Trump’s illusory wealth ran on serial debt convincingly offloaded to fresh institutions

Evidence

Less visible to the public was the extent to which Trump’s wealth was mostly illusory. He had perfected a version of “fake it till you make it” that conveniently skipped the “making it” part. Despite six bankruptcies, Trump maintained the facade of an affluent mogul living a life of extreme luxury. He demonstrated that debt could be a tool, not a trap, as long as another spate of financial institutions could be persuaded that they wouldn’t be fleeced like the last ones. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 421

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Marx’s broader mechanism claim about status as signal — here the signal (wealth) is detached from underlying substance, a live example of the omnivore-era brand-over-reality collapse.