A lawyer for the Trump Organization told the Times that its reporters’ claims “appear to be inaccurate” and asserted that “over the past decade, President Trump has paid tens of millions of dollars in personal taxes to the federal government.” The President, for his part, called the newspaper’s report “FAKE NEWS.”
Trump denied furiously to Fortune then that he did anything amiss and dutifully swore to pay off his debts. But many of those who knew him well had their doubts. “A couple of people close to Trump and otherwise sympathetic to him suggested to me that he’s unfit to be running a public company,” wrote Useem in 2000. “Given that the low stock price seems partly a function of Wall Street’s allergic response to Trump’s flamboyance—analysts call it ‘the Donald factor’—the obvious solution would be for Trump to remove himself from management. One industry executive estimates that step alone would bring a 30% bump in the stock.”
13年后重新回顾这段往事，已经是LinkedIn执行总编的罗斯告诉科技网站Recode的记者彼得卡夫卡，特朗普“非常在意这一点，即努力让人意识到他是一个成功的商人。” 2004年，罗斯创作的《学徒》成为美国最有影响力的真人秀节目。
特朗普是一个货真价实的纽约房地产大亨之子。罗斯写道：“他出资缔造了一个建筑帝国，拥有一众酒店和赌场，一支由道格弗鲁蒂领导的美国橄榄球队、一艘284英尺长的游艇（由讽刺特朗普的漫画《杜恩斯伯里》中提到的角色‘杜克’掌控）和一家航空公司。而这些资产大都来自银行的巨额贷款，他用来抵押担保的只是个人名义——他甚至说服银行通过换取他公司股权的方式贷款给他。”
20世纪末21世纪初本该是房地产行业最为繁荣的时期，然而在1999年，特朗普的赌场不仅不能盈利，还报亏了1.34亿美元，其标普债券评级也由“垃圾股”变为了“更垃圾的垃圾股”。
特朗普则愤怒地向《财富》杂志否认了这一点：他没有任何不当行为，并发誓要还清债务。但许多了解他的人还是心存质疑。
“I had never had an experience,” said Roth, “where someone had tried so baldly to let me know that they were important and other people thought they were successful.”