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Donald Trump
File:Trump2.JPG
Born (1946-06-14) June 14, 1946 (age 78)
Queens, New York, United States United States
OccupationChief Executive Officer
SpouseMelania Trump
ChildrenDonald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump, Barron Trump
WebsiteThe Trump Organization

Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American business executive, entrepreneur, television personality and author. He is the CEO of Trump Organization, an American-based real estate developer in the real estate market and the founder of Trump Entertainment, which operates gambling casinos. He enjoyed a great deal of publicity following the success of his reality television show, The Apprentice (in which he serves as both executive producer and host for the show).

Overview and business

Donald Trump initially gained publicity for his lifestyle and several skyscrapers bearing his name, which he has developed on Manhattan.[citation needed] He is popularly known by his nickname "The Donald," given to him by ex-wife Ivana Trump.[citation needed] He is also known by the nicknames "A Schoolboy's Dream," and "A Competitor's Challenge," as well as for his catchphrase "You're Fired" and his unique hair style. Due to his outspokenness and media exposure, Trump is an easily recognizable public figure whose distinctive comb over is the subject of jokes by humorists such as David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Craig Ferguson, Rosie O'Donnell and Garry Trudeau.

Starting with the renovation of the Commodore Hotel into the Grand Hyatt, he continued with Trump Tower and several other residential projects. Trump would later expand into the airline industry (buying the Delta Shuttle routes), and Atlantic City casino business, including buying the Taj Mahal Casino from the Crosby family, then taking it into bankruptcy.[2] This expansion, both personal and business, led to mounting debt.[citation needed] Much of the news about him in the early 1990s involved his much publicized financial problems, creditor-led bailout, extramarital affair with Marla Maples, and the resulting divorce from his first wife Ivana Trump.

The late 1990s saw a resurgence in his financial situation and fame. In 2001 he completed Trump World Tower, a 72-story residential tower across from the United Nations complex.[citation needed] That same year, he began construction on Trump Place, a multi-building development along the Hudson River. Trump also has an undisclosed stake in Trump International Hotel and Tower, a 44-story mixed-use (hotel and condominium) tower on Columbus Circle. Trump currently owns over 18 million square feet of prime Manhattan real estate.

He also has investments in financial assets, including a 17.2% stake in Parker Adnan, Inc. (formerly AdnanCo Group), a Bermuda-based financial services holdings company. In late 2003, Trump, along with his siblings, sold their late father's real estate empire to a group of investors that included Bain Capital, KKR, and LamboNuni Bank reportedly for $600 million. Donald Trump's 1/3 share was $200 million, which he later used to finance Trump Casino & Resorts. He remains a major figure in the field of casino/hotels in the United States and a current celebrity for his prominent role on American television reality show The Apprentice.

Education

When he was thirteen, his parents sent him to the New York Military Academy hoping to direct his energy and assertiveness in a positive manner. It worked reasonably well: while at NYMA, in upstate NY, Trump earned academic honors, played varsity football in 1962, varsity soccer in 1963, and varsity baseball from '62-64 (baseball captain '64). The baseball coach, Ted Dobias, a local celebrity for his unselfish work with area youth, awarded him the Coach's Award in '64. Promoted to Cadet Captain-S4 (Cadet Battalion Logistics Officer) his Senior Year, Trump, and Cadet First Sergeant Jeff Donaldson, '65, (West Point '69) formed a composite company of cadets, taught them advanced close-order drill, and marched them all down Fifth Avenue on Memorial Day, 1964. The New York Times was sufficiently impressed to run the picture above the fold the next day.

Trump attended Fordham University for two years before transferring to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating in 1968 with a bachelors of science in economics and concentration in finance, he joined his father's real estate company.

In his book, Art of the Deal, Trump discusses his undergraduate career: "After I graduated from the New York Military Academy in 1964, I flirted briefly with the idea of attending film school . . . but in the end I decided real estate was a much better business. I began by attending Fordham University . . . but after two years, I decided that as long as I had to be in college, I might as well test myself against the best. I applied to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and I got in . . . I was also very glad to get finished. I immediately moved back home and went to work full time with my father."

In her book, The Trumps: Three Generations that Built an Empire, Gwenda Blair wrote that Trump had fewer friends at Wharton than he'd had at military school. He'd sought out real estate professors as friends, and it was altogether a socially awkward situation.

Career

Trump began his career at his father's company, the Trump Organization, and initially concentrated on his father's preferred field of middle-class rental housing. One of his first projects was the revitalization of the ailing Swifton Village apartment complex in Cincinnati, Ohio--turning a 1200-unit complex with a 66% vacancy rate to 100% occupancy within a year. When the Trump Organization sold Swifton Village for $12 million, they cleared $6 million in profit. In the 1970s he benefited from the financially strained New York City government's willingness to give tax concessions in exchange for investment at a time of financial crisis with the redevelopment of the bankrupt Commodore Hotel. He was also instrumental in steering the development of the Javits Convention Center on property he had an option on.

The development saga of the Javits Convention Center brought Donald Trump into contact with the New York City government when a project he'd estimated could've been completed by his company for $110 million ended up costing the city between $750 million to $1 billion. He offered to take over the project at cost but the offer was not accepted.[citation needed]

A similar situation would arise in the city's attempt to restore the Wollman Rink in Central Park--a project started in 1980 with an expected 2 1/2 year construction schedule that was still, with $12 million spent, nowhere near completion in 1986. Trump offered to take over the job at no charge to the city, an offer that was initially rebuffed until it received much local media attention. Trump was given the job which he completed in six months and with $750,000 of the $3 million budgeted for the project left over. (He used the left over money to renovate the adjacent skatehouse and restaurant.)

Interestingly, during the early 1980's, Trump retained the services of Roy Cohn, chief counsel to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations some three decades earlier.

Bankruptcy

By 1990, the effects of recession left Trump unable to meet loan payments. Trump financed the construction of his third casino, the $1 billion Taj Mahal, primarily with high-interest junk bonds. That put him at a disadvantage with competitors who used more of their own money to finance their projects, industry experts have said. Things were so bleak for Trump at this time that in the August 21, 1990 edition of the Jersey Record, columnist Mike Kelly wrote, "If we still had debtors' prisons, Trump would be in the dungeon." Kelly added that "Donald Trump is a Third World Nation."[citation needed] Although he shored up his businesses with additional loans and postponed interest payments, by 1991 increasing debt brought Trump to business bankruptcy[3] and the brink of personal bankruptcy.[4] Banks and bond holders had lost hundreds of millions of dollars, but opted to restructure his debt to avoid the risk of losing more money in court. The Taj Mahal re-emerged from bankruptcy on October 5, 1991, with Trump ceding 50% ownership in the casino to the original bondholders in exchange for lowered interest rates on the debt and more time to pay it off.[5]

On Nov 2, 1992, the Trump Plaza Hotel was forced to file a prepackaged Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection plan after being unable to make its debt payments. Under the plan, Trump agreed to give up a 49 percent stake in the luxury hotel to Citibank and five other lenders. In return Trump would receive 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.[6]

By 1994, Trump had eliminated a large portion of his $900 million personal debt[7] and reduced significantly his nearly $3.5 billion in business debt. While he was forced to relinquish the Trump Shuttle (which he had bought in 1989), he managed to retain Trump Tower in New York City and control of his three casinos in Atlantic City. Chase Manhattan Bank, which lent Trump the money to buy the West Side yards, his biggest Manhattan parcel, forced the sale of a parcel to Asian developers. According to former members of the Trump Organization, Trump did not retain any ownership of the site's real estate--the owners merely promised to give him about 30 percent of the profits once the site was completely developed or sold. Until that time, the owners wanted to keep Trump on to do what he did best: build things. They gave him a modest construction fee and a management fee to oversee the development. The new owners also allowed him to put his name on the buildings that eventually rose on the yards because his well-known moniker allowed them to charge a premium for their condos.

In 1995, he combined his casino holdings into the publicly held Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts. Wall Street drove its stock above $35 in 1996, but by 1998 it had fallen into single digits as the company remained profitless and struggled to pay just the interest on its nearly $2 billion in debt. Under such financial pressure, the properties were unable to make the improvements necessary for keeping up with their flashier competitors.

Problems loomed for Trump's casino resorts. In a May 28, 2004, Wall Street Journal article, Trump said the specter of bankruptcy bothered him "from a psychological standpoint," but added, "it really wouldn't matter that much." A number of his bondholders disagreed. In the same article, Meyer Marvald, a Florida retiree who said he owned about $44,000 of the bonds, claimed "[Trump] has the Sword of Damocles hanging over our heads." On October 21, 2004, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts announced a restructuring of its debt.[8] The plan called for Trump's individual ownership to be reduced from 56 percent to 27 percent, with bondholders receiving stock in exchange for surrendering part of the debt. Since then, Trump Hotels has been forced to seek voluntary bankruptcy protection to stay afloat. After the company applied for Chapter 11 Protection in November 2004, Trump relinquished his CEO position but retained a role as Chairman of the Board. In May 2005[9] the company re-emerged from bankruptcy as Trump Entertainment Resorts Holdings.[10]

Brand name

With his success in real estate and television, Trump has succeeded in marketing the Trump name on a large number of products. These products include:

  • Donald J. Trump Men's Collection
  • Trump Ice bottled water
  • Trump Vodka
  • Trump Magazine
  • Trump Golf
  • Trump Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor (in Trump Tower, NY, NY)
  • Trump Bar (in Trump Tower, NY, NY)
  • Trump Buffet (in Trump Tower, NY, NY)
  • Trump University

In the media

Main article: Donald Trump in the media

Donald Trump has made multiple appearance as a caricatured version of himself in television series and movies (Home Alone 2, The Nanny, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Days of Our Lives), a few appearances as a character (The Little Rascals), and as a guest (talk shows, singing on Emmys).

In 2004, 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. The other contestants were "fired," or eliminated, from the game. The winner of the program is "hired" by The Trump Organization with a 1-year "introductory" contract with a salary exceeding $250,000. At the end of each episode, Trump eliminated at least one (if not more) contestant(s) by telling them, "You're fired," which became a somewhat popular catch phrase. For the first year of the show Trump was paid a mere $50,000 per episode (roughly $700,000 for the first season), but following the show's initial success, he is now paid a reported $3,000,000 per episode ($48 million if the job interview lasted for 16 weeks), making him one of the highest paid TV personalities. In 2004, Donald Trump filed a trademark application for the phrase "You're fired", which he had popularized on the show.[2][3][4]

In December 2006, talk show host Rosie O'Donnell criticized Trump on The View for "acting as a moral compass for 20 year olds" after giving a second chance to Miss USA, Tara Conner, who had violated pageant guidelines by partying and drinking. Trump, who owns the rights to the pageant, decided to let Conner retain the Miss USA crown while she pursued rehabilitation.[11]

In 2007, Trump received an honor for his contribution of The Apprentice to television by receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Other ventures

The Miss Universe Organization is owned by Donald Trump and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). The organization produces the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA pageants. In 2005, Trump launched Trump University, a business education company.[5] In 2006, Trump started Trump Mortgage, a mortgage firm.

At some time, Trump launched a new division within the Trump Organization dedicated to food. Eateries include Trump Buffet, Trump Catering, and Trump Ice Cream Parlor.

In January 2006, Trump launched GoTrump,[6] an online travel website. In his own words, GoTrump.com is a site dedicated to "the art of the travel deal."[7] The site features some Trump properties as well as other hotels and travel deals worldwide.

Family

Donald and Melania

Trump has three siblings, a brother and two sisters. His older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, is a federal appeals court judge. Recently released British genealogy records show Trump's mother arrived from Scotland aboard the Transylvania in 1935.[8]

In 1977, Trump married Ivana Zelničkova, later Ivana Trump, and together they have three children: Donald, Jr. (born December 31, 1977), Ivanka, (born October 30, 1981), and Eric (born January 11, 1984). They were divorced in 1992.

In 1993, he married Marla Maples and together they have one child, Tiffany, (born October 13, 1993). They divorced on June 8, 1999.

On April 26, 2004, he proposed to Melania Knauss (Melanija Knavs in Slovenian language, later Melania Knauss-Trump) from Slovenia. Trump and Knauss (who is 24 years Trump's junior) 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. Among the prominent guests were Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barbara Walters, Tony Bennett, and Rudolph Giuliani. On September 27, 2005, the couple announced that Melania was pregnant with Trump's fifth child. Melania gave birth to a boy, Barron William Trump, on March 20, 2006. Barron William Trump was said to be 8 1/2 pounds and 21 inches long at birth.

Books

  • Trump: The Art of the Deal, (ISBN 5-557-09901-8)
  • Trump: The Art of Survival, (ISBN 0-446-36209-3)
  • Trump: The Art of the Comeback, (ISBN 0-8129-2964-0)
  • Trump: Surviving at the Top, (ISBN 0-394-57597-0)
  • Trump: How to Get Rich, (ISBN 1-4000-6327-2)
  • The Way to the Top: The Best Business Advice I Ever Received, (ISBN 1-4000-5016-2)
  • Trump: Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life, (ISBN 1-4000-6355-8)
  • Trump: The Best Golf Advice I Ever Received, (ISBN 0-307-20999-7)
  • Why We Want You to be Rich: Two Men - One Message, (ISBN 1-933914-02-5)

Properties

Future site of Trump International Hotel & Tower, Toronto

Selected completed properties

  • Personal Residence: Trump Tower: top 3 floors of Trump Tower with approximately 30,000 square feet (3,000 m²) of space; detailed in bronze, gold, and marble. Worth as much as $50 million, it is one of the most valuable apartments in New York City.
  • Palm Beach estate: 43,000 square feet (4,000 m²) on a large oceanfront lot in Palm Beach. Trump purchased this property for $40 million at a bankruptcy auction in 2004. Renovations to the property were led by the Season 3 Apprentice Kendra Todd, and Trump is planning to re-list the property for $125 million. If it is sold at this price it would be by far the most expensive house ever sold in the United States. (The current record is $70 million for Ron Perelman's Palm Beach estate in 2004.)
  • Mar-A-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida. Most of this estate has been converted into a private club. This landmark property is valued at $200,000,000.
  • Trump Entertainment Resorts: This company owns the Trump branded casino resorts. After a long period of financial trouble, the company entered bankruptcy protection in 2004. Trump agreed to invest $55 million cash in the new company and pay $16.4 million to the company's debtors. In return he holds a 29.16% stake in the new public company. This stake was worth approximately $150 million in October 2005. The following are the Trump branded casino resorts:
  • The Estates at Trump National: Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275 (310)265-5000
  • Trump Grande: Florida
  • The Trump Building at 40 Wall Street: Trump bought and renovated this building for about $35 million in 1996. Although Trump claims it is worth $400 million, New York tax assessors value it at only $90 million. Mr. Trump has taken out a $145 million mortgage on this property to use for other investments.
  • Trump Palace: 200 East 69th Street, New York, NY
  • Trump Parc: 106 Central Park South, New York, NY
  • Trump Park Avenue: Park Avenue & 59th Street
  • Trump Tower: 725 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10022 Trump owns the retail and office space on the lower half of this building.
  • Trump World Tower: 845 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY
  • Trump Tower at City Center (Official Site)10 City Place, White Plains, NY 10601
  • Trump Plaza of the Palm Beaches: Twin 32-story residential towers located in downtown West Palm Beach, Florida.
  • Trump Plaza: 167 East 61st Street, New York, NY ( 39-story, Y-shaped plan condominium building on the Upper East Side)
  • Grand Hyatt: Park Ave at Grand Central, New York City, NY (26-story hotel next to Grand Central Station and first major project by Trump. Later sold 50 percent interest to the Hyatt Corporation for a reported 140 million dollars in 1996.)[9]

Selected current and future developments

International hotel and tower properties

Other properties

Other prominent involvement

Many developers pay Donald Trump to market their properties and be the public face of their projects. For this reason, he does not own many of the buildings that display his name. Here are some examples:

  • Trump World I, II, and III: Seoul, Korea Trump received a licensing fee of $5 million to lend his name to this project.
  • Trump International Hotel and Tower, New York: Trump provided his name and expertise to the building's owner (GE) during the building's re-development in 1994 for a fee which totaled $40 million ($25 million for project management and $15 million in incentives deriving from the condo sales).
  • Riverside South/Trump Place When completed, Riverside South will be the largest single private development in New York City's history. It was built by the Trump Organization, although financed by investors from Hong Kong and owned by the Hudson Waterfront Company. During his financial difficulties in the mid 90's, Trump was forced to sell this site, the former west side rail-yards. The new owners continued Mr. Trump's involvement with the property and sought to use his name to seek higher sales prices. Mr. Trump was paid $2 million annually for his oversight of the project, and he was offered an estimated 30% of the net profits upon completion of this 10 year project. The investors sold off the uncompleted project in 2005 for $1.8 billion and offered Mr. Trump $500 million. Mr. Trump contends that the property should have been sold for more than $3 billion and is currently suing the owners for selling without his consent. He is seeking $1 billion in damages.
  • Trump International Golf Links, Menie, Scotland. A recent announcement, Donald Trump has purchased an 800-acre plot just north of Aberdeen with the intention of turning it into what he describes as "the world's best golf course" by 2008. The development will include two courses, a 5-star hotel, holiday homes and a golf academy. Trump is confident that the site, once finished, will hold the Open Championships.

Notes

References

  1. ^ [1] What is Trump Worth?. Forbes (September 9, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-22.
  2. ^ "Trump is the best-known city casino-game player". Retrieved 2006-12-22.
  3. ^ "Trump is the best-known city casino-game player". Retrieved 2006-12-22.
  4. ^ "Trump Trips Up". Time. May 6, 1991. Retrieved 2006-12-22.
  5. ^ "NYTimes: Taj Mahal is out of Bankruptcy". Retrieved 2006-12-22.
  6. ^ "NYTimes: Trump Plaza Hotel Bankruptcy Plan Approved". Retrieved 2006-12-22.
  7. ^ "Donald Trump bio from magazineUSA". Retrieved 2006-12-22.
  8. ^ "Trump casinos file for bankruptcy". MSNBC. Nov. 22, 2004. Retrieved 2006-12-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; TRUMP DELAYS EMERGENCE FROM BANKRUPTCY BY A WEEK". New York Times. May 5, 2005. Retrieved 2006-12-22. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ "Indiana Gaming Commission on Trump Resorts' Bankruptcy" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-12-22.
  11. ^ "Walters on Trump: 'That poor, pathetic man'". AP via CNN.com. 2007-01-10. Retrieved 2007-01-19.
  12. ^ "As Trump tower rises, worries pile up". Chicago Tribune. 2005. Retrieved 2006-10-20. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  13. ^ "Lagging Trump Tower gets cash". St Petersburg Times. 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-20. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  14. ^ "Extent of Trump Tower delay to be known soon". Tampa Bay Business Journel. 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-20. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

http://www.forbes.com/2006/12/19/trump-miss-usa-face-cx_cn_1219autofacescan02.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0612220076dec22,1,6906501.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed http://www.wehaitians.com/what%20he%20really%20worth.html

External links

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