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Jason Pack: Donald Trump would run America like his failed casinos

The Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey, closed in October 2016 after running into financial problems. Photo by SortOfNatural How will Republican Donald Trump run the country if he wins the presidential election on November 8? Based on his record in the gaming industry, Jason Pack doesn't think anything good will come of it:

Trump's lifelong connections to the gaming industry and the sway it has given him in state capitols reveal both to whom he is indebted and what core values define his business practices.

In the 1980s, Trump grew his casino business, deflecting criticisms about his reliance on overleveraged debt, by deploying political and alleged mob connections.

He also ensured that regulators in New Jersey denied his competitors the chance to do the same. He has on numerous occasions funded media campaigns to smear the reputation of Native American tribes that were attempting to open casinos in the New York City metropolitan area.

These practices offer a taste of the economic policies which Trump is now proposing on a global scale - stifling competition through monopolistic market capture.

Blocking competition is a tried and tested pattern for Trump. When his initial casinos failed to turn a profit, he practised stock manipulation, leveraged buyouts, and engaged in other questionable activities to buy out competitors and shore up his monopoly over Atlantic City gaming.

In 1993, he also testified that Connecticut's Pequot tribe did "not look like [real] Indians" hoping that they would not be granted tribal sovereignty to open Foxwoods casino - correctly predicting that doing so would decimate his Atlantic City ventures.

In short, over the decades, Trump has been the brazen bully of a monopolistic cartel, winning the plaudits of the likes of Sheldon Adelson.