'Went bankrupt six times': MSNBC host offers inside perspective from Trump's favorite bank
MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle reminded viewers Thursday morning that, for all of his bragging, President Donald Trump was always a terrible businessman.
Speaking to "Morning Joe's" Jonathan Lemire, she proclaimed, "Donald Trump is not trusted in a business sense."
"What is he great at? He's great at branding. He's great at marketing. He's a phenomenal politician. What he's not great at is business," said Ruhle.
"As a business person, we all know this; he went bankrupt six times," she recalled. "The one business he tried to operate was a casino that he drove into the ground. And the reason he didn't do business with big U.S. banks is because they were unwilling to do business with him. I know this because I worked at Deutsche Bank, the bank that actually did do business with him."
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She also told viewers that Trump is also known for not committing to deals he's made and contracts that he has signed.
"And now he's doing that on American soil with American trading policies," she said. "And this could put our country in grave risk when it comes to being the superpower that we are. And if you don't believe me, listen to what Rand Paul has to say, right? An elected official who knows what this will do politically and economically, and it's hugely dangerous."
She noted that in trade, there are long-term partnerships and investments, and "for years," the U.S. urged manufacturers to stop doing business in China.
"They're our adversary. Go to Vietnam. Now look what we're doing to Vietnam," she said, pointing to Trump's tariffs. "In Trump's first administration, it was Trump and Jared Kushner who renegotiated NAFTA to create the USMCA, a 'better' NAFTA. Now they're tearing it up. We're losing trust with our global partners. And that's a huge problem."
Finally, she said that the White House has been saying that it will be "short-term pain" but long-term gain. She said she hasn't heard "one single CEO" saying that they will build a new plant in the U.S.
Ruhle explained that building a plant typically takes three to five years.
"Three to five years from now, Donald Trump is not going to be in office. Who knows if he'll retract on these tariffs? And in order for you to make any sort of investment, a long-term investment, you have to trust the information. You have to trust your counterparty."
Even the math doesn't make sense, she said. "This idea that having a trade deficit means all these other countries are ripping us off, that's not the case."
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