ET

[ET @MM2USA]

@jacobincambodia Typical American take. That’s why American culture is falling apart. Wtf are you doing in Cambodia?

[ET @MM2USA]

@aurumamare Blacks didn’t build any of these institutions or the US economy. Someone is completely ignorant of history and facts.

[ET @MM2USA]

@drterrysimpson “That feeling should not be dismissed.” Then, wrote the rest of his post dismissing the Asian families’ take on this clearly racist admission tactic. Which university system do you work for?

[ET @MM2USA]

@JeffAnderson_ % of Asians would be much higher if it wasn’t for DEI

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

I am the Chairman and CEO of Vornado Realty Trust. Eighty-four years old. Seven buildings in Midtown Manhattan. I said what I said.

I said "tax the rich" is the equivalent of a racial slur. I said it at REBNY. Into the microphone. Eight hundred people. Median net worth in that room was north of $240 million, I know because our CFO ran the guest list through a Bloomberg terminal as a joke, and then it wasn't a joke. And when I said it, twelve people applauded. The rest nodded. One woman in the third row mouthed, "Finally." I saw her.

Sharon, my communications advisor, Columbia, $430,000 a year, very bright, Sharon wants me to walk it back. She drafted something. "Mr. Roth's comments were intended to highlight the emotional impact of political rhetoric on business communities." I read it. I put it in the trash can on my desk. Not the recycling. The trash. Here's my clarification: I understated it.

"Tax the rich" is worse than a slur. A slur is just a word. It doesn't come with a CBO score. Nobody is introducing a bill called the Racial Slur Implementation Act of 2026. But there are seventeen active proposals in Congress, I had Sharon count them, seventeen proposals designed to take more of my money. My money. Mine. Money I acquired by being better at acquiring Manhattan commercial real estate than anyone alive for four consecutive decades. That is not a crime. That is a record.

I pay property taxes on $18.2 billion in assessed assets. $412 million a year. Say it again: four hundred and twelve million. I carry that number. It's the first thing I think about when I see a protest sign. I think: I pay more in property tax than the entire annual budget of the city of Fort Lauderdale. I looked this up. Fort Lauderdale: $408 million. Steve Roth: $412 million. I am a small city. And the city doesn't get screamed at.

My effective tax rate last year was 11.4 percent. I say this because I believe in transparency and because I'm not ashamed of it. The rate reflects the legal structure of real estate investment trusts, depreciation schedules Congress established in 1986, and carried interest provisions that both parties have voted to preserve for forty years. I did not write these laws. I organized my entire financial existence around them with the help of nine full-time tax professionals who have offices on the 38th floor of 888 Seventh Avenue, which I also own. Their office is in my building. Their work protects my buildings. This is not a loophole. Sharon calls it a loophole. I've told her: a structure maintained by nine attorneys across four decades is not a loophole. A loophole is something you slip through once. This is architecture. This is the foundation. This is the building.

Last Tuesday, same as every Tuesday, I walked past 1290 Sixth Avenue. My building. And there was a man. Same man as last week. Same sign: "Billionaires Pay Your Fair Share." He was standing on my sidewalk. My literal sidewalk — my company owns the ground lease. He was maybe thirty. He was wearing a jacket I would estimate cost $60. My lunch that day was $114. For one. I am telling you this not to boast but because these are facts. He has decided I'm his enemy. Based on a number he saw on a Forbes list. He doesn't know what I pay. He doesn't know what my buildings cost this city in construction jobs and lease revenue and foot traffic. He knows one number. He has made one judgment.

I see him every Tuesday. I've started to notice things. He brings coffee from the cart, not the Starbucks. He has a backpack that looks heavy. He doesn't look unhealthy. He looks like he probably works somewhere, but not on Tuesdays. I've wondered: does he have a job? Does he have a building? Does he have anything that depends on him the way 4,200 employees depend on me? I suspect not. And yet he has opinions about my tax rate.

I gave $22 million to charity last year. The Met. NYU Langone. Mount Sinai. I gave a building to NYU. Not money for a building — a building. The Steven Roth Residence Hall. It houses 400 students. That man with the sign has never housed 400 students. He hasn't housed one. He gives cardboard. I give structures. This is not a comparison I'm making to flatter myself. It's just arithmetic.

When I said what I said at REBNY, I was saying what every person in that room believes and none of them will say publicly because they have communications advisors and the communications advisors all went to Columbia and they all say "unhelpful." I'm eighty-four. I'm too old for helpful. I'm too old to perform restraint for people who hate me for something I can't change.

I didn't choose to be rich. I chose to be good at one thing for a very long time, and this is what happened. You don't punish someone for that. You don't legislate against someone for that.

My net worth fluctuates between $3.8 and $4.1 billion depending on the quarter. I fluctuate more in a fiscal week than that man on my sidewalk will earn in his life. Both of these are facts. Only one of them is considered polite to say.

They want me to apologize.

I'll be dead in ten years. Twenty if I'm lucky. And they'll still be renting my buildings.

[ET @MM2USA]

This was done as a parody but it reflects the reality for Angelenos.

[ET @MM2USA]

@AsianDawn4 Is 7-eleven in Japan and America owned by the same corporation?

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@antifrgile @brivael @nntaleb Except NNT has completely flipped on theories that he made popular, nothing he wrote was original. He has gone more socialist rather than an advocate for free market.

[ET @MM2USA]

@bdguan China “doesn’t innovate” has been the punchline used by Americans like this guy for last 40 decades. I have been hearing this kind of take on the China’s lack of innovation since 1990s. Look at China now and compare it to China of 1990s, tell me again how they have no innovation

[ET @MM2USA]

@joekent16jan19 @douglassmackey You’re a certified idiot

[ET @MM2USA]

@Down_W_Tatmadaw Why is it US responsibility to do anything for Burma?

[ET @MM2USA]

@brhodes You are an idiot to believe the words that came out of Mullahs.

[ET @MM2USA]

@KeyboardChuck @beffjezos What you described is the exact opposite of real history of mankind. You’re just living in a fantasy land.

[ET @MM2USA]

@CollinRugg He has an option to quit. No one is forcing him to work there , if he truly believes that he is underpaid. What a narcissist entitled moron!

[ET @MM2USA]

@JennyChachan As one of my Taiwanese friend said - “have you seen Taiwanese men??” They are in no condition to fight.

[ET @MM2USA]

@60Minutes What kind of watch you think that guy is wearing? What are their salary for being on this board?

[ET @MM2USA]

@60Minutes Just from their appearance, you know these guys are corrupt as hell and taking in at the very least millions of these $$$ for themselves or their friends/families. That’s how corruption work. And I know from my experience with corruption in other countries.

[ET @MM2USA]

@sanger79 @Phongxpro I have been around Vietnamese ppl for many years. Soft is the last thing I would describe. It is harsh, squeaky and mostly high pitched. Almost like rubbing metals against each other. Nothing against Vietnamese ppl. Their language is not pleasant on ears. Objective take.

[ET @MM2USA]

@SenWarren Did Bezos forget to pay you monthly protection fees? Typical mafia behavior by the Pocahontas.