Sherman Cohen, a tough negotiator in the Manhattan properties market, expressed interest and Ifshin set up a meeting in Trump’s office. Before taking a seat at Trump’s conference table, Cohen lit up a...
In the years after Trump graduated, Wharton became synonymous with financial success. Many of its graduates grew rich, and Penn’s endowment soared. Alumni gave generously, their names emblazoned all o...
Despite his doubts, Fred came through, pledging his own equity toward his son’s success—an early sign that although the father himself had no interest in taking on Manhattan, he would stand by his son...
After his transfer, Trump was put in charge of a special drill team for New York City’s Columbus Day parade. In white gloves and dressed in full uniform, Trump led the procession south along Fifth Ave...
Though he would later become known for the catchphrase You’re fired, Trump usually felt uneasy getting rid of an employee. If it had to be done, he would rather delegate the task to an underling. We a...
People were always asking him who the real Donald Trump was—was the bombastic, boastful billionaire he played in the media merely a character designed to enhance his business? They didn’t get it, he i...
He had lost patience with his father’s strategy of catering to lower- and middle-income residents of Brooklyn and Queens, and what was required to manage them. When he found tenants throwing trash out...
Despite his affluence, Donald’s tastes were often plebeian. In the waning months of the Eisenhower administration, in a culture defined by conformity, Donald used the record player in his dorm room mo...
But Friedrich’s departure ran afoul of German law. A three-year stint of military service was mandatory, and to emigrate, boys of conscription age had to get permission. The young barber didn’t do so,...
Trump explained how the government had just filed suit, saying we discriminated against blacks in some of our housing developments. Trump said he didn’t discriminate, and he didn’t want the government...
Dobias taught his players the line famously attributed to legendary Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi: I taught them that winning wasn’t everything, it was the only thing, Dobias said. Donal...
Trump had asserted to the Times that he was worth more than $200 million, even though a year earlier, Penn Central negotiators had estimated the Trump family holdings at about $25 million, all of it u...
Trump became a regular at the club and later recounted seeing things happening there that to this day I have never seen again. I would watch supermodels getting screwed, well-known supermodels getting...
The work was done by hundreds of undocumented Polish immigrants known as the Polish brigade. The men toiled through spring and summer of 1980 with sledgehammers and blowtorches, but without hard hats,...
Physical brutality and verbal abuse were tolerated, even encouraged. Hazing was a part of freshman life, with upperclassmen pummeling new cadets with broom handles or forcing them to stand fully dress...
On another day, when he was on inspection duty, Trump came upon fellow student Ted Levine’s unmade bed. Trump ripped the sheets off and threw them on the floor. Levine, a foot shorter than Trump, thre...
Many rich men don’t allow their wives to come to their office. Many women don’t know what their husbands do.
Freddy left the business and went to work as a pilot with Trans World Airlines. At age twenty-three, he married a stewardess, and the couple had two children, Fred and Mary. Freddy seemed far happier...
DONALD’S COMPETITIVE DRIVE TOOK over as he learned to master the academy. He won medals for neatness and order. He loved competing to win contests for cleanest room, shiniest shoes, and best-made bed....
Trump, tenants said, tried to force them out by annoying them. He proposed to move homeless people into at least ten vacant apartments; the city declined the generous offer. Maintenance workers ignore...