Trump Revealed: on Principles & Values

OpEd: Leveraged government and companies against each other

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.

Father arrested in 1927 KKK riot, but didn't support Klan

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.

Grade school mischief-maker: headstrong and determined

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."

Favorite movie: Citizen Kane, about risks of accumulation

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.

Played varsity baseball at military academy

Charitable donations of $165,000 to Wharton and U.Penn

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.

1990 Marla Maples headline: "Best sex I ever had"

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."

After Ivana, never let wife run business again

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.

Bought Plaza hotel for cultural value, not profit

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.

OpEd: Apprentice turned Trump from blowhard to candidate

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.

OpEd: Trump empire based on Trump brand, not Trump buildings

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.

At 58, met and married Melania, age 34, at Kit Kat Klub

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.

1997: Bill Clinton's vocal backer during Monicagate

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?"

Sued in 1,900 cases; defendant in 1,450 more cases

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