Time for Trump to face reality

By Marvin Adelman, Las Vegas

Friday, Dec. 9, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Donald Trump is a reluctant patriot. I say this because I believe he didn’t want to win the presidency, nor did he expect to. I think his mission was to lose, then start his own TV and newspaper company, a la Fox News. This would have made him gazillons of dollars. Instead, like the mouse that roared, he won. Now what?

He is faced with the stark realities of life. Either he totally divests himself of all his holdings or else all those properties will become poor investments for the following reason: Rich people don’t want to be disturbed or feel threatened by living in a Trump-labeled property. This becomes very risky when the president has his name on the place you’re living in, especially in foreign countries. Witness the fact that three apartment complexes in New York voted to remove the Trump name.

That leaves Trump with two options:

1. Sell off all his properties and place the money legitimately in a blind trust with outside trustees, as every other former president has done.

2. Fight to keep all his properties with his brand name and run the risks associated with that strategy.

I refer to Trump as the reluctant patriot because, so far, he is conducting himself in a fashion that says I can do it all. Life has a funny way of saying no way to a man, no matter who he is.