On tonight’s season opener of The Apprentice, donald was asked if this story was true. Donald confirmed that it was. Is there any way to confirm if he’s full of it or not? I’m wondering if Snopes will change its status from false to true.
Which part of the UL? Snopes does say:
Trump said that he did pay off the good samaritan’s mortgage.
I was once helped financially by a wealthy retiree of a company whose name you’d all recognize. And for FAR less a deed. I would be surprised under these circumstance Mr. Trump would be stingy.
Is rewarding the man who turns in your elderly mother’s attacker really especially admirable? I mean, nice, ya, but not something we all wouldn’t do if we could.
Thanks for bringing this up… I ran across this info on another board. I had never heard this story before, but I did notice that there was kind of an awkward pause before Trump answered that it is true.
I have no idea, of course, whether it’s true or not. Hell, if I had Trump’s money I’d do the same thing, if that indeed happened. The question wasn’t on par with “have you stopped beating your wife?”, but it was a kind of awkward thing to answer.
Snopes has updated the original column:
But they haven’t changed the determination from ‘False’; from their response, it appears they believe Trump is conflating the urban legend with his own memory.
One of the senior VPs where I work has had business dealings with Trump in the past, and I asked him about this story. His response was basically that it would not be out of character for Trump to do something like this, or for Trump to claim that he did such a thing. According to him, Trump likes to think of himself as a “great man” and works hard to project that image, however, the senior VP felt that the sleaziest used car salesman was a better human being than Trump.
If I were in that position, I wouldn’t think Mr. Trump would hesitate to make me financially secure. Think of this in a business sense. Wouldn’t such a person be of such a character that he proved he was worthy of hire by Mr. Trump? I’d think a personal recommedation for hire from his mother on my resume would be more than adeqauate.
I must respectfully disagree with your assertion that such an individual has proved his moral worthiness for hire.
There are individuals who would choose to assist an elderly woman’s cause in such a situation for motives besides sheer personal philanthropy.
They may enjoy the adrenaline associated with a chase and ensuing physical confrontation.
They may wish to be acclaimed as a hero.
Not to say a man choosing such a course of action should not be lauded, however all he has proven is that he has a certain level of physical fitness and is not a complete coward.
Three questions I have about this urban legend;
- How did Trump know what the guy’s mortgage was?
- How did he know what who it was with?
- How did he pay it off without his knowledge or consent?
You could say that Trump had the ways and means to pull some strings (even to the extent of illegal snooping on this guys financial records), and I’m no financial expert, but I’m pretty sure a third party simply can’t butt in on a financial contract between two others and zero it out without prior agreement and notice.
Yeah, right… Being a psychic, the Amazing Trump read the guy’s mind to get his mortgage institution and account number, of course.
You’re extremely naive, my friend. That never happened. Read the snopes article again.
He lied. He’s not at all a very admirable person, you know. Too bad Spy magazine’s no longer being published or you’d have a chance to know just how dishonorable he is.
“Urban legend” doesn’t mean the story is false.
Well, the story goes that the guy asked Trump to send his wife some flowers, so Trump would have had the address. Aren’t real-estate transactions a matter of public record? And the mortgage company which holds the title? (I don’t know for sure, but I suspect they are).
I’m sure the bank wouldn’t object to having one of its loans crossed off the books, whether its Joe Blow or Donald Trump paying it off probably makes no difference to them.
Sure, banks hate having people owe them money and paying interest. It’s not like it’s their business lending money. Sooner they get that cash back in the vault doing nothing the better!
I say again; a third party just can’t waltz in on a financial arrangement between two others without their knowledge and consent. Unless it’s the mafia of something.
Given that it appears that no one really has the Straight Dope on this incident, (although I tend to side with Barabara, myself), I’m going to let everyone hammer out their theories in IMHO.
[ /Moderator Mode ]
I don’t think it makes much difference when the bank gets their money back… And it doesn’t sit in the vault… it gets lent out again. Early payoff arrangements are part of every loan. I know of no loan where the lendee is forbidden from paying off the loan at any time.
As far as a third party waltzing in… it is probably unusual, but I can’t see why it would be verboten.
I don’t have an opinion about whether the story’s true or not, but I would guess that it’s plausible.
I get junk mail all the time from mortgage companies inviting me to refinance. Often the letters begin with something meant to be “official” sounding, like “our search of public records indicates that you may have a loan in the amount of $XX.XXX [they name the actual amount of my loan] with [the name of my mortgage company]…”. So I’d guess the information isn’t hard to data-mine.
And while I suppose there’s be some close scrutiny if I were to attempt to pay off someone’s loan without their knowledge, I think the Trump name might lubricate the process of doing so considerably.