In 2004, Donald Trump made it perfectly clear: Bad markets were good for his bottom line.
Trump told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer 12 years ago that he profited when the market tanked.
“But, you know, I was in trouble if I didn’t get really back on the stick and start working,” Trump told Blitzer. “The real estate markets crashed. Now, I don’t want to blame the real estate markets, because I always made a lot of money in bad markets. I love bad markets. You can you do very well in a bad market.”
During the 1990 crash of the real estate markets, Trump said he was in Europe watching “great fashion shows,” though he “wasn’t necessarily interested in the dresses. Some people said I was much more interested in what was in the dresses. But I had a lot of time, and I had a good time.”
He added that he later focused on his work, something that was written up highly at the time, including by one business magazine that said, “‘Everything he touches turns to gold,'” Trump recalled.
“And I started to believe that.”
The comments could fuel Democratic criticism that Trump has cravenly taken advantage of down times that have hit working Americans particularly hard. The issue has become a source of a back-and-forth between Trump and Hillary Clinton — along with outspoken Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Trump faced criticism for comments CNN reported on from a 2006 audiobook from Trump University, where said he “sort of” hopes the real estate market crashes because he would benefit financially.
“I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy,” Trump said in the audiobook, answering a question about “gloomy predictions that the real estate market is heading for a spectacular crash.”
Asked about the 2004 comments, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks referred an inquiry to statements the GOP nominee made earlier in the week.
“I am a businessman, and I have made a lot of money in down markets,” Trump said this week. “In some cases, as much as I’ve made when markets are good. Frankly, this is the kind of thinking our country needs, understanding how to get a good result out of a very bad and sad situation. Politicians have no idea how to do this — they don’t have a clue.”