The Real Donald Trump

When The Donald announced that he would yet again deny America his services as president of the United States, his stated reason was that business was his "passion" and public service just wasn't tempting enough for him to give it up.

Fair enough. To each his own, I say.

But what is this "business" that he's so passionate about? What exactly is The Donald Empire?

At first blush, the answer is obvious: real estate. Walk around town and your eyes will fall on various buildings called Trump this or that. He also dabbles in Atlantic City casinos and Florida golf courses, and he is probably best known to the nation he can't quite get himself to govern by hosting the NBC show The Apprentice. Yet behind his seemingly impressive business portfolio is a lot of sleaze: stock swindlers, drug addicted accountants, whore mongering partners, and outright fraud. Also, a lot of the businesses he claims to be involved in, he's not really involved in. He has created a successful enough brand name for himself that he sells it to other businessmen (hence things like Trump Vodka and Trump University which really aren't his). 

Ever since he openly flirted with running for president, The Donald's business dealings have drawn a great deal of attention. And it hasn't been good news. There have been lots of articles recently about all this and you must read this Daily Beast article that is probably the most comprehensive about how sleazy and creepy most of Donald Trump's businesses and associates really are.

Naturally Trump realized that, if he actually did run for president, the scrutiny would only get worse and might actually hurt his empire. The material for attack ads is endless. And ultimately, he was smart enough to realize that his presidential aspirations were doomed before he ever had them in the first place.