Donald Trump in Trump Revealed
On Corporations:
Attended Wharton but unimpressed by academic credentials
Trump saw Wharton from the beginning as a place to pick up a patina of prestige. "Perhaps the most important thing I learned at Wharton was not to be overly impressed by academic credentials," Trump said. "There was nothing particularly awesome or
exceptional about my classmates; I could compete just fine. The other important thing I got from Wharton was a Wharton degree. In my opinion, that doesn't prove much, but a lot of people I do business with take it very seriously."
Yet Trump himself would come to take Wharton very seriously Wharton became a name to be dropped, another 'best' to burnish the Trump brand. For a time. Trump bragged of being a top student among his 333 Wharton classmates. But Trump is not included in
the Honor Roll printed in the Daily Pennsylvanian. [In fact, according to one] classmate, "Trump was not what you would call an intellectual. I don't think he ever studied for an exam. He did what it took to get through the program."
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Marc Fisher, p. 47-8
Aug 23, 2016
On Principles & Values:
OpEd: Leveraged government and companies against each other
Winning the right to rebuild the Commodore Hotel [into a midtown-Manhattan modernized Hyatt] gave Trump a 1900-room hotel in a blighted neighborhood. For Donald's plan to succeed, Penn Central (the local railroad) had to sell him the hotel; NYC's
bureaucracy had to give him a tax break; and the bank had to front him the money to pay for the whole thing.Trump played the city, the sellers, and the hotel chain off one another, using one to leverage a deal with the other.
When a city official asked for proof of Penn Central's commitment, Trump sent what looked like an agreement with the sellers. Trump then used the city's resulting approval to push his deal with Hyatt to closure. Trump was saved by New York's first-ever
tax break for a commercial property--he could buy the hotel for $1, then lease it back for 99 years--an arrangement that would save Trump's project an estimated $440 million over the next 40 years.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Marc Fisher, p. 73-5
Aug 23, 2016
On Crime:
Racial disparities in law enforcement? Maybe or maybe not
At the Post, Trump's tone remained even and his sentences grew longer and more complex then they'd been in debates or TV appearances. But he would no be pushed.
Six times, his questioners tried to get him to talk about whether police treat blacks more harshly then whites."You know, I feel very strongly about law enforcement," Trump replied. "Law enforcement, it's got to play a big role."
Asked again if he believed there were racial disparities in law enforcement,
Trump replied, "I've read where there are and I've read where there aren't. I mean, I've read both. And, you know, I have no opinion on that."
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p. 10
Aug 23, 2016
On Homeland Security:
South Korea and Japan should pay 100% of US military costs
The news coming out of the meeting was about Trump saying that maybe the United States didn't need to put so much money into NATO, the core of the European-American security alliance since the Cold War--
the kind of statement that might win nods or applause at a rally, but sparked shock and ridicule in the corridors of think tanks and policy shops in Washington.
"NATO was set up when we were a richer country," Trump said. "We're not a rich country. We're borrowing, we're borrowing all of this money."
But you do know, editorial writer Charles Lane said, that South Korea and Japan pay half of the
administrative cost of keeping the American military in those countries, right?
"Fifty percent?" Trump asked.
"Yeah," Lane confirmed.
"Why isn't it one hundred percent?"
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p. 11
Aug 23, 2016
On Foreign Policy:
At AIPAC: railed against Palestinians' demonization of Jews
Thousands of Jewish activists gathered for Trump's long-awaited speech to AIPAC on his approach to the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate. Dozens of rabbis and others had announced plans to boycott the event, both because Trump had pledged to be "neutral"
in talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Trump said he was best-positioned to get a Middle East peace deal because he's a negotiator, "like you folks."
This time, he was squarely on Israel's side. He railed against the Palestinians' demonization of Jews. He reminded the crowd that he'd lent his personal jet to New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani when he visited Israel weeks after the
9/11 attacks and that he'd been grand marshal of the Israel Parade in New York in 2004, at the height of violence in the Gaza Strip. He made sure everyone noted that Ivanka would soon give birth to a "beautiful Jewish baby."
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p. 13
Aug 23, 2016
On Immigration:
1885: grandfather Friedrich was illegal German emigrant
Friedrich, Donald Trump's grandfather-to-be, was born on March 14, 1869. Friedrich saw no future in Germany & joined the stream of Germans looking for a better life in the US. Friedrich arrived in New York on Oct. 19, 1885. Immigration records list his
occupation as "farmer" and his name as "Friedrich Trump," [Americanizing it from "Drumpf"]. He was sixteen years old.But Friedrich's departure ran afoul of German law. A three-year stint of military service was mandatory, and to emigrate, boys of
conscription age had to get permission. The young barber didn't do so, resulting in a questionable status that would undermine any future prospect of return: Friedrich Trump was an illegal emigrant. Luckily, US officials didn't care about the
circumstances under which he left Germany. US Immigration law at the time granted Germans preferred status. Friedrich was one of about a million Germans who immigrated to the United States in 1885, more than had ever before come in one year.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p. 23
Aug 23, 2016
On Principles & Values:
Father arrested in 1927 KKK riot, but didn't support Klan
The Klan kept up its nativist drumbeat. On May 30, 1927, at a Memorial Day parade, Trump, a 21-year-old Protestant and now the head of the family business, joined thousands of New Yorkers who attended. The KKK dressed in their robes and hoods, carrying
giant American flags, passed out handbills in Trump's neighborhood alleging that Catholic members of the police force were harassing "native-born Protestant Americans." This typical Klan tactic tried to pit Catholics against Protestants, while stirring
up anti-immigrant feelings. A thousand Klansmen assembled at the intersection of Jamaica Ave. and 85th Street, and "combatants were knocked down, Klan banners were shredded." Fred Trump wound up in the thick of the melee, and he was arrested.
The charge against Trump was "refusing to disperse from a parade when ordered," but the charge was promptly dismissed. News accounts did not say whether Trump was for or against the Klan, or whether he was at the parade merely to see the spectacle.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p. 27-8
Aug 23, 2016
On Principles & Values:
Grade school mischief-maker: headstrong and determined
At Kew-Forest school, Donald encountered a dress code--ties and jackets for boys, skirts for girls--and a strict set of rules. From the start, Donald resisted their teachers' commands. Donald spent enough time in detention that his friends nicknamed the
punishment DTs--short for "Donny Trumps."No matter the consequences, Donald's behavior did not change. "He was headstrong and determined," said a Kew-Forest teacher. "He would sit with his arms folded, with this look on his face--surly."
By his
own account, Trump's primary focus in elementary school was "creating mischief because I liked to stir things up & test people. It wasn't malicious so much as it was aggressive." As a 2nd-grader, as Trump has described it, he punched his music teacher,
giving him a "black eye" because "I didn't think he knew anything about music, and I almost got expelled. I'm not proud of that, but it's clear evidence that even early on I had a tendency to stand up and make my opinions known in a very forceful way."
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p. 34
Aug 23, 2016
On Principles & Values:
Favorite movie: Citizen Kane, about risks of accumulation
When he talked about the movies he loved, Trump was asked about Citizen Kane, the Orson Welles classic about an idealistic newspaper owner who acquires great wealth and loses his soul,
Trump said, "Citizen Kane was really about accumulation, and at the end of the accumulation, you see what happens, and it's not necessarily all positive. Not positive...In real life, I believe that wealth does in fact isolate you from other people.
It's a protective mechanism. You have your guard up, much more so than you would if you didn't have wealth".
He fancied himself a man of the people, more interested in the praise of cabdrivers and construction workers then in accolades from the rich and the powerful.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p. 4
Aug 23, 2016
On Principles & Values:
Played varsity baseball at military academy
Trump could rely on his athletic ability to win respect from his teachers and classmates. In his second year at the New York Military Academy (NIMA), Trump played on the freshman football and baseball teams. By his sophomore year, as he shed baby fat
and continued to grow, Trump had made the varsity in both sports. He particularly excelled at baseball, playing first base and developing a reputation for stretching his long body to scoop up balls. Donald could also swing the bat, inspiring a caption
beneath an action photo in the yearbook that read, "Trump swings... then HITS." A headline in the local paper--"Trump Wins Game for NYMA"--may have been the first to celebrate his exploits. "It felt good seeing my name in print,"
Trump said years later. "How many people are in print? Nobody's in print. It was the first time I was ever in the newspaper. I thought it was amazing."
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p. 42
Aug 23, 2016
On Principles & Values:
Charitable donations of $165,000 to Wharton and U.Penn
In the years after Trump graduated, Wharton became synonymous with financial success. But although Wharton's place in Trump's biography expanded, his contributions to the school did only rarely. In the 1980s, a Penn development officer said
Trump had given the school more than $10,000, but declined to elaborate. One of the only places his name appears on campus is the Class of 1968 Seminar Room plaque in Van Pelt Library, donated at his class's 35th reunion.
One sizable gift came in 1994, when he gave enough to be listed as a "founder" of the Penn Club's new location in midtown Manhattan. The minimum gift for that category was $150,000. Two autumns later, Donald Trump Jr. arrived at the leafy campus.
In all, three of the four older Trump children--including Ivanka (transferring after two years at Georgetown) and Tiffany--would attend Penn, making the school almost an inheritance, a family emblem.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p. 49-50
Aug 23, 2016
On Civil Rights:
1973: sued for racial bias against black tenants
Phyllis Spiro, a white woman, went undercover in 1973 at Trump's Beach Haven. She told investigators that a building superintendent acknowledged to her "that he followed a racially discriminatory rental policy at the direction of his superiors, and that
there were only very few 'colored' tenants" at the complex. More than four decades later, Spiro said she and her fellow housing activists found "a constant pattern and practice of discrimination" at Trump buildings. Citing the experiences of
Spiro and others, the Justice Department announced one of the most significant racial bias cases of the era: USA v. Fred Trump & Donald Trump. On Oct. 15, 1973, the Justice Department said the Trumps had violated the law "by refusing to rent and
negotiate rentals with blacks, requiring different rental terms and conditions because of race, and misrepresenting that apartments were not available." Trump was livid, saying the charges were "absolutely ridiculous. We never have discriminated."
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p. 56-7
Aug 23, 2016
On Welfare & Poverty:
1970s: opposed rent control but lived in rent-controlled apt
In 1971, Trump moved into a Manhattan apartment on the seventeenth floor of a building on East Seventy-Fifth Street.
He parked his Cadillac convertible in a garage next door and each day drove the sizable distance to work at the Trump Management office on Avenue Z.
The Upper East Side apartment had a certain appeal for a young man, in part because it was rent-controlled; city law prohibited the landlord from increasing the rent substantially each year. (In 1975, Trump handed the apartment over to his brother
Robert. About that time, Donald spoke out against rent-control laws: "Everybody in New York gets their increases but the landlords, and we are going to put an end to that practice.")
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p. 58-9
Aug 23, 2016
On Foreign Policy:
It's good that Putin says nice things about me
Trump noted that Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin, had been quoted saying that Trump was brilliant. Trump smirked at American media accounts suggesting it maybe wasn't a great thing for a presidential candidate to be praised by the autocratic leader
of one of the country's most difficult rivals. "Oh, isn't it terrible that Putin said nice things?" Trump mocked. "That's not terrible, that's good...Wouldn't it be nice if we could get along with people?"
Reporters were forever twisting his words, making it sound as if Trump supported Putin, he said. "By the way, I hate some of these 'reporters'. But I'd never kill them. I hate them". The cheers reached a new pinnacle, and
Trump, his voice rising with the crowd's lusty shouts, added, "Some of them are such lying, disgusting people, it's true, it's true. But I would never kill them."
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p. 6-7
Aug 23, 2016
On Welfare & Poverty:
1981: Rent-control tenants are "millionaires in mink coats"
Trump pushed for a massive condo complex on the southern edge of Central Park. In 1981, he bought two grand old buildings--the Barbizon Plaza Hotel, and a 15-story apartment building next door--for $13 million. Trump bought them to demolish them, but he
ran into hard resistance from tenants eager to keep their rent-controlled units. Trump decried his opponents as "millionaires in mink coats, driving Rolls-Royces." Some of the residents were seniors on fixed incomes; others were indeed well-to-do.
Trump, tenants said, tried to force them out by annoying them. He proposed to move homeless people into at least ten vacant apartments. Maintenance workers ignored leaky faucets and covered up windows of empty apartments with ratty tinfoil. A tenants'
group accused Trump of harassment, but he denied all. "The rich," he said, "have a very low threshold for pain."
After a 5-year standoff, Trump dropped his demolition plans and renovated into luxury apartments. The existing tenants could stay.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p. 91
Aug 23, 2016
On Civil Rights:
1980s: personal lawyer gay & closeted & Trump kept secret
In the Fall of 1984, Roy Cohn fell ill, maintaining that he had liver cancer. But he was suffering from the effects of HIV infection. Trump had always known that Cohn was gay. Cohn was "invariably with some very good-looking young man,"
Trump wrote in his first book. "But Roy never talked about it. He just didn't like the image. He felt that to the average person, being gay was almost synonymous with being a wimp." If someone brought up gay rights,
Trump noted, "Roy was always the first one to speak out against them."As Cohn's health deteriorated, his unethical behavior as a lawyer caught up to him. A host of luminaries rose to defend Cohn's good character, including
Trump, returning to his friend's side and inviting him to visit Mar-a-Lago.
In 1986, Cohn was disbarred. He was fifty-nine. His friends held a memorial service for him. Trump attended, standing silently in the back.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.111-2
Aug 23, 2016
On Principles & Values:
1990 Marla Maples headline: "Best sex I ever had"
In early 1990 Donald: "I like Ivana, but we've grown apart. Her level of arrogance has grown steadily worse in recent years."February 1990 was a newsy month. Nelson Mandela was freed from prison. President George H. W. Bush welcomed the president of
Czechoslovakia, as the collapse of the Soviet empire accelerated. But for weeks, one story dominated the front pages of the city's tabloids: Donald vs. Ivana. The obsession in the nation's media capital spread to serious national publications.
The sensational headlines reached their apex with the Post's February 16 front-page "Best Sex I've Ever Had", a statement supposedly uttered by Maples in reference to Donald. The headline would become a tabloid classic.
The Post's managing editor, Colasuonno. Did Marla really say what the Post was about to trumpet on page one? "Guys, this headline is libel-proof," he said. "Donald will never complain about this one."
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.117-8
Aug 23, 2016
On Homeland Security:
1990: dealt with helicopter crash that killed three staff
Oct. 10,1989, dawned bright and sunny, a perfect day for flying. The trio of Trump executives from Atlantic City buckled into the helicopter for the trip to Manhattan. Unbeknownst to them, one of the helicopter's blades had a nearly undetectable 2-inch
scrape, which had grown like an untreated wound. The helicopter went down. A New Jersey police official called with the news: no survivors. Three of Trump's most trusted aides, had perished, along with the crew of two.
Trump was devastated.
Trump sat in his office overlooking Central Park and called the families of the three men. "I have terrible news," he said into the phone, again and again. As word spread through the office, aides in the anterooms burst into tears, wailing loudly.
Trump said years later that he learned what it is like when the military informs "the soldiers' families when they're gone. It's a very tough thing to do.." One aide later said Trump sounded, uncharacteristically, as if he was seeking reassurance.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.140-3
Aug 23, 2016
On Families & Children:
Women act feminine & needy, but inside, they are killers
Women desired him, Trump often said, yet he held them at a distance, suspicious of what he saw as their crafty, cunning antagonism. "Women have one of the great acts of all time," he wrote. "The smart ones act very feminine and needy, but inside they
are real killers....I have seen women manipulate men with just a twitch of their eye--or perhaps another body part....There's nothing I love more than women, but they're really a lot different than portrayed. They are far worse than men, far more
aggressive, and boy, can they be smart. Let's give credit where credit is due, and let's salute women for their tremendous power, which most men are afraid to admit they have."As much power as women might wield, however, Trump rarely let the
opportunity pass to proclaim his own virility. Asked for his view of Viagra, Trump boasted that he never needed such assistance. What he really needed, he said, was an "anti-Viagra, something with the opposite effect. I'm not bragging. I'm just lucky.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.155
Aug 23, 2016
On Principles & Values:
After Ivana, never let wife run business again
Trump always made it clear who was boss in his marriages. He and Ivana never had "tremendous fights" because, he said, "ultimately, Ivana does exactly what I tell her to do." Trump came to regret having had her work for him, running hotels and casinos:
"My big mistake with Ivana was taking her out of the role of wife. The problem was, work was all she wanted to talk about. I will never again give a wife responsibility within my business." He didn't.As Trump's private life merged with his public
identity, he came to see his marriages as something that either boosted his image and therefore his business's reputation, or as a hindrance. "My marriage, it seemed, was the only area of my life in which I was willing to accept something less than
perfection," he said during divorce proceedings with Ivana.
Marla Maples would pose far less of a threat. She wasn't one to challenge him, except for continually pressing him to wed her. This time, there would be no talk of a marriage of equals.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.157
Aug 23, 2016
On Civil Rights:
Pushed town council to allow blacks & Jews into Mar-a-Lago
Appalled by Trump's ostentatious behavior at Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach town council handed him a list of restrictions it was imposing on membership. But Trump took his battle to the court of public opinion. His sent every member of the town council
copies of two classic movies about discrimination--Gentleman's Agreement, about a journalist who pretend to be Jewish to expose anti-Semitism, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, about a white couple's reaction to their daughter's bringing home a black
fiance. The point was clear and painful: the town's political leaders for decades had condoned rules by which the established private clubs in town excluded Jews and blacks, and now they wanted to slap Trump with tough rules on his club, which was open
to anyone who could afford the fees. Council members insisted that their only concern was that Trump was turning a quiet stretch of beachfront into a noisy party. No matter: Trump's tactic worked. Over time, he got most of the restrictions lifted.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.161-2
Aug 23, 2016
On Families & Children:
Ex-wives sign confidentiality agreements and keep quiet
Despite the turbulence in their marriages, his former wives never disparaged Trump publicly after their divorces. Trump made sure of that. He had his wives sign confidentiality agreements, and he held the ultimate leverage: the kids.Trump often said
he was not the kind of father who spent much time hanging out or playing ball with his children, but when they were old enough to learn the business, they spent far more time with him, especially at the office. All three children from the marriage with
Ivana would come to work by their father's side at the Trump Organization. All three told of difficult times with their father. During the divorce battle, Donald Jr. went a year without speaking to his father. But they came to admire him as a
businessman and as a parent who loved them in his own way and deeply wanted them to work together with him.
How his ex-wives might describe the family's inner life remained uncertain, as Trump managed to hold their public comments in check.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.168-9
Aug 23, 2016
On Budget & Economy:
OpEd: 1990s bankruptcy due to ego-based purchases
In 1990 analysis said that of Trump's 22 assets, only 3 were running a profit. He had piled up a remarkable $3.2 billion in debt. The monthly cash balance from all his businesses was tumbling into the red. His net worth: negative $295 million.
The bad news seemed to weigh on his mind. "Nobody wants to write the positives," he shouted to the crowd. "Over the years, I've surprised a lot of people. The largest surprise is yet to come."
He prided himself on buying or building the very best, sometimes overpaying out of faith in the Trump name and an ever expanding market.
His propensity for purchases that played to his ego had been especially evident in his acquisition of one of New York's most storied properties, the Plaza Hotel.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.189
Aug 23, 2016
On Principles & Values:
Bought Plaza hotel for cultural value, not profit
Trump's propensity for purchases that played to his ego was evident in his acquisition of one of New York's most storied properties, the Plaza Hotel.To trumpet his 1988 purchase, he made a startling confession about his deal for the 19-story landmark
hotel he called his Mona Lisa. "I can never justify the price I paid, no matter how successful the Plaza becomes, he wrote under the title, "Why I Bought the Plaza."
The price--$407 million--was not the point, Trump suggested. The hotel was etched
into American culture. Scenes in The Great Gatsby were set in the Plaza. The architect Frank Lloyd Wright lived in a 2nd-floor suite while he designed the Guggenheim Museum. The Plaza was the home of Eloise, the fictional 6-year-old who carried
out escapades while living with her nanny on the "tippy-top floor."
The Plaza's financial underpinnings, never sturdy, weakened. Trump's purchase--a record price for a US hotel--was tens of millions of dollars more than the next-highest bid.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.190
Aug 23, 2016
On Jobs:
1990: fined $65,000 for money-laundering via casino chips
The week before Christmas 1990, Trump's father, Fred, dispatched a lawyer to the Castle casino. The lawyer approached the casino cage and handed over a certified check for $3.35 million. A dealer paid out the entire amount in 670 gray $5,000 chips.
The gray chips were not to gamble-but were another emergency strategy to funnel cash to Fred's hard-pressed son. But if he simply gave the money as a gift, it would be siphoned off to the Castle's many creditors.
Depositing the cash into a gambling account was a way to sidestep them.
Years later, Trump contended that propping up the Castle with millions in his father's chips had been Fred's idea. "My father said, 'Oh, let me do it, it's easy with the chips,'"
Trump said. As unprecedented as the episode was, the New Jersey casino commission concluded that it had violated only a rule intended to keep organized crime out of Atlantic City. The commission unanimously voted to fine Trump Castle $65,000.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.200-1
Aug 23, 2016
On Principles & Values:
OpEd: Apprentice turned Trump from blowhard to candidate
As soon as Apprentice hit the top ten in its first season, Trump was in demand on talk shows as never before. The appearances were initially meant to promote the TV show, but almost immediately, Trump started talking politics. The people who made
The Apprentice with Trump didn't think he would ever really run for office, but they recall his drawing a direct line from the show's success to the possibility that he'd shoot for the nation's top job. The Apprentice turned Trump from a blowhard
Richie Rich who had just gone through his most difficult decade into an unlikely symbol of straight talk, an evangelist for the American gospel of success. Above all, Apprentice sold an image of the host-boss as supremely competent and confident,
dispensing his authority and getting immediate results.
The show's creator came to believe that if Trump ever ran fro president, it wouldn't be a result of The Apprentice, but without The Apprentice there could be no candidacy.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.217-8
Aug 23, 2016
On Principles & Values:
OpEd: Trump empire based on Trump brand, not Trump buildings
Trump menswear made an appearance, in an episode of The Apprentice. So did Trump Ice, a new brand of water, and Trump Success, a new fragrance. Riding the popularity of the show, Trump licensed his name to clothes, ties, home furnishing, eyeglasses,
wallets, even mattresses. All sold well for years. By licensing his name without putting up money, he could often make significant profits, even when the ventures failed. The new model let Trump weather even worldwide economic collapse.
Trump's crucial insight was to turn away from building one business at a time and expand his ambition to create an empire--a series of entities that bore his name, but didn't rely on his cash.
His business was the brand. It was like owning a casino--when run properly, the house wins. The gamblers would be those who paid him for the rights to his name. Trump couldn't lose.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.224
Aug 23, 2016
On Education:
Trump U: effort to educate the masses in his style
Trump's crucial insight was to create an empire--a series of entities that bore his name, but didn't rely on his cash. His business was the brand. Few of his branded venture received as much notice as, or created more controversy than,
Trump's effort to educate the masses in his style. Not long after his new university opened, the real estate market softened, then tanked. Rather than close shop,
Trump's university pivoted. Now it would teach people how to make money in a depressed market. "Learn from Donald Trump's handpicked experts how you can profit from the largest real estate liquidation in history," read one
Trump University ad.
Sales pressure was intense.
"Find it, flip it, forget about it," instructors told potential students at a free seminar on investing in property with little or no money down.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.224-5
Aug 23, 2016
On Foreign Policy:
1987 thru 2013: Tried to build Trump Tower in Moscow
As early as 1987, Trump had expressed interest in building a Trump Tower in the Soviet Union. That year, on a visit to Moscow and Leningrad--now St. Petersburg--he said Soviet officials had asked him to consider building luxury hotels
there. "There are not too many ideas that I become attracted to, but that is one I think would interest a lot of people," Trump said at the time. "Not purely from an economic standpoint, either."At the Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow in 2013,
Trump said he was in serious talks about building a skyscraper in Moscow. Trump made a series of complimentary comments about Putin.
Trump would express admiration for Putin's leadership, despite his record of prosecuting and persecuting journalists and political opponents. Still, no Trump Tower rose over Moscow.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.245
Aug 23, 2016
On Environment:
2008: pushed Scotland golf course despite enviro fragility
In early 2006, rumors began to circulate in northeastern Scotland: Trump was thinking about expanding his golf empire to Scotland--birthplace of the sport, and of his mother. Trump landed in Aberdeen, greeted by a bagpiper and a swarm of reporters.
Some thought it odd that Trump kept referring to himself as being not Scottish but "Scotch," like the whisky; still, most local officials did what they could to smooth the way toward approval.
The public inquiry started in June 2008. Trump claimed to
know more about the environment than his consultants did, though he admitted he had not read their reports. "You can only read so much," he said. He promised to preserve the dunes, but when the councilor who had cast the deciding vote against his permit
accused Trump of failing to understand the property's environmental fragility, Trump snapped back, "Nobody has ever told me that I don't know how to buy property before. You're the first one. I have done very well buying property. Thanks for the advice."
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.255-7
Aug 23, 2016
On Principles & Values:
At 58, met and married Melania, age 34, at Kit Kat Klub
At 58, after two failed marriages, Trump found a partner who fulfilled his long-standing desire for a "no-maintenance woman." Melania, who was 34 when they wed, did not generate headlines or seek to upstage him. Donald's children referred to her
as "the Portrait" because she spoke so little.Born Melanija Knavs in the former Yugoslavia. Feeling stifled under her country's socialist regime, Melania told high school friends that she wanted to escape and travel around the world.
Modeling was her path. She worked as a fashion model in Milan, Paris, and New York.
One night in 1998, Melania found herself at the Kit Kat Klub because her modeling agency was hosting a party. Donald, who had recently split up with Marla Maples,
was at the event with a date, a beautiful Norwegian heiress. But Trump noticed Melania and asked for her phone number. Melania resisted, aware that Trump had come to the party with another woman. But Trump was persistent and soon they began going out.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.267
Aug 23, 2016
On Government Reform:
1980s: donated 30 times over campaign contribution limit
Trump's largesse [in political donations] caught the attention of a New York State commission examining possible political corruption. The commission called Trump to testify in March 1988. Under oath, Trump acknowledged that political donations had been
a routine part of his business for nearly two decades. He gave so generously that he sometimes lost track of the amounts. When an attorney for the commission asked him to verify that he had given $150,000 to local candidates in 1985 alone, Trump
responded, "I really don't know. I assume that is correct, yes."The amount Trump donated in 1985 was equal to three times the annual limit for individual ($50,000), or thirty times higher than the cap for companies ($5,000), under New York state law.
But Trump "circumvented" the law, a state commission found, by spreading the donations among eighteen subsidiary companies. Trump told the commissioners he didn't know "the exact reason" it was done this way; it was how his lawyers had said to do it.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.273-4
Aug 23, 2016
On War & Peace:
I could've negotiated Reagan's nuclear arms reduction deal
In Trump's portrayal, the United States was a sucker in a worldwide hustle.Trump had previously said that he was more than capable of pulling off the kind of nuclear-weapons-reduction deal that would become one of Reagan's proudest achievements.
Trump told a Washington Post reporter in 1984 that he dreamed of employing his negotiating skills on nuclear disarmament talks with the Soviets. "Some people have an ability to negotiate.
It's an art you're basically born with. You either have it or you don't." It didn't matter that Trump was no expert on missiles. "It would take an hour and a half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles.
I think I know most of it anyway. You're talking about just getting updated on a situation."
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.276
Aug 23, 2016
On Crime:
Settling Central Park jogger case was "a disgrace"
Two weeks after the "Central Park jogger case," millions of New Yorkers reading the city's four major newspapers were greeted with a full-page ad paid for by Trump. "Bring back the death penalty," he wrote. Trump wrote in the ad "They should be forced
to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes." Many blacks saw in Trump's ads not just opportunism, but also racism. The female jogger would survive the brutal beating but the young men were convicted and served 6 to 13
years in prison. But years later, a career criminal confessed to the rape, providing a DNA match. The convictions were overturned, and the city paid $41 million to settle a wrongful imprisonment suit that the men had filed. Trump called the
settlement "a disgrace," refused to apologize, and said, "These young men do not exactly have the pasts of angels." He said he wouldn't have given them "a dime" and insisted "they owe the taxpayers an apology for taking money out of their pockets."
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.279-80
Aug 23, 2016
On Principles & Values:
1997: Bill Clinton's vocal backer during Monicagate
Trump was a vocal Clinton supporter in the late 1990s. "I think Bill Clinton is terrific," Trump said on December 27, 1997, on CNN. "I think he's done an amazing job. I think he's probably got the toughest skin I've ever seen, and I think he's a
terrific guy."One month later, reports surfaced that Clinton had had a secret sexual relationship with an intern named Monica Lewinsky. Trump was unperturbed, becoming one of Clinton's most vocal backers. "The best thing he has going is the fact that
the economy's doing great," Trump said in August 1998, days after Clinton finally admitted a relationship with Lewinsky. "They talked about the eighties were good. The nineties are better." When a former Arkansas state employee, Paula Jones, sued
Clinton, alleging sexual harassment, Trump called her "a loser." Trump suggested that if her were a candidate, he would face similar controversy: "Can you imagine how controversial that'd be? You think about him with women. How about me with the women?"
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.284
Aug 23, 2016
On Civil Rights:
2000: extend Civil Rights Act to apply to gays and lesbians
[In 2000], Trump called himself a conservative but sounded like a liberal on many issues. In the Advocate, a gay-oriented newsmagazine, Trump took issue with how Buchanan talked about "Jews, blacks, gays, and Mexicans.
He wants to divide our country." Trump called himself a conciliator, saying he would extend the Civil Rights Act to include protections for lesbians and gays and allow them to serve openly in the military, repealing
Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the Clinton-era policy that had lifted a ban on gays in the military, but forbade them from talking about their orientation while in the service.
Although he had pulled out of the race, Trump's name remained on the Reform Party ballot in Michigan and California. He won both primaries.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.285-7
Aug 23, 2016
On War & Peace:
2003: lost respect for Bush over handling of Iraq War
Trump said his votes for president were consistently Republican. He voted for Bush in 2000 and said he lost respect for the forty-third president because of his handling of the war in Iraq, which he would later call a "disaster." Trump maintained that
he had been against the war from the beginning, but when radio host Howard Stern asked Trump on September 11, 2002, if he supported going to war--six months before the invasion--he responded, "Yeah, I guess so. You know, I wish the first time it was
done correctly." (Five days after the invasion began, a Washington Post reporter overheard Trump at an Oscars after-party calling the war a "mess.") Still, he voted for Bush again in 2004 because he felt it was important to "carry the Republican line."
Recalling the 2004 vote, Trump said he showed his distance from Bush by not throwing fund-raisers for him. He gave the campaign $2000, according to federal filings.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.290
Aug 23, 2016
On Principles & Values:
Sued in 1,900 cases; defendant in 1,450 more cases
At every stage of his career, Trump tried to punish those who questioned the image he wanted the world to see. Legal threats were as much a part of Trump's business tactics as brash talk, publicity stunts, and the renegotiation of deals. "I'll sue"
became the watchwords of his business, just as "You're fired" became the mantra of his television image. Over three decades, Trump and his companies filed more than 1,900 lawsuits and were named as defendants in 1,450 others,
according to a USA Today analysis. Some of his legal maneuvering was an outgrowth of complex business deals. But some of it was focused on going after those who questioned his wealth or even his taste.
He once filed a $500 million defamation complaint against a Chicago Tribune critic who described Trump Tower's main hall as "a kitschy shopping atrium of blinding flamboyance." A judge dismissed the complaint.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.299-300
Aug 23, 2016
On Immigration:
Vatican has massive walls; Pope is wrong about open borders
Trump got into a scuffle with Pope Francis. Aboard his plane after a trip to Mexico, the pontiff had told reporters, "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian."
Trump heard the comment and "I immediately thought of the Vatican, with the massive walls, and I said, 'Well, wait a minute, he's got the bigger walls, he's got walls like you couldn't even dream of'."
Trump issued a written response calling the pope's words "disgraceful," adding, "If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS's ultimate trophy,
I can promise you that the pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president."
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.323
Aug 23, 2016
On Principles & Values:
Donate to political candidates, regardless of party
Trump was no political naif. He and his father had thrived in New York City's pay-to-play culture for years, in part by cultivating local elected officials. Trump almost always answered political operatives' calls for money.
His criterion was simple: he wanted a winner, someone who would be an ally once in office. Sometimes he donated to opposing candidates in the same local race. He showed no concern about a candidate's views or political party.
Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.323
Aug 23, 2016
Page last updated: Mar 19, 2019