Zero Mostel as Max Bialystok in the 1968 film version of “The Producers.” [Note Trumpian comb-over]<\/figcaption><\/figure>Donald Trump declared an eye-popping, one-year loss of $916 million on his 1995 federal tax return. Sound like something you once saw on Broadway or in a movie? It is. Trump is the new Max Bialystok. Bialystok is the producer in \u201cThe Producers\u201d who\u2014along with his mousy accountant, Leo Bloom, gleefully plot a get-rich-quick scheme in which they would oversubscribe a Broadway musical and make sure that it bombed, so they could take it as a loss at the same time that they pocketed the investors\u2019 [little old ladies\u2019] money.<\/p>\nMax and Leo ended up inadvertently producing a smash hit and then going to jail when they couldn\u2019t pay back the investors. Theirs was a brilliant scheme that went wrong. Trump’s foray into the Atlantic City casino business was an unintended, unmitigated disaster, created not by a brilliant idea, but by some very bad business decisions. His losses were huge,\u00a0 [if his colossal numbers are to be believed]. And they put the lie to his claims about his entrepreneurial prowess.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure if this is life imitating art, or vice versa. And the analogy isn\u2019t perfect, I know. Max Bialystok failed to fail. Trump just flat out failed–“bigly.” . And the revelation is simply delicious.<\/p>\n
A standing ovation to whoever “produced” the documents that let us in on this secret, and to the New York Times<\/a>, for revealing it.<\/p>\nHere’s the trailer for the original 1968 movie, “The Producers.” Zero Mostel plays Max Bialystok with a crazed, manic energy that is hilariously reminiscent of Donald Trump, don’t you think?<\/p>\n