Brett Arends, at Marketwatch, debunks Donald Trump’s claim to being sooo much more competent that all those professional politicians.

The Republican front-runner has made much of his supposed “success” in business and says he now wants to do the same for America.

But the only part of his business track record for which we have the full picture shows that Trump wasn’t a successful executive but an absolute catastrophe.

For 10 years between 1995 and 2005, Donald Trump ran Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts — and he did it so badly and incompetently that it collapsed into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. His stockholders were almost entirely wiped out, losing a staggering 89% of their money. The company actually lost money every single year. In total it racked up more than $600 million in net losses over that period.

Trump was chairman of the board throughout the entire time, and CEO as well for about half of it.

This is the sort of record usually associated with an Enron or a WorldCom or a Pets.com.

Meanwhile, over the same period, all his competitors were enjoying an enormous boom. Take a look at our chart. …

Donald Trump ran the worst performing casino company on the stock market. This isn’t a matter of “opinion.” This isn’t speculation or politics. It’s a matter of plain fact.

However, one person associated with Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts did make money:

Donald J. Trump.

A review of the company’s public filings show that over that period, while his ordinary investors were getting hosed, Trump himself was siphoning millions out of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts through salary, “bonuses” — yes, really — and cozy “service agreements” or side deals with his private corporations.

In total, Donald Trump pocketed $32 million over nine years, while his public stockholders lost more than $100 million.

Follow the money. It really isn’t that complex.

Now his supporters want to put him in charge of the federal government. They actually hope he will do for America what he’s already done for his business.

Heaven help us all.