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Columbine: We stand behind the story
Although sheriff's officials have downplayed their role in revealing details about the Columbine investigation, no one has challenged a single fact reported.

[09/25/99]

Capital crusader
The World Bank's Joseph Stiglitz is articulating a new philosophy for global economic reform, and ruffling feathers at the International Monetary Fund.
By David Moberg
[09/25/99]

He vs. she, part 1
Even new resident Monica can't handle this one, as Rudy and Hillary prepare to take their fearsome domestic quarrel to upstate New York.
By Jake Tapper
[09/24/99]

Buchanan, McCain go head-to-head
GOP presidential hopefuls debate whether U.S. had any business stopping Hitler.
By Jake Tapper
[09/23/99]

Murky future for tax cuts
Republicans regroup and plot strategy after President Clinton's veto of their $792 billion tax-cut package.
By Sarah Keech
[09/23/99]

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The rumors of a Trump candidacy emerged as a last-ditch effort by Minnesota Reform Gov. Jesse Ventura to find somebody to stop the Buchanan juggernaut. Ventura's closest political adviser, Dean Barkley, said Thursday: "I've heard that Pat has started organizing in some states already. If he announces soon," Barkley worried, "our candidate can't wait till next June. Someone would have to announce within 30 days of Buchanan's announcement. Maybe even 30 days from now."

Trump told USA Today on Friday that he'll make his decision sometime in January, after his new book, "The America We Deserve," is published. Is Trump's flirtation with Reform more than a way of hyping his book and his businesses? There's no question that Trump is, as a non-Washington counselor puts it, "seriously engaged" in exploring the presidential race. His political advisers tell us that they're currently negotiating with three Nevada-based signature-collection firms to see what it would cost to get Trump on the ballot in the 29 states where Reform has no ballot line.

Richard Winger, the country's leading expert on ballot access, says that the going rate is about $2 per signature for paid petition gatherers, and that it would take around 350,000 valid signatures to get Trump on those state ballots. Figure roughly a million dollars -- chump change to Trump, and a bargain for the all the publicity he'd reap from a presidential bid. One of the Donald's political consultants estimates that he'd have to spend $20 million to get the Reform nomination. That would mean a lavish, Rolls-Royce campaign designed to lure as many as possible of the 6.5 million casino customers in Trump's database into the Reform party. "We've been polling them periodically for years, and they just love him" says a Trump adviser. "We did a huge market survey six months ago. He's spent 25 years building this persona, and they like it."

There has been speculation that Trump has so much debt that his creditors wouldn't let him run. Not so, says the top executive of one of Trump's companies. "The debt is all held by Trump's publicly-traded company," he says. "It's about $1.8 billion, and it's all in the form of high-yield bonds held by thousands of people who only care if their dividend checks don't arrive. This year we had a gross income of over $300 million." Moreover, Trump's father Fred, who was worth over $1 billion himself, recently died and Trump's share of the estate -- which has to be whacked up among his three living siblings and the children of a deceased fourth -- is probably worth at least $200 million. That, added to Trump's already considerable personal liquidity, gives him more than enough to run without feeling any pinch.

Contrary to public perception, while Trump may be an electoral neophyte as a candidate he is not green to politics. As a young man, he joined the family real-estate business -- a highly politicized enterprise, especially in New York. Trump, in effect, became the company bagman, handing out contributions to politicians in return for favorable treatment for the family's holdings. He's been an equal-opportunity influence buyer, building his own empire in part by playing the pols like violins, ladling out the bucks to Democrats like Gov. Mario Cuomo and Mayor Ed Koch when they were in power, then switching with ease to Republicans George Pataki and Rudy Guiliani when they took office.

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