NYMag: From the vault. How the Chinese rescued Donald Trump

By Peter Lance: On May 4th, 2016 after winning the GOP Indiana primary, home state of his future veep pic, Donald Trump became the presumptive nominee. Much of his campaign rhetoric centered on his purported business acumen that would help “Make America Great Again.”

I’d been a working reporter in NYC during the 80’s when I followed Mr. Trump’s forays into Atlantic City and I tracked him into the ’90’s when four of his casinos were bankrupted. In fact, as reported by Politifact.com two of those businesses, Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts and Trump Entertainment resorts, filed for additional BK protection in 2004 and 2009 respectively, shattering, or at least denting, the myth that the real estate developer and President-elect always wins.

Just hours after the polls closed in Indiana I remembered a New York Magazine cover story from 1994 by Craig Horowitz. I’d saved it because it was such a fine example of how an investigative reporter can help rewrite history. I started searching in vain for the piece online. But a few days later I went into my “vault” of research and located the hard copy.

I scanned it and put it on my website May 16th. It opens with this subtitle:

“The King of Hype almost bit it. Now thanks to a very sweet deal with some Chinese billionaires to develop the West Side rail yards, he starting to get back that 1980’s smirk.”

Click the image below for a link to the full piece and be prepared to understand just how lucky Donald Trump has been in his roller coaster life as a self promotor.screen-shot-2016-12-16-at-2-38-44-pm

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