LIVING LARGE WITH TRUMP: Donald Trump
BUSINESS DONALD TRUMP
WORDS BY DAVID FANTLE & TOM JOHNSON
Nobody has mastered the art of self-promotion as thoroughly as business dynamo Donald Trump.
Could Donald Trump be the most overexposed person on the planet? (For many, that’s not a rhetorical question.) If he is, it’s all part of his master plan. While competitors spend millions marketing their products and services, the Trump brand doesn’t have to spend a dime as long as the boss willingly makes himself accessible to virtually every media exposure opportunity that comes along. It’s a startlingly simple, brilliant business strategy.
When you think of billionaire business tycoons, the names Bill Gates and Warren Buffet immediately spring to mind. While such names doubtless register higher on Wall Street for actions in the corporate boardroom, Trump probably carries more cachet on Main Street where Joe and Jane average-American tune in weekly to hear him say, “you’re fired” to some unsuspecting eager corporate factotum.
It’s impossible to describe the singular Donald Trump. He shares the distinction of being a pop cultural icon—rivaling Britney, J-Lo and Christina for overexposure. He seems almost larger than life. He has married some of the world’s most beautiful women, authored several best-selling books, owns a large chunk of Manhattan (and properties throughout the US) and stars on his own primetime NBC reality series, “The Apprentice.”
No one would ever accuse Trump of being shy, or for that matter lacking humility. It’s all about personal branding said “The Donald.” And he is the acknowledged master.
“It [personal branding] has to do with synonyms,” he told us from his Trump Tower penthouse office in Manhattan’s Midtown. “Chanel equals ‘high fashion.’ Louis Vuitton equals ‘luxury goods.’ Trump equals ‘the best.’ I started out knowing what I wanted to do, and that I wanted to be the best. I’ve never wavered on that. Every person has that choice. What is your standard? That is personal branding.”
Long before he hit primetime pay dirt with “The Apprentice,” Trump would regularly appear as himself at the WWE’s Wrestlemania extravaganzas as well as in cameo roles on TV shows such as “Saturday Night Live,” talk shows and big screen features like The Little Rascals and Zoolander.
Whereas Gates and Buffet prefer to fly well under the media radar screen, Trump courts the media with a vengeance… and aplomb.
But is Trump nothing more than a frustrated borscht-belt ham?
“I’d prefer to be thought of as filet mignon if I have to be compared to a food product,” he says with characteristic candor. “I have always enjoyed interacting with the public, and the media helps that tremendously.”
“The Apprentice” premiered January 8, 2004 and became an instant hit, scoring the highest ratings for any new series introduced throughout the 2003-04 season and making Trump an overnight sensation. It also spanned a lucrative “you’re fired” merchandising blitz with the words appearing on everything from T-shirts and coffee mugs to mouse pads and, yes, a Donald Trump bobblehead.
“’The Apprentice’ has many millions of viewers each week, so my TV fame may well have superseded my fame as a builder,” he says. “But the reason I’m on a hit TV show is due to my success as a builder. You can’t take one away from the other—they are intertwined, and they work well together to create a whole package that people find interesting. It is fine with me, because I have something of substance to offer the television show and audience. One reaches a point where it becomes important to share, and that is what I’m doing with ‘The Apprentice.’”
Trump admits that his TV fame may have eclipsed his notoriety as a developer. He cut his business chops as an “apprentice” of sorts for his father’s construction business and soon made a name for himself as the premier builder of high-end Manhattan commercial and residential real estate.
Donald John Trump was born June 14, 1946, in Queens, New York; the fourth of five children of Frederick and Mary Trump. Trump’s father was a real estate developer who specialized in constructing and operating middle-income apartments in the boroughs of Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn. Donald attended New York Military Academy when he was 13 years old and received his college degree in economics from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania in 1968.
After graduation from college, Trump joined his father’s company, the Trump Organization, but with loftier goals in mind. In 1971, Trump moved his base of operation to Manhattan and initiated a torrid pace of high-profile building deals that offered considerably more risk, but significantly higher earnings potential.
Trump, the ultimate dealmaker, was riding high until 1990 when the real estate market crashed, significantly reducing the value of his holdings. Trump’s own net worth plummeted by almost one-third to a mere $500 million. The Trump Organization required a massive infusion of loans to stave off bankruptcy. Yet the resilient Trump did more than survive. He bounded back from nearly $900 million in the red to a reported net worth of about $2 billion in 1997.
With his boyish charm… and millions, Trump has had no trouble attracting some of the world’s most beautiful women to become “Mrs Trump.” In 1977, Trump married Ivana Zelnickova Winklmayr, a New York fashion model and an alternate on the 1968 Czech Olympic ski team. The couple had three children. Later, Trump took a public relations hit with his very public and at times contentious divorcee from Ivana. In 1993, Trump married Marla Maples, and two months before the nuptials had a child. Another highly publicized divorce took place in 1997, with Maples (per a prenuptial agreement) settling for $2 million. In January 2005, Trump tied the knot again, this time with model Melania Knauss.
But (repeated) wedded bliss has often taken a back seat to the swells and troughs in Trump’s business fortunes.
Trump’s casino company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on November 21, 2004, citing $1.8 billion in debt. The case is still mired in the courts, and state and federal tax officials earlier this year objected to the reorganization plan citing problems with how the company would pay more than $53 million in taxes.
Despite the setback, Trump continues to exemplify the jetsetter/dealmaker lifestyle. That’s part of the reason he’s captured the imagination of the American public. It seems as if the art of the deal occupies his time on an almost around-the-clock basis.
“It’s true that I require little sleep; I’ve always been that way,” he says. “I don’t exercise as much as I like, but I play golf regularly as I own four golf clubs and can fly to temperate climates when I choose.”
If work can be like a hobby, then Trump has definitely found a winning formula.
“I love what I do, and that’s the key to success of any kind,” he says. “My life is very balanced and I’m not the kind of person who likes doing nothing. I like making deals. The excitement I have in my life is a daily occurrence—to work is indeed like play to me. I feel very fortunate and I’m grateful for that.”
© Images courtesy of NBC