USA Today has a lengthy investigation into decades of shady business practices by Trump and his companies, and finds that dozens of small businesses have been underpaid, paid late, or not paid at all for their work.
Trump and daughter Ivanka, who is an executive at one of her father’s companies, sat for an interview with the paper and dismissed the complaints as old and minuscule in comparison to the millions of dollars flowing into and out of the company.
But many of the complaints in question come from small businesses, contracted to work on everything from carpeting to plumbing to painting at any of Trump’s properties. One, the Edward J. Friel Company, was owed more than $80,000 by Trump, never got paid, and eventually had to close. Others have outstanding bills climbing into the millions. Both Trumps defended the practice by suggesting the contractors did substandard work and didn’t deserve to be paid.
That includes their own lawyers, who were hired to defend Trump from lawsuits brought by unpaid workers, only to wind up suing the mogul themselves for unpaid legal fees.