This just in: The New York Times uncovered about 11 years of tax information on Trump (1985 – 1995).

The big deal here seems to be that he lost over a billion dollars.

I have a bigger problem, at least for me.

It turns out that during this time, Trump made a lot of money on the stock market. How, you might ask, does someone with as little business sense as Trump, make money on the stock market?

Good question. Here is what he did…

Trump would buy up a bunch of stock in a company, he would then let it “leak” out that he was thinking of buying the company. People would hear about this and rush to buy some stock in that very company. As they bought more and more stock, Supply/Demand dictates that the price would go up; which it did.

After the price went up, Trump would then sell all of his stock at a profit.

In short, he took money from those that overpaid for the stock in anticipation of Trump buying the company.

Now, this is not illegal.

But…is it ethical. Is it ethical to knowingly convince people to buy a stock that you plan on selling off at a time that only you will profit….at their expense?

Trump, not surprisingly, had no problem with this.

Eventually it became “Fool me once – shame on you. Fool me twice – shame on me.” People figured out Trump’s con-job and quit following his investments. When this happened, Trump quickly lost the money that he had gained.

Call is Karma.

This, to me, seems to be the ethical bar that Trump has used to conduct his entire life. If he can profit from it; if he can get away with it…then it’s fair game.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim