Several of the 3,500 lawsuits presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump has been involved in over the years involved him shortchanging workers on thousands of dollars, according to an extensive analysis by USA Today published Thursday.
There were 60 lawsuits, USA Today found, where workers alleged Trump and his companies shortchanged them. Those included lawsuits from a dishwasher, a plumber, a painter and various other workers who were once employed by his businesses.
At least one business, the Edward J. Friel Co., declared bankruptcy and chalked up at least some of its downward spiral to the $83,600 Trump owed it for building slot machine bases and doing other carpentry work at Harrah’s at Trump Plaza in 1984.
The report also noted that since 2005, Trump’s companies have been cited for at least 24 violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act due to unpaid wages.
But the unflappable Trump brushed off any claims of shortchanging workers.
“Let’s say that they do a job that’s not good, or a job that they didn’t finish, or a job that was way late. I’ll deduct from their contract, absolutely,” Trump told the newspaper. “That’s what the country should be doing.”
Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, echoed her father’s sentiments and said they have employed many sound contractors.
“But it would be irresponsible if my father paid contractors who did lousy work. And he doesn’t do that,” she told USA Today.
Read the full report here.
I used to work for a scumbag like Trump… it was a common tactic of his to order us to grind down contractors by claiming the client had complained about this or that, or this or that had been done wrong, so they need to deduct $50 or $100 or more from their invoice.
Of course, we kept calling these people to do work for us, because the boss liked that they could be ground down. This was early in my career, when I was desperate for experience. I did not understand at the time the damage I was doing to my reputation, and it took years for me to work past that once I quit working for this shitty place.
It was all bullshit, as is the Trump flunkies’ explanation of why they were stiffing contractors left and right. Sure, it happens that contractors may do an unsatisfactory job. You tell them to fix it if they want to get paid. But if it happens this often… either you suck at picking contractors, or you’re a sleazebag who pads his bottom line by stiffing hard-working people.
And apparently this will be another great reason to support Trump for his minions. Trump will be great for the working people, amirite???
How many ways are there to spell H Y P O C R I T I C A L S L E A Z E, believe me.
He even stiffed a law firm he hired to defend him in a suit brought against him by people he stiffed. Now he can argue it’s just sound fiscal policy that we need more of, and hope that makes sense to people. But when you have a small army saying “he refused to pay and said ‘sue me,’” I think people will get the picture. These are regular folks he’s screwing. It’s a longtime habit. Anybody here been stiffed that way in your life? Yeah, me too. Here’s some homespun wisdom for you, you outer-borough tough-talking slob—what goes around comes around.
The Clinton commercials practically write themselves: