Is Trump really a terrible businessman? It’s more complicated than it looks

A ‘New York Times’ investigation into Trump’s tax affairs has once again called into question his record as a real estate mogul. But in the business of celebrity he’s a success, and that will continue whatever the outcome of the election, writes James Moore

US president Donald Trump described reported tax records as ‘fake news’ (EPA)

Ultimately, Mr Trump has been more successful playing a business mogul than being one in real life.”

That’s the killer line from the sweeping New York Times expose of President Trump’s tax affairs, which reveal that he paid just $750 in federal income tax in the year he won the presidency, and $750 in his first year of the job, while painting a picture of a business empire teetering on the brink.

But that first statement misses the point: playing business mogul is in itself a business for Donald Trump, and it is a remarkably successful one. Not only does it appear to have propped up the Trump Organisation’s struggling real estate businesses, it is ultimately what delivered the presidency into his hands.