Richard Branson Reveals Trump Once Questioned His Billionaire Status
Richard Branson’s new book 'Finding My Virginity' reportedly includes a 2004 letter where Donald Trump questions the Virgin Group founder’s billionaire net worth status.
Richard Branson’s new book 'Finding My Virginity' reportedly includes a 2004 letter where Donald Trump questions the Virgin Group founder’s billionaire net worth status.
According to The Independent, which reprinted excerpts of the letter from the book, Trump was commenting about the difficulties faced by the airline industry at the time when he wrote, in part, “It is obviously a terrible business and I can’t imagine, with fuel prices etc, that you can be doing any better in it than anyone else…Actually, I wonder out loud how you can be anywhere close to a billionaire and be in that business. Perhaps the title of your show, The Rebel Billionaire, is misleading?”
He was referring to Branson’s 'Apprentice'-like television show which Trump also slammed for its “dismal ratings.”
“In any event, do not use me to promote your rapidly sinking show – you are a big boy, try doing it yourself!” Trump warned Branson.
The Virgin mogul’s book isn’t the first time he has called out previous interactions with Trump; in 2016, during the U.S. presidential campaign, Branson wrote on his Virgin.com blog about how they had met for the first time years ago.
“Even before the starters arrived [Trump] began telling me about how he had asked a number of people for help after his latest bankruptcy and how five of them were unwilling to help," Branson recounted. "He told me he was going to spend the rest of his life destroying these five people. He didn’t speak about anything else and I found it very bizarre.”
Soon after the blog post, Branson told MSNBC about Trump, “He’s a very vindictive, rather dangerous, rather sad man.”
“I've found it rather an embarrassment to the world to have an individual running America who...does not speak the truth all the time, who tries to, instead of opening borders to immigrants, has made it really difficult to get in, and the list goes on and on and on," Branson said after Trump became president. "I think Trump is the one businessperson I know who is certainly not the right person to be running a great country like America.”
Richard Branson’s new book 'Finding My Virginity' reportedly includes a 2004 letter where Donald Trump questions the Virgin Group founder’s billionaire net worth status.
According to The Independent, which reprinted excerpts of the letter from the book, Trump was commenting about the difficulties faced by the airline industry at the time when he wrote, in part, “It is obviously a terrible business and I can’t imagine, with fuel prices etc, that you can be doing any better in it than anyone else…Actually, I wonder out loud how you can be anywhere close to a billionaire and be in that business. Perhaps the title of your show, The Rebel Billionaire, is misleading?”
He was referring to Branson’s 'Apprentice'-like television show which Trump also slammed for its “dismal ratings.”
“In any event, do not use me to promote your rapidly sinking show – you are a big boy, try doing it yourself!” Trump warned Branson.
The Virgin mogul’s book isn’t the first time he has called out previous interactions with Trump; in 2016, during the U.S. presidential campaign, Branson wrote on his Virgin.com blog about how they had met for the first time years ago.
“Even before the starters arrived [Trump] began telling me about how he had asked a number of people for help after his latest bankruptcy and how five of them were unwilling to help," Branson recounted. "He told me he was going to spend the rest of his life destroying these five people. He didn’t speak about anything else and I found it very bizarre.”
Soon after the blog post, Branson told MSNBC about Trump, “He’s a very vindictive, rather dangerous, rather sad man.”
“I've found it rather an embarrassment to the world to have an individual running America who...does not speak the truth all the time, who tries to, instead of opening borders to immigrants, has made it really difficult to get in, and the list goes on and on and on," Branson said after Trump became president. "I think Trump is the one businessperson I know who is certainly not the right person to be running a great country like America.”