An exchange of tweets with a Donald Trump supporter today got me thinking about the meme that Donald Trump is the only candidate that "can't be bought." My fellow Twitterer was admiring a building in San Francisco that was partially owned by the Trump Company. I looked up the building and it was built in 1969, when Donald Trump was 23. He had nothing to do with the building, obviously. Anyway, I learned that my Twitter friend was mostly happy that Trump had kept the Chinese from buying one of "our banks" (It was originally the Bank of America building.) After explaining that B of A was no longer headquartered in S.F., I considered my friend's complaints about Chinese ownership of American real estate.
Here is my conclusion: Donald Trump maybe isn't being bought but he does require a healthy number of potential buyers in order for his company to make the maximum profit fom SELLING. For example, could Trump afford to sign a law that abolished foreign ownership of American real estate, like my friend apparently thought Trump supported. No. Take away that huge number of foreign investors eager to buy in the United States and prices will necessarily plummet. It is the old Law of Supply and Demand. Foreign investors have driven real estate prices up greatly over the last ten years. Not to a lot of benefit for regular Americans, though. Mostly rich people like Donald Trump. Not to mention the numerous international properties owned by the Trump Company which could be affected by a country's retaliation on property laws.
Which has got to make you wonder -- how many conflicts of interest would a President Trump have with so many international properties owned by his family? The usual solution of a blind trust would hardly work in this case. Giving it all to his children won't help either. Has any one asked him about this?
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