Donald Trump praises Saddam Hussein these days. “He was a bad guy, really bad guy. But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good,” Trump said on Tuesday. Last fall, Trump said that the world would be “100 percent” better if Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar el-Qaddafi were still in power.
But you know when Trump was really angry at Saddam? Back in the early 1990s, when Trump — deep in debt and piling on loans in the midst of a recession — blamed the Iraqi leader for his business woes.
In August 1990, Trump couldn’t break even on his Taj Mahal casino hotel and the Trump Shuttle airline — but it wasn’t his fault. “Nobody projected that oil prices would go through the roof because of some madman in the Middle East,” Trump said, according to Newsday. “This just adds to and makes the recession worse.”
Trump owed his creditors $245 million for the Trump Shuttle, and he had missed a $1.1 million interest payment. The airline merged with another company in 1992.
But some analysts, like Barbara J. Wedelstaedt of the Duff & Phelps financial consulting firm, said the economy was already unstable before Iraq’s war. “Recession fears and concerns about bank credit quality were already being discussed, and Donald Trump and William Farley [owner of a private equity firm] created their own financial problems without the help of the crazy Iraqi,” she told PRNewswire at the time.
In 1991, citing the Persian Gulf War, Trump renegotiated a deal for a heavyweight boxing championship between Evander Holyfield and George Foreman, the Associated Press reported. The war would make it hard for gamblers from East Asia to visit, Trump said.
Trump had signed a contract promising $11 million to promoters for holding the event at Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, but he wanted to reduce costs to between $5 million and $6 million. “It’s a fabrication on behalf of Donald Trump to use the war to renegotiate a deal. I think it’s repulsive,” Holyfield’s promoter said.
In the end, the fight was held at Trump’s casino, and Trump was able to negotiate a new contract. He lowered the site fee, but not the ticket prices. The fight grossed a record $75 million.
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
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I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
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