Donald John Trump History and Presidential campaign, 2016
Donald John Trump born June 14, 1946) is an American businessman, politician, television personality, author, and the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States in the 2016 election. Trump is the Chairman and President of The Trump Organization, as well as the founder of the gaming and hotel enterprise Trump Entertainment Resorts (now owned by Carl Icahn).
Trump's father was New York City real estate developer Fred Trump.
The younger Trump had worked for his father's firm, Elizabeth Trump
& Son, while attending college. After graduating from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
in 1968, he joined the company and in 1971 was given control, later
renaming it The Trump Organization. He has since built casinos, golf
courses, hotels, a New York City neighborhood, and other real estate properties, many of which bear his name. Trump and his businesses, as well as his three marriages, have received prominent media exposure. He hosted The Apprentice, a popular NBC reality show, from 2004 to 2015.
Trump first campaigned for the U.S. presidency in 2000, and withdrew before any votes were cast, but afterwards won two Reform Party primaries. On June 16, 2015, he again announced his candidacy for president, as a Republican. Trump became known for his opposition to illegal immigration, his opposition to various free-trade agreements that he regards as unfair, his frequently non-interventionist views on foreign policy, and his proposal to temporarily ban foreign Muslims from entering the United States until Congress can determine how to address Islamic terrorism. Trump quickly emerged as the front-runner for the Republican nomination. His controversial remarks have inspired protests both opposing and supporting him.
On May 3, 2016, after winning 28 contests in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries and after his penultimate remaining Republican rival, Ted Cruz, suspended his campaign, Republican Chairman Reince Priebus declared Trump the presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican Party. Trump's final remaining Republican rival, John Kasich, suspended his campaign the next day.
Early life
Trump was born on June 14, 1946, in Queens, one of New York City's five boroughs.He was the fourth of five children of Mary Anne (née MacLeod; 1912–2000), a homemaker and philanthropist,and Fred Trump (1905–1999), a real estate developer. His mother was born at Tong on the Scottish island of Lewis and Harris. In 1930, aged 18, she visited the United States and met Fred Trump. They were married in 1936 and settled in Jamaica Estates, Queens, as Fred Trump eventually became one of the city's biggest real estate developers. Trump has one brother, Robert (born 1948), and two sisters: Maryanne (born 1937) and Elizabeth (born 1942). Maryanne is a United States federal judge on senior status for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.Another brother, Fred Jr. (1938–1981), died of complications from alcoholism.
Trump's father was born in Woodhaven, Queens, to Frederick and Elizabeth (née Christ) Trump, immigrants from Kallstadt, Germany. Frederick worked as a successful Klondike Gold Rush restaurateur and possibly as a brothel keeper. In a 1976 New York Times biographical profile, and again in his 1987 book, The Art of the Deal, Trump incorrectly stated that Frederick Trump was of Swedish origin,
an assertion that Fred Trump made for many years ostensibly because "he
had a lot of Jewish tenants and it wasn't a good thing to be German",
according to a nephew identified as a family historian by The New York Times. Donald Trump later acknowledged his German ancestry and served as grand marshal of the 1999 German-American Steuben Parade in New York City.
The family had a two-story Tudor Revival home on Wareham Place in Jamaica Estates, where Trump lived while attending The Kew-Forest School.
At Kew-Forest, Fred Trump served as a member of the Board of Trustees.
Due to behavior problems, Trump left the school at age 13 and was
enrolled in the New York Military Academy (NYMA).
In 1983, Fred told an interviewer that Donald "was a pretty rough
fellow when he was small." Trump finished eighth grade and high school
at NYMA. During his senior year, Trump participated in marching drills and wore a uniform, attaining the rank of captain.In 2015, he told a biographer that NYMA gave him "more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military."
Trump attended Fordham University in the Bronx for two years. He entered the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, as Wharton then offered one of the few real estate studies departments in U.S. academia.While there, he worked at his father's company, Elizabeth Trump & Son. Trump graduated from Wharton in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in economics.
Trump was eligible for the draft lottery during the Vietnam War. He was not drafted due to four student deferments (2-S) while attending college, as well as a medical deferment (1-Y, later converted to 4-F) obtained in 1968 after his college graduation, prior to the lottery being initiated.
Trump was deemed fit for service after a military medical examination
in 1966 and was briefly classified as 1-A by a local draft board shortly
before his 1968 medical disqualification. Trump attributed his medical deferment to "heel spurs" in both feet according to a 2015 biography, but told reporters in 2015 that he could not immediately remember which foot (later that day he said both feet). "I actually got lucky because I had a very high draft number", he told WNYW in 2011. Selective Service records retrieved by The Smoking Gun website from the National Archives confirm that Trump got a medical deferment and eventually received a high selective service lottery number in 1969.
Business career
Trump has said that when he graduated from college in 1968, he was worth about US$200,000 (equivalent to $1,021,000 in 2015).
At age 23, he made an unsuccessful commercial foray into show business,
investing $70,000 to become co-producer of the 1970 Broadway comedy
"Paris Is Out!", which flopped.Trump began his real estate career at his father's company, Elizabeth Trump and Son, which focused on middle-class rental housing in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.
During his undergraduate study, one of Trump's first projects had been
the revitalization of the foreclosed Swifton Village apartment complex
in Cincinnati, Ohio, which his father had purchased for $5.7 million in 1962.
Fred and Donald Trump became involved in the project and, with a
$500,000 investment, turned the 1,200-unit complex's occupancy rate from
34% to 100%. Trump oversaw the company's 14,000 apartments across
Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.In 1972, The Trump Organization sold Swifton Village for $6.75 million.
In 1971, Trump moved to Manhattan, where he became involved in larger construction projects, and used attractive architectural design to win public recognition. Trump initially came to public attention in 1973 when he was accused by the Justice Department of violations of the Fair Housing Act in the operation of 39 buildings.After an unsuccessful countersuit filed by attorney Roy Cohn,
Trump settled the charges in 1975 without admitting guilt, saying he
was satisfied that the agreement did not "compel the Trump organization
to accept persons on welfare as tenants unless as qualified as any other
tenant."Several years later the Trump Organization was again in court for
violating terms of the settlement; Trump denied the charges and there is
no indication that he was found guilty.
The Trump Organization owns, operates, develops, and invests in real estate around the world such as Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower, seen at center, in Panama City, Panama.
Trump had an option to buy and made plans to develop the Penn Central Transportation Company property, which was in bankruptcy. This included the 60th Street rail yard on the Hudson River—later developed as Riverside South—as well as the land around Grand Central Terminal, for which he paid $60 million with no money down. Later, with the help of a 40-year tax abatement from the New York City government, he turned the bankrupt Commodore Hotel next to Grand Central into the Grand Hyatt and created The Trump Organization.
Trump promoted Penn Central's rail yard on 30th Street as a site for New York City's planned Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. He estimated his company could have completed the project for $110 million,
but, while the city chose his site, it rejected his offer and Trump
received a broker's fee on the sale of the property instead.
Repairs on the Wollman Rink in Central Park, built in 1955, were started in 1980 by a general contractor unconnected to Trump, with an expected 2 1⁄2-year
construction schedule, but were not completed by 1986. Trump took over
the management of the project without the city needing to pay anything,
and completed it in three months for $1.95 million, which was $750,000
less than the initial budget.
In 1988, Trump acquired the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in a transaction with Merv Griffin and Resorts International.The acquisition was funded by significant bank borrowing;
by 1989, Trump was unable to meet loan payments. Although he secured
additional loans and postponed interest payments, increasing debt
brought the Taj Mahal to bankruptcy in 1991. Banks and bondholders, facing potential losses of hundreds of millions of dollars, opted to restructure
the debt. The Taj Mahal emerged from bankruptcy on October 5, 1991,
with Trump ceding 50 percent ownership in the casino to the bondholders
in exchange for lowered interest rates and more time to pay off the
debt. He also sold his financially challenged Trump Shuttle airline and his 282-foot megayacht, the Trump Princess.
The late 1990s saw a resurgence in Trump's financial situation. The
will of Trump's father, who died in 1999, divided an estate estimated at
$250–300 million equally among his four surviving children.
In 2001, Trump completed Trump World Tower, a 72-story residential tower across from the United Nations Headquarters. Also, he began construction on Trump Place, a multi-building development along the Hudson River. Trump continued to own commercial space in Trump International Hotel and Tower, a 44-story mixed-use (hotel and condominium) tower on Columbus Circle, and also continued to own millions of square feet of other prime Manhattan real estate.
By 2014, Trump retained 10% ownership of Trump Entertainment Resorts, which owns the Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, both in Atlantic City. In that year, Trump Entertainment Resorts entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed Trump Plaza indefinitely. Billionaire Carl Icahn
purchased the company in 2016, acquiring Trump Taj Mahal; Icahn kept
Trump's name on the building even though Trump no longer had any
ownership.
According to a July 2015 press release from his campaign manager,
Trump's "income" was $362 million ("which does not include dividends,
interest, capital gains, rents and royalties"). According to Fortune
magazine, the $362 million figure as stated on his FEC filings is not
"income" but gross revenue before salaries, interest payments on
outstanding debt, and other business-related expenses; Trump's true
income was "most likely" about one-third of what Trump has publicly
claimed.
According to public records, Trump received a $302 New York tax rebate
in 2013 (and in two other recent years) given to couples earning less
than $500,000 per year, who submit as proof their federal tax returns.Trump's campaign manager has suggested that Trump's tax rebate was an error. Trump has not publicly released his federal tax returns, saying he would not do so because of ongoing IRS audits.
Trump has licensed his name and image
for the development of many real estate projects. Trump-branded
properties, which are not owned by Trump, including two Trump-branded
real estate projects in Florida have gone into foreclosure. The Turkish owner of Trump Towers Istanbul,
who pays Trump for the use of his name, was reported in December 2015
to be exploring legal means to dissociate the property after the
candidate's call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United
States.
Trump has also licensed his name to son-in-law Jared Kushner's fifty story Trump Bay Street, a Jersey City luxury development that has raised $50 million of its $200 million capitalization largely from wealthy Chinese nationals who, after making an initial down payment of $500,000 in concert with the government's expedited EB-5 visa program, can usually be expected to obtain U.S. permanent residency for themselves and their families after two years. A spokesperson clarified that Trump is a partner with Kushner Properties only in name licensing and not in the building's financing.
An analysis of Trump's business career by The Economist
in 2016, concludes that his "...performance [from 1985 to 2016] has
been mediocre compared with the stock market and property in New York,"
noting both his successes and bankruptcies. Any such analysis is
difficult because, as the newspaper observed, "Information about Mr
Trump’s business is sketchy. He doesn’t run a publicly listed firm..."
Trump's early successes were partly commingled with those of his father
so they omit them claiming, "The best long-term starting point is 1985,
when Mr Trump first appeared in the rankings without his father." A subsequent analysis by the Washington Post concluded that "Trump is a mix of braggadocio, business failures, and real success."
Commercial properties and investments
Trump Tower
Trump Tower, at 725 Fifth Avenue, in Midtown Manhattan
Trump Tower, a 58-story, mixed-use skyscraper at 725 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, was developed by Trump and the Equitable Life Assurance Company, and was designed by architect Der Scutt of Swanke Hayden Connell.Trump Tower houses both his primary penthouse condominium residence and the headquarters of The Trump Organization. Trump Tower is also the name of buildings that The Trump Organization has built in Baku, Azerbaijan; Istanbul, Turkey, and several other places.
Trump Tower occupies the former site of the architecturally significant Bonwit Teller flagship store, demolished in 1980. There was controversy when valuable Art Deco bas-relief sculptures on its facade, which were supposed to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, were destroyed during the demolition process.
In addition, the demolition of the Bonwit Teller store was criticized
for a contractor's use of some 200 undocumented Polish immigrant
workers, who, during the rushed demolition process, were reportedly paid
4–5 dollars per hour for work in 12-hour shifts.
Trump testified in 1990 that he rarely visited the site and was unaware
of the illegal workers, some of whom lived at the site and who were
known as the "Polish Brigade." A judge ruled in 1991 that the builders
engaged in "a conspiracy to deprive the funds of their rightful
contribution", referring to the pension and welfare funds of the labor
unions. However, the record became sealed when the long-running labor lawsuit was settled in 1999, after 16 years in court.
Trump Taj Mahal
Trump Taj Mahal, at 1000 Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey
The Trump Taj Mahal is a casino on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey,
United States. The casino was opened by then-owner Donald Trump in
April 1990, and was built at a total cost of nearly one billion dollars.
Financed with $675 million in junk bonds at a 14% interest rate, the project entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy the following year, with Trump ceding 50% equity ownership to bondholders. The property was repurchased in 1996 and consolidated into Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts,
which filed for bankruptcy in 2004 with $1.8 billion in debt, filing
again for bankruptcy five years later with $50 million in assets and
$500 million in debt. The restructuring ultimately left Trump with 10%
ownership in the Trump Taj Mahal and other Trump casino properties.
Trump served as chairman of the organization, which was renamed Trump
Entertainment Resorts, from mid-1995 until early 2009, and served as CEO
from mid-2000 to mid-2005.
Its sister property, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino,
closed in September 2014. In November 2014, the Trump Taj Mahal
threatened to close and cease casino and hotel operations by the end of
the year if the union would not drop its appeal of the casino's
bankruptcy ruling, rebuffing their demand for continued health insurance
and pension coverage. On December 18, 2014 the Trump Taj Mahal reached
an agreement with its union and kept the casino open, but did not
restore the contested benefits.
In February 2016, the Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Entertainment Resorts were purchased by billionaire Carl Icahn and exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Golf courses
A view of the Turnberry Hotel, located in Ayrshire, Scotland
The Trump Organization operates many golf courses and resorts in the U.S. and around the world.
In 2006, Trump bought the Menie Estate in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, creating a highly controversial golf resort, against the wishes of local residents, on an area designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. A 2011 independent documentary, You've Been Trumped,
by British filmmaker Anthony Baxter, chronicled the golf resort's
construction and the subsequent struggles between the locals and Donald
Trump. Despite Trump's promises of 6,000 jobs, a decade later, by his own admission, the golf course has created only 200 jobs.
In April 2014, Trump purchased the Turnberry hotel and golf resort in Ayrshire, Scotland, which is a regular fixture in the Open Championship rota. In June 2015, Trump's appeal objecting to an offshore windfarm (Aberdeen Bay Wind Farm) within sight of the golf links was denied.
In December 2015, Trump's attempt to prevent the windfarm being built
within sight of his golf course was dismissed by five justices at the UK Supreme Court in the case of Trump International Golf Club Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers.
Branding and licensing
Trump has marketed his name on a large number of building projects as
well as commercial products and services, achieving mixed success doing
so for himself, his partners, and investors in the projects. His external entrepreneurial and investment ventures include Trump Financial
(a mortgage firm), Trump Sales and Leasing (residential sales), Trump
International Realty (a residential and commercial real estate brokerage
firm), The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative (a for profit business education company, formerly called the Trump University),
Trump Restaurants (located in Trump Tower and consisting of Trump
Buffet, Trump Catering, Trump Ice Cream Parlor, and Trump Bar), GoTrump (an online travel search engine), Select By Trump (a line of coffee drinks),Trump Drinks (an energy drink for the Israeli and Palestinian markets)Donald J. Trump Signature Collection (a line of menswear, men's accessories, and watches), Donald Trump The Fragrance (2004), SUCCESS by Donald Trump (a second fragrance launched by The Trump Organization and the Five Star Fragrance Company released in March 2012), Trump Ice bottled water, the former Trump Magazine,Trump Golf, Trump Chocolate, Trump Home (home furnishings), Trump Productions
(a television production company), Trump Institute, Trump: The Game
(1989 board game with a 2005 re-release version tied to The Apprentice), Donald Trump's Real Estate Tycoon (a business simulation game), Trump Books, Trump Model Management, Trump Shuttle, Trump Mortgage, Trump Network (a multi-level vitamin, cosmetic, and urinalysis marketing company), Trump Vodka, Trump Steakhouseand Trump Steaks. In addition, Trump reportedly received $1.5 million for each one-hour presentation he did for The Learning Annex. Trump also endorsed ACN Inc., a multi-level marketing telecommunications company. He has spoken at ACN International Training Events at which he praised the company's founders, business model and video phone. He earned a total $1.35 million for three speeches given for the company, amounting to $450,000 per speech.
In 2011, Forbes' financial experts estimated the value of the Trump brand at $200 million. Trump disputes this valuation, saying that his brand is worth about $3 billion. Many developers pay Trump to market their properties and to be the public face for their projects. For that reason, Trump does not own many of the buildings that display his name.According to Forbes,
this portion of Trump's empire, actually run by his children, is by far
his most valuable, having a $562 million valuation. According to Forbes,
there are 33 licensing projects under development including seven
"condo hotels" (the seven Trump International Hotel and Tower
developments). In June 2015, Forbes pegged the Trump brand at USD$125
million as retailers like Macy's Inc. and Serta Mattresses
began dropping Trump branded products, with Macy's saying they are
"disappointed and distressed by recent remarks about immigrants from
Mexico."
Net worth
Trump was listed on the initial Forbes List of wealthy individuals in
1982 as having an estimated $200 million fortune, including a share of
his father's estimated $200 million net worth,
After several years on the list, Trump's financial indiscipline in the
1980s caused him to be dropped from 1990 to 1995, and reportedly obliged
him to borrow from his siblings' trusts in 1993; in 2005, The New York Times referred to Trump's "verbal billions" in a skeptical article about Trump's self-reported wealth. At the time, three individuals with direct knowledge of Trump's finances told reporter Timothy L. O'Brien
that Trump's actual net worth was between $150 and $250 million, though
Trump then publicly claimed a net worth of $5 to $6 billion.
Claiming libel, Trump sued the reporter (and his book publisher) for $5
billion, lost the case, and then lost again on appeal; Trump refused to
turn over his unredacted tax returns despite his assertion they
supported his case.
In a sworn deposition, Trump testified that he once borrowed $9.6
million from his father, calling it "a very small amount of money," but
could not recall when he did so; Trump has since told campaign audiences he began his career with "a small loan of one million dollars" from his father, which he paid back with interest: "it has not been easy for me," Trump told one New Hampshire crowd.
In April 2011, amidst speculation whether Trump would run as a candidate in the U.S. presidential election of 2012, Politico
quoted unnamed sources close to him stating that, if Trump should
decide to run for president, he would file "financial disclosure
statements that [would] show his net worth [was] in excess of $7 billion
with more than $250 million of cash, and very little debt." Although Trump did not run as a candidate in the 2012 elections, his
"professionally prepared" 2012 financial disclosure was published in his
book which claimed a $7 billion net worth.
Trump Hotel Las Vegas
Estimates of Trump's net worth have fluctuated along with real estate valuations: in 2015, Forbes pegged it as $4 billion, while the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (which scrutinized Trump's FEC filings) estimated a net worth of $2.9 billion.
On June 16, 2015, just prior to announcing his candidacy for president
of the United States, Trump released to the media a one-page prepared
financial disclosure statement "from a big accounting firm—one of the
most respected" stating a net worth of $8,737,540,000. "I'm really rich," Trump said Forbes called the nearly $9 billion figure a "100%" exaggeration. In June 2015, Business Insider
published Trump's June 2014 financial statement, noting that $3.3
billion of that total is represented by "Real Estate Licensing Deals,
Brand and Branded Developments," described by Business Insider as "basically [implying] that Trump values his character at $3.3 billion."
In July 2015, Federal election regulators released new details of
Trump's self-reported wealth and financial holdings when he became a
Republican presidential candidate, reporting that his assets are worth
above $1.4 billion, which includes at least $70 million in stocks, and a
debt of at least $265 million. Mortgages on Trump's major properties—including Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, and the Trump National Doral
golf course—each fall into the "above $50 million" range, the highest
reportable category on FEC filings, with Trump paying interest rates
ranging from 4% to 7.125%. (Mortgages on those three properties were separately reported as $100 million, $160 million, and $125 million in 2013.) Other outstanding Trump mortgages and debts are pegged to current market interest rates. A 2012 report from Trump's accounting firm estimated $451.7 million in debt and other collateral obligations. Filings in 2015 revealed debt of $504 million, according to Fortune magazine.
A July 2015 campaign press release, issued one month after Trump
announced his presidential run, said that the FEC filing "was not
designed for a man of Mr. Trump's massive wealth" and that his "net worth is in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS" (emphasis in original document).
However, Trump has testified that "my net worth fluctuates, and it goes
up and down with markets and with attitudes and with feelings—even my
own feelings." On the same day, Trump's own stated estimates of his net worth have varied by as much as $3.3 billion.Trump has also acknowledged that past exaggerated estimates of his wealth have been "good for financing." Forbes
has said that although Trump "shares a lot of information with us that
helps us get to the figures we publish," he "consistently pushes for a
higher net worth—especially when it comes to the value of his personal
brand. Forbes
reduced its estimate of Trump's net worth by $125 million following
Trump's controversial 2015 remarks about Mexican illegal immigrants,
which ended Trump's business contracts with NBCUniversal, Univision, Macy's, Serta, PVH Corporation, and Perfumania. An internal Young & Rubicam
study of Trump's brand favorability among high-income consumers showed
"plummeting" ratings at the end of 2015, suggesting Trump's various
businesses could face market and financing challenges in the future.
Unlike past Presidential candidates, Trump has never publicly verified his income claims by releasing his tax returns;
"I try to pay as little tax as possible ... It's a little tax," Trump
told an interviewer in January 2016, while saying he was preparing the
documents for release in the near future and claiming to have filed "big
returns." However, in May 2016, Trump told an interviewer that he would not release his returns before the November 2016 election. Former GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney
is among those who have questioned Trump's purported wealth and his
unwillingness to release his tax returns, suggesting Trump might be wary
of revealing a potential electoral "bombshell". In the wake of Romney's accusation, Trump said during a February 25, 2016 debate that he was currently subject to an Internal Revenue Service audit going back "two or three years,"later saying the audit affected "four or five" years, and that he had been audited every year for the past 12 years.Trump later told CNN he suspected the government's scrutiny was due to religion, because he was a "strong Christian."
As he was "in the midst of negotiating and talking with the IRS" over
tax obligations going back several years, he would neither reveal recent
returns nor records for audited years he had "passed" because such
records "mesh" and "interrelate" with current disputed IRS filings.
Tax experts observed that the normal statute of limitations for IRS
audits is three years, and an inquiry involving four or five years of
returns might indicate substantial under-reporting or evidence of fraud,
in which case normal statutes of limitations do not apply. Senior campaign advisor Paul Manafort told CNN that the past eight years of Trump's tax returns were being audited by the IRS.When asked by journalist George Stephanopoulos if he would reveal his tax rate, Trump replied that it was "none of your business".
Investments
According to a July 2015 press release by Trump's campaign, a portion
of Trump's fortune is held in assets outside his holdings in The Trump
Organization, most of which are concentrated in the financial market. In
2011, Trump made a rare foray into the stock market after being
disappointed with the depressed American real estate market and facing
poor returns on bank deposits.
He stated that he was not a stock market person, but he also stated
that prime real estate at good prices is hard to get. Among the stocks
Trump purchased, he stated he bought stock in Bank of America, Citigroup, Caterpillar Inc., Intel, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble. In December 2012, Trump revealed that he also added shares of Facebook to his stock portfolio.Trump also has US$9 million invested in hedge funds. He earned US$6.7 million from selling shares in Bank of America and an additional US$3.9 million from selling Facebook in 2014.
Sports
In 1983, Trump purchased the New Jersey Generals for the inaugural season of the United States Football League (USFL). The Generals hired former New York Jets head coach Walt Michaels. Before the inaugural season began, Trump sold the franchise to Oklahoma oil magnate J. Walter Duncan. Then, prior to the 1984 season, Duncan sold the team back to Trump.
Trump at a baseball game in 2009
The USFL played its first 1983, 1984, and 1985 seasons during the
summer. Trump convinced the majority of the owners of other USFL teams
to move the USFL 1986 schedule to the fall, directly opposite the National Football League
(NFL), arguing that it would eventually force a merger with the NFL;
owners of any USFL teams included in a merger would see their investment
increase significantly.
The Generals merged with the Houston Gamblers during the extended offseason prior to the fall of 1986, adding such stars as quarterback Jim Kelly and wide receiver Ricky Sanders. Michaels was fired, replaced with former Gamblers coach Jack Pardee, who planned to bring the Gamblers' high-powered run and shoot offense
with him. However, the USFL's "Dream Team" never took the field. The
1986 season was cancelled after the USFL won a minimal verdict (of less
than four dollars) in an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL; the USFL folded soon afterward.
Trump at one time acted as a financial advisor for Mike Tyson,hosting Tyson's 1988 fight against Michael Spinks in Atlantic City.
Beauty pageants
Further information: Miss USA, Miss Universe and Miss Teen USA
From 1996 until 2015, when he sold his interests to WME/IMG, Trump owned part or all of the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA beauty pageants. Among the most recognized beauty pageants in the world, the Miss Universe pageant was founded in 1952 by the California clothing company Pacific Mills.
In 2015, NBC and Univision both ended their business relationships
with the Miss Universe Organization after Trump's presidential campaign
kickoff speech on June 16, in which he stated:
The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else's problems. [Applause] Thank you. It's true, and these are the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
Trump subsequently filed a $500 million lawsuit against Univision, alleging a breach of contract and defamation. Cable network Reelz then acquired the rights to exclusively telecast the Miss USA pageant.Trump told People magazine in July 2015 that the lawsuit against Univision was "part of the [presidential] campaign."
On September 11, 2015, Trump announced that he purchased NBC's stake in
the Miss Universe Organization, making him the sole owner, and had
"settled" his lawsuits against the network, though it was not immediately clear whether Trump had filed lawsuits against NBC or merely threatened to do so. He sold his own interests in the pageant shortly afterwards.
Use of bankruptcy laws
Trump has never filed for personal bankruptcy, but hotel and casino businesses of his have been declared bankrupt four times between 1991 and 2009 to re-negotiate debt with banks and owners of stock and bonds. Because the businesses used Chapter 11 bankruptcy, they were allowed to operate while negotiations proceeded. Trump was quoted by Newsweek in 2011 saying, "I do play with the bankruptcy laws — they’re very good for me" as a tool for trimming debt.
According to a report by Forbes
in 2011, the four bankruptcies were the result of over-leveraged hotel
and casino businesses in Atlantic City: Trump's Taj Mahal (1991), Trump
Plaza Hotel (1992), Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts (2004), and Trump Entertainment Resorts (2009).
Trump said "I've used the laws of this country to pare debt. … We'll
have the company. We'll throw it into a chapter. We'll negotiate with
the banks. We'll make a fantastic deal. You know, it's like on The Apprentice. It's not personal. It's just business." He indicated that other "great entrepreneurs" do the same.
1991
In 1991, Trump Taj Mahal was unable to service its debt and filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Forbes indicated that this first bankruptcy was the only one where Trump's personal financial resources were involved. Time, however, maintains that $72 million of his personal money was also involved in a later 2004 bankruptcy.
1992
On November 2, 1992, the Trump Plaza Hotel filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and Trump lost his 49 percent stake in the luxury hotel to Citibank and five other lenders.
In return Trump received more favorable terms on the remaining $550+
million owed to the lenders, and retain his position as chief executive,
though he would not be paid and would not have a role in day-to-day
operations,
Recovery
Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino closed its doors in 2014
By 1994, Trump had eliminated a large portion of his $900 million personal debt through sales of his Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza assets, and significantly reduced his nearly $3.5 billion in business debt. Although he lost the Trump Princess yacht and the Trump Shuttle
(which he had bought in 1989), he did retain Trump Tower in New York
City and control of three casinos in Atlantic City, including Trump's Castle. Trump sold his ownership of West Side Yards (now Riverside South, Manhattan) to Chinese developers including Hong Kong's New World Development, receiving a premium price in exchange for the use and display of the name "Trump" on the buildings.
2004
Donald Trump's third corporate bankruptcy was on October 21, 2004, involving Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, the publicly-traded holding company for his three Atlantic City casinos and some others. Trump lost over half of his 56% ownership and gave bondholders stock in
exchange for surrendering part of the debt. No longer CEO, Trump
retained a role as chairman of the board. In May 2005 the company emerged from bankruptcy as Trump Entertainment Resorts Holdings.In his 2007 book, Think BIG and Kick Ass in Business and Life,
Trump wrote: "I figured it was the bank's problem, not mine. What the
hell did I care? I actually told one bank, 'I told you you shouldn't
have loaned me that money. I told you the goddamn deal was no good.'"
2009
Trump's fourth corporate bankruptcy occurred in 2009, when Trump and
his daughter Ivanka resigned from the board of Trump Entertainment
Resorts; four days later the company, which owed investors $1.74 billion
against its $2.06 billion of assets, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
At that time, Trump Entertainment Resorts had three properties in Atlantic City: Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino (closed in 2014), and Trump Marina
(formerly Trump's Castle, sold in 2011). Trump and some investors
bought the company back that same year for $225 million. As part of the
agreement, Trump withdrew a $100 million lawsuit he had filed against
the casino's owners alleging damage to the Trump brand. Trump
re-negotiated the debt, reducing by over $1 billion the repayments
required to bondholders.
Trump Entertainment Resorts filed again for bankruptcy in 2014 and was purchased by billionaire philanthropist Carl Icahn in 2016, who acquired Trump Taj Mahal in the deal,
In 2014, Trump sued his former company to remove his name from the
buildings since he no longer ran the company, having no more than a 10%
stake; he lost the suit.
Entertainment media
Trump has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award and has made appearances as a caricatured version of himself in television series and films such as Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, The Nanny, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Days of Our Lives, Sex and the City, and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. He has also played an oil tycoon in The Little Rascals. Trump is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and receives an annual pension of more than $110,000 every year.
He has been the subject of comedians, flash cartoon artists, and online caricature artists. Trump also had his own daily talk radio program called Trumped!.
The Apprentice
Trump posing with guest basketball personality Dennis Rodman, during Rodman's 2009 participation on Celebrity Apprentice
In 2003, Trump became the executive producer and host 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. Contestants were successively
"fired" and eliminated from the game. In 2004, Trump filed a trademark application for the catchphrase "You're fired."
For the first year of the show, Trump earned $50,000 per episode
(roughly $700,000 for the first season), but following the show's
initial success, he was paid $1 million per episode.
In a July 2015 press release, Trump's campaign manager claimed that
NBCUniversal had paid him $213,606,575 for his 14 seasons hosting the
show, although the network did not verify the claim. In 2007, Trump received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to television (The Apprentice).
Along with British TV producer Mark Burnett, Trump was hired as host of The Celebrity Apprentice,
in which well-known stars compete to win money for their charities.
While Trump and Burnett co-produced the show, Trump stayed in the
forefront, deciding winners and "firing" losers.
On February 16, 2015, NBC announced that they would be renewing The Apprentice for a 15th season.
Eleven days later, Trump stated that he was "not ready" to sign on for
another season because of the possibility of a presidential run. Despite this, on March 18, NBC announced they were going ahead with production.
On June 29, after widespread negative reaction stemming from Trump's
campaign announcement speech, NBC released a statement saying, "Due to
the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants,
NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump,"
apparently ending Trump's role in The Apprentice.
World Wrestling Entertainment
Trump has been publicly shown to be a World Wrestling Entertainment fan and is a friend of WWE owner Vince McMahon. He has hosted two WrestleMania events in the Trump Plaza and has been an active participant in several of the shows.Trump's Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City was host to the 1991 WBF Championship (which was owned by WWE, known at the time as the "World Wrestling Federation"). He also appeared in WrestleMania VII. Trump was interviewed by Jesse Ventura ringside at WrestleMania XX.
He appeared at WrestleMania 23 in a match called "The Battle of the Billionaires." Trump was in the corner of Bobby Lashley, while Vince McMahon was in the corner of Lashley's opponent Umaga with Stone Cold Steve Austin as the special guest referee.
The stipulation of the match was hair versus hair, which meant that
either Trump or McMahon would have their head shaved if their competitor
lost. Lashley won the match, and he and Trump shaved McMahon bald.
On June 15, 2009, as part of a storyline, McMahon announced on Monday Night Raw that he had "sold" the show to Trump. Appearing on screen, Trump declared he would be at the following
commercial-free episode in person and would give a full refund to the
people who purchased tickets to the arena for that night's show. McMahon "bought back" Raw the following week for twice the price.
Trump was inducted into the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013, at Madison Square Garden for his contributions to the promotion. He made his sixth WrestleMania appearance the next night.
Trump Model Management
In 1999, Donald Trump founded a modeling company, Trump Model Management, which operates in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City. Together with another Trump company, Trump Management Group LLC, Trump
Model Management has brought nearly 250 foreign fashion models to the US
to work in the fashion industry since 2000.
The company has a reputation for premier models. In 2014, president of
Trump Model Management Corrine Nicolas, other managers, and the company
were sued by one of the agency's former models, Alexia Palmer, alleging
racketeering, breach of contract, mail fraud, and violating immigrant
wage laws.
Politics
With President Ronald Reagan at White House reception in 1987
Trump has described his political leanings and positions in various ways over time. Politico has described his positions as "eclectic, improvisational and often contradictory". He has listed his party affiliation as Republican, Independence Party, Democrat, and "decline to state"He has also run as a Reform Party candidate, Specifically, he has changed his positions on taxing the wealthy, abortion rights and health care.
Political affiliations
A 2011 report by the Center for Responsive Politics
showed that over the previous two decades of U.S. elections, Donald
Trump made contributions to campaigns of both Republican Party and
Democratic Party candidates, with the top ten recipients of his
political contributions being six Democrats and four Republicans. After 2011, his campaign contributions were more favorable to Republicans than to Democrats.
Trump declaring party loyalty, September 3, 2015, Trump Tower
Trump was an early supporter of Republican Ronald Reagan for U.S. president, and in February 2012 endorsed Republican Mitt Romney for president. When asked in 2015 which recent president was best, Trump picked Democrat Bill Clinton over Republicans George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush The Clintons' foundation has received between $100,000 and $250,000 from Trump, and they attended Trump's 2005 wedding reception. Trump wrote in 2008 that Hillary Clinton would be a "great president or vice-president".
Trump's party affiliation has changed over the years. It is unknown
if he was registered to vote, or in which party he was registered until
1987. In 1987 he registered to vote as a Republican until 1999. He then switched to the Reform Party
from 1999 to 2001. After a presidential exploratory campaign with the
Reform Party, he wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times stating
that he was leaving the Reform Party because of the involvement of David Duke, Pat Buchanan and Lenora Fulani with the party, stating that they were "not company [he wished] to keep." From 2001 to 2009 he was a Democrat;
he switched back to the Republican Party from 2009 to 2011. He was an
Independent from December 2011 to April 2012, before returning to the
Republican Party where he has remained.
Presidential leanings, 1988–2012
Trump first expressed interest in running for office in 1987, when he
spent $100,000 to place full page ads critiquing U.S. defense policy in The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
Trump floated the idea of running for president in 1988, 2004, and 2012, and for Governor of New York in 2006 and 2014, but did not enter those races. He was considered as a potential running mate for George H. W. Bush on
the Republican Party's 1988 presidential ticket but lost out to future
Vice President Dan Quayle. There is dispute over whether Trump or the Bush camp made the initial pitch. In 1999, Trump filed an exploratory committee to seek the presidential nomination of the Reform Party in 2000. A July 1999 poll matching him against likely Republican nominee George W. Bush and likely Democratic nominee Al Gore showed Trump with seven percent support.
Though he dropped out of the race due to party infighting, Trump still
won the party's California and Michigan primaries after dropping out.
Trump later said that his national profile changed: "What happened was I did The Apprentice and it became a tremendous success. Who would have thought this was going to happen?" he told interviewer Larry King in 2005. "There's sort of nothing like having the big hot show on television," Trump said.
As Trump publicly speculated about seeking the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, a Wall Street Journal/NBC
News poll released in March 2011 found Trump leading among potential
contenders, one point ahead of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. A Newsweek
poll conducted in February 2011 showed Trump within a few points of
Barack Obama, with many voters undecided in the November 2012 general
election for president of the United States.
A poll released in April 2011 by Public Policy Polling showed Trump
having a nine-point lead in a potential contest for the Republican
nomination for president while he was still actively considering a run. His moves were interpreted by some media as possible promotional tools for his reality show The Apprentice. On May 16, 2011, Trump announced he would not run for president. Public Policy Polling described the events of May 2011 as "one of the quickest rises and falls in the history of presidential politics."
Between presidential announcements, 2011–15
Trump speaking at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland
In April 2011, Trump questioned President Barack Obama's proof of citizenship, alleging that "his grandmother in Kenya said he was born in Kenya, and she was there and witnessed the birth."
(Trump's claim derived from a discredited transcript of a telephone
interview with Obama's grandmother, produced by a Pennsylvania pastor
opposed to Obama's election.) Trump also questioned whether Obama had good enough grades to warrant entry to Harvard Law School. Trump is said to have sent a team of private investigators to Hawaii, Obama's documented birthplace, and told The Today Show "they cannot believe what they're finding." On April 25, 2011, Trump called for Obama to end the citizenship issue by releasing the long form of his birth certificate.Two days later, Obama made a formal statement in efforts by the White House to put the matter to rest with the release of the long form.
Trump expressed pride at his role in the certificate's release in a
press conference follow-up, saying he hoped it "checks out" and "we have
to see, is it real?"
When asked in July 2015 whether Obama was born in the U.S., Trump said:
"I really don't know. I mean, I don't know why he wouldn't release his
records."
In December 2008, Trump emerged as an early supporter of the 2009
government-backed rescue plan for the U.S. auto industry, which by 2012
was supported by 56% of Americans (63% support in Michigan), according
to a Pew Research Center poll.
Statements of Trump's hinting that vaccination could cause autism and
should be administered between longer intervals were subject to
criticism in various media by the scientific community. He also made statements denying climate change that were discordant with the opinion of the scientific community.
In 2013, Trump was a featured speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The speech was not well attended. He spent over $1 million to research a possible run for president of the United States.
In October 2013, New York Republicans had circulated a memo suggesting
Trump should run for governor of the state in 2014, against Andrew Cuomo. Trump said that while New York had problems and taxes were too high, running for governor was not of great interest to him. In February 2015, Trump opted not to renew his television contract for The Apprentice, generating speculation that he might run for president in 2016.
Presidential campaign, 2016
Trump campaigning in Fountain Hills, Arizona, March 2016
On June 16, 2015, Trump announced his candidacy for President of the United States at Trump Tower in New York City. Trump drew attention to domestic issues such as illegal immigration, offshoring of American jobs, the U.S. national debt, and Islamic terrorism, in a campaign strongly emphasized by the slogan "Make America Great Again."
Trump runs as a self-described conservative, particularly as it relates to fiscal and religious matters. Some political analysts infer Trump to be a "moderate" as regards social issues such as LGBT rights, and abortion. He campaigns on a platform that puts great emphasis on American patriotism, with a significant disdain for political correctness. He is running counter to the Republican establishment, which widely opposes his candidacy, doubting his chances of winning the general election and fearing he could cause significant change to the image of the Republican Party.
However, Trump's candidacy has largely succeeded, partly because of
widespread media coverage, his ability to self-finance his campaign and
not be reliant on super PACs, frequent endorsements, and the idea that he and his supporters call "telling it like it is."
Trump has employed strong rhetoric on religion, and has strongly
supported Christian groups in the U.S., claiming that he will reverse
unfavorable tax treatments preventing them from expressing themselves in
the political arena and promising to revive a more widespread use of
the phrase "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays" in department stores. Other issues he highlights include taking care of military veterans, making the military "strong", aggressive bombing of the Mideast terrorist group ISIS, surveillance of certain mosques in the U.S., and getting trade agreements more favorable to American workers.
Primaries
Trump entered a large field of candidates consisting of 16 other
Republican candidates campaigning for the nomination, the largest
presidential field in American history, By early 2016, the race had mostly centered on Donald Trump and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz.
Trump's persona came under fire, with political contenders describing
him as "divisive", "unserious", and a "bully", denouncing the frequent
personal attacks he makes on journalists, politicians, and competing
candidates.
On Super Tuesday,
Trump won the majority of the delegates and remained the front-runner
throughout the primaries. By March 2016, Trump reached over 50% in
national support from Republican primary voters and became poised to win
the Republican nomination. After a landslide win in Indiana on May 3, 2016, which prompted the remaining candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich to suspend their presidential campaigns, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus declared Trump the presumptive nominee.
General election
After becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, Trump's focus shifted to the general election, urging remaining primary voters to "save their vote for the general election." Trump continued to campaign across the country and began targeting Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who was set to become the Democratic nominee.
Comments about fringe theories
According to political writer Steve Benen, unlike past political leaders, Trump has not kept fringe theories and their supporters at arm's length. Political writer Jack Shafer
says that Trump may be a "fairly conventional American populist when it
comes to his policy views", but he has a revolutionary ability to
attract free media attention, sometimes by making outrageous comments.
Although Trump has refused to discuss his past comments on Obama's proof of citizenship during the campaign, he has not shied away from other topics that attract fringe theorists. Among others, Trump has alluded to the theory that President Obama is secretly a Muslim, the unfounded notion that vaccine doses cause autism if administered too quickly in succession, and the conspiracy theory that former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia might not have died of natural causes but was murdered.
Political positions
Trump has described his political positions in various and often contradictory ways over time. Politifact
writes that it is difficult to determine Trump's stance on issues,
given his frequent changes in position and "his penchant for using
confusing, vague and even contradictory language." Politico has described his positions as "eclectic, improvisational and often contradictory."
Trump's politics have variously been described by opinion writers as right-wing populist (per Jonah Goldberg), nativist (per Fred Hiatt), protectionist (per Lawrence Kudlow), authoritarian (per Ron Paul & others), and moderate Republican (per Josh Barro).
His views on immigration, free trade agreements, and military
interventionism, as well as his support for social security, have often
put him in conflict with Republican Party establishment positions.
On social issues, Trump describes himself as pro-life and would ban late-term abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or health.
During a televised town hall event, Trump said "there has to be some
sort of punishment" for the woman having an abortion, in a hypothetical
situation in which abortion were outlawed. He later retracted the
statement in response to outcry from his rivals and pro-life groups. He is in favor of cutting federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Trump supports the Second Amendment, is opposed to gun control in general, and has a New York concealed carry permit. He supports fixing the federal background check system so that criminal and mental health records are always put into the system. Trump opposes legalizing recreational marijuana but supports legalizing medical marijuana, while being supportive of states' rights. Trump has stated that he supports traditional marriage. Of the June 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges,
the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, he
said: "I would have preferred states, you know, making the decision and I
let that be known. But they made the decision. [...] So, at a certain
point you have to be realistic about it."
Regarding healthcare and education, Trump favors replacing the Affordable Care Act (commonly referred to as "Obamacare") with a free-market plan and competition to lower costs, although he has also stated support for a single-payer system in the past. Trump favors getting rid of backlogs and waitlists which are the focus of the Veterans Health Administration scandal.
In a statement, he said he believes that Veterans Affairs facilities
need to be upgraded with recent technology, hire more veterans to treat
other veterans, increase support of female veterans, and create
satellite clinics within hospitals in rural areas. Trump has stated his support for school choice and local control for primary and secondary schools. He opposes the Common Core State Standards Initiative for primary and secondary schools and has called Common Core "a disaster" that must be ended.
On trade, Trump identifies as a "free trader", but says that trade must be "reasonably fair". His campaign's tax plan calls for reducing the corporate tax rate to 15% concurrent with the elimination of various loopholes and deductions. During the GOP Primary, Trump said that the minimum wage should not be raised because increasing it would hurt America's economic competitiveness.
However, since becoming the presumptive nominee for President he has
stated that he is open to raising the minimum wage, saying: "I haven't
decided in terms of numbers. But I think people have to get more."
Trump has demonstrated his support of capital punishment both through his campaign speeches about killings of police officers, and through full-page ads he purchased favoring capital punishment in New York during the 1989 Central Park jogger case.
On foreign policy, Trump has been described as non-interventionalist and nationalist, He supports increasing U.S. military defense spending, but favors decreasing U.S. spending on NATO.Trump has at various times said he favored sending U.S. troops as well as opposed sending U.S. troops to defeat the Islamic State, and he supports expanded use of aggressive interrogation techniques.
In a 2002 interview, Trump said he favored invading Iraq, although he
said that is must be done "correctly". Later in 2013, he repeatedly
referred to the war as a "mess" and in December 2013 also said that
"People are questioning invading Iraq in the first place". On February 18, 2016, he said that by the time the invasion occurred, he had become an opponent. In 2008, Trump said that George W. Bush should have been impeached for the war. Regarding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict,
Trump has stated the importance of being a neutral party during
potential negotiations, while also having stated that he is "a big fan
of Israel." He supports Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank.He endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2013. Trump has been critical of Pakistan, comparing it to North Korea, describing it as "probably the most dangerous country" in the world, and saying that Pakistan's nuclear weapons posed a "serious problem." He has advocated improving relations with India as a "check" to Pakistan.
Regarding the environment, Trump has said that "the EPA is an impediment to both growth and jobs." Trump supports increased fracking and has criticized sustainable wind power
alternatives, stating that "windmills are destroying every country they
touch" while producing "unreliable and terrible" energy. He has called global warming "a total hoax."
Controversial immigration policies
Trump has proposed strengthening the Mexico–U.S. barrier.
On immigration, Trump has emphasized U.S. border security. During his first town hall campaign meeting in Derry, New Hampshire Trump said that if he won the election, "Day 1 of my presidency, illegal immigrants are getting out and getting out fast." Trump opposes birthright citizenship, arguing that it is not or should not be protected by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
On people already illegally in the United States, Trump has variously
said they should all be deported, that all should be deported but some
could return, that only some should be deported, or that the decision
should be made after the border has been strengthened.
Although many of Trump's proposed policies
largely appeal to working-class voters, political pundits deem some of
them highly controversial and unrealistic, including the deportation of
around 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and the erection of a substantial wall on the Mexico–United States border.
One of Trump's most controversial proposals is a temporary ban on
foreign Muslims entering the United States in response to the threat of Islamic terrorism "until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on" Pollsters have found that support for the proposal depends upon whether
the pollsters say that the ban would only last "until the federal
government improves its ability to screen out potential terrorists from
coming here". This proposal by Trump came in response to a wave of radical Islamic terrorist attacks. Trump said that Belgium and France had been blighted by the failure of Muslims in these countries to integrate, and that living in Brussels was like living in a "hellhole" because of its dire state in Muslim assimilation. Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan argued the proposal violated the party's conservative values and the Constitution, while other Republican leaders said it was contrary to American values. Other critics pointed out that the proposal would result in the exclusion of many important U.S. allies such as Jordan's King Abdullah, although Trump later clarified exceptions would be made.
Personal life
Trump's eldest daughter Ivanka in 2011
Trump's second-oldest son Eric in 2010
Family
Trump has had three marriages, the first two ending in divorce, which have been publicized in the tabloid media His personal life has also gained extensive coverage in the mainstream media.
Trump married his first wife, Czech model Ivana Zelníčková, at age 30 on April 7, 1977 at the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan. They had three children: son Donald, Jr. (born December 31, 1977), daughter Ivanka (born October 30, 1981), and son Eric (born January 6, 1984). All three now serve as executive vice presidents of The Trump Organization.
Ivana became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1988, with Trump at her side.Trump is popularly known as "The Donald", a nickname perpetuated by the media after Ivana referred to him as such in a 1989 Spy magazine cover story. By early 1990, Trump's troubled marriage to Ivana and long-running affair with actress Marla Maples had become fodder for the tabloid press. The couple divorced in 1991.
In 1992, he sued Ivana for not honoring a gag clause in their divorce
agreement by disclosing facts about him in a best-selling book, and
Trump won a gag order. In 2015, Ivana said that she and Donald are now "the best of friends"
Maples gave birth to their daughter Tiffany on October 13, 1993. They married two months later on December 20, 1993. The couple formally separated in May 1997, with their divorce finalized in June 1999.
Trump's wife Melania at a campaign event in 2016
In 1998, Trump began a relationship with Slovenian-born fashion model Melania Knauss.They became engaged in April 2004 and were 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. In 2006, Melania became a naturalized U.S. citizen. In March 2006, she gave birth to their son whom they named Barron William Trump. (Trump had previously used the pseudonym "John Baron" or "Barron" in some business deals and for other purposes.) Having spoken the language since his childhood, Barron is fluent in Slovenian. In a February 2009 interview on ABC's news program Nightline,
Trump commented that his love for his business had made it difficult
for his first two wives to compete with his affection for work.
Trump has eight grandchildren: five via his son Donald Jr., and three via his daughter Ivanka
Other relationships
Trump has said of his early dating life that he felt "like a great
and very brave soldier" and "lucky" to have avoided the contraction of
AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases, calling it his own
"personal Vietnam".
"If I told the real stories of my experiences with women, often
seemingly very happily married and important women, this book would be a
guaranteed best-seller", Trump wrote in his 1997 book The Art of the Comeback. He was rumored to have dated models such as Carla Bruni in the early 1990s and Kara Young in the mid to late 1990s—although Bruni vehemently denied the rumors, stating that she had met Trump only once at a charity event—and was known to have "bombarded" Princess Diana with expensive floral arrangements after her 1996 divorce from Prince Charles.
"I only have one regret in the women department – that I never had the
opportunity to court Lady Diana Spencer," Trump wrote in 1997. "I met
her on a number of occasions … She was a genuine princess – a dream
lady." According to his former construction executive Barbara Res, Trump,
using a pseudonym, leaked to the media a rumor that Diana was seeking to
buy an apartment in Trump Tower, knowing Buckingham Palace would issue only a "no comment" statement. "He was brilliant at stuff like that," Res said. In 1994, The New York Times
reported that Diana and Prince Charles, who had recently separated, had
independently paid $50,000 to become members of Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club, with Trump quoted saying he had "handled the applications myself".
After Buckingham Palace called the report "complete and utter rubbish",
Trump stated that he had made Charles and Diana honorary members but
they had not responded to his offer. Speaking on The Howard Stern Show
three years after Diana's death, Trump said he would have slept with
her "without hesitation" and that "she had the height, she had the
beauty, she had the skin," while adding that "she was crazy, but these
are minor details."
Religious views
Trump is a Presbyterian. Trump began going to church at the First Presbyterian Church in the Jamaica neighborhood in Queens, when he was younger. Trump attended Sunday school and had his confirmation at that church
In an April 2011 interview on the 700 Club,
he commented: "I'm a Protestant, I'm a Presbyterian. And you know I've
had a good relationship with the church over the years. I think religion
is a wonderful thing. I think my religion is a wonderful religion." Trump told a 2015 South Carolina campaign audience he attends Marble Collegiate Church,
where he married his first wife Ivana in 1977. Marble has said that,
though Trump has a longstanding history with the church, he is a
Presbyterian and not an active member of Marble. Trump has said that although he participates in Holy Communion,
he has not asked God for forgiveness for his sins. He stated, "I think
if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don't
bring God into that picture."
In 1983, the Reverend Norman Vincent Peale, described in a New York Times
profile as Trump's "pastor" and "family minister", said that Trump was
"kindly and courteous in certain business negotiations and has a
profound streak of honest humility. Trump calls his own book The Art of the Deal
(1987) "my second favorite book of all time," and has told campaign
audiences: "Do you know what my first is? The Bible! Nothing beats the
Bible."Declining to name his favorite Bible verse, Trump said "I don't like giving that out to people that you hardly know."
Trump maintains relationships with several prominent national evangelical and Christian leaders, including Tony Perkins and Ralph Reed. During his 2016 presidential campaign, he received a blessing from Greek Orthodox priest Emmanuel Lemelson.
In February 2016, Pope Francis
was reported to have suggested that Donald Trump was "not Christian"
because of his advocacy for a border wall to keep out undocumented
immigrants.
"A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be,
and not about building bridges, is not a true Christian. This is not in
the Gospel," the Pope replied to a reporter's questions about Trump,
adding "we must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the
benefit of the doubt."
Trump called the Pope's criticism "disgraceful" in a Facebook post,
suggesting that the Mexican government was "using the Pope as a pawn"
for political purposes "because they want to continue to rip off the United States." Trump said that "if and when" the Islamic State (ISIL)
attacks the Vatican, the Pope would have "wished and prayed" Trump were
President because under Trump's leadership, such an attack would not
happen. Shortly thereafter, Director of the Holy See Press Office Federico Lombardi
insisted that the Pope was "in no way" launching an attack on Donald
Trump nor was he trying to sway voters by declaring someone who
advocates building walls isn't Christian.
The spokesman clarified that "the Pope has made it clear that he would
not enter into the [presidential] election campaign in the United
States."
After the clarification by Lombardi, Trump retracted his criticism of
the Pope: "I don't think this is a fight," said Trump. "I think he said
something much softer than was originally reported by the media."
Trump has ties to the Jewish-American community.At an Algemeiner Journal awards ceremony honoring him with the Algemeiner Liberty Award, he was asked about having Jewish grandchildren. In reference to daughter Ivanka, who converted to Judaism before her marriage to Jared Kushner,
Trump said: "Not only do I have Jewish grandchildren, I have a Jewish
daughter; and I am very honored by that ... it wasn't in the plan but I
am very glad it happened."
In popular culture
Trump has appeared in the Doonesbury comic strip by Garry Trudeau since 1987. The depictions prompted a caustic response from Trump.
Trump and members of his family have been parodied on Saturday Night Live since 1988, and he has hosted the show twice, in April 2004 and November 2015. The 2015 episode had the highest ratings of a Saturday Night Live episode since December 21, 2013.
In 1991, Libby Handros made a documentary entitled Trump: What's the Deal?, about Trump in the 1980s and 1990s.
In March 2000, the plot of The Simpsons episode "Bart to the Future" included Lisa succeeding Trump as President of the United States of America.
In March 2011, Trump was the subject of a Comedy Central Roast. The special was hosted by Seth MacFarlane, and roasters included Larry King, Snoop Dogg, and Anthony Jeselnik among regular roast participants. Trump's daughter Ivanka was seen in the audience.
In April 2011, Trump attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner, featuring comedian Seth Meyers. President Barack Obama used the occasion to present several prepared jokes mocking Trump.
You've Been Trumped, a 2011 documentary film by Anthony Baxter, follows the development of a Scottish golf resort. When it was announced that the documentary was to be given its UK television première on BBC Two on October 21, 2012, Trump's lawyers contacted the BBC
to demand that the film should not be shown, claiming it was defamatory
and misleading. The screening went ahead, with the BBC defending the
decision and stating that Trump had refused the opportunity to take part
in the film.
Trump sued comedian Bill Maher for $5 million in 2013. Maher had appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and had offered to pay $5 million to a charity if Trump produced his birth certificate to prove that Trump's mother had not mated with an orangutan.
This was said by Maher in response to Trump having previously
challenged Obama to produce his birth certificate, and offering $5
million payable to a charity of Obama's choice, if Obama produced his
college applications, transcripts, and passport records.
Trump produced his birth certificate and filed a lawsuit after Maher
was not forthcoming, claiming that Maher's $5 million offer was legally
binding. "I don't think he was joking," Trump said. "He said it with
venom." Trump withdrew his lawsuit against the comedian after eight weeks.
In 2016, Trump was the subject of a segment of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver that was named after him. The segment, hosted by comedian John Oliver, was critical of Trump.
Legal affairs
Over the course of his career, Trump has been involved in a number of
lawsuits, including over 150 lawsuits in US federal courts and over 150
lawsuits in Broward County Court (in Florida) since 1983.
Of Trump's involvement in many lawsuits, his lawyer Alan Garten said in
2015 that this was "a natural part of doing business in [the United
States]."
1970–99
In 1973, the Justice Department sued the Trump Management Corporation for alleged racial discrimination,
which Trump's company disputed. The corporation was charged with
quoting different rental terms and conditions to blacks and making false
"no vacancy" statements to blacks for apartments they managed in
Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. In response, Trump sued the government for $100 million, asserting that the charges were irresponsible and baseless. The ensuing countersuit was thrown out of court.
The corporation settled out of court in 1975 and did not admit guilt,
but promised not to discriminate against minorities. In addition, the
corporation was required to send a bi-weekly list of vacancies to the New York Urban League, a civil rights group and give them priority for certain locations.
In 1978, the Justice Department sued Trump Management in Brooklyn for
not satisfying the requirements of the 1975 settlement following
allegations of discriminatory housing practices; Trump denied the
charges and there is no indication that the Justice Department's suit
was successful.
In 1985, New York City brought a lawsuit against Donald Trump for
allegedly using tactics to force out tenants of 100 Central Park South,which he intended to demolish together with the building next door.
After ten years in court, the two sides negotiated a deal allowing the
building to stand as condominiums.[469]
In 1988, the Justice Department sued Donald Trump for violating
procedures related to public notifications when buying voting stock in a
company related to his attempted takeovers of Holiday Corporation and
Bally Manufacturing Corporation in 1986. On April 5, 1988, Trump agreed
to pay $750,000 to settle the civil penalties of the antitrust lawsuit.
In late 1990, Donald Trump was sued $2 million by a business analyst for defamation, and Trump settled out of court.
Briefly before Trump's Taj Mahal opened in April 1990, the analyst had
said that the project would fail by the end of that year. Trump
threatened to sue the analyst's firm unless the analyst recanted or was
fired. The analyst refused to retract the statements, and his firm fired
him for ostensibly unrelated reasons. Trump Taj Mahal declared bankruptcy in November 1990, the first of several such bankruptcies. After, the NYSE
ordered the firm to compensate the analyst $750,000; the analyst did
not release the details of his settlement with Donald Trump.
In 1991, Donald Trump sued the manufacturers of a helicopter that
crashed in 1989, killing three executives of his New Jersey hotel casino
business.
The helicopter fell 2,800 feet after the main four-blade rotor and tail
rotor broke off the craft, killing Jonathan Benanav, an executive of
Trump Plaza, and two others: Mark Grossinger Etess, president of Trump
Taj Mahal, and Stephen F. Hyde, chief executive of the Atlantic City
casinos.
Since one of the defendants was allegedly owned by the Italian
government, the case moved to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, which
dismissed the case in 1992.
Trump Plaza was fined $200,000 in 1991 by the New Jersey Casino
Control Commission for moving African-American and female employees from
craps tables in order to accommodate high roller Robert LiButti, a mob
figure and alleged John Gotti associate, who was said to fly into fits of racist rage when he was on losing streaks.
In 1991, one of Trump's casinos in Atlantic City, NJ, was found
guilty of circumventing state regulations about casino financing when
Donald Trump's father bought $3.5 million in chips that he had no plans
to gamble. Trump Castle was forced to pay a $30,000 fine under the
settlement, according to New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement
Director Jack Sweeney. Trump was not disciplined for the illegal advance
on his inheritance, which was not confiscated.
In 1993, Donald Trump sued Jay Pritzker,
a Chicago financier and Trump's business partner since 1979 on the
Grand Hyatt hotel. Trump alleged that Pritzker overstated earnings in
order to collect excessive management fees.In 1994, Pritzker sued Trump for violating their agreement by, among other ways, failing to remain solvent. The two parties ended the feud in 1995 in a sealed settlement, in which
Trump retained some control of the hotel and Pritzker would receive
reduced management fees and pay Trump's legal expenses.
Vera Coking
sued Trump and his demolition contractor for damage to her home during
construction of the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. In 1997, she dropped
the suit against Trump and settled with his contractor for $90,000.
Coking had refused to sell her home to Trump and ultimately won a 1998
Supreme Court decision which prevented Atlantic City from using eminent domain to condemn her property.
In the late 1990s, Donald Trump and rival Atlantic City casino owner Stephen Wynn
engaged in an extended legal conflict during the planning phase of new
casinos Wynn had proposed to build. Both owners filed lawsuits against
one another and other parties, including the State of New Jersey,
beginning with Wynn's antitrust accusation against Trump.
After two years in court, Wynn's Mirage casino sued Trump in 1999
alleging that his company had engaged in a conspiracy to harm Mirage and
steal proprietary information, primarily lists of wealthy Korean
gamblers. In response, Trump's attorneys claimed that Trump's private
investigator dishonored his contract by working as a "double agent" for
Stephen Wynn's Mirage casino by secretly taping conversations with
Trump. All the cases were settled at the same time on the planned day of
an evidentiary hearing in court in February 2000, which was never held.
2000–09
In 2000, Donald Trump paid $250,000 to settle fines related to
charges brought by New York State Lobbying Commission director David
Grandeau. Trump was charged with circumventing state law to spend
$150,000 lobbying against government approval of plans to construct an
Indian-run casino in the Catskills, which would have diminished casino
traffic to Trump's casinos in Atlantic City.
In 2001, the Securities and Exchange Commission
brought a financial-reporting case against Trump Hotels & Casino
Resorts Inc., alleging that the company had committed several
"misleading statements in the company's third-quarter 1999 earnings
release." Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc. did not deny the
charge, and consented to the Commission's cease-and-desist order.
Trump sued Leona Helmsley, and Helmsley counter-sued Trump
due to contentions regarding ownership and operation of the Empire
State Building. In 2002, Trump announced that he and his Japanese
business partners, were selling the Empire State Building to partners of his rival Leona Helmsley.
In 2004, Donald Trump sued Richard T. Fields in Broward County
Circuit Court (in Florida); Fields was once Trump's business partner in
the casino business, but had recently become a successful casino
developer in Florida apart from Trump. Fields counter-sued Trump in
Florida court. Trump alleged that Fields misled other parties into
believing he still consulted for Trump, and Fields alleged improprieties
in Trump's business. The two businessmen agreed in 2008 to drop the lawsuits when Fields agreed to buy Trump Marina in Atlantic City, N.J. for $316 million, but the deal was unsettled again in 2009 because Trump resigned his leadership of Trump Entertainment after Fields lowered his bid.Fields never bought the company, which went into bankruptcy about the same time and was sold for $38 million. Trump's lawsuit was dismissed after a hearing in 2010.
In 2006, the town of Palm Beach began fining Trump $250 per day for
ordinance violations related to his erection of an 80-foot-tall (24 m)
flagpole flying a 15 by 25 feet (4.6 by 7.6 m) American flag
on his property. Trump sued the town for $25 million, saying that they
abridged his free speech, also disputing an ordinance that local
businesses be "town-serving". The two parties settled as part of a
court-ordered mediation, in which Trump was required to donate $100,000
to veterans' charities. At the same time, the town ordinance was
modified allowing Trump to enroll out-of-town members in his Mar-a-Lago social club.
In 2008, Trump filed a $100 million lawsuit for alleged fraud and civil rights violations against the California city of Rancho Palos Verdes,
over thwarted luxury home development and expansion plans upon part of a
landslide-prone golf course in the area, which was purchased by Trump
in 2002 for $27 million. Trump had previously sued a local school district over land leased from them in the re-branded Trump National Golf Club, and had further angered some local residents by renaming a thoroughfare after himself.
The $100 million suit was ultimately withdrawn in 2012 with Trump and
the city agreeing to modified geological surveys and permit extensions
for some 20 proposed luxury homes (in addition to 36 homes previously
approved).
Trump ultimately opted for a permanent conservation easement instead of
expanded housing development on the course's driving range.
In 2009, Donald Trump sued a law firm he had used, Morrison Cohen,
for $5 million for mentioning his name and providing links to related
news articles on its website. This lawsuit followed a lawsuit by Trump
alleging overcharging by the law firm, and a countersuit by Morrison
Cohen seeking unpaid legal fees.
The suit was dismissed in a 15-page ruling by Manhattan Supreme Court
Justice Eileen Bransten, who ruled that the links to news articles
concerned "matters of public interest."
In 2009, Trump was sued by investors who had made deposits for condos in the canceled Trump Ocean Resort Baja Mexico. The investors said that Trump misrepresented his role in the project,
stating after its failure that he had been little more than a
spokesperson for the entire venture, disavowing any financial
responsibility for the debacle.Investors were informed that their investments would not be returned due to the cancellation of construction. In 2013, Trump settled the lawsuit with more than one hundred prospective condo owners for an undisclosed amount.
2010–present
In 2004, the Trump Organization partnered with Bayrock Group LLC on a
$200 million hotel and condo project in Fort Lauderdale Beach, to be
called Trump International Hotel & Tower. After proceeding five
years, real estate market devaluation stymied the project in 2009 and
Trump dissolved his licensing deal, demanding that his name be removed
from the building. Soon after this, the project defaulted on a $139
million loan in 2010.
Investors later sued the developers for fraud. Trump petitioned to have
his name removed from the suit, saying he had only lent his name to the
project. However his request was refused since he had participated in
advertising for it. The insolvent building project spawned over 10 lawsuits, some of which were still not settled in early 2016.
After the 2008 housing-market collapse, Deutsche Bank attempted to collect $40 million that Donald Trump personally guaranteed against their $640 million loan for Trump International Hotel and Tower
in Chicago. Rather than paying the debt, Trump sued Deutsche Bank for
$3 billion for undermining the project and damage to his reputation.
Deutsche Bank then filed suit to obtain the $40 million. The two
parties settled in 2010 with Deutsche Bank extending the loan term by
five years.
In 2011, an appellate court upheld a New Jersey Superior Court judge's decision dismissing Trump's $5 billion defamation lawsuit against author Timothy L. O'Brien, who had reported in his book, TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald
(2005), that Trump's true net worth was really between $150 and $250
million. Trump had reportedly told O'Brien he was worth billions and, in
2005, had publicly stated such.Trump said that the author's alleged underestimation of his net worth
was motivated by malice and had cost him business deals and damage to
his reputation. The appellate court, however, ruled against Trump, citing the consistency of O'Brien's three confidential sources.
In 2013, in a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman,
Trump was accused of defrauding more than 5,000 people of $40 million
for the opportunity to learn Trump's real estate investment techniques
in a for-profit training program, Trump University, which operated from 2005 to 2011 Trump ultimately stopped using the term "University" following a 2010
order from New York regulators, who called Trump's use of the word
"misleading and even illegal"; the state had previously warned Trump in
2005 to drop the term or not offer seminars within New York.
Although Trump has claimed a 98% approval rating on course evaluations,
former students recounted high-pressure tactics from instructors
seeking the highest possible ratings, including threats of withholding
graduation certificates, and more than 2,000 students had sought and received course refunds before the end of their paid seminars.
In a separate class action civil suit against Trump University in
mid-February 2014, a San Diego federal judge allowed claimants in
California, Florida, and New York to proceed;
a Trump counterclaim, alleging that the state Attorney General's
investigation was accompanied by a campaign donation shakedown, was
investigated by a New York ethics board and dismissed in August 2015.
Trump filed a $1 million defamation suit against former Trump
University student Tarla Makaeff, who had spent about $37,000 on
seminars, after she joined the class action lawsuit and publicized her
classroom experiences on social media.
Trump University was later ordered by a U.S. District Judge in April
2015 to pay Makaeff and her lawyers $798,774.24 in legal fees and costs.
In 2011, Donald Trump sued Scotland, alleging that it built a wind
farm after assuring him it would not be built. He had recently built a
golf course there and planned to build an adjacent hotel. The suit was
dismissed in favor of Scotland by the Scottish Supreme Court.
In 2014, the former Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin ultimately settled a $5 million arbitration judgment against her, having been sued by Trump after alleging that the Miss USA 2012 pageant results were rigged. Monnin wrote on her Facebook
page that another contestant told her during a rehearsal that she had
seen a list of the top five finalists, and when those names were called
in their precise order, Monnin realized the pageant election process was
suspect, compelling Monnin to resign her Miss Pennsylvania title. The
Trump Organization's lawyer said that Monnin's allegations had cost the
pageant a lucrative British Petroleum sponsorship deal and threatened to discourage women from entering Miss USA contests in the future.According to Monnin, testimony from the Miss Universe Organization and Ernst & Young revealed that the top 15 finalists were selected by pageant directors regardless of preliminary judges' scores. As part of the settlement, Monnin was not required to retract her original statements.
In 2014, model Alexia Palmer filed a civil suit against Trump Model
Management for promising a $75,000 annual salary but paying only
$3,380.75 for three years' work. Palmer, who came to the US at age 17
from Jamaica under the H-1B visa program in 2011,
claimed to be owed more than $200,000. Palmer contended that Trump
Model Management charged, in addition to a management fee, "obscure
expenses" from postage to limousine rides that consumed the remainder of
her compensation. Trump attorney Alan Garten claims the lawsuit is
"bogus and completely frivolous." Palmer has now filed a class-action lawsuit against the modeling agency with similar allegations.
If approved, the class could include up to 250 other foreign fashion
models whom Trump Model Management and another Trump company, Trump
Management Group LLC, has attempted to bring to the US since 2000,
or up to 1,100 foreign workers for whom Trump's companies filed visa
paperwork since 2000 to be employed temporarily as waitresses, cooks,
vineyard workers, laborers, managers, superintendents, and fashion
models, including at least 850 H-2B visa applications for workers from
Mexico.
In 2015, Trump sued Univision, demanding $500 million for breach of contract and defamation when they dropped their planned broadcast of the Miss USA
pageant. The decision was made because of Trump's "insulting remarks
about Mexican immigrants", according to the network's announcement.Trump settled the lawsuit with Univision CEO Randy Falco out of court.
In 2015, Trump initiated a $100 million lawsuit against Palm Beach County claiming that officials, in a "deliberate and malicious" act, pressured the FAA to direct air traffic to the Palm Beach International Airport over his Mar-a-Lago estate, because he said the airplanes damaged the building and disrupted its ambiance. Trump had previously sued twice over airport noise.
In July 2015, Trump filed a $10 million lawsuit against chef José Andrés claiming that he backed out of a deal to open the flagship restaurant at Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. Andrés replied that Trump's lawsuit was "both unsurprising and without merit."
Also in July 2015, Chef Geoffrey Zakarian also withdrew from the Washington, D.C., project
with José Andrés in the wake of Trump's comments on Mexican illegal
immigrants, and is expected to lose his own $500,000 restaurant lease
deposit as a result. Trump denounced and then sued Zakarian in August 2015 for a sum "in excess of $10 million" for lost rent and other damages. Trump's lawsuit called Zakarian's offense at his remarks "curious in
light of the fact that Mr. Trump's publicly shared views on immigration
have remained consistent for many years, and Mr. Trump's willingness to
frankly share his opinions is widely known."
Trump is suing the town of Ossining, New York over the property tax valuation on his 147-acre Trump National Golf Course, located in Briarcliff Manor in Westchester County,
which Trump purchased for around $8 million at a foreclosure sale in
the 1990s and to which he claimed, at the club's opening, to have added
$45 million in facility improvements.
Although Trump stated in his 2015 FEC filing that the property was
worth at least $50 million, his lawsuit seeks a $1.4 million valuation
on the property, which includes a 75,000 square foot clubhouse, five
overnight suites, and permission to build 71 condominium units, in an effort to shave $424,176 from his annual local property tax obligations.
Trump filed the action after separately being sued by Briarcliff Manor
for "intentional and illegal modifications" to a drainage system which
caused more than $238,000 in damage to the town's library, public pool,
and park facilities during a 2011 storm.
In September 2015, five men who had demonstrated outside of a Trump
presidential campaign event at Trump Tower in New York City sued Donald
Trump, alleging that Trump's security staff punched one of them. They
also allege that Trump's security guards had been advised by city police
that they were permitted to protest there. Several people videotaped
the incident.
In 2015, restaurant workers at Trump SoHo
filed a lawsuit that from 2009 to at least the time of the filing,
gratuities added to customers' checks were illegally withheld from
employees. The Trump Organization has responded that the dispute is
between the employees and their employer, a third-party contractor.
Donald Trump has been scheduled to testify in court on September 1,
2016.
Allegations of business links to organized crime
Journalists David Cay Johnston and Wayne Barrett,
the latter of whom wrote an unauthorized 1992 Trump biography, have
claimed that Trump and his companies did business with New York and
Philadelphia families linked to the Italian-American Mafia.A reporter for the Washington Post
writes, "he was never accused of illegality, and observers of the time
say that working with the mob-related figures and politicos came with
the territory."
Trump helped a financier for the Scarfo family get a casino license, and constructed a casino using firms controlled by Nicodemo Scarfo.Trump also bought real estate from Philadelphia crime family member Salvatore Testa, and bought concrete from companies associated with the Genovese crime family and the Gambino crime family.
Trump Plaza paid a $450,000 fine leveled by the Casino Gaming
Commission for giving $1.6 million in rare automobiles to Robert
LiButti, the acquaintance of John Gotti already mentioned.
Starting in 2003, the Trump Organization worked with Felix Sater,
who had a 1998 racketeering conviction for a $40 million Mafia-linked
stock fraud scheme, and who had then become an informant against the
mafia. Trump's attorney has said that Sater worked with Trump scouting real estate opportunities, but was never formally employed.
Campaign contributions
According to a New York state report, Trump circumvented corporate
and personal campaign donation limits in the 1980s by donating money to
candidates from 18 different business subsidiaries, rather than giving
primarily in his own name.
Trump told investigators he did so on the advice of his lawyers. He
also said the contributions were not to curry favor with
business-friendly candidates, but simply to satisfy requests from
friends.
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