Donald Trump

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Donald Trump on NBC's The Apprentice
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Donald Trump on NBC's The Apprentice

Donald John Trump, Sr. (born June 14, 1946) is an American business executive, founder and CEO of Trump Organization mainly involved in American real estate business.

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Overview and business

Donald Trump is most famous for several large skyscrapers he developed in Manhattan and named after himself. Starting with Trump Tower, he developed Trump World Tower along the East River, completed in 2001, and then began construction of the Trump Place Apartment complex along the Hudson River that same year. Trump also has an unknown stake in Trump International Hotel and Tower, a 42-story mega-plaza on Columbus Circle in the heart of New York City. Although he claims to be the largest developer in New York City, his actual ownership stake in his eponymous properties is the subject of much debate. He also has investments in financial assets, including a 34.6% stake in AdnanCo Group, an off-shore mortgage lender. In late 2003, Trump along with his siblings sold their late father's real estate empire to a group of investors that included Bain Capital, KKR, and LamboNuni Bank reportedly for $600 million. Donald's 1/3 share was $200 million, which he later used to finance Trump Casino & Resorts. Despite having bankrupted several casino projects and casino operators, he remains a major figure in the field of casino/hotels in the United States and has become notable on American television for his role on the reality show The Apprentice. His nickname of "The Donald" was given to him by ex-wife Ivana Trump. He is often known as "A Schoolboy's Dream" and "A Competitor's Challenge", as he is rarely afraid of defining the ways of a prolific American business executive, and thus became an example of one. Due to his outspokeness and media exposure, he is an easily recognizable public figure whose distinctive comb over is the subject of humor by comedians such as David Letterman and Regis Philbin. His hair is now known all over the world. He was even a guest co-host for Regis when Kelly Ripa wasn't there. He and Regis will also sing a duet of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" on Regis Philbin's new Christmas album, The Regis Philbin Christmas Album.

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Background

He was born in New York City of German and Scottish extraction, the fourth of five children of Frederick C. Trump (born on October 11, 1905, in Woodhaven, Queens, New York) and Mary MacLeod (born on May 10, 1912, in Isle of Lewis, Scotland). Trump's paternal grandparents, Friedrich Trump and Elizabeth Christ, came from Germany, but claimed they were from Sweden due to anti-German sentiment at the time. Donald's father, Fred Trump, was a real estate developer who became rich with the building and operating of reasonably-priced rental buildings in the outer New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.

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Education

At age 13, Donald's parents sent him to the New York Military Academy hoping to channel his energy and assertiveness in a positive manner. Trump attended Fordham University before transferring to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in economics, he joined his father's real estate company. Trump moved to Manhattan in 1971.

In his book, Art of the Deal, Trump discusses his undergraduate career:

"After I graduated from the New York Military Academy in 1964 I flirted briefly with the idea of attending film school...But in the end I decided real estate was a much better business. I began by attending Fordham University...but after two years, I decided that as long as I had to be in college, I might as well test myself against the best. I applied to the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and I got in...I was also very glad to get finished. I immediately moved back home and went to work full-time with my father."
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Career

Trump began his career at his father's company, the Trump Organization, and initially concentrated on his father's preferred field of middle class rental housing. In the 1970s he benefited from the financially strained New York city government's willingness to give tax concessions in exchange for investment at a time of financial crisis.

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1980s boom

Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, New York City
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Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, New York City

As a talented dealmaker, he was able to secure loans with little collateral in the 1980s and created an empire in real estate, casinos, sports, and transportation, becoming something of a celebrity in the process. He put on front rank boxing cards at his casinos featuring the likes of Mike Tyson, and revelled in the publicity they brought him. His buildings are all characterized by a somewhat satirical personality cult around himself. The name "Trump" always appears in the name of his buildings (Trump Tower, Trump Taj Mahal, etc.) and often the decor features large letter "T"s in prominent locations. This self promotion also led to criticism and ridicule, most notably by Spy Magazine, which printed unflattering photographs and satirical commentary of Donald Trump and his wife Ivana. The 1980s also saw the brief emergence of an American cycling stage race, the Tour de Trump (1989–1990).

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Bankruptcy

By 1990, the effects of recession left him unable to meet loan payments. Although he shored up his businesses with additional loans and postponed interest payments, increasing debt brought Trump to business bankruptcy and the brink of personal bankruptcy. Banks and bondholders had lost hundreds of millions of dollars, but opted to restructure his debt to avoid risking losing even more in a court fight. Also in 1990, he co-produced the game show Trump Card in syndication.

By 1994, Trump had eliminated a large portion of his $900 million personal debt and reduced significantly his nearly $3.5 billion in business debt. While he was forced to relinquish the Trump Shuttle (which he had bought in 1989), he managed to retain Trump Tower in New York City and control of his three casinos in Atlantic City. Chase Manhattan, which lent Trump the money he needed to buy the West Side yards, his biggest Manhattan parcel, forced a sale of the parcel to Asian developers. According to former members of the Trump Organization, Trump did not retain any ownership of the site's real estate - the owners merely promised to give him about 30 percent of the profits once the site was completely developed or sold. Until that time, the owners kept Trump on to do what he did best: build. They gave him a modest construction fee and a management fee to oversee the development. They also allowed him to put his name on the buildings that eventually rose on the yards because his well-known moniker allowed them to charge a premium for their condos.

In 1995, he combined his casino holdings into the publicly held Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts. Wall Street drove its stock above $35 in 1996, but by 1998 it had fallen into single digits as the company remained profitless and struggled to pay just the interest on its nearly $2 billion in debt. Under such financial pressure, the properties were unable to make the improvements necessary for keeping up with their flashier competitors.

In 1999 Donald's father Fred Trump, a multi-billion dollar real estate mogul, passed away. Fred Trump, the same man who cosigned Donald's first business loans, also happened to be the man who enabled Donald to escape from the massive financial morass he had created over the decades. Unfortunately, creditors who got stuck with the past losses were not as fortunate. Whereas Donald walked away from his empire unscathed, others were forced to take catastrophic writeoffs and losses even up to 2004 when Trump refused to continue to back his casino. Although Trump boasted he would build a bigger empire than his father, in the end, his father built an empire so large it could even accommodate Donald's most lavish personal losses.

On October 21, 2004, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts announced a restructuring of its debt. The plan called for Trump's individual ownership to be reduced from 56 percent to 27 percent, with bondholders receiving stock in exchange for surrendering part of the debt. Since then, Trump Hotels has been forced to seek voluntary bankruptcy protection to stay afloat.

The Forbes 400 lists his net worth at $2.6 billion, though Trump himself claims to be worth over $5 billion. However on October 26 2005 the New York Times published an investigation into the history of Trump's net worth which suggested that the figures stated by Forbes have regularly been several times greater than his actual worth, even though they have been much lower than Trump's own estimates.

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Politics

In 1999, Trump indicated an interest in running for president on the Reform party ticket in 2000, although he was previously a Republican. He withdrew after the party disintegrated into factionalism.

Trump's political views are largely centrist. He is pro-choice regarding abortion and supports gay rights, Social Security privatization, and tax cuts such as those implemented by President Bush. In 2004, Trump expressed opposition to the Iraq War but claims to have still voted for Bush due to his tax cut policy. Trump has contributed to both Republicans and Democrats, interestingly having donated slightly more money to Democratic candidates. In the first 6 months of 2005 he gave almost $20,000 to political campaigns, all but $2000 to Democrats. Senators he has recently supported include Hilary Clinton and Chuck Schumer of New York, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and John McCain of Arizona. He also refused to favor one candidate over the other in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election giving $2,000 to both John Kerry and George W. Bush.

Trump has recently attacked the official "Freedom Tower" plan for rebuilding the World Trade Center, claiming the plan to be "a pile of crap", and claims that most New Yorkers want the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center rebuilt, with a symbolic 111 stories, one story taller than the original predecessors (the "Twin Towers II" plan). He claims they would be taller, better, stronger, cheaper and safer than the proposed "Freedom Tower"; however, there is skepticism that the Twin Towers II proposal will actually replace the Freedom Tower plan and be built. In a recent CNN poll over 63% of voters wanted to see Trump's plan go into action.

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Television

In 1990, Trump's Atlantic City casino was used for the game show Trump Card, produced by Fielder-Berlin.

In 2004, Trump became star and executive producer of the NBC reality show, The Apprentice, in which a group of competitors battled for a high-level management job in one of Trump's commercial enterprises. The other contestants were "fired", or eliminated, from the game. The winner of the program earns a $250,000 annual salary. At the end of each episode, Trump eliminated one contestant by telling them, "You're fired," which became a somewhat popular catch phrase. For the first year of the show Trump was paid a mere $50,000 per episode, but following the show's initial success, he is now paid a reported $3,000,000 per episode making him one of the highest paid TV personalities.

Trump has also been included in numerous television commercials over the years obtaining him a $1 million fee for a Pizza Hut commercial in the 1990s, a $3 million fee for a Dominos Pizza commercial in 2005 as well as a $5 million fee for his Visa Card commercial the same year.

A Muppet of Donald Trump also appears in an episode of the 36th season of Sesame Street, alongside grouch Muppet Donald Grump.

Trump also guest starred on an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, when he almost buys their mansion for his nephew. The episode, called "For Sale by Owner," was episode 25 in the show's 4th season.

At the 2005 Emmy Awards, he sang the theme song for the classic TV series Green Acres. It was rather amusing because he wore a farmer's outfit and held a rake in his hand while singing the song. He won the award for "Best Emmy Idol" for his performance.

On October 24, 2005, Donald starred as himself on Days of our Lives. On the soap opera, Donald went to give a donation to the Horton Foundation.

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Family

In 1977 Trump married Ivana Zelničkova and together they have three children: Donald, Jr. (born December 31, 1977), Ivanka (born October 30, 1981) and Eric (born 1984). They were divorced in 1992. In 1993, he married Marla Maples, and together they have one child, Tiffany (born October 13, 1993). They divorced on June 8, 1999. Ivanka Trump is featured in a documentary called Born Rich about the experience of growing up as an heir to not only one of America's prolific business lineages, but to also a respected name in the New York Business World.

On April 26, 2004, he proposed to Melania Knauss. Trump and Knauss married on January 22, 2005 at Bethesda by the Sea Episcopal Church on the Island of Palm Beach, Florida, followed by a reception at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. On September 27, 2005, the couple announced that Melania is pregnant with Trump's fifth child.

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Trivia

  • Donald Trump's "Trump Plaza" served as the site of WWF WrestleMania IV in 1988 and WWF WrestleMania V in 1989.
  • It is rumoured that Donald Trump wanted to trademark the phrase You're Fired, since it's a popular catchphrase from The Apprentice.
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Books

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Properties

Future site of Trump International Hotel & Tower, Toronto
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Future site of Trump International Hotel & Tower, Toronto

Completed Properties:

  • Personal Residence: Trump Tower Penthouse: top 3 floors of Trump Tower with approximately 30,000 square feet (3,000 m²) of space; detailed in bronze, gold, and marble. Worth as much as $50 million, it is one of the most valuable apartments in the city.
  • Palm Beach estate: 43,000 square feet (4,000 m²) on a large oceanfront lot in Palm Beach. Trump purchased this property for $40 million at a bankruptcy auction in 2004. Renovations to the property were lead by Apprentice winner Kendra Todd and Trump is planning to re-list the property for $125 million. If it sold at this price it would be by far the most expensive house ever sold in the United States. (The current record is $70 million for Ron Perelman's Palm Beach estate in 2004.)
  • Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida. Most of this estate has been converted into a private club. This landmark property is valued at $200,000,000.
  • Trump Entertainment Resorts: This company owns the Trump branded casino resorts (Trump Taj Mahal, Plaza, Marina, Indiana, Club Privee). After a long period of financial trouble, the company entered bankruptcy protection in 2004. Trump agreed to invest $55 million cash in the new company, and pay $16.4 million to the company's debtors. In return he holds a 29.16% stake in the new public company. This stake was worth approximately $150 million in October 2005.
  • The Estates at Trump National: Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
  • Trump Grande: Florida
  • The Trump Building at 40 Wall Street: Trump bought and renovated this building for about $35 million in 1996. Although Trump claims it is worth $400 million, New York tax assessors value it at only $90 million. Mr. Trump has taken out a $145 million mortgage on this property to use for other investments.
  • Trump Palace: 200 East 69th Street, New York, NY
  • Trump Parc: 106 Central Park South, New York, NY
  • Trump Park Avenue: Park Avenue & 59th Street
  • Trump Tower: 725 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10022 Trump owns the retail and office space on the lower half of this building.
  • Trump World Tower: 845 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY
  • Trump Tower at City Center: 10 City Place, White Plains, NY 10601

Current and Future Developments:

Other prominent involvement: Many developers will pay Donald Trump to market their properties and be the public face of their projects. For this reason, he does not own many of the buildings that display his name. Here are some examples:

  • Trump World I, II, and III: Seoul, Korea Trump received a licensing fee of $5 million to lend his name to this project.
  • Trump International Hotel and Tower: Trump provided his name and expertise to the building's owner (GE) during the building's re-development in 1994 for a fee which totaled $40 million ($25 million for project management and $15 million in incentives deriving from the condo sales).
  • Riverside South Trump was forced to sell this site, the former west side rail-yards, during his financial difficulties in the mid 90's. The new owners continued Mr. Trump's involvement with the property and sought to use name to seek higher sales prices. Mr. Trump was paid $2 million annually for his oversight of the project and he was offered an estimated 30% of the net profits upon completion of this 10 year project. The investors sold off the uncompleted project in 2005 for $1.8 billion and offered Mr. Trump $500 million. Mr. Trump contends that the property should have been sold for more than $3 billion and is currently suing the owners for selling without his consent. He is seeking $1 billion in damages.
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References

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External links

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