Those who tell the truth about multi-level marketing (MLM) — that it is a pseudo-business, a mere camouflage for a classic pyramid scheme — face a wall of myths, deceptions and delusions. Charting the pyramid model and its flawed structure and characteristics, documenting the 99% failure rates, reporting the testimony of insiders in lawsuits and books who offer first hand accounts of the calculated lies about “income opportunity” – none of this breaks down that wall of deception. The media continues to buy MLM’s masquerade as a “fallback for consumers during the Recession.”
But then along comes a MLM spokesman, a hero of the business, who reveals the sham better than any analysis ever could. Enter Donald Trump. Bankrupt, scheming, abandoning those who loaned him money, ruining those who invested in his stock, while he smiles, postures for cameras, and pretends to be a financial expert and offers yet another bogus scheme for investors. This is the perfect caricature of the MLM industry.
The latest news on Trump is that his casino and resort empire – Trump Entertainment Resorts, which owns Atlantic City’s Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, and Trump Marina Hotel Casino – are completely bankrupt and Trump has left the scene, leaving investors to their fate. This is a pattern for Donald Trump. It foretells the doomed fortunes of thousands of consumers who will follow him in his new multi-level marketing venture, Trump Network, a recycled old MLM scheme selling yet another health concoction.
In the newest development, Trump withdrew from his plan to “buy” the very company he bankrupted. The largest creditor, a bank, is now in line to take over the business from Trump.
Just before bankruptcy Trump abandoned his official position by resigning from the board of the company, giving an appearance of distance from ensuing catastrophe. The stock had already plummeted to pennies, wiping out the investments of shareholders. He then pompously announced that he would buy the company that he had bankrupted. But, now he has “withdrawn” from that deal and is reportedly “unavailable for comment.”
Trump’s “success” is the mirror image of that championed by MLM. Those few at the top who “win” in MLM do so from the losses of thousands of others. They “failed” by believing the bogus story about “income opportunity.” After they lose their money and “quit,” the winners claim no responsibility and move on to make the same bogus offer to other hopeful investors. Often, after causing financial losses to tens of thousands of followers, the “winners” open a new MLM with exactly the same fraudulent income proposition, now under a new name.
