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Or this could just be a Producers-like scam: Trump does pretty well financially if he loses. He is paying his companies for all sorts of campaign costs, as well as paying family members. At the end, all cash left over as campaign contributions can become personal income to Trump.

Sort of a covered bet: He wins if he wins, and wins if he loses.

if i recollect correctly, leftover money from a campaign never goes to a candidate personally .... i believe it is returned to donors

The Donald is a big admirer of asbestos, the notorious carcinogen that he considers "the greatest fire-proofing material ever used." He's so convinced of its powers, in fact, that he thinks a lack of asbestos is the reason the Twin Towers collapsed on September 11.

"If we didn't remove [the] incredibly powerful fire retardant asbestos & replace it with junk that doesn't work, the World Trade Center would never have burned down," Trump wrote in a tweet in October 2012. About 400 tons of asbestos reportedly went into the structures before the builders halted its use in 1971, anticipating that the government would soon ban the material.

Trump was repeating an argument he made in front of a subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in 2005, when he testified about how quickly and elegantly he could renovate the United Nations building in New York. "A lot of people could say that if the World Trade Center had asbestos it wouldn't have burned down. It wouldn't have melted, okay?" he told the senators. Comparing other materials to it, he argued, is "like a heavyweight champion against a lightweight from high school."

On June 16, 1990, the day after Donald Trump missed a $43 million payment on bonds he used to finance Trump Castle, the mogul visited his Atlantic City casino for a blowout celebrating his 44th birthday. The party capped off a day that had started with a pro-Trump rally held by casino employees—"Let's stand behind our Donald, because he's the father of our babies," one worker urged the crowd. The rally featured a "professional motivator" to whip up the audience, and one worker presented the tycoon with a gift: an eight-foot-tall "rug portrait" of Trump.

The party at the Castle's Crystal Ballroom was an over-the-top bash with bands, confetti, and a cheering crowd. Robin Leach, the host of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, walked out of a fake Trump Shuttle to act as a hype man before other celebrities showed up in person and onstage. As then-Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett described in his book, Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth:

Dolly Parton and Elton John appeared on giant screens to wish Donald a happy birthday, with Parton asking to work the Taj instead of her regular Castle gig and promising to charge only $100,000 a show. Joe Piscopo did his Sinatra imitation on the birthday song, followed by a string of Jap gags—oblivious to the presence of several Japanese high rollers in the front rows—even cracking that Atlantic City would be owned by the Japanese if it wasn't for Donald. A George Bush imitator declared Donald should be President...A chorus line in skintight outfits gyrated around chairs singing longingly about Donald's dollars. Then Andrew Dice Clay appeared on another giant screen to thank Donald for the Taj hookers, saying they had stamps on their asses to show they'd had their shots.

Sadly, Barrett couldn't attend the event. He was arrested on his third attempt to get into the ballroom and cover the party. But his research assistant managed to enter the ballroom and cover the festivities.