
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 8, 1990                   TAG: 9006080734
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TRUMP TRUMPED

NO ONE should relish the troubles of others. But Donald Trump, whose ego is as colossal as the monuments he built to honor himself, seems so deserving of comeuppance. As we watch him toddling around - looking for cash and trying to keep his billionnaire balance while his creditors threaten to call in their chips - the temptation to gloat is just too strong.

Trump, real estate and gambling mogul, personifies the insatiable appetite for more and bigger. More and bigger business take-overs, more and bigger casinos, more and bigger yachts, more and bigger self-aggrandizements: bicycle races and books, airlines and hotels, even a committee formed to draft him for president in 1987.

Throughout the 1980s, he splattered his name across public relations coups and glittery successes and became a capitalistic hero to many in the me-first generation. Countless young entrepreneurs have dreamed of making it like the Donald.

Now it appears that he has built a financial house of cards. He may be forced to demolish his empire by selling assets to repay money owed to junk bond holders and big New York banks. Several IOUs fall due on June 15 and failure to meet his financial obligations could force him to file for protection of the federal bankruptcy court for one or more of his projects. He reportedly is scrambling for ways to restore cash flow.

Trump has imagination and the willingness to take risks. These are characteristics shared by many of the nation's most successful and admired business leaders -- and we would not want to see the traits spliced out of American genes. Occasional failure is the underside of risk and ambition, without which this nation could not thrive.

Still, it looks like Trump may have gotten carried away by his own insufferable arrogance. If the fix for his current problems includes a dose of humility, fine. America does not need heroes whose only vision is what they see in their mirrors and their moneybelts.

by CNB