The art of deal donald trump pdf

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Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. Trump : the art of the deal Item Preview. EMBED for wordpress. Want more? Advanced embedding details, examples, and help! I always have. To me it's very simple: if you're going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big. We see just how he operates day to day-how he runs his business and how he runs his life-as he chats with friends and family, clashes with enemies, efficiently buys up Atlantic City's top casinos, changes the face of the New York City skyline Trump On Trump: "I play it very loose.

I don't carry a briefcase. I put in a call to Sir Charles Goldstein; he's out, and I leave a message. Lee had no way of knowing about my past experience with Sir Charles. A while back, I was in the middle of making a deal with a guy who needed an attorney, and I recommended Sir Charles.

The next thing I knew, Sir Charles was recommending to his client that he not make the deal with me. I couldn't believe it! This deal is to buy two condominium towers in the Palm Beach area. I own a house in Palm Beach—a spectacular place called Mar-a-Lago—and one day Jast winter, when I was down for the weekend, I went out to have lunch with some friends.

On the way, a pair of beautiful gleaming white towers caught my eye. I made a couple of calls. A mutual friend, William Pugazy, first mentioned that Lee and I should do a real estate deal together. I think Lee is an extraordinary businessman who has done wonders in turning Chrysler around, and I also like him a great deal personally.

So one thing led to another and we began talking about the towers. I call my sister, Maryanne Barry, to discuss a recent decision in a lawsuit we are contesting in Atlantic City. Maryanne is a federal court judge in New Jersey, and her husband, John, is a talented attorney I have used on many occasions. I tell her that I've arranged to have all the materials from the case sent to John immediately, because I want him to handle the appeal.

I go to our conference room to look at slides of potential Christmas decorations for the atrium in Trump Tower. The spectacular six-story marble atrium has become one of the leading tourist attrac- tions in New York City. Finally, I see a huge and magnificent gold wreath for the entrance to the building, and decide we should use just that Sometimes—not often, but sometimes—tess is more. The deal, however, may be worth the trip.

We're a front- runner for the job, and Nick is going over to meet with the key government people. I also tell him the city seems very excited about our latest plans. Then I say we expect to get our prelimi- nary approvals in the next several months. Kanegsberg seems enthusiastic. My nine-year-old son, Donny, calls to ask when I'll be home. I have two others—Ivanka, six, and Eric, three—and as they get older, being a father gets easier.

T tell Donny I'll be home as soon as I can, but he insists on a time. After several more calls, I leave the office and take the elevator upstairs to my apartment in the residential part of Trump Tower. Of course, I have a tendency to make a few more calls when I get home.

I call Ivan Boesky. Steve's an incredible promoter, and he'd make the hotel hot ag hell again. He tells me Morgan Stanley and Company is handling the deal, and I will get a call from their people shortly. I spent a lot of weekends there during the s, and I always stayed at the Beverly Hills. Alan Greenberg calls. We've bought an- other , shares of Holiday, and the stock is up another point and a half. Trading is very active. Our call lasts less than two minutes. That's one thing I love about Alan: he never wastes time.

I meet with the contractors in charge of building my 2,space parking garage and transpor- tation center across the street fram Trump Plaza on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City.

They tell me we're on schedule and under budget. Right now we are doing well with virtually no parking. The new lot is located at the end of the main road leading to the Boardwalk, and it's connected by a walkway to our casino. Anyone who parks in the garage funnels directly into our facility. I meet with a top New York banker at my office. It's funny what's happened: bankers now come to me, to ask if I might be interested in borrowing their money.

They know a safe bet. But what the hell? I'll wing it and things will work out. This was taking good security a step too far. Jack Mitnik, my accountant, calls to discuss the tax implications of a deal we're doing.

I ask him how bad he thinks the new federal tax law is going to be for real estate, since it eliminates a lot of current real estate write-offs. To my surprise, Mitnik tells me he thinks the law is an overall plus for me, since much of my cash flow comes from casinos and condominiums and the top tax rate on earned income is being dropped from 50 to 32 percent, However, I still believe the law will be a disaster for the country, since it eliminates the incen- tives to invest and build—particularly in secondary locations, where no building will occur unless there are incentives.

Norma sees an opening between calls, and she comes in to ask me about several invitations. I tell Norma to tum Winfield down, with regrets. YPO admits businessmen under the age of forty who are chief executives of their companies. I tumed forty two months ago, so in their eyes, I guess I now qualify as an elder statesman. Norma also asks me about a half dozen party invitations. I say yes to two. One is being given by Alice Mason, the real estate broker who has managed to turn herself into a major socialite by getting the hottest people to come to her parties.

A few, fortunately, I enjoy. But more often I will accept an invitation many months in advance, thinking the date is so far off that it will never arrive. When it does, I get mad at myself for having accepted in the first place.

I get an idea and call Alan Greenberg again. My idea is based on the fact that if I make a takeover move against Holiday, I have to get licensed as a casino operator in Nevada, where Holiday owns two casinos. I say okay, for now. I like to keep as many options open as I can.

John Danforth calls back. We have a nice talk, and I tell him to keep up the good work. I return a call from one of the owners of the Dunes Hotel in Las, Vegas. They also own perhaps the best undeveloped site on the Vegas strip.

For the right price, I'd consider buying it. I like the casino business. I like the scale, which is huge, I like the glamour, and most of all, I like the cash flow. If you run it very well, you can make a ton of money. My brother, Robert, and Harvey Free- man, both executive vice presidents in my company, stop by to report on a meeting they've had that day with Con Edison and executives from NBC about the West Side yards project.

Con Ed has a large smoke- stack on the southern end of the site, and the meeting was to discuss whether the fumes from the stack would dissipate as effectively if a large building goes up adjacent to it.

Unfortunately, Con Ed won't be the last word. Before we can get our approvals, we'll have to get an independent environmental-impact statement. Sturz and his people are scheduled to have a preliminary look on Friday. Gerald Schrager calls. Jerry is more than an attorney. Like Alan Greenberg, Schrager isn't big on wasting time. We cover a half dozen subjects in less than ten minutes. My wife, Ivana, stops in to say good-bye. I like to kid her that she works harder than I do.

Ivana grew up in Czechoslovakia, an only child. Her father was an electrical engineer and a very good athlete, and he started Ivana skiing very early.

A year later, after graduating from Charles University in Prague, she moved to Montreal and very quickly became one of the top models in Canada. I'd dated a lot of different women by then, but I'd never gotten seriously involved with any of them. Ivana wasn't someone you dated casually. Ten months later, in April , we were married. Almost immediately, I gave her responsibility for the interior decorating on the projects I had under way.

She did a great job. Ivana may be the most organized person I know. In addition to raising three children, she runs our three homes—the apartment in Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago, and our home in Greenwich, Connecticut—and now she also manages Trump's Castle, which has approxi- mately 4, employees. The Castle is doing great, but I still give Ivana a hard time about the fact that it's not yet number one. She says she needs more Suites. All she knows is that not having them is hurting her business and making it tougher for her to be number one.

The executive vice president for market- ing at the Cadillac Division of General Motors is on the phone. Cadillac, it turns out, is interested in cooperating in the produc- tion of a new superstretch limousine that would be named the Trump Golden Series.

I like the idea. We set a date to sit down and talk in two weeks. Daniel Lee, a casino analyst for Drexel Bumham Lambert, stops by with several of his col- leagues to discuss being my investment bankers on a deal to purchase a hotel company. Michael Milken, the guy who invented junk-bond financing at Drexel, has called me regularly for the last several years to try to get me to bring my business to Drexel. I have no idea that Drexel is about to get enmeshed in the insider-trading scandal that will soon rock Wall Street.

In any case, I happen to think Mike's a brilliant guy. However, Alan Greenberg is exceptional himself, and I'm loyal to people who've done good work for me. We leave it that I'll get back to them. Larry Csonka, former running back for the Miami Dolphins, calls.

He has an idea for keeping the USFL alive. We've got to win in the courts first, to break up the NFL monopoly. I call Calvin Klein, the designer, to con- gratulate him. Back when Trump Tower first opened, Klein took a full floor of offices for his new perfume line, Obsession. It did so well that within a year, he expanded to a second floor. Ihave a lot of admiration for Calvin, and I tell him so. A week ago, ina Sunday column, Goldberger gave a great review to the design of Battery Park City, the new development in lower Manhattan.

In other words, he killed us. He was knocking a design he hadn't even looked at yet. Just think, if you are negative enough which I am sure you will be you might even help convince NBC to move to New Jersey. I go with Ivana to look at a private school for my daughter. If you had told me five years ago that T'd be spending mornings looking at kindergarten classrooms, I would have laughed.

There are at least twenty reporters and photographers milling around. Henry Stern, the parks commissioner, goes to the microphone first and he is very complimentary to me. After I finish, the reporters ask a million questions. Finally Henry and I step down into the rink. If we can't have a real concrete-pouring, at least we'll have a ceremonial one. A couple of workmen pull over a wheelbarrow full of wet concrete and point it down toward us.

Henry and I shovel some concrete onto the pipes while the photographers click away. Think of it: a couple of guys in pinstripe suits shoveling wet con- crete. But I like to be accommodating. As long as they want to shoot, I'll shovel. The minute I get back to my office, I start returning calls. I want to get as much done as I can now, because I have to leave early for Trenton, to attend a retirement dinner for a member of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.

In the letter I explained to Marty that I'd recently purchased a fan- tastic site and was in the midst of designing a building with eight motion picture theaters at its base, and I wondered if he might be interested in making a deal for them. We make a date for the following week. Three weeks ago, Arthur called to say he had some foreign clients who were interested in buying the West Side yards. If you can get them higher, I might be interested.

Arthur tells me his clients are still very interested, that they may come up a little, but he doubts they'll go much higher. I'm busy, but I take the call anyway.

We're going to great lengths to build a pool in keeping with the original design of the house, and I want to make sure every detail is right. Buying Mar-a-Lago was a great deal even though I bought it to live in, not as a real estate investment.

Mar-a-Lago was built in the early s by Marjorie Merriweather Post, the heiress to the Post cereal for- tune and, at the time, Mrs.

Edward F. Set on twenty acres that face both the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Worth, the house took four years to build and has rooms. Three boatloads of Dorian stone were brought from Italy for the exterior walls, and 36, Spanish tiles dating back to the fifteenth century were used on the exterior and the interior.

When Mrs. Post died she gave the house to the federal government for use as a presidential retreat. I first looked at Mar-a-Lago while vacationing in Palm Beach in Each time that happened, J put in another bid, but always at a lower sum than before. Apparently, the foundation was tired of broken deals. They accepted my offer, and we closed one month later. It just goes to show that it pays to move quickly and decisively when the time is right.

For what it costs each year, you could buy a beautiful home almost anywhere else in America. All of which is a long way of explaining why I take this call from the pool contractor.

He has a small question about the matching of the Dorian stone we're using for the decking and I care about every detail when it comes to Mar-a-Lago. One thing led to another, and now I'm talking about building a large luxury hotel, across the street from the Kremlin, in partnership with the Soviet government. They have asked me to go to Moscow in July. He happens to be a very charming guy—wonderful looking, wonderfully dressed, with one of those great Texas drawls that make you feel very comfortable.

He calls me Donny, a name that I hate, but which he says in a way that somehow makes it okay. He was trying to put together a group of wealthy people to take over a small oil company.

This is a no-lose proposition. You'll double or triple your money in a matter of months. I was all set to go forward. Oil went completely to hell several months later, the company his group bought went bankrupt, and his investors lost every dime they put up.

One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. Instead, I tell him to send up the papers. I call back Judith Krantz. You've got to give it to her: how many authors have written three number-one best-selling books in a row?

She also happens to be a very nice woman. Now Judy is calling to say that the scene, with Valerie Bertinelli, came off well. Now we're talking about setting up something called the Trump Fund, through which we'd buy distressed and foreclosed real estate, particularly in the South- west, at bargain-basement prices. What happens, for example, if I see a piece of distressed property that I want to buy on my own but that might also be good for the fund?

In any case, Ill look at the prospectus. I'm driven to the 60th Street heliport, in time to catch a helicopter and be in Trenton for cocktails at p. I sit down with Abe Hirschfeld.

Basically, Abe feels hurt that Govermor Cuomo personally led a fight to push him off the ballot. I tell Abe I understand how he feels, but that the governor is a good guy, and that in any event it would look ridiculous for Abe, who is a Democrat, to suddenly tum around now and endorse a Republican.

Abe has always been consid- ered difficult. But I like him and his family a lot. The market is down 25 points less than an hour after opening. Part of me wants Holiday to drop off, so I can buy more at a better price. The other part of me wants it to go up, because at this point, every time the stock rises a point, I make a lot of easy money.

Dealing: A Week in the Life » 31 gy a a. Harvey is an incredible trial lawyer. He took a case in which no one gave us a prayer going in, and he managed to win on antitrust grounds, even though we were awarded only token damages. Even so, I've wondered, since the trial, whether perhaps Harvey was just a little too sharp for some of the jurors.

One thing I like about Harvey is his enthusi- asm. Stephen Hyde calls. Steve had been working as a vice president for Stephen A. Wynn at the Golden Nugget. Wynn is one of the best gaming guys around, and my philosophy is always to hire the best from the best.

After a long-running negotiation, I offered Hyde a bigger job and more money, and he said yes. Do you want to say hello? Hyde is calling to report on the August figures for the Plaza, which just came in. Even though the press conference was yesterday, I notice photographers and camera crews all over the place. This is the event everyone was waiting for. I sit down with a reporter from Fortune who is doing a story about real estate and the new tax laws—with me on the cover.

I just try to be very selective. Norma must tum down twenty requests a week from all over the world. Also, when I do give an interview, I always keep it short. This reporter is in and out in less than twenty minutes. A friend of mine, a highly successful and very well known painter, calls to say hello and to invite me to an opening. A few months back he invited me to come to his studio.

He picked up a large open bucket of paint and splashed some on a piece of canvas stretched on the floor. Then he picked up another bucket, containing a different color, and splashed some of that on the canvas. He did this four times, and it took him perhaps two minutes. F've just camed twenty-five thousand dollars. They were just inter- ested in buying his name. The art world is so ridiculous that the revelation might even make his paintings more valuable!

Not that my friend is about to risk finding out. A group of us meet in our conference room to go over the latest plans for the West Side yards project, which we're scheduled to show to the city tomorrow morning. It turns out that Herb Sturz of the planning commission won't be able to attend, but his key people will be there. I do know that he wasn't getting anywhere with the City Planning Commission. Today Alex has brought preliminary drawings of the layout we've agreed on.

Then, heading north, there are the residential build- ings, facing east over a boulevard, and west over a huge eight-block-long shopping mall and out-at the river. Every apartment has a great view, which I believe is critical. I am very happy with the new layout, and Alex seems happy too. I happen to think that tall buildings are what will make this project special, but I'm not naive about zoning. Eventually, I know, we're going to have to make some concessions. This site is only going to get more valuable.

As we leave, I tell Ivana how impressed I am with the cardinal. This story just won't quit. We meet with the city on the West Side yards project. Almost everyone from yesterday's meet- ing is there, and we are joined by four city planners, including Rebecca Robinson and Con Howe, who-are directly in charge of evaluating our project. Mostly he emphasizes the things we know the city is going to like—the public parks, the easy access to the waterfront, the ways we've devised to move traffic in and out.

The only time the density issue comes up—how tall the buildings will be—Alex just says we're still working it out. Frank, who is very soft- spoken, is a fine architect. Blanchette—my nickname for her—is a classic. I like to tell her that she must be a very tough woman to live with. The truth is I get a great kick out of her.

After almost a half hour, we finally agree on a light beige that will blend right into the color of the stone. They are richer and more elegant than primary colors. Frank Williams leaves, and we turn to a discussion of the demolition work at Trump Parc. You have to be very rough and very tough with most contractors or they'll take the shirt right off your back.

I pick up the phone and dial the guy in charge of demolition at Trump Parc. Listen, you've got to get your ass moving and get finished. You're behind, I want you to get personally involved in this.

I just want you to get the job done and get out. And listen, Steve, you're killing me on these extras. I want you to deal with me personally. If you try screwing me on this job, you won't be getting a second chance. I ask Andy for the number of our concrete guy. I walked the site yesterday, and the patches you're making aren't level with the existing concrete.

So do me a favor. Get this thing done right. But Holiday is off only a point. Alan tells me that we've now bought almost 5 percent of the com- pany.

Blanche stays on after Andy leaves to get me to choose a print advertisement for Trump Parc. She is furious. Blanche wants to use a line drawing that shows the building and its panoramic views of Central Park. Also, I want a drawing that shows more of the building. Central Park is great, but in the end I'm not selling a park, I'm selling a building and apartments. Norma comes in, carrying a huge pile of forms I have to sign as part of my application for a Nevada gaming license.

Ivana rings. I finish signing the forms, and we go. Bill Fugazy calls. The guy knows everyone. Fugazy asks me how dinner went last night at St. Before we hang up, we set a golf date for the weekend, p. John D'Alessio, the construction manager on my triplex in Trump Tower, comes by to discuss the progress.

He is carrying drawings. In truth, I've gone a little overboard. First of all, I practically doubled the size of what I have by taking over the adjacent apartment. Everything is made to order. For example, we had the finest craftsmen in Italy hand- carve twenty-seven solid marble columns for the living room. They arrived yesterday, and they're beautiful. I want the best, whatever it takes. I look over the drawings with John and mark up a few changes. Then I ask him how the job is going. A Greek shipping magnate is on the line.

He tells me he has a deal he'd like to discuss. We set a date. I get a call from a guy who sells and leases corporate airplanes. Nick fills me in on the details and says that we should know more by the following Monday.

He'd like to know if they could stop up and say hello. I say sure. We kid around a little, and I say what a great town I think Louisville is—maybe we should all go in together on a deal there. Letterman asks me how much an apartment goes for in Trump Tower. Now you're standing here talking to us. Absolutely nothing to do. More than anything else, I think deal-making is an ability you're born with.

It does take a certain intelligence, but mostly it's about in- stincts. Somewhere out there are a few men with more innate talent at golf than Jack Nicklaus, or women with greater ability at tennis than Chris Evert or Martina Navratilova, but they will never lift a club or swing a racket and therefore will never find out how great they could have been.

Instead, they'll be content to sit and watch stars perform on television. But unlike the real estate evangelists you see all over television these days, I can't promise you that by following the precepts I'm about to offer you'll become a millionaire overnight.

Unfortunately, life rarely works that way, and most people who try to get rich quick end up going broke instead. As for those among you who do have the genes, who do have the instincts, and who could be highly successful, well, 1 still hope you won't follow my advice. Because that would just make it a much tougher world for me. Think Big I like thinking big.

I always have. Most people think small, because most people are afraid of success, afraid of making decisions, afraid of winning. And that gives people like me a great advantage. My father built low-income and middle-income build- ings in Brooklyn and Queens, but even then, I gravi- tated to the best location. And so I began to look toward Manhattan, because at a very early age, I had a true sense of what I wanted to do. I was looking to make a statement. I was out to build something monumental—something worth a big effort.

Plenty of other people could buy and sell little brown- stones, or build cookie-cutter red-brick buildings. What attracted me was the challenge of building a spectacu- lar development on almost one hundred acres by the river on the West Side of Manhattan, or creating a huge new hotel next to Grand Central Station at Park Avenue and 42nd Street. The same sort of challenge is what attracted me to Atlantic City. One of the keys to thinking big is total focus. I think of it almost as a controlled neurosis, which is a quality I've noticed in many highly successful entre- preneurs.

This is paiticularly true in New York real estate, where you are dealing with some of the sharpest, toughest, and most vicious people in the world. I happen to love to go up against these guys, and I love to beat them. To me, a gambler is someone who plays slot machines. I prefer to own slot machines. In fact, I believe in the power of negative thinking.

I happen to be very conservative in business. If you plan for the worst—if you can live with the worst—the good will always take care of itself. I bought a losing team in a losing league on a long shot. Several years ago, I managed to piece together an incredible site on the Boardwalk.

The individual deals I made for parcels were contin- gent on my being able to put together the whole site. That meant I had to pay the carrying charges for a longer period, but before I spent hun- dreds of millions of dollars and several years on construction, I wanted to make sure I got my gaming license.

I lost time, but I also kept my exposure much lower. When I got my licensing on the Boardwalk site, Holiday Inns came along and offered to be my partner. Why give up fifty percent of your profits? My choice was whether to keep all the risk myself, and own percent of the casino, or settle for a 50 percent stake without putting up a dime.

It was an easy decision. Barron Hilton, by contrast, took a bolder approach when he built his casino in Atlantic City. He ended up selling to me at the last minute, under a lot of pressure, and without a lot of other options. I renamed the facility Trump's Castle and it is now one of the most successful hotel-casinos any- where in the world.

Maximize Your Options 1 also protect myself by being flexible. I never get too attached to one deal or one approach. For starters, I keep a lot of balls in the air, because most deals fall out, no matter how promising they seem at first. In addition, once I've made a deal, I always come up with at least a half dozen approaches to making it work, because anything can happen, even to the best- laid plans. For example, if I hadn't gotten the approvals I wanted for Trump Tower, I could always have built an office tower and done just fine.

If I'd been turned down for licensing in Atlantic City, I could have sold the site I'd assembled to another casino operator, at a good profit. Perhaps the best example I can give is the first deal I made in Manhattan. My origi- nal proposal was to build middle-income housing on the site, with government financing.