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DONALD TRUMP, cocky self-promoter and high-flying developer, is spending a lot of time these days trying to convince the world that he's as rich, as liquid and as bankable as ever.
King of cash. That's his newest goal, Trump says, as he makes the rounds of television, newspaper and magazine interviews, trying to staunch doubts about his solvency even as he puts his assets up for sale.
He says he doesn't have to have the cash. He just wants it to hunt for bargains. And he claims he'll end up with $2 billion in hand, maybe more, when the dust clears on deals in the works.
But the familiar Trump bluster has started sounding hollow, especially over the last week. Contractors on his newest casino, the Taj Mahal, claimed in public that Trump owes them $35 million in unpaid bills. New Jersey gambling authorities announced they would start a review of all of Trump's finances. The bonds he sold to finance his Atlantic City casinos were trading at steep discounts - a sign that investors fear Trump might not be able to continue making interest payments on the debt.
Meanwhile, newly disclosed figures on his two older casinos reveal they aren't producing much cash, if any, for Trump. And Chase Manhattan Bank, the lender that has a $200-million mortgage on Trump's vacant West Side property, has pressured him to restructure his heavy debt load.
From Wall Street to Hong Kong Harbor, Trump's highly leveraged portfolio of hotels, casinos, condos, airplanes, stocks and a money-draining tract of vacant Manhattan riverfront has come under intense scrutiny in the past few weeks, as speculation mounts that Trump is caught in a cash crunch - and that perhaps he is not as rich as he has proclaimed.
While Trump claimed last year he was worth $1.5 billion in a financial statement obtained by Newsday, other documents and research by Newsday indicate soft spots in his empire. His equity in Manhattan hotels appears much smaller than he claims. Sales at his Florida condominium project, bought with much fanfare, have slowed to a trickle, despite an aggressive marketing campaign in the Northeast and Japan.
The feisty 44-year-old entrepreneur does have a handful of top-quality assets. But the consensus among financial...