifications to those deals happen all the time usually due to the business climate. I totally discount the claim in the OP. However, say the casino did order pianos, and it took a year or so to get those pianos, grand pianos don't grow on trees after all, and when they were ready the bottom dropped out of the market for the casino and pianos. The casino could have totally cancelled the deal since there was no contract, but instead bought the pianos and giving the shop owner his expenses plus a profit, albeit, smaller than expected. That is not screwing anyone, that is giving that shop owner a better deal than he would have gotten elsewhere.
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Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug.
If he paid $70,000 and they guy took it. He didn't "stiff" the guy. Taking the $70K offered as "payment in full" was accepting it as "payment in full".
Was it a shady way to do business? Probably. But he didn't "stiff" the guy.
Well, produce the CONTRACT and let us see it. Again he wasn't "stiffed" but that is a phony headline. Oh, and when in business, to have a lawyer just shrug and say you don't need a contract, which that is what it sounds like his lawyer did, well that's a pretty crappy lawyer.
But, Trump paid. So, there may have been other conditions affecting the payment. Or maybe he didn't deliver as many pianos as he promised and on and on. So, we don't really know because we haven't seen any CONTRACT at all from this guy nor have we heard Trump's version. But, the media doesn't care about that of course.
So why not pay? This is a pattern. His organizations screw people.
But, yet you absolutely REFUSE to shine the light of day on Hillary's corruption, lies, stealing, etc.
Don't forget about her going after rape victims. I am astounded that Ed would defend her based on that fact alone.
What???
And she LAUGHED about getting off the rapist of a 12 year old girl. And I don't want to hear that she's a lawyer and that's her job. It's certainly not her job to gloat and laugh about it.
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LawyerLady
I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.
Well, produce the CONTRACT and let us see it. Again he wasn't "stiffed" but that is a phony headline. Oh, and when in business, to have a lawyer just shrug and say you don't need a contract, which that is what it sounds like his lawyer did, well that's a pretty crappy lawyer. But, Trump paid. So, there may have been other conditions affecting the payment. Or maybe he didn't deliver as many pianos as he promised and on and on. So, we don't really know because we haven't seen any CONTRACT at all from this guy nor have we heard Trump's version. But, the media doesn't care about that of course.
That is what makes me doubt his story completely.
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LawyerLady
I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.
Like most of what the Left puts out as Fact to try to spin a narrative, with some digging you usually find out that it's all a load of horseschit. However, anyone who has actually accomplished anything in life is going to have naysayers. People always line up to criticize the successful.
I think the headline is a bold faced LIE. But, they dont' care. They put out their lying headlines and people glance at the headline and dont read the article. They just make a false charge and hope it sticks. Kind of like just calling someone a pedophile. Dropping an innuendo to cause damage is very easy. Now, stand back and let them prove that they are not. Good luck proving a negative.
I'm very certain that there are plenty of people that feel Donald Trump has screwed them over the years. And maybe he has. But that's nothing compared to Hillary's track record - she not only screws people, she kills them.
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LawyerLady
I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.
I'm very certain that there are plenty of people that feel Donald Trump has screwed them over the years. And maybe he has. But that's nothing compared to Hillary's track record - she not only screws people, she kills them.
This. 1000x this. And then she says, "what does it matter now?" She won't change. She has proven over and over again how little regard she has for the well-being of the American public. **** her.
And she LAUGHED about getting off the rapist of a 12 year old girl. And I don't want to hear that she's a lawyer and that's her job. It's certainly not her job to gloat and laugh about it.
- Lawyerlady
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A thousand times this.
Yes. As an attorney assigned to the case it's her job. I wouldn't have an ounce of animosity against her for doing her job if that's where her passion for the case stopped. Even if she still did her job to the best of her ability. My problem with her about this case is the humor she found in it. That he passed his polygraph shouldn't have made her laugh. It should have made her cry.
