According to a report from Forbes’ Dan Alexander, the children of Donald Trump are hoping that the sale of the lease of the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC, for a reported $400 million goes through because it will bail them out of a “rotten investment” first proposed by Ivanka.

Earlier in the week the Wall Street Journal reported that the lease for Trump International — which has been nothing but a money-loser for the family — might be purchased by a Miami-based investment firm known as CGI Merchant Group.

The Journal reported the lease could be going for a reported $400 million — a drop from the $500 million that was being sought two years before.

As Alexander points out there is some skepticism about that amount which could have a major bearing on how much money each of the Trump kids, Don Jr, Eric and Ivanka walk away with — and for that they can thank Ivanka.

The Forbes writer explained that the Trump International is an anomaly among Trump properties and that the suggestion the family make the investment years ago originated with Ivanka.

“For a 75-year-old billionaire, Donald Trump doesn’t seem to have passed down much of his fortune to his children … A review of documents suggests that in the Trump family, however, the heirs don’t hold ownership stakes in any of their father’s major assets, except one: The Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.,” the Forbes editor wrote. “The three eldest Trump children—Don Jr., Eric and Ivanka—all seem to have 7.5% interests in a lease on the property. Unfortunately for them, the asset has been performing poorly, losing so much money that one of Donald Trump’s holding companies has had to inject additional cash to prop up the business, according to an analysis of financial statements that the House Committee on Oversight and Reform released last week.”

According to Alexander, Ivanka made the investment suggestion while “Don Jr. worked on leasing retail spaces, and Eric helped look after the operation, but things did not go well,” adding, “Deutsche Bank provided $170 million of financing, and by August 31, 2017, the Trump Organization’s financial statements listed $193 million for building improvements, $18 million for furniture and equipment, $5 million for operating supplies and $100,000 for tenant improvements, according to the House documents. Total tally: $216 million.”

That total, the Forbes editor is key when it comes to understanding what a “rotten investment” it became.

Pointing out that the “Trump family had invested an estimated $240 million—$170 million of which came from Deutsche Bank and $70 million that seems to have come straight from the family’s pockets,” Alexander wrote. “Bad news, given that plenty of people don’t think the place is worth $240 million. After speaking with seven real estate experts, Forbes estimated last month that the property was worth $173 million. Assuming the Trumps haven’t paid any of the principal back on their loan, that means their equity amounts to just $3 million, $67 million less than the amount of cash the family apparently invested into the place before August 2020.”

That difference, he points out, means the Trump kids could walk away with little for their years of efforts — or they could be the recipients of a massive bailout.

“Some industry insiders questioned the credibility of that report, given the sky-high price. But if such a sale actually goes through, all of the financial problems that the hotel has caused for the Trumps would suddenly wash away,” he wrote. “The kids’ apparent 7.5% interests—which would be worth just $225,000 after debt at a $173 million valuation—would grow to an estimated $15 million apiece. That’s a lot of money for Eric and Don Jr., who Forbes estimated were each worth $25 million in 2019. It’s also a fair chunk of change for Ivanka, who shares a fortune estimated at $375 million with her husband, Jared Kushner, heir to a separate real estate dynasty.”

You can read more here.

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

Donald Trump is facing intensifying legal pressure, but he’s been unable to attract the type of high-quality lawyers that would typically represent a former president in high-stakes cases.

At least four well-known attorneys have turned down repeated entreaties by Trump’s team in recent weeks, a source familiar with the discussions told CNN, leaving the twice-impeached one-term president with a small and relatively inexperienced legal team to litigate executive privilege and other constitutional issues.

“You’d want to see a top 10 national law firm with a big, experienced DC office,” said John Yoo, a University of California at Berkeley law professor and former Justice Department official for George W. Bush. “You don’t see that here. It’s quite glaring.”

Some big-name attorneys have been scared away by the ex-president’s reputation for non-payment of legal fees, according to sources close to conservative legal circles, while others are staying away because of the damage Trump’s previous lawyers have suffered to their reputations.

“It’s not a 10-foot pole,” Yoo said, “it’s a 1,000-foot pole.”

One attorney who turned Trump down is white-collar lawyer William Burck, who represented 11 Trump associates in the Robert Mueller investigation but turned down the former president three times in recent months because he had become too toxic after trying to overturn his election loss.

“I don’t even know who they are, they are just looking to get publicity,” Trump insisted in a statement. “I am using lawyers who have been with us from the beginning.”

Two former legal advisers, Patrick Philbin from the White House counsel’s office and Justin Clark from the 2020 campaign, are still involved in Trump’s legal affairs, but they might find it difficult to get paid if the former president doesn’t like the outcome in his fight over executive privilege.

“I do pay my lawyers when they do a good job,” Trump said.

Trump-loving Ohio GOP Senate candidate Josh Mandel was removed from a Butler County school board meeting after he got up and berated the board over its policies on masks and transgender students.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Mandel was invited to the meeting by school board candidate Darbi Boddy, who said she wanted him to speak on her behalf even though he didn’t even live in the district.

Although the board does allow nonresidents to address the board if a resident introduces them as their designee, Boddy apparently failed to follow proper protocols, which led the school board to ask Mandel to stop speaking.

Mandel, however, refused and continued to attack the board for forcing children to wear masks in schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At this point, two Butler County Sheriff’s officers escorted Mandel out of the meeting, and the Enquirer notes that board members may ask for assistance from law enforcement officials when “a disorderly person when that person’s conduct interferes with the orderly progress of the meeting.”

In an interview with the Enquirer, Mandel decried the shabby treatment he received.

“The school board was in total violation of their own rules and of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” Mandel said in the interview. “They should be ashamed of themselves.”

Watch video of Mandel at the school board meeting below.

I just got escorted out of the Lakota School Board meeting for speaking out against mask mandates.

Thanks to the moms who invited me to speak.

We are still in charge of our kids — even if Biden tries to call us “Domestic Terrorists”. pic.twitter.com/XXGisR89Hp

— Josh Mandel (@JoshMandelOhio) October 12, 2021