For Trump at the Top, a Slippery Perch : $2-Billion Cash Crunch Has Creditors Concerned, Journal Says

Flamboyant deal maker Donald Trump, promoting his new book called “Trump: Surviving at the Top,” may have spoken too soon.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that the acquisitive-minded real estate and casino mogul is facing a cash crunch that may force him to give up big chunks of his empire and curb his opulent lifestyle.

A spokesman for Trump did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

At the very least, the newspaper indicated in a front-page article, Trump’s cash shortage is likely to result in a humbling change of lifestyle for the man who has everything from casinos, condos and a board game to a bicycle race named after him.

Fat that could be trimmed includes yachts, mansions, helicopters and private jets, the paper said.

Bankers owed about $2 billion by Trump are pressing for the sale of some assets, for management changes at Trump’s principal holding company and for a much more conservative operating style, the paper said.

Trump’s creditors are concerned that many of his properties, including his new Taj Majal casino in Atlantic City, N.J., and the Trump Shuttle airline, aren’t generating enough cash flow to allow Trump to meet interest and principal payments due in the next few months, the newspaper said.

In April, Trump said he would like to sell the shuttle, which he bought from Eastern Airlines for $365 million last year, and would consider the sale of other assets because he needed to be flush with cash in order to make new acquisitions.

Trump has been stung by a continuing weak real estate market in the East as well as a slow start for his Taj Majal casino, which opened in April.