Hillary Clinton traveled to Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Wednesday to take aim at Donald Trump’s business record, and CNN’s Reality Check Team put her statements and assertions to the test.
The team of reporters, researchers and editors across CNN listened throughout the speech and selected key statements, rating them true; mostly true; true, but misleading; false; or it’s complicated.
Reality Check: Clinton on Trump’s casinos filing for Chapter 11
By Chris Isidore, CNN
Standing in front of what was once a Trump casino, Clinton said that her opponent’s casinos filed for bankruptcy protection more often than any other big business.
“No major company in America has filed Chapter 11 more often in the last 30 years than Trump’s casinos. So no, this is not normal behavior,” she said.
Trump’s businesses have filed for bankruptcy four times — in 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2009. Each of the bankruptcies centered on his Atlantic City casino properties, although they included other businesses as well, such as the Trump Shuttle airline and the Plaza Hotel in New York City.
All of them were Chapter 11 bankruptcies that allowed the businesses to keep operating while shedding the debt it owed to creditors, vendors, employees and others.
According to an analysis by CNN of data dating back to 1981 provided by Bankruptcy.com, no other company has filed more often than the four times that Trump has filed during that period.
Verdict: True.
Reality Check: Clinton on Trump making products abroad
By Tami Luhby, CNN
Clinton took Trump to task for manufacturing Trump-branded products overseas at the same time as he lashes out at companies that move operations abroad.
“So when Trump says he’s for working men and woman in America, but Trump furniture is made in Turkey, instead of Lakewood, New Jersey, that matters. Trump’s suits were made in Mexico, instead of Ashland, Pennsylvania. Trump’s lamps were made in China, not Altoona, Pennsylvania. He wants to make America great again — maybe he should start by actually making things in America,” she said.
The Clinton campaign sent out links to Trump corporate press releases and news interviews that showed the origin of these products, but CNN research has also found that many items are listed as being made overseas.
A 2014 press release from the Trump Home collection announced a partnership with Dorya International, a handcrafted furniture line. It notes that the entire production process occurs in Dorya’s facility in Turkey. Similarly, clicking on a Trump Home Lighting Collection link off www.trump.com takes one to an Amazon page featuring several of Trump’s lamps. The country of origin for many of them is listed as China.
Also, several Trump suits listed on Amazon are described as being made in China. (That said, some are also made in America.)
Trump has acknowledged his clothing line is made abroad. He told Fox News’ Chris Wallace in October that some of his clothes are made in Mexico and China, though he said he wanted them to be made here.
CNNMoney also found that Donald J. Trump signature men’s dress shirts are made in China, Bangladesh or “imported,” meaning they were made abroad. And Harvard trade expert Robert Lawrence analyzed more than 800 items in the Ivanka Trump fashion line, which includes shoes, dresses, purses and scarves. All are “imported.”
It’s true that at least some of Trump’s products, including clothing and furniture, are manufactured in other countries.
Reality Check: Clinton on Trump’s numerous lawsuits
By Kate Grise, CNN
Clinton also said Trump has been involved in lawsuits at an unprecedented rate.
“Donald Trump has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past 30 years. That’s one every three days, give or take. And today’s Wednesday, so he’s due for another one,” Clinton said.
According to a USA Today analysis of 30 years of legal filings throughout the country, Trump and his various businesses have been involved in at least 3,500 legal actions in federal and state courts.
It is important to note that USA Today’s analysis included all legal actions, including bankruptcies. They also include actions in which Trump was the defendant as well as the plaintiff.
The cases USA Today analyzed involved Trump and the more than 500 companies on his federal financial disclosure report and previous holdings. Almost half of the cases involved one of Trump’s casinos — of those 1,700, most involved issues with gamblers who had not paid their debts to a Trump-affiliated casino.
CNN has not independently verified USA Today’s analysis of the 3,500 legal actions in 33 states, and we don’t know which legal actions were actual lawsuits.
USA Today also found that in the year after he entered the race, at least 70 new cases had been filed. That evens out to about one lawsuit every five days — slightly lower than his average over the last 30 years, which Clinton was correct in saying is about once every three days.
We rate this claim as true, but misleading, because Clinton’s claim implies that Trump was sued once every three days, give or take, which isn’t quite the way that it all went down.
Reality Check: Clinton on Trump businesses failing
By Chip Grabow and Nancy Leung, CNN
At one point, Clinton asked: “What in the world happened? His excuse is, Atlantic City just went downhill, it was not his fault. But his businesses were failing long before the rest of the town was struggling.”
But were Trump’s economic fortunes in Atlantic City truly faltering before the city fell on hard times?
Atlantic City’s fortunes have fluctuated since 1976, when New Jersey legalized casino gambling. Enjoying its status as the East Coast Las Vegas, Atlantic City saw many years of growth thanks to the gambling industry.
In 1991, Taj Mahal was the first of four Trump properties in Atlantic City to declare bankruptcy. By then, “America’s Playground” had already begun experiencing a slowdown after a decade of healthy growth. Various factors were to blame: a national economic recession, high gas prices and fewer visitors to the city by the sea.
Just a year later, in 1992, Trump took his Plaza Hotel and Casino into bankruptcy court.
Over the next several years, legalized gambling expanded to neighboring states. Competition intensified and the revenue the city had long enjoyed flowed elsewhere.
During this time, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, “Poverty and unemployment rates are well above the state levels, while income is well below. City residents face a dearth of basic retail services. Vacant lots and vacant housing are common in some parts of the city, overcrowding in other parts.”
Two more Trump properties filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection: one in 2004, when the economy was going fairly well, and the other in 2009, in the midst of the most recent economic downturn. By that time, Trump’s casinos weren’t the only ones feeling the pain — competing casinos had also lost revenue or closed.
We rate Clinton’s claim that Trump’s businesses failed long before the rest of the town was struggling as false.
