The main promoter of the Trump Ocean Resort Baja Mexico project was Los Angeles-based developer Jason Grosfeld.
So had Trump been burned in Mexico by a partnership with a Mexican crook? Actually, no. Some of the money was returned, but some $22 million was “missing,” apparently spent on other things. Trump took his name off the project and the promoter who was left told the depositors that due to the 2008 Wall Street collapse he couldn’t get the financing he needed. The project, about 10 miles from the US border and bearing the Trump name and images, was heavily marketed to upscale baby boomers in Southern California.ĭozens of people paid hefty pre-construction deposits, more than $30 million worth, for their Trump Ocean Resort Baja Mexico condos - and nothing was ever built. Or what about New York City, where it’s hard to do construction without running into the mafia in one way or another? In Manhattan the concrete work for the Trump Tower was done by S&A, a company controlled by the Gambino family’s Paul Castellano and the Genovese family’s Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno.īut if Trump has an issue with Mexican gangsters, might that have to do with a failed Trump project near Tijuana? The Trump Ocean Resort Baja Mexico was to be a luxury resort and condo complex. A New Jersey crime commission report adds that two mafia-owned construction companies were used in the construction of the Trump Plaza. Trump bought the land on which the Trump Plaza casino was built from Philadelphia hit man Salvatore Testa, the son of the one-time boss of the Philadelphia mafia, Philip “Chicken Man” Testa. Their photos together are all over the Internet.īut all along, hasn’t Trump made the distinction between rich criminals and poor ones? But it’s not as if Trump doesn’t know the man. Has Donald Trump said anything about this Latin American immigrant on the campaign trail? Not a peep. Take a poll in Panama about who is the sleaziest Panamanian of us all, and a top contender would be one Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal, now living in Miami as Panama’s legal system pursues several criminal investigations against him. If Trump appeals to those Americans whose stereotype of Latin Americans is that the men are all gangsters and the women are all whores, does he make that pitch as a matter of sincere personal belief based upon his own experiences?
Does he say those things about Latin Americans because a pollster has told him that this is what he needs to say to mobilize ultra-right support in his bid for the presidency, or because it reflects what he has noticed about people with whom he and his businesses have dealt? Trump has, after all, been involved in some noteworthy real estate ventures in Panama and Mexico, and his Miss Universe pageants do seem to show a certain preference for light-skinned Latin American women. In the current contest for the Republican presidential nomination, the question becomes relevant because Donald Trump has made sweeping broad-brush characterizations of Latin Americans and meanwhile he and his network of companies do and have done business in Latin America. With Donald Trump, the question becomes all the more reasonable because it has been asked before and the answers have raised concern. However, when somebody runs for president of the United States, those with whom she or he associates and does business reasonably do become matters of public interest.
Is that an unfair question? Perhaps it is, suggesting guilt by association as it does. Is Donald Trump’s business operation mobbed up? The Donald’s Latin American business associatesĭonald Trump, about Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants But it’s not as if The Trump Organization hasn’t done business in Latin America. Photo by the Tourism Ministry Donald Trump, whose mother and paternal grandparents were immigrants, rails against both legal and illegal Latin American immigrants, which has deeply offended Latin Americans. Some of the specific suspicions about Shamah in turn point to some unsavory ties in common with Khafif, who is the main developer and owner of the Trump Ocean Club in Panama City. And what did former US ambassador to Panama Barbara Stephenson say about Shamah? He’s “ suspected of links to drug traffickers” and those suspicions were such that Shamah, even when he held a high post in the Panamanian government, has been denied a visa to enter or travel through the United States. At the time the photo was taken Shamah was tourism minister, but do the connections go back to an earlier time? Various associations, direct and indirect, raise that question. Salomón Shamah, Roger Khafif, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump.
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