“I took $1 million and turned it into $10 billion!” is a common brag from Donald Trump. Naturally, anybody who has ever questioned that figure is immediately set upon by Trump and his boot licking sycophants who will declare those questioning to be jealous losers.

Trump proclaimed throughout the primaries he was “self-funding” (which really was not true) and that nobody “owned” him because he didn’t have to take money from “special interests.” Remember when Sheldon Adelson was backing Marco Rubio? This is what Trump had to say

Sheldon Adelson is looking to give big dollars to Rubio because he feels he can mold him into his perfect little puppet. I agree!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2015

Now that Adelson has said he’ll back Trump to the tune of $100 million? Totally an Adelson fan!

An incredible honor to receive the endorsement of a person I
have such tremendous respect for. Thank you, Sheldon! https://t.co/nW0N3OO4mw

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2016

Trump didn’t mention the $100 million.

Why would he need Adelson’s money? Simple. Trump doesn’t have enough of his own. From the Wall Street Journal:

Donald Trump, after long saying his self-financed campaign shielded him from special interests, is preparing to start raising large donations. He reversed course, he said in early May, to ensure his campaign has the resources to compete with Hillary Clinton.

It might seem a strange reason for a man who says he is worth $10 billion. But a close analysis of Mr. Trump’s finances shows that in terms of ready cash, he would be ill-equipped to foot the bill himself.

When his campaign began last summer, a financial disclosure Mr. Trump filed said he had between about $78 million and $232 million in cash and relatively liquid assets such as stocks and bonds.

How much does he make each year? Hard to tell since he won’t release any of his tax returns but according to the WSJ analysis:

This would leave hundreds of millions to be made up. And Mr. Trump’s businesses don’t produce that much in a year, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows. His 2016 pretax income, according to the analysis, is likely to be about $160 million.

So much for those “billions.” Earning $160 million a year is nothing to sneeze at. That is a lot of money.

The issue here is, Trump managed to sell himself to the 39% of the people who voted for him in the primaries as a true “outsider” who wasn’t controlled by anybody. Trust me, I’ve had more than enough Trump supporters yell at me their guy is not “bought and paid for.”

So much for that. 

Chances are, there will be some kind of rationalizing this complete change of heart but it will likely be a laughable excuse. After all, this is the same man who proclaimed anybody that booed him at a debate was somebody that gave somebody other than himself, money.

This really is not surprising. Trump is not a man at all concerned about principles or ethics. He wants to be President and while railing about money and donations during the primary helped him, he no longer needs to engage in such rhetoric. To him it was a means to an end, nothing more.