Brett Elliott

Amateur Adventurist. Novice Investor. Live Music Enthusiast. Expert Witness. Regulator. Smells of warm chocolate chip cookies. Go Royals. Steal Your Face

[Brett Elliott @Photogbrett]

Wildly disappointing. This wasn’t a political statement by people attending the show. They were chanting “USA” Be proud of your country. Stand tall. Don’t be obtuse

[Kentucky Girl @Notwokenow]

Another leftist anti American musician has shown they don’t deserve a single dollar from another American.

Chris Robinson asked what Americans had to be so proud about when they started chanting “USA” and then called MAGA “fucking ignorant.”

See below.

[Kentucky Girl @Notwokenow]

Another leftist anti American musician has shown they don’t deserve a single dollar from another American.

Chris Robinson asked what Americans had to be so proud about when they started chanting “USA” and then called MAGA “fucking ignorant.”

See below.

[The KC Pulse @TheKCPulse]

In an email, open houses on the potential KC Streetcar extension into North Kansas City are scheduled for June 11th and 17th.

The same information will be shown at each meeting.

Under the most recent study, the extension could end near 29th and Swift.

[Greta Van Susteren @greta]

I know 60 minutes is important to EVERYONE who works there or has worked there but I don’t know if Americans across USA care what does/does not happen at 60…Many Americans think we in the media, including at 60, have an inflated view of ourselves and of our importance. :) Yes, freedom of the press is important but we often let Americans down

[Vaelor💥 @vaelor0]

Generative AI is a political project orchestrated by the US government to pollute the information ecosystem until it becomes impossible to verify information, the goal is unchecked corruption and impunity

[Spencer Pratt @spencerpratt]

My house burned down. I lost everything. I can’t rebuild. As a 42 year old man with 2 kids, I’ve had to move into my parents’ house, and I’m getting attacked for that? This is journalism? This is why no decent people ever get into politics. This is why you only have goblins running everything. God help you if you try to make things right for your community…if you lose your entire town, “journalists” mock you for not making your kids sleep in the toxic dirt on your burned out lot. Who raised you, dude?

[Anthony Bradley @drantbradley]

Clemson is $1.5B in debt. Syracuse is closing or pausing 93 programs, UNC-Chapel Hill plans to cut spending by $89M over 3 years. Duke recently let 600 employees go in a $350M budget cut. Indiana public colleges announced a plan to eliminate or merge 580 programs statewide.

[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.

[Forbes @Forbes]

Nearly 80% of U.S. hoteliers in 11 World Cup host cities say bookings are tracking below original forecasts, with some describing the tournament as a “non-event,” according to an American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) survey of members released Monday.

Read more: https://t.co/aLGJAHn9rW (Photo: Dustin Satloff via Getty Images)

[David Hudnall @davidhudnall]

The thing nobody wants to say out loud is getting harder to ignore: Kansas City’s World Cup is shaping up to be a bust.

https://t.co/bnF4zkGrLS

[Kristin M. Collier, MD @HSRdirector]

this advice from @MattHennessey in @WSJFreeEx mirrors the advice I receive from my older patients.

I routinely ask my older patients for life advice and repeatedly they tell me “have as many children as you can”

[Brett Elliott @Photogbrett]

It’s Marty and Wendy Byrd actually moved to Kansas City instead of the Ozarks and are succeeding in laundering their cash

[Eric Graves @EricGravesKMBC]

NEW: Children’s Mercy is building a new $1 billion acute patient tower at its Adele Hall campus in downtown KC. CMH says there is increasing demand for “highly specialized pediatric care.” It’s the hospital system’s largest ever investment. @kmbc

[Brett Elliott @Photogbrett]

@eric_seufert @MattBuzzby But someone using it to find the person their ex is talking to or the person who scuffed their sneakers is not

[IndyStar @indystar]

Opinion: Indiana is making it cheaper to be old while making it more expensive to be young. https://t.co/31JqKOw2td

[Keith Chrostowski @keithc3]

Airline seat numbers at Kansas City International Airport for June 2026 are up 4.6% over June 2025, which adds up to 62,149 additional seats and 312 additional flights, according to data from the Kansas City Aviation Department. https://t.co/F5LAPdDWYS

[Brett Elliott @Photogbrett]

@sivori Same thoughts about mass media. With exponential growth of Ai generated images and content, trust is more important than ever. Iran misinformation as example. The legacy media has zero credibility post-COVID so it can’t be them. Something will rise from the ashes to meet a need

[Brett Elliott @Photogbrett]

@JohnLovell @usvc_ Was this resolved?

[Kansas City Chiefs @Chiefs]

Our all-time leading tackler has earned his rightful place in the Chiefs Hall of Fame.

Congratulations, @superdj56! 👏

[Brett Elliott @Photogbrett]

@Dcabel2 @Bubble1Mc @HaroldRKuntz3 I think the Westin will be the third base line-ish

[Blake Miller @ImBlake]

The Royals moving to Crown Center is a wild financial move that actually makes a lot of sense in ways that aren't obvious if this is how it plays out.

From what I understand, Hallmark only occupies a small part of the complex and office vacancies are HIGH HIGH.

BUT, since the Halls reportedly own it debt free and have likely moved past the primary tax benefits of the site, selling to the Royals allows them to 1031 Exchange a Dog into new projects and reset their tax advantages.

It is hilarious that they are basically proposing the exact downtown concept that was already voted on, but this time instead of relocating local small biz, we're just relocating Hallmark.

I'm a funny twist, this probably saves taxpayers from having to fund a massive Crown Center district revitalization later down the road too.