Trump that!

The AP reports: Trump venture folds, leaving buyers strapped.

Stephen and Linda Drake cast aside concerns about owning property in Mexico because they believed in Donald Trump.

The Southern California couple paid $250,000 down payment on a 19th-floor oceanfront condo in Trump Ocean Resort Baja in 2006 before the first construction crew arrived.

But admiration for the celebrity developer and star of "The Apprentice" has now turned into anger and disbelief as Trump's luxury hotel-condo plan collapsed, leaving little more than a hole in the ground and investors out of their deposits, which totaled $32.2 million.

"I can't even stand to see Trump's face on TV," says Linda Drake, a psychologist, whose husband is a commercial airline pilot and financial adviser.

Investors were told last month their money was spent and they won't get a penny back. A single mother in suburban Los Angeles lost $200,000 and won't be able to send her sons to private universities. A Los Angeles-area businessman lost a deposit of more than $1 million on four Trump units, including two penthouses.

Trump and his children heavily promoted the northern tip of Mexico's Baja California coast. He sold 188 units for $122 million the first day they went on a sale at a lavish event in a downtown San Diego hotel in December 2006.

Trump's condos went on sale when Southern California home prices were near their peak, offering a lower-cost alternative in the Mexican border city of Tijuana. The Trump Organization teamed up with Los Angeles developer Irongate Capital Partners LLC, the partnership behind Trump International Hotel & Tower Waikiki in Honolulu.

Guadalupe Mendoza, 47, paid a $200,000 deposit at the first-day sale in San Diego, refinancing her Downey home and getting a loan from a sister. She watched a giant screen show units getting snapped up.

After signing papers, buyers were ushered to a buffet of sirloin tip and fish tacos. Cheers erupted in the hotel ballroom for each new owner.

"I did it in less than a minute," said Mendoza, an administrator in the Los Angeles County Office of Education. "I remember my head was hurting and thinking, 'My God, what was that?' I was thinking maybe I should have asked questions. It was like a roller-coaster ride."

The December letter says Trump was not an investor, but buyers said they were sold on his imprimatur.

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