Trump beat all odds two years ago, winning the presidency by appealing to the working class, who fell for his schtick of being a man of the people, never mind the fact that he was a spray painted reality television star whose cheesy branding included gold plated everything and a nude model from Slovenia to whom he was married.  The irony in his common man appeal is that he has a decades-long record of screwing the common man by not paying his bills and being “litigator in chief”, using the courts as a weapon to fend off legitimate bill collectors.

USA Today has published a report that documents a pattern of unreasonably withheld payments by the Trump Organization, driving many contractors into financial distress and even bankruptcy.  This behavior goes all the way back to the 1980s, and continued even after Trump started taking billions from Russian oligarchs. Trump has been the subject of over 3,500 lawsuits, many of which are over unpaid or underpaid contractors.

This report rings very true to me since I have a friend who told me a story two years ago that he had done work for the Trump Organization over a decade before, running up a $40,000 bill.  Trump refused to pay.  After months of arguing, one of his lackeys told my friend that if he wanted any money, he’d have to sue, so he gave up.  Months later, Trump’s people had the gall to call him for another job, telling him that if he’d do this next job, they’d pay him for the first.  My friend wisely told them to go to hell.

Not paying bills, especially to individual contractors, is the worst of the worst.  Trump has demonstrated for decades that he is just that.