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The criminal tax-fraud trial against the Trump Organization is raising questions about just how the company founded by the former president operates.
Donald Trump's New York-based real-estate business is on trial over allegations that it avoided paying taxes by compensating employees through "off-the-books" benefits such as luxury items and apartments.
The trial, in which Trump is not accused of any wrongdoing, is set to feature testimony from longtime Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, who has pleaded guilty to 15 counts relating to tax evasion, including conspiring to carry out a 15-year scheme to defraud tax authorities.
The trial has now been delayed until Monday, November 7, after Trump Organization's controller, Jeffrey McConney, tested positive for coronavirus after taking the stand at the State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
Newsweek has examined just what we know about how the Trump family business operates.
Size of the Trump Organization
The Trump Organization is a major company that comprises more than 500 corporate entities. Hundreds of these companies bear the Trump name, such as their golf courses and hotels.
However, there are indications that the scale of the company has been winding down, due to a mixture of the coronavirus pandemic and Trump's divisive presidency affecting business.
In May 2022, the former president's flagship Trump International Hotel, located just a short distance from the White House in Washington D.C., was sold off to become a Waldorf Astoria.
The Trump Organization sold the lease on the Old Post Office building to CGI Merchant Group for $375 million amid reports the hotel was hemorrhaging money down the years.
Trump Organization Turnover
As the Trump Organization is a private business, it does not have to make public any of its financial information such as quarterly earnings. The former president has also notably refused to release his tax returns.
Trump's annual unaudited financial disclosures to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics are the main source in estimating how much money his companies are making, which—as New York prosecutors have alleged—may be unreliable.
A separate civil investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James also accuses Trump of fraudulently inflating the value of his properties and assets, including those owned by the Trump Organization to achieve economic benefits such as bigger bank loans.
In January 2021, The Trump Organization's businesses, including hotels and golf courses, were reported to have generated at least $446.3 million in sales in 2019.
However, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the company reported revenue dropping 40 percent to $278 million in 2020.
In 2020, data from Trump's tax returns released by The New York Times showed that the former president had also reported losses of more than $315.6 million since 2000, including the Trump National Doral Miami, a large Florida golf resort, with losses of more than $162 million.
Trump Organization Employees
Trump no longer runs the company, having relinquished power to sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, when he entered the White House in 2017.
Since then, the company has been controlled by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust legal entity, essentially putting the former president's eldest son at the head of the organization.
However, it should be noted that, even if a jury found the Trump Organization guilty of fraud, neither the former president Trump nor his sons would be held personally liable as the charges are against a corporate entity.
Other top-ranking executives at the Trump Organization include Larry Glick, executive vice-president for development; Matthew Calamari, chief operating officer; Ron Lieberman, executive vice-president; and Alan Garten, executive vice-president and chief legal officer.
In terms of total number of employees the Trump Organization has, in 2015, CNN reported, while citing PrivCo, the private-company financial database, that the private company has 22,450 employees. However, whether this number is still entirely accurate seven years later, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, is unclear.
Newsweek has contacted the Trump Organization for comment.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more