As an excellent cover story in Bloomberg Businessweek reported, Trump is basically out of the construction business these days. His is mostly a licensing company now; he sells the right to slap his name on buildings and products. To say that Trump is “only successful in the branding and self-promotion department” is like saying that “Apple is only successful in the selling phones, computers, and tablets market” or that “Uber is only successful in the ride-share business.”
And it’s simply not the case that Trump is “fair-to-middling” at running his business. In fact, Trump’s business is insanely profitable. According to that Businessweek story, the Trump Organization brought in about $605 million in revenue last year, and managed to clear somewhere between $275 and $325 million in profit. That’s a phenomenally high profit margin (which, of course, is a key sign of the health of a business). Trump’s approximately 50 percent margin means his company is more profitable than Pfizer, Gazprom, and Hyundai – all the most profitable companies in their respective industries. Trump’s company even has higher margins than Apple. Who knew? It turns out Steve Jobs was only “fair-to-middling” at running a business.