saying he fired O’Donnell: Trump interview with Michael Kranish.
Taj’s workforce: Letter from Donald J. Buzney to Donald Trump, September 7, 1990.
“wasn’t satisfied”: Diana B. Henriques and M. A. Farber, “An Empire at Risk—Trump’s Atlantic City; Debt Forcing Trump to Play for Higher Stakes,” New York Times, June 7, 1990.
“I have a lot of money”: Alison Leigh Cowan, “Trump Criticized on Late Payments,” New York Times, May 4, 1990.
negotiating with his bankers: Interviews with three bankers familiar with the negotiations with Jerry Markon, Washington Post, May 2016.
curb on Trump’s habits: Division of Gaming Enforcement, “Preliminary Report”; and memo from New Jersey Casino Control Commission, Financial Evaluation Unit, on Donald J. Trump petition regarding his casinos, August 13, 1990.
would sign the agreement: Interview with McSween.
“lien on Mar-a-Lago”: Interview with Pomerantz.
Surviving at the Top: Interview with McSween. Trump has said he gave copies of Art of the Deal; McSween provided a photograph of the book he was given, Surviving at the Top, which was signed by Trump.
create a fiscal plan: Division of Gaming Enforcement, “Preliminary Report.”
on Central Park South: Steven Bollenbach interview with Amy Goldstein, Washington Post, April 2016.
commanding views of the park: Condominium Unit Deed, October 2, 1990, Release of Part of Mortgaged Premises, October 18, 1990. New York City real estate records obtained through propertyshark.com.
for one day: Interview with Bollenbach.
the organization’s spreadsheets: Ibid.
“ ‘What do we do now?’ ”: Interview with Trump confidant by Michael Kranish, Amy Goldstein, and Jerry Markon, Washington Post, April 2016.
where they were: Interview with Bollenbach.
$1.3 billion: Memo from New Jersey Casino Control Commission on Trump petition.
Atlantic City’s gambling earnings: Richard D. Hylton, “Trump Now Reported Near Bond-Swap Offer,” New York Times, September 11, 1990.
danger of missing: Division of Gaming Enforcement, “Preliminary Report.”
“And me, I guess”: Donald Trump interview with Marc Fisher and Michael Kranish, The Washington Post, June 9, 2016.
Tempers flared: Trump initially said he would relinquish 25 percent of his Taj stock; the bondholders insisted on 85 percent. Trump came back with 19.9 percent, which bondholders said was unacceptable. Interviews with bondholders familiar with the negotiation with Amy Goldstein, Washington Post, April 2016.
talks broke off: Interviews with two bondholders familiar with the negotiations with Amy Goldstein, Washington Post, April 2016.
billionaire financier Carl Icahn: Interview with bondholder familiar with the negotiations with Amy Goldstein, Washington Post, April 2016.
“greediest men on earth”: Drew Harwell, “Inside the Rocky Billionaire Bromance of Donald Trump and Carl Icahn,” Washington Post, April 30, 2016.
casino’s prized high rollers: Interview with Perskie.
when the parties hung up, deadlocked: Hilary Rosenberg, The Vulture Investors (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2000), 285.
“to save ourselves”: Ibid., 289.
“maybe the word is depression”: Robert J. McCartney, “Trump to Put N.J. Casino into Bankruptcy Process; Bondholders to Get Half of Taj Mahal,” Washington Post, November 17, 1990.
“in July”: Division of Financial Evaluation, New Jersey Casino Control Commission, “Report on the Financial Condition of Donald J. Trump,” April 15, 1991, 3.
and the city would forfeit: Interview with Perskie.
30 more chips: Complaint, New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement vs. Trump’s Castle Associates Limited Partnership, April 3, 1991.
a way to sidestep them: Supplemental Stipulation of Facts, New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, June 26, 1991.
first batch of chips: Neil Barsky, “Trump’s Dad Chips in $3 Million–Plus to Help Pay Interest on Casino Bonds,” Wall Street Journal, January 21, 1991; and transcript, New Jersey Casino Control Commission meeting, June 19, 1991, 40.
dropped nearly one-third: Trump Castle SEC filing, June 1991.
“ ‘easy with the chips’ ”: Donald J. Trump interview with Robert O’Harrow, Washington Post, May 13, 2016.
“this came down”: Transcript, New Jersey Casino Control Commission meeting, June 26, 1991, 172.
personally punished: Ibid., 170–73.
“all good deals”: Trump interview with O’Harrow.
vividly against the night sky: Mark Cutler interview with Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 2016.
$54 million in all: “Trump Files Payment Plan for Taj Mahal Subcontractors with SEC,” Associated Press, October 4, 1990.
the company’s home: Docket, Bankruptcy Petition #91-21885, US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; and interview with Cutler.
deserved the best: Linda Stasi, “A Familiar Ring: What Next: Donald,” Newsday, September 23, 1991.
free publicity: Interview with Pomerantz.
$10 million: Ibid.; and interview with Bollenbach.
“were going swimmingly”: Trump interview with Goldstein and Markon.
“the guys love it”: Interview with Nobles.
“no pressure to sell”: Agis Salpukas, Company News, “Shuttle Head Is Appointed by Trump,” New York Times, September 19, 1991.
Trump was a real estate guy: Interview with a person familiar with bankers’ dealings with Trump over the Trump Shuttle with Jerry Markon, Washington Post, April 2016.
It took another year: Interview with person familiar with Trump’s dealings with banks on Trump Shuttle with Jerry Markon, Washington Post, May 2016; USAIR Inc. SEC filing, April 1992; and US Department of Transportation Order 92-3-57, March 1992.
“than you needed”: Trump interview with Goldstein and Markon.
string of miscalculations: Interview with Nobles.
“Happy Celebration to You”: William H. Sokolic, “A Celebratory Trump Bash, His Casinos Make a Rebound from a Financial Licking,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 9, 1992; and “Donald Trump Reveling ‘Against All Odds,’ ” Asbury Park Press, November 10, 1992.
tidy prepackaged bankruptcies: “Bankruptcy Court Clears Plan for Trump Plaza,” Wall Street Journal, May 1, 1992; and Terry Mutchler, “The Castle’s Game Plan Wins in Court, Casino Leaving Bankruptcy,” Associated Press, May 6, 1992.
keep the Plaza: Interview with person familiar with the Plaza transaction with Jerry Markon, May 2016.
“Let’s hear it for”: William Sokolic, “A Celebratory Trump Bash,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 9, 1992.
huge debts: David Cay Johnston, “Trump Walks a Tightrope in Plan to Sell Casino Stock,” New York Times, April 3, 1995.
casino ventures: Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts S-1 prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, 1996, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/943320/0000950130-96-000349.txt.
DJT: Ibid.
$14 a share: “Trump Gets $295 Million in Sale of Stock, Debt,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 8, 1995. “Trump Pays 15.5% in Junk Bond Sale,” New York Times, June 8, 1995.
$290 million: Timothy L. O’Brien, “What’s He Really Worth?,” New York Times, October 23, 2005.
his net worth was: O’Brien, TrumpNation, 151.
Forbes’s estimate: Forbes 400 list, 1996.
$100 million: James Sterngold, “Long Odds for the Shares of Trump’s Casino Company,” New York Times, March 9, 1997.
$880,000 in cash: Company SEC filing (10-K, March 29, 1997: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/943320/0000940180-97-000299.txt. “Trump paid $884,550 in cash”).
$1.7 billion of his debt: Daniel Roth, “The Trophy Life: You Think Donald Trump’s Hit Reality Show Is a Circus? Spend a Few Weeks Watching Him Work,” Fortune, April 19, 2004.
paid Trump $7 million: Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts 10-K filing
with SEC, March 31, 1998, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/943320/0001047469-98-013201.txt.
logged $82 million: Ibid.
“raises suspicions”: James Sterngold, “Long Odds for the Shares of Trump’s Casino Company,” New York Times, March 9, 1997.
$477,000 for failing: “FinCEN Announces Penalty against Trump Taj Mahal Associates,” January 28, 1998, https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-announces-penalty-against-trump-taj-mahal-associates.
$250,000 to settle: Charles V. Bagli, “Trump and Others Accept Fines for Ads in Opposition to Casinos,” New York Times, October 6, 2000. Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts paid $50,000; Trump’s lobbyist, Roger Stone, and the antigambling group Trump advertised with paid the rest.
negative results: “SEC Brings First Pro Forma Financial Reporting Case: Trump Hotels Charged with Issuing Misleading Earnings Release,” SEC, January 16, 2002, https://www.sec.gov/news/headlines/trumphotels.htm.
lost more than $1 billion: NYSE data.
stocks and bonds: Ibid. See also Russ Buettner and Charles V. Bagli, “How Donald Trump Bankrupted His Atlantic City Casinos, But Still Earned Millions,” New York Times, June 11, 2016.
the company co-owned with NBC: “Trump Hotels Agrees to Pay $17.5 Million to Stockholders,” Associated Press, March 29, 2005.
“basket of goodies”: “Trump Offers $17.5 Million to Shareholders,” Associated Press, March 28, 2005.
proceeds from an auction: Ibid.
piggy bank: Interview with Sebastian Pignatello by Drew Harwell, Washington Post, May 2016.
“He had been pillaging”: Ibid.
paid more than $44 million: Analysis of SEC 10-K reports.
Trump Ice bottled water: Trump Entertainment Resorts’ proxy statement, April 3, 2007, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/943320/000119312507073468/ddef14a.htm.
“Entrepreneurially speaking”: Roth, “Trophy Life.”
worth at least $2.6 billion: Jennifer Wang, “The Ups and Downs of Donald Trump: Three Decades On and Off the Forbes 400,” Forbes, March 14, 2016.
CHAPTER 12: RATINGS MACHINE
“crocodiles and ants”: Mark Burnett interview with Marc Fisher, December 2015.
“bottom-feeders of society”: Trump quoted by Jim Dowd, then NBC’s publicity director and later head of a PR firm, Dowd Ink, interviewed by Marc Fisher, December 2015.
fired the agent: Donald Trump interview with Marc Fisher, December 2015.
chip away at: Interview with Burnett.
fine on the show: Jeff Gaspin interview with Marc Fisher, December 2015. Branson, Cuban, and Martha Stewart: NBC executives interviews with Marc Fisher, December 2015.
not scripted: Trump, Gaspin, and Burnett interviews with Marc Fisher; two other NBC executives interviews with Marc Fisher, December 2015.
“no teleprompters”: Andy Dean interview with Frances Stead Sellers, December 2015.
“good at it”: Trump interview with Fisher. During the early phase of the 2016 presidential campaign, former Florida governor Jeb Bush described Trump as “an actor playing a role of the candidate for president.” He meant it as a criticism.
psychological and medical evaluations: Apprentice contestants interviews with Frances Stead Sellers, December 2015.
bolster Trump’s brand: Sam Solovey interview with Frances Stead Sellers, December 2015.
“do more publicity”: Elizabeth Jarosz interview with Frances Stead Sellers, December 2015.
“nervous about the ratings”: Jim Dowd interview with Marc Fisher, December 2015.
“rumblings of a soul”: Mark Singer, “Trump Solo,” New Yorker, May 19, 1997.
“ratings machine”: Trump, on Saturday Night Live, NBC, April 3, 2004.
“He’s a showman”: Interview with Burnett.
“a lot of fun”: Trump, Time to Get Tough, 166.
“it’s lucrative”: Trump interview with Fisher.
“was a barbarian”: Trump, on Larry King Live, CNN, February 27, 2004.
“ ‘I’m not acting’ ”: Trump interview with Fisher.
“He was mobbed”: Interview with Dowd.
“loved being a TV star”: Interview with Gaspin.
“destroy the meager ratings”: Trump open letter to Martha Stewart, quoted in Keith Naughton, “You Were Terrible,” Newsweek, February 20, 2006.
“run for president”: Interview with Burnett. Asked if he was supporting Trump for president, Burnett said only, “I have no idea about the politics. I have had great fun—great fun—watching it.”
“not tone down”: Ibid.
“the celebrity helped”: Trump interview with Fisher.
role as judge: Stephen Zeitchik, “Trump’s ‘Lady’ Comes to Fox,” Variety, June 12, 2007.
create a pilot: Gay Walch interview with Marc Fisher, January 2016.
wasn’t great: Network executives interviews with Marc Fisher, December 2015.
“he can do this”: Trump interview with Fisher.
CHAPTER 13: THE NAME GAME
the rapper Nelly: Deposition of Mark Hager, March 3, 2011, ALM International Corp. v. Donald J. Trump, 12.
business venture: Ibid.
Trump no longer: Ibid.
start with menswear: Interview of executive familiar with the Phillips–Van Heusen clothing deal, by Rosalind S. Helderman, Washington Post, April 3, 2016.
a broker’s fee: Deposition of Hager, 50. During subsequent litigation, Trump testified that he agreed to pay a fee to Hager’s company if it brokered a deal with certain conditions, but there were disputes as to whether those conditions were met. See Testimony of Donald J. Trump, April 15, 2013, ALM International Corp v. Donald J. Trump, trial transcript, 520–21.
twenty licensing deals: Deposition of Cathy Glosser, March 8, 2011, ALM International Corp. v. Donald J. Trump, 135.
head of licensing laughed: Testimony of Jeff Danzer, April 15, 2013, ALM International Corp v. Donald J. Trump, trial transcript, 593.
what he had been: Ibid., 595.
Danzer sent: Ibid.
“a premium veneer”: Paul Tharp, “ ‘Apprentice’ Buzz Likely to Mint Trump a New Fortune,” New York Post, February 11, 2004.
“I do everything”: Testimony of Danzer, 642–43.
Spider-Man on kids’ pajamas: Deposition of Glosser, 9.
wanted a deal: Testimony of Danzer, 596.
company was wary: Mark Weber, Always in Fashion: From Clerk to CEO—Lessons for Success in Business and in Life (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2015), 71.
Trump announced he wanted: Mark Weber interview with Rosalind S. Helderman, Washington Post, March 8, 2016.
“I was taken aback”: Ibid.
“respect and love Regis”: Ibid.
The more insistent: Weber, Always in Fashion, 72.
“Make it happen”: Testimony of Cathy Glosser, April 10, 2013, ALM International Corp v. Donald J. Trump, trial transcript, 111. Trump gave a similar account in his testimony in the case: “I told Cathy Glosser to essentially get the deal done and see if they could get a deal with PVH.” Trump testimony, April 15, 2013, 519–20.
“Because I want to win”: Weber, Always in Fashion, 73.
contracting with factories: Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger, “Trump Has Profited from Foreign Labor He Says Is Killing U.S. Jobs,” Washington Post, March 13, 2016.
$1 million a year: Executive Branch Personal Public Financial Disclosure Report (OGE Form 278e), Donald J. Trump, July 22, 2015, 21.
made an appearance: Trump menswear: The Apprentice, season 10, episode 8, “Dressed to Kill,” original airdate November 4, 2010; Trump Ice: The Apprentice, season 1, episode 8, “Ice Escapades,” original airdate February 26, 2004; Trump Success: The Apprentice, season 12, episode 10, “Winning by a Nose,” original airdate April 22, 2012.
all sold well: In a one-page description of his assets in 2015, Trump claimed the value of his name alone at $3.3 billion. A Washington Post analysis of Trump’s 2016 disclosure with the Federal Elect
ion Commission found that he reported income of between $6.02 million and $34.15 million from licensed real estate and consumer goods between July 2015 and May 2016. See Tom Hamburger, “Trump’s Financial Claims Short on Details, Long on Exaggerations,” Washington Post, June 16, 2015.
twenty-five different licensing deals: Donald Trump personal financial disclosure form, filed with Federal Election Commission, 2016.
sell Trump Steaks: Natasha Geiling, “A Definitive History of Trump Steaks,” Think Progress, March 4, 2016.
Trump, the Fragrance: Stevenson Swanson, “Trump Becomes Institution, Mogul Launches Online Education Enterprise,” Chicago Tribune, May 24, 2005.
“to make money”: Ibid.
“we teach success”: Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman, “Trump Involved in Crafting Controversial Trump University Ads, Executive Testified,” Washington Post, May 31, 2016. See also Washington Post video by Peter Stevenson: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-involved-in-crafting-controversial-trump-university-ads-executive-testified/2016/05/31/f032a488-2741-11e6-ae4a-3cdd5fe74204_story.html.
“largest real estate liquidation”: Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S. Helderman, and Dalton Bennett, “Donald Trump Said ‘University’ Was All about Education. Actually, Its Goal Was ‘Sell, Sell, Sell!’ ” Washington Post, June 4, 2016.
“have to control it”: Ian Shapira, “In Downturn, Aspiring Moguls Turn to Trump U. for Wisdom,” Washington Post, September 26, 2009.
“set the hook”: “Trump University 2009 Playbook,” 36; copies of “playbooks” released in Cohen v. Trump, 3:13-cv-02519-GPC-WVG, Order on Motion to Intervene, attachments 1–5, May 31, 2016. See also Hamburger, Helderman, and Bennett, “Donald Trump Said ‘University’ Was All about Education.”
“change their lifestyle”: Ibid., 37.
good targets: “Trump University 2010 Playbook,” 36. Copies of “playbooks” released in Cohen v. Trump, 3:13-cv-02519-GPC-WVG, Order on Motion to Intervene, attachments 1–5, May 31, 2016. The 2010 playbook was first published by Politico. See also Hamburger, Helderman, and Bennett, “Donald Trump Said ‘University’ Was All about Education.”
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