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Trump's presidential run is hurting 'Trump' businesses

The location app Foursquare found that visits to Donald Trump's stores among its users has fallen ever since he entered politics.
Photo by Michael Reynolds/EPA

Donald Trump, as he often reminds people, is a businessman. It's been a major part of his pitch to voters as to how he could cleanse Washington, revitalize politics, make America great again, and so on.

Unfortunately for him, Trump's presidential run appears to be putting a dent in the businesses that carry his name, according to new data released by location app Foursquare.

The app has 50 million active users, some of whom use it to "check-in" to locations, while others allow it to track their locations automatically. By looking at that data, Foursquare found that visits to Trump's stores among its users has fallen ever since he entered politics, down by 14 percent as recently as July.

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The numbers say that Trump casinos, stores, and golf courses suffered most during his initial jump into the race and especially the recent primaries.

Related: Meg Whitman could lead more rich Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton

Up until his political turn, foot traffic to Trump's businesses modulated between steady and growing. But once he declared, Foursquare said, his properties missed their usual summer bump, with all Trump brands down 17 percent from the year earlier. Things "stabilized" during the winter, but primary season sent traffic right back down by March.

Unsurprisingly, the figures were even lower in "blue" states that lean Democratic. Trump businesses in swing states have also seen some share loss, the company said, "but it's more favorable territory for the Trump brand."

The dropoff in visits has been particularly stark among women. "Trump properties have seen a double-digit decrease in visits from women this year," the report said. "In July, visit share among women to Blue State properties was down 29 percent."

Notably, the report says that foot traffic to Trump Taj Mahal had been down 17 to 24 percent. On Tuesday the Taj announced it was closing down after Labor Day and blamed an ongoing strike by casino union workers. "[O]ur foot traffic report shows the problems ran deeper," the report said.

Foursquare argued that its data has a good track record in forecasting Apple iPhone 6s sales and rough financial quarters for fast food chains McDonald's and Chipotle. It collected the data on Trump brands by surveying concrete check-ins as well as "implicit visits" by users who enable Foursquare to check their location data.

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All in all, Trump must be hoping people aren't voting with their dollars.

Follow Brendan James on Twitter: @deep_beige

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