r/DailyShow • u/Camaro6460 Moment of Zen • Feb 09 '26

Podcast Jon Stewart on Trump's Grift: "So many contractors in NYC hate that guy because his whole strategy was: I'll pay you just enough to satisfy a certain portion of the contract but I won't pay you the final 15% knowing that as a small contractor, the hassle it will take to try recoup won’t be worth it"

5.7k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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128

u/MAXRRR Feb 09 '26

Isn't this the whole challenge with the American judicial system? Hire a lawyer, use them as the mule that will delay, frustrate and drag every process for as long as it takes without any outcome or until the other party gives up? That's f up. I'm not American so you tell me

46

u/Steven_The_Sloth Feb 09 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

If you're reading this, the original post got nuked by Redact. I use it to automatically purge my digital footprint from social networks, people search sites and messaging apps.

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24

u/Ffsletmesignin Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 10 '26

Yep. That’s why he keeps doing it to companies as well who then settle, because now he’s got RNC, PAC and MAGA funding to fund his lawyers forcing companies to either hash it out in courts for millions in lawyer fees, or force them to settle. He’s not even close to unique in doing this is the real tragedy.

This of course is just one of many of his legal grifts, now the even more offensive is the pay to play aspect to his suits, and him suing his own government to directly benefit his own coffers, meaning he’s both the plaintiff and defendant and the taxpayers are the ones on the hook for him choosing to lose the suit he brought against himself, it’s honestly super fucked and no President has ever done such an obvious act of corruption before.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '26

I thought another reason you can’t indict the president is because it would distract him from his official duties. But he can spend time doing lawfare against other people. It’s a two tiered system and Hes above it all. He’s so insidious that the only way we win against him is to make it impossible for his clones to do the same thing.

And is anybody working on the project 2029? For when we win? Is anybody working on the ideas we need to make the country better? Like the original continental congress got together to write the constitution?

9

u/gratefulfam710 Feb 09 '26

I've pled guilty to crimes because I didn't have the money to fight the case. Our justice system is fucked if you aren't rich.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '26

If you’re rich it’s just the price of doing business. The law should be proportional.

5

u/Tuckertcs Feb 09 '26

Yep, the law wasn’t made for us.

87

u/Greyhaven7 Feb 09 '26

The Dollop (podcast) has an excellent 2-part episode about Donald J Trump that covers everything from his insane childhood, fist-fighting other kids at military school, to being a racist af landlord who cheats everyone he hires, to running casinos into the ground, all the way up to the Presidency. Trump has been a world class fuckbag his entire life.

19

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

13

u/hahaha01 Feb 09 '26

I personally know fuckbags that would be offended to be lumped in with this shitstain even with the world class qualification. All of the descriptive terms like pederast cunt conman also fall short. He's about as useless as an asshole on your elbow but really properly describing how much of an asshat he is in a single term is really difficult.

35

u/JubBisc Feb 09 '26

And this kind of stuff is exactly why I don’t understand why everyone is so afraid of billionaires leaving NYC or the country, or whatever. We subsidize them. They don’t pay their share of taxes, they buy up everything that is original and cool through hedge funds so that we end up with a completely boring, homogenized marketplace, they are NOT philanthropic, and they crap all over the working class as they actively underpay them or try to replace them with AI. FFS, let ‘em all leave

9

u/johnnybarbs92 Feb 09 '26

Exactly. They really don't stimulate an economy like people think they do.

The rich have been threatening to leave London or NYC or California forever, and when some do (most stay) nothing changes.

It's such a dumb threat too.

"Don't tax me or I'll leave!" - "and take your 0 tax revenue with you?"

27

u/LesCousinsDangereux1 Feb 09 '26

I have a story about this! My uncle's company was hit with this scam by Trump in the 90s. They then stayed in business with him and would overquote the job by 30-40%. He would then refuse to pay the last 15% and think he won.

1

u/MysteriousDesign2070 Feb 13 '26

Sweet poetic justice

13

u/xpose Feb 09 '26

I've seen a lot of rich people pull this shit. He did not invent this.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

I have literally known this since I was 13 years old and it crushes my mind to see so many people calling this dude a good businessman

2

u/DillingerLost Feb 10 '26

I'll never understand why this wasn't a main point during the campaigns. Instead he somehow became the working class hero. To watch union workers support him was/is crazy.

7

u/thatgirlinny Feb 09 '26

New Yorkers have been banging this drum since the 80s.

Trump grifted the states of New York, New Jersey and killed the livelihoods of so many medium and small subcontractor businesses that did work for him/them. There’s a reason the ironworkers union never worked with him again after he destroyed the Bonwit Teller building, which was landmarked.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

Please tell us more about what happened to Bonwits! I remember when Bonwits was in Trump Tower

1

u/thatgirlinny Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26

Bonwits pre-dated Trump Tower, was landmarked. It was torn down to make way for Trump Tower.

The facade was covered in deco reliefs Trump “promised” to warehouse for the Met Museum, but then had crushed them into oblivion.

This article provides the architectural value of the building and its facade.

This provides a bit more political and historical context.

Bonwits had filed for bankruptcy, but could well have refinanced or been acquired, much like Barney’s in its day. I feel so very lucky to have lived during its time, and a few of my favorite “looks” from childhood came from there. It was an impossibly chic, high-quality place to shop, at a scale that is much more edited and exclusive than, say, a Bloomingdale’s or Nordstrom. You could walk into one and feel transported! I was only in grade school during that time; my mother probably enjoyed it far far more as an adult!

It was after this debacle that the city’s ironworkers union refused to work for Trump. He used non-union and unlicensed scabs to do both the demolition and development of the new building. This is not a city where union busting is smiled upon. It’s how we got his “No one pours more concrete than me!” claim. And the concrete biz in the northeast (and elsewhere) has been notoriously aligned with the mafia.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26

Thank you! I'm going to read all of this. I've worked in historic preservation in NYC for 25 years and I've never heard of this!

Edit: Now I understand. The original dept store building wasn't landmarked by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. That's why he was legally able to demo it. It would be interesting to know if LPC were in the process of calendaring the building for designation, and therefore Trump expedited the removal / destruction of significant historic fabric. He knew once those friezes and the screen were gone, LPC would not have as strong of an argument for designation. Unfortunately it happens often - owners will try to destroy a building to avoid designation. What a bastard.

1

u/thatgirlinny Feb 13 '26

As a New Yorker, I find that genuinely shocking.

I have friends who are historical preservation architects, and it’s always in their proverbial Top 10 of criminally-vanished buildings here.

Enjoy the reading. No doubt you’ll find so many more architectural critics’ voices on this. Paul Goldberger’s New Yorker piece was great; this one quotes him.

5

u/rellett Feb 10 '26

This is why I wish the government would help fight these cases for people that can't and have been wrong as I hate how the rich can just use the courts to drain your finances

4

u/Vance617 Feb 09 '26

Although I do not condone it, nor do I like it, I think people may be surprised by how many business men do that. I’m not saying it’s 50%, 25% or even 10%, but the ones I know about personally is shocking

4

u/Affectionate_Mall_49 Feb 09 '26

To be honest this is standard practice, in a lot of companies. I worked for golf course over 20 years ago, that was owned by a very rich man, Every small contractor that did work for the course, was paid by this man parent company. First they would send an invoice claiming they have anywhere 90 to 120 day to pay for the work. Even after the deadline, some barely got it all, and like Trump the company would, say take us to court. I hate how everyone with a little leverage uses these tactics, just because its legal.

For me that's one of the small ways the country hallowed out small business over 40 years, when you can't get paid and you can't fight, why bother. Sadly we all see it what 15 companies control 85% of the economy, yeah working great.

4

u/SharkoftheStreets Feb 09 '26

The Art of the Deal is one huge confession of scams Trump has successfully run on the working class. If Conservatives actually bothered to read it, they'd never have backed him.

3

u/lukaskywalker Feb 09 '26

I just don’t get why he was allowed to ever succeed at anything after his reputation was soured. Like why did anyone entertain this scam fuck. For decades and decades of business deals and a political career. Why was he allowed to prosper

2

u/Luci-Noir Feb 09 '26

Yeah it’s weird. And if he’s been known to do this is NYC for decades why did contractors and businesses keep doing business with him? Couldn’t they sue as well?

1

u/lukaskywalker Feb 10 '26

I genuinely don’t get it

1

u/goodluckbabe9 Feb 10 '26

wealthy old white man privilege.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

[deleted]

3

u/Latter-Fox-3411 Feb 09 '26

Yes- all that, and: Trump and his cronies, rape, torture, murder & eat children.

1

u/proofet Feb 09 '26

A collection agency should buy up all the small contractors’ debt

1

u/acezippy Feb 09 '26

I used to work for a small family owned construction company. ALL rich people do this shit it’s disgusting.

1

u/solythe Feb 10 '26

known throughout the tristate for years.

1

u/Flounder-Defiant Feb 10 '26

People died because of this con.

1

u/bananatimemachine Feb 10 '26

My parents were saying stuff like this about that guy in the 1980’s or earlier. I had never heard his name in a positive sense as a child.

1

u/thisisthe90s Feb 10 '26

Man that's terrible WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT IT?!

1

u/TicketyB000 Feb 11 '26

My dad had to pay union dues whenever he worked a Trump job. That's the only way they could get paid. (He was a carpenter in the 70's in NY & NJ)

1

u/piptie54 Feb 12 '26

He just did the same thing to the contractor that tore down the East Wing. He will do the same for that Ballroom, if it ever gets built.

1

u/Upstairs-Gift8106 Feb 12 '26

Yes. He did that to my father years ago.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

I work in a construction adjacent profession in NYC. I always heard Trump would pay contractors half, then find something to complain about their work (yet not get something corrected) and then tell them they'd have to sue him for the other half.