The United States of Trump

by Bill O'Reilly

  Donald Trump got more money.

  A bevy of financial organizations bailed him out, suspending interest payments on a third of his bank debt and giving him tens of millions of dollars to spend going forward. Trump gave up his interest in the Grand Hyatt Hotel and restructured his casino debt. The deals were a stunning save that few others could have pulled off.

  In the process, thousands of junk bond holders lost their money as Trump declared limited bankruptcy on selected businesses six separate times. It was a giant mess that few totally understand even to this day.

  But one thing was clear: Donald Trump remained a master negotiator. He kept control of Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago, and portions of the New Jersey casinos where business was picking up. He used the bankruptcy laws to save himself, and it worked.

  “Through cooperation rather than conflict, everybody has come out much better,” Trump told the press.

  There was some dissent following that comment, but not from most Trump employees—they were still working.

  The time that Donald Trump bought with other people’s money paid off fairly quickly. The 1990s saw the U.S economy come roaring back under the pro-business policies of President Bill Clinton. New York City real estate rose steadily in value, high-end apartments were rented for record amounts, business travel to the city picked up, and the slot machine people had some cash to burn. Slowly, the Trump Organization became profitable again.

  But Donald Trump had changed. No longer was he the brazen gambler who sneered at risk. Cool on the outside but shaken on the inside, he decided that marketing was the key to enduring success. He would aggressively publicize his brand, and others would pay to be in business with him. For example, a hotel company would compensate Trump millions simply for putting his name on a building. Eventually, he would be paid for clothing bearing his name, cologne, sunblock, cuff links, and on and on. The Trump brand was everywhere.

  And the more famous his name became, the more money he’d receive for essentially doing nothing. Donald would soon open Trump golf clubs with enormous membership fees. He turned his mansion Mar-a-Lago into a business. He got paid for all kinds of ventures while silent investors shouldered the risk.

  Down the road, the Trump Organization would start buying properties outright again. But as he emerged from the grueling financial negotiations that took more than two years, Donald was looking to become more powerful through fame, not finance. He wanted to become a big star beyond the business world.

  Aerial view of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida.

  And he thought a young woman from rural Georgia just might help with that.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  TRUMP TOWER

  MANHATTAN

  APRIL 30, 1990

  Donald Trump is getting an enormous return on his investment in Marla Maples. The news coverage of their affair and the pending divorce action with Ivana is now a national phenomenon, with comparisons to the scandalous actions of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the early 1960s. Trump and Maples have been an item for at least two years, but only recently has their relationship been made public. As one might expect, Ivana Trump is furious over the humiliation and the disruption to her life, not to mention their children’s lives.

  Maples is a model who came to New York City from rural Georgia in 1985, hoping to act in a television soap opera. Problem was she didn’t have a specific job or the connections to get one. But now she is a huge star in the tabloid world. Her interview with Diane Sawyer of ABC News garnered record ratings for her program just eleven days ago.

  The twenty-six-year-old blonde met Donald Trump under hazy circumstances, the tabloids reporting a chance encounter on Madison Avenue. Few who know Donald Trump believe that scenario, but their introduction has never really been defined.

  What is factual is that the two developed a friendship that is now impacting the entire Trump world. With Donald Trump hoping to expand his brand in order to attract outside investment to his company, the attention he and Marla are receiving is a major plus in his eyes, and he will make a variety of public statements affirming that belief.

  In fact, the launch of the billion-dollar Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City has generated tremendous publicity mainly because of Trump’s divorce action. On April 4, he said this to the anchorman of the syndicated program Inside Edition, which was me:

  “Unfortunately, the divorce created more of a hoopla for the building … It’s not the greatest thing in the world, and I don’t like capitalizing on a divorce because a divorce is a negative thing.”

  Marla Maples gets a kiss from Donald Trump at the stage door of the Palace Theater in New York following a performance of The Will Rogers Follies, in which Maples appeared, August 1992.

  “What you had to explain to your children,” I said, “must have been very difficult.”

  “It is difficult, but we keep the children insulated. We keep them away from television, and they’re young enough that, frankly, it works out pretty well.”

  “But you love all this media stuff, don’t you?”

  “No,” Donald Trump answered.

  “But the press works to your advantage in the sense that you can use the press because you are famous and you are a marketable commodity.”

  Donald Trump paused for a second. “I don’t think I use the press. I think what happens is my buildings use the press. This building [the Taj Mahal] is very unique.”

  * * *

  THE BUSINESS OF tabloid journalism requires an outlook on life that is callous, to say the least. It is impossible to know the true feelings of any human being, yet that is the root of all tabloid reporting. Heroes and villains, good and bad—the more sordid the story, the better.

  There are few journalistic rules. Anonymous sources, fine. Quotes taken as fact from people not on the scene, good. Denial of due process, all day long.

  In the tabloid world, which today is most of the American media, verifiable information doesn’t matter. As the newsroom cliché goes, don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.

  Even though I first met Donald Trump during the Maples frenzy, I have no idea what really happened there. I also don’t know anything about the Trump-Ivana marriage or what occurred in it. These are personal issues that historians are not qualified to judge. All I can do is report honestly about how things unfolded, and the documented consequences that followed.

  With headline after headline about their affair dominating national news coverage, Donald Trump was becoming one of the most famous men in the world. No deal he ever made brought him close to this kind of attention. But he told me in Atlantic City that he was not happy with the news coverage of his personal life.

  “You have a lot of very dishonest reporters, in my opinion. And I mean dishonest. I’m not talking about they are slightly off. I mean they are totally dishonest [because] they’ll report things knowing that they are wrong.

  “I’m more of a victim than a beneficiary [of the press], in all fairness … You cannot believe what you read. So, when you’re out in Minnesota or Iowa, and you pick up some rag magazine or newspaper, and it says all sorts of things that have no basis in fact or truth, you just can’t believe it. These are very dishonest people.”

  “So how do you think the public perceives you?” I asked.

  “I think the people and I have a pretty good understanding and a pretty good relationship.”

  “What about ego?”

  “Ego is an interesting thing. I have always been referred to as somebody with a big ego, but I’ve never met a successful person without a very large ego. And if you don’t have a big ego, you’re not going to be successful. It’s as simple as that.”

  “Why couldn’t you be humble and build the Taj Mahal?”

  “Because it doesn’t work with a different personality. If I were humble, you wouldn’t have a building like this. You’d have a plain Jane building that nobody would come and see.”

  * * *

  TODAY, DO
NALD TRUMP says nearly the same things about the press. Back in the spring of 1990, his assessment of the media coverage about him was accurate. In researching this book, we found much of what was reported to be fallacious or taken grossly out of context. Publications such as Vanity Fair and the New Yorker were generally snide and condescending toward Trump. On the other side, People magazine was, at times, fawning.

  But behind the scenes, Donald Trump was actually orchestrating some of the press coverage about him. Quick documented story: in February 1990, the New York Post and the Daily News were brawling over the Trump-Maples situation, trying to outdo each other with lurid headlines and scoops.

  The Daily News was more sympathetic toward Ivana Trump, often hammering “The Donald,” as Ivana called him. The Post was more supportive of the developer, and he appreciated that.

  According to Jill Brooke, a TV writer for the Post and a reliable correspondent, Donald Trump himself engineered the biggest headline of his career by phoning the Post’s editor-in-chief, Jerry Nachman, and telling him that Maples was gossiping to friends that Trump was responsible for “the best sex she ever had.”

  Nachman actually put Donald Trump’s call on the office speakerphone, where Ms. Brooke heard it.

  On February 16, 1990, Miss Maples and her alleged compliment became the front-page headline in the New York Post, a newspaper founded by Alexander Hamilton, who had his own problems with the sensationalistic press.

  After that revelation, the media insanity only accelerated, and so did Donald Trump’s fame. But no one knew who had really engineered the headlines.

  * * *

  BUT THERE WAS a downside, a big one. The Trump children were all in Manhattan schools. You can imagine how awful the hysteria was for them. In fact, it changed the trajectory of their lives, especially for the oldest, Donald Jr.:

  O’REILLY: Once your father left the house and split up from your mom, you saw him less, right?

  TRUMP JR.: Yes, part of that was my choice. I was twelve, Eric was six. It hit me differently probably because it was so much more visible to me … so I went to boarding school in central Pennsylvania in eighth grade. Moved away from home at thirteen … and I was fine getting away from New York City.

  O’REILLY: When you were in Pennsylvania at school, how often would you be in contact with your dad?

  TRUMP JR.: Maybe once a week I’d call home to check in.

  O’REILLY: Did he come out?

  TRUMP JR.: He came out to drop me off when I went there the first time, and he came out at graduation.

  O’REILLY: So, he saw the school twice.

  TRUMP JR.: Saw the school twice in five years.

  O’REILLY: And how about your mom?

  TRUMP JR.: Same.

  O’REILLY: So, you’re doing your own thing?

  TRUMP JR.: I’d see him vacations, Easter, Thanksgiving, you know … He’s not a participation medal kind of guy, but if you’re not doing great, he’s going to call you out … Around sophomore year of high school he said [about my grades], “This is fine but this isn’t going to get you anywhere in life. You’ve got to decide what you want to do. You can do more or you can do less. It’s up to you.”

  O’REILLY: How did you respond?

  TRUMP JR.: That’s when I actually started working my ass off academically.

  O’REILLY: So, he inspired you?

  TRUMP JR.: He’s not a teacher that puts you on his lap and says this is how you do something. He puts you in a situation to learn, and you rise to the occasion or you fail.

  Donald Trump Jr. eventually went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, and Wharton Business School, like his father. His sister and brother also attended boarding schools and good colleges. All three are working for their father today.

  * * *

  MEANWHILE, DONALD TRUMP was learning about the power of television, because with the Maples thing, he was all over it. However, as he became a household name in America, he also became somewhat addicted to the attention.

  Adulation is a risky thing. Most human beings strongly seek acceptance, and some want constant flattery. But along with that can come confusion, alienation, and despair. In the beginning, being idolized can bring satisfaction. But gradually, constant attention wears human beings down. Add to that the reality that some will try to exploit the famous person for venal gain, and you have a powerful figurative drug, fame, that can bring grievous harm.

  Ivanka, Donald, Eric, and Donald Jr. at the press conference for Trump Soho Hotel Launch, September 2007.

  Elvis Presley is a vivid example. Supremely talented, Presley found himself a national phenomenon in the mid-1950s. But fame overwhelmed the singer, and by age forty-two, he was dead, the victim of a destructive lifestyle built around prescription drugs and dietary excesses.

  The list of fame victims is almost endless, and is not something to be taken casually.

  But Donald Trump wanted the attention that comes with mass adulation—and not only for business reasons. I saw it firsthand.

  As the anchor of the syndicated TV program Inside Edition for six years, I had to cover Donald Trump and other “infotainment” situations. They did not interest me much, but if we wanted to stay on the air, the “Madonna” stories, as I called them, had to be in the lineup.

  At the time, Inside Edition was a hybrid: half glitz, half news. I took the job because my contract allowed me to go all over the world to cover stories like the first Gulf War and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. I never would have had that opportunity at another media agency.

  David Frost, the British personality, was the first anchor of Inside Edition. But he was quickly dispatched back to London because the ratings were abysmal. I took his place, and things turned around. The program is still on the air.

  Anyway, as part of my job, I covered Donald Trump, and he apparently thought I did a fair job. So, he invited me to go on a double date with him and Marla Maples and her friend from Georgia.

  Trump had tickets to see Paula Abdul in New Jersey. With all due respect to Abdul, a talented performer, I wasn’t exactly her audience. When Donald Trump called with the invitation, I said, “Can’t we go to a hockey game?”

  No, we can’t.

  So, I went on the expedition thinking maybe I would learn something.

  I described the outing in my first nonfiction book, The O’Reilly Factor:

  We drove over in Trump’s limo and were waved into a parking lot beneath the Brendan Byrne Arena. We popped out of the car and took an elevator up to a private box to watch the show.

  Slightly to my surprise, things were going okay. Trump and I chatted casually about the football season and his casinos.… The private box was luxurious. Everyone seemed to be having a good time …

  There was an intermission after [the first act]. That’s when things began to get interesting …

  Trump suggested that we all take a walk around the arena. What?… So, Donald really wanted to walk around the arena?

  Oh, yeah, he sure did!

  I remarked to him that it was probably not a good idea to take such a stroll without massive security—like, to begin with, a battalion of full-metal jacket-armed, battle-tested U.S. Marines. Some rudeness might break out …

  “No problem,” Donald said. We would have Tony and Lou with us.

  Okay, personal bodyguards Tony and Lou were certainly large and testy. But the odds against them were about 15,000 to 2—odds I did not like.…

  You can picture it, I know. Within ten seconds, the hallway of the arena was in screaming, crowding chaos … the whole thing was nuts. Some people said nice things, some people were mean. We all got shoved. Most of the guys focused on Marla, who was sewn into a tourniquet-tight black outfit. They stared in a way that is usually seen only in prison. And then there were those who simply screamed the name Donald over and over. He loved it.

  I felt as if I was in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I tried to blend into the crowd, keeping as far as possible from
the celebrity couple. But our stroll wasn’t enough for Donald Trump. He now wanted to watch the rest of the concert from the floor!

  So long, luxury box. Standing on the arena floor now surrounded by extra security guards, we watched Paula Abdul perform the rest of the concert. As she sang and danced, the crowd kept screaming: “Donald, Marla!”

  * * *

  ALONG WITH ACHIEVING massive name recognition, Donald Trump absorbed an important strategic lesson during the hectic year of 1990: the media could be manipulated, especially television. Astutely, he understood that his life had now taken a turn into show business, and it was like no business he knew.

  Controlled most often by ruthless autocrats, the TV industry would be Donald’s future because he could handle that world and use it to benefit himself in many ways.

  It would take time for the TV thing to unfold, but when it did, Donald Trump was ready to parlay it into something that gave him extreme satisfaction.

  Incredible power.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  MANHASSET, NEW YORK

  MARCH 2, 2019

  NOON

  Donald Trump’s policy of scorched-earth rhetoric and complicated personal interactions, many based on monetary gain, means he will always have a ready supply of enemies. This week one of them was featured in three full days of congressional hearings. Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer for about ten years, told the world that the president is a racist and a crook. Upon hearing that, the anti-Trump cadres raised a glass.

  It seems that Cohen feels betrayed by his former client and wanted vengeance before he arrived at a federal penitentiary for three years. After pleading guilty to income tax evasion and a number of other things, Cohen evidently expected the president to pardon him. But Donald Trump says he had no intention of doing that, leading Cohen to turn on his former client.