Trump: An American Dream (2017) s01e02 Episode Script

1
[Rona Barrett] Tell me about
the early days of Donald Trump.
-Well--
-I mean, were you born into wealth?
I mean, was your father--
I know your father was successful,
but when you came along,
was he already successful?
Oh, yes. My father was very successful.
My father built homes and apartment houses
in various sections and did very well.
And I was brought-- brought up
in the construction business, so to speak,
and I enjoyed it from day one.
Donald was given a great gift,
and the gift was,
"You love the land,
make the most out of it."
But I really believed then,
as I believe today, that
like many young men who had
fathers who were very successful,
the most important thing,
subconsciously or even consciously,
is that they wanted to prove that they
could be bigger and better than Daddy.
For too many years now,
we've placed trust in rules,
regulations, and government.
Well, I think it's about time
that we placed trust in ourselves.
[launch control man]
Minus ten, nine, eight
[Ronald Reagan] I know that we can't make
things right overnight,
but we will make America great again.
[launch control man] four. We've gone
for main engine start.
Lift-off. Three
[crowd applauds]
[David Cay Johnston]
Ronald Reagan's election in 1980
was the biggest change
in America since FDR in 1932.
[indistinct chatter]
Reagan basically said,
"Let's just open up the floodgates
and let business be business."
[clamoring]
[Johnston] Suddenly, it was much easier
to borrow money.
They were much more willing to take risks.
Look at the arc of Donald Trump's career.
He comes to New York,
then he builds Trump Tower,
and he's getting all of these articles
and TV shows done about him
as the modern Midas,
everything he touches turns to gold.
What do you do for an encore?
What do you do for a second act?
What do you do next?
[telephone ringing]
[Marvin Roffman]
One day, I receive a telephone call.
At the time, I was working
for a member firm
of the New York stock exchange
following the gaming industry.
And the man identified himself
as Donald Trump
Donald Trump.
-who I never heard of.
-[inaudible dialogue]
[laughs] I didn't know who it was
And-- And he said that,
"Marvin, I've been reading your reports
and I like what I'm reading,
and I wanted to introduce myself to you,
because I'm going to make
a very strong presence in Atlantic City,
and I intend to be a major factor
in the gaming industry."
And that ended the conversation.
You take care, so long.
[Roffman]
I found him to be a very pleasant chap.
I had absolutely
no problem with him at all.
At that time. [chuckles]
[indistinct chatter]
[clinking, rattling]
[man] Sixty-five of 'em!
Seven, ladies and gentlemen.
Once!
Do it again. Do it again. Do it again.
Ace!
Bust. Ah!
Fantastic. [chuckles] Fantastic.
[laughs]
[clinking, rattling]
The stocks were exploding.
It was like the dot-com craze.
[indistinct chatter]
[Wayne Barrett]
Fred Trump was never reckless.
Fred Trump
built 20,000 units
of real housing for real people.
Whereas Donald's projects were
much more about,
"How do I put the stamp of wealth
on everything I build?"
So, they were
kind of diametrically opposed.
Fred told him, "Don't go to Atlantic City.
Don't get involved in casinos."
[male reporter] Gross revenues
from 1980 total $623 million.
-Okay, now is the time, folks, go ahead.
-[man] All right?
[woman] Yay!
-Beautiful!
-[woman cheers]
[female reporter] Trump's Castle opened
its doors to the public today.
[Roffman] What he was doing was
the early stages of building his brand.
That's the key, building the Trump brand.
[indistinct chatter]
That's me!
Well, I'm very honored.
It was a unanimous vote, I'm very happy.
[Johnston] I went to Atlantic City
to examine the casino business,
and as soon as I arrived,
I meet Donald Trump.
Competitors in the casino business,
some big gamblers that I met,
they all said the same thing.
"Donald doesn't know anything
about the casino business."
I was skeptical, so when I went to
interview him in depth for the first time,
which was a couple of weeks
after we met
I deliberately asked Donald four questions
that had falsehoods in them.
-[inaudible dialogue]
-[Johnston] In the back of my notebook,
I'd written down false statements
about the casino business.
[inaudible dialogue]
[Johnston] I thought he would have
corrected me about the facts
but Trump takes my falsehoods
and incorporates them into his answer.
That's what con artists do.
It's going to be tremendously successful.
It's going to be great for Atlantic City.
Great for everybody.
Good luck, everybody.
Thank you for being here.
[Johnston] How much are you
gonna win the first year, Donald?
[Jack O'Donnell] Donald Trump owns
two casinos at that point.
Steve Hyde, my boss, is
the chief operating officer
of Trump Plaza.
[reporter] Can you give us
your full name and title again?
Steven Hyde, Steven Frank Hyde
if you want the full name.
Steven Hyde, President, Trump Plaza.
And Ivana Trump is
chief operating officer of Trump Castle.
[inaudible dialogue]
[indistinct chatter]
We'll be number one.
The right manager, we're number one.
Nobody competes with it.
[O'Donnell] Donald puts a great deal
of faith in family.
There's a trust factor
that he puts in family
that he puts above almost everybody else.
[Ivana Trump] They were looking
so much forward that I would fall down,
and I just said, "It's no way
I'm going to give them the satisfaction."
You have to be strong,
because people cannot just run over you.
If you have to make a decision,
you just make it.
[Nikki Haskell] Well,
Ivana was a worker, she was a doer.
She worked from the time
she was a little girl.
-She always had very heavy work ethics.
-[reporters clamoring]
I mean, I remember with her
when we were down in Atlantic City,
we went through every single room.
It was like 500 rooms.
She would say, "The bannister's
coming off of this,
the drapes are too long,
the bed is too short,"
and anything that didn't move, walk,
or talk, she painted gold.
[male interviewer]
When is your flight, Mrs. Trump?
-Excuse me?
-When will your helicopter take off?
Uh It's supposed to be 11,
but it's our helicopter,
-I can leave any time, you know.
-Okay.
I have something
I have to get for some lunch and
'Course. And you don't mind us
following you to the airport just to--
No, I don't.
[O'Donnell] She was a tough personality.
You know, if I can say this,
it sounds mean,
but there's nothing warm
and fuzzy about Ivana.
[journalist] What's your typical day
like when you're here?
I usually come
first thing in the morning,
I sign those checks.
There is no check which is coming out
of this building which is unsigned.
I have all the contracts
and all the requisition orders,
and, uh, then I have a meeting
one after the other one.
Every department comes in,
casino department,
marketings, uh, hotel operation people,
they come in here
and we do the strategies,
we're doing what is right
and what is wrong,
looking over the numbers.
[clinking, rattling]
[male reporter]
The first month they were open,
the casino broke the all-time
first month Atlantic City record
with a profit of $21 million.
This, Trump says, is where the gravy is,
and this is only one of two casinos
he has in Atlantic City.
The other, Trump Plaza, opened a year ago.
[O'Donnell] It was no secret that
she didn't get along with Steve Hyde.
The Plaza had established ourselves
as going after the high-end business
and that was an image that Ivana wanted.
And she was very aggressive
in those areas,
to try to take business, you know,
not only from Caesars
or any of the other competitors,
but to also take it from us.
You know, if we thought somebody
was only worthy of, you know, a limo ride,
as an example,
she might give them a helicopter.
To win their favor.
[Donald Trump] Atlantic City is right now
at a really great turning point,
and it's gonna go one way or the other.
And I'm gonna damn well
make sure it goes the other.
We wanna make it a fabulous place.
[O'Donnell]
Donald was clearly amused by the rivalry.
I think it's part of his management style,
is that people fighting
with one another
[laughing]
[O'Donnell] is a good thing.
No photos so far, guys.
He had two properties that were on
the verge of warfare between each other,
and they were owned by the same guy.
[interviewer] Last question. If you could
describe your husband in one word
I wouldn't brag. I think Donald, for
in a certain way,
is a genius in his field.
[interviewer] Okay, that's great.
Thank you very much
for your time, we appreciate it.
[inaudible dialogue]
[Ronald Reagan] To young Americans
wondering tonight,
"What will I do with my future?"
I have a suggestion.
Follow in the footsteps
of those two college students
who launched one
of America's great computer firms
from the garage behind their house.
[female interviewer] What are
your annual revenues at Microsoft?
We're expecting to do
just over 100 million this year.
You too can become leaders
in this great new era of progress,
the age of the entrepreneur.
-Well, Mr. Mayor, how do you like it?
-This is beautiful. Beautiful.
Matter of fact,
I've never seen anything like it.
-It's really
-Not something like it.
It's really something special.
[Johnston]
Donald Trump has this cash machine
in the casinos of Atlantic City.
They're just throwing money at him.
Rivers of cash are flowing
to Donald Trump in ways even beyond,
I suspect, his imagination.
And after a few years of this,
he goes on this buying spree.
[female interviewer]
This is really spectacular.
Did the Trumps buy it as is?
[man] They re-did the entire interior.
[interviewer] Now, what kind of china
and silverware do they use?
-It's, uh, 24-carat.
-Twenty-four carat gold?
Yes, 24-carat gold.
-All the utensils?
-Is there any other kind?
[Tony Schwartz] It was the go-go era.
Donald Trump very self-consciously
wanted to be an exemplar,
an avatar of that era.
This is the great entrance hall
to Mar-a-Lago.
[Schwartz] Trump was an irresistible story
for almost any reporter.
There was a seductiveness about it,
even as I cringed.
When you sit in here
with people all around this table
and you eat off of this gold in this room,
what do you think?
I say, "What am I doing here?
-How did this happen?"
-[laughs]
Oh, Donald, oh, Donald,
how you can deal.
Oh, Donald, oh, Donald,
you are a big deal.
Look at this.
I mean, would you want your daughter
to bring this guy home?
-He's worth 800 million bucks.
-I remember that.
That's my article.
[audience applauds]
The deal I struck with him
was to be his ghostwriter.
Trump: The Art of the Deal
is the title of this book.
Random House is pleased that
I'm calling it to your attention.
[Schwartz] "The Art of the Deal."
It came to me in a moment. I've never
come up with a title nearly as good.
That notion that you could write a book
about a series of deals that he made
in an era that celebrated deal making,
just made sense to me
as a saleable product.
During the writing of the book,
I spent hundreds of hours
with Donald Trump.
Are you gonna sign books in the stores,
do all that stuff?
Every once in a while, I might have to.
Whatever it take to make it
nice and successful,
'cause I like having successes.
I like success much better
than failure, somehow. I don't know.
-[show host] Uh [chuckles]
-[audience applauds]
[Schwartz]
He has a very primitive worldview,
a very binary worldview,
that I believe was born from
the relationship with his father.
His father was extremely tough, uh,
to the point of even being cruel at times.
Donald perceived that to survive,
he needed to be as tough
or tougher than his father.
"If people screw me, I screw 'em
I screw back in spades."
[audience laughs, applauds]
I mean, is there
something wrong with that?
-Tell me. What?
-[show host] I'm--
Is there something wrong with that?
[Schwartz]
So, this binary worldview that he had
was: there are predators
and there are victims.
That's it. Black and white.
So, if you're not the predator,
you're the victim.
What did I discover about his values?
He was value-free. He was value-free.
I thought he was a sociopath.
He has no conscience.
Doesn't make a distinction
between right and wrong.
[crowd clamors]
Historically, big boxing matches
took place at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
[crowd cheers]
[O'Donnell] Nobody had ever
really challenged Las Vegas
until we did it at Trump Plaza.
Donald had the pockets to do this,
the deep pockets to do this,
and nobody else had that.
[cheering escalates]
[announcer] Here he comes
Our host, Mr. Donald J. Trump!
[crowd cheers, applauds]
[man] He's very smart in that ring,
as he is out of the ring.
I can't see anybody beating him.
I'm throwing down. I've got
a million dollars right here today.
I got the megabucks!
[O'Donnell] Yes, we did 'em
to make money in the casino, but
we also did it because Donald wanted
to be the center of the universe
and boxing made that.
-Fellas
-[photographer] Jack!
[O'Donnell] Celebrities from
all over the world coming in
The A-list from Hollywood,
they all wanted to attend these fights.
[inaudible dialogue]
[O'Donnell] He loved to rub elbows
with, uh, celebrities,
and talk about celebrities
as if they're all his best friends.
Look who we have here.
This is the big man.
Good to see you,
it looks like an exciting evening.
It is going to be a biggie.
Donald was building a corporate empire.
Fred just saw this as a giant achievement.
Oh, predictions?
[female reporter] Who's gonna win it?
I'll reserve judgment on that, okay?
[Barrett] He's an entrepreneur.
His son's doing
what he had dreamed about doing.
Right? I mean, his son was a giant king.
[photographers clamoring]
Hey, John.
[laughing]
-Ivana Trump.
-[laughs] I trust you.
-Yeah, here she is, the First Lady.
-Yeah. Here-- Here she comes.
-You're gorgeous. Vivacious.
-Miss America, right?
-Oh, yes.
-Excited?
Behind the scenes, I don't know what
Ivana did know or didn't know.
-[man] It's good to see you.
-Good to see you.
[O'Donnell] But I had heard, you know,
rumors, stories,
that Donald liked to go out at nighttime
and he was on the prowl.
It's a great evening.
And then of course, I mean, it became
clear that maybe the stories were true
when Marla arrived on the scene.
-[man] Basically, that's all she's doing.
-[Marla laughs]
[O'Donnell] Marla Maples was this kind of
southern girl from a small town,
charming, beautiful.
[indistinct background chatter]
[O'Donnell] Had a kind of
an amateur background in modeling.
Do you wanna go to the restroom
with me too? [laughs]
[cameraman] No, no, no,
I don't do that kind of
[O'Donnell] We desperately tried
to manage it at Trump Plaza,
'cause that's where she's staying.
-That's right!
-[cameraman] Yeah.
-See you then. I'm sorry. I will be back.
-[cameraman] Bye.
She was there all the time.
And so, you know, everybody knew.
But the Tyson-Holmes fight
was the first time that we had Marla
and Ivana in the same room for an event.
[bell dings]
[announcer] And now, ladies and gentlemen,
let's get ready to rumble!
Twelve rounds!
[inaudible dialogue]
[cheering]
[announcer] We go round one.
The heavyweight championship of the world.
Tyson quickly on top of Holmes
and he nails him right away.
[O'Donnell] It was a big arena, but
you know, both had pretty good seats.
And you could turn one way and see one
and turn the other way and see the other.
[crowd cheers]
[announcer]
Back with the right hand, the left hand!
He's gotta hang on
or they'll stop the fight.
Down he goes!
It's all over! He is knocked out!
[O'Donnell] Donald Trump wasn't
the first guy
to bring his girlfriend to a casino,
but really the high-profile nature of it
is what-- is what surprised me so much.
[Johnston] By the late 1980s,
Donald Trump's marriage
with Ivana is falling apart,
and he has this mistress.
How's he going to keep this separate?
He comes up with a brilliant strategy.
[Trump] She's got an ability to manage,
and manage with style,
and I thought the greatest toy
that I could give Ivana
would be to put her at the Plaza Hotel.
-Why did you buy the Plaza?
-Why did I buy it?
Because it would have driven me crazy
if anyone else owned it.
-Why?
-'Cause I'm looking at it every day.
How would I feel
if somebody else owned it?
Wouldn't that be a horrible?
You come to your office,
looking at the most beautiful building
that I've ever seen, the Plaza Hotel,
and somebody else owns it
I'd feel guilty, so I had to buy it.
But I look out on buildings all the time
and I don't wanna own them.
[Trump] Well, it's a different mindset.
When I buy the Plaza Hotel,
to me, that's exciting,
because it's a trophy,
it's a total trophy.
Part of the reason it's exciting
is because they're mega deals,
they're important deals,
they're glamorous deals.
Everybody talks about them,
everybody reads about them,
and writes about them.
There's a level of importance there
that I think also somewhat turns me on.
[Barbara Res] He bought it
for a ridiculous amount of money.
I don't think he even negotiated
the price of it.
He had changed.
He was not as conversational, um,
as personable, um
as friendly as he had been.
And he was also very full of himself.
He was definitely
not to be challenged, and
you know, it was very hard for me
because I was used to challenging him.
[crowd applauds]
[inaudible dialogue]
The story goes that he was
bringing Marla down to Atlantic City,
so he had to bring Ivana back up,
and I don't know what--
-I don't know the truth of that or not.
-[Ivana exclaiming]
[applause, clamoring]
[crowd cheers]
[woman] Hi, guys!
[man] All right, thank you.
-[female reporter] Ivana, how do you feel?
-I feel-- I feel great. I feel great.
-Are you going to miss this place?
-Uh I'm not going anywhere.
I'm here to stay.
And I'm just going to release
And Donald needs me in the Plaza,
and I wanna bring it to six-star hotel.
It's only five-stars hotel in the world.
I wanna bring it to the six-star.
And I'm nearly there and I need
a bit more with the family around.
And I'm really being honored,
and it's great.
[reporter] How do you feel about all these
people here to say goodbye to you?
I think it's fantastic,
I think it's a great honor to me,
and to the whole Trump Organization.
-Thank you.
-[whistling]
-Have a good time.
-[reporter] How you doing, Donald?
-Fine, how are you?
-Nice to see you again.
[Chung] You're You're 43,
you have a wife and three children,
a lot of buildings, a lot of debt.
Have you gone through
your mid-life crisis yet?
I think I've gone
through my mid-life crisis, uh
You have? You've gone through the--
I mean, a mid-life crisis is very--
I'm saying is I don't think
it's been a traumatic period for me.
I mean, maybe I haven't been there yet,
'cause I'm not sure that I'm really
at mid-life yet. I hope I'm not.
So maybe I haven't been there yet.
I'll make you a deal. If I do go through
a mid-life crisis, I'll call you.
I'll let you know, it'll be very exciting.
[indistinct chatter]
-And you are trying to reproduce--
-I'm trying to re
-the curve.
-Right.
[Res] Ivana could be mean,
and she could be demanding,
and she wouldn't listen,
but she worked like a dog.
-She was so totally dedicated to Donald
-[inaudible dialogue]
and that loyalty
You could not not respect the woman.
Wanna keep the costs
down to a very low point.
I watch Donald. Donald, it's incredible.
He's incredible in the business.
He's fantastic at dealing with the people,
how he negotiates.
I really learned a lot from him.
The big difference was
she now considered herself his equal.
[photographer]
Look this way, please.
Thank you.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Res] They had a party for her,
and he was just a fixture at it,
he was just another person.
And he was seething, and I could tell
that he was angry about it.
[inaudible dialogue]
Thank you.
[inaudible dialogue]
He couldn't stand the fact that people
at the Plaza deferred to her.
Trump was very, very angry at Ivana.
He disliked her.
She had done all the furniture
in the apartments,
and I was taking him on a walk through
and when he saw the furniture,
he got irate.
He opened the door to an armoire
and he pulled it off, and I thought,
"Oh, my God, this is This is bad."
He went berserk.
He was horrible to her. Horrible.
Where they had been
so respectful of each other,
and what I thought,
genuinely loving of each other,
he now was just mean to her,
and a monster.
Do you have everything?
Uh In financial aspect, yes.
If I have everything, um, I don't know.
I have a good husband
and I have a beautiful family.
I have a good job. You know, it's very--
all very fragile.
It might be here today,
might not be here tomorrow,
so you might as well enjoy it
when it is there.
[indistinct chatter]
[Reagan]
It's been quite a journey this decade,
and we held together
through some stormy seas.
And at the end, together,
we're reaching our destination.
[Mike Dunbar] I was a staunch Reaganite.
I-- I was very committed to Reagan.
-[woman] President Reagan!
-[woman 2] President Reagan!
[gunshots firing]
-[clamoring]
- [screaming]
[indistinct shouting]
Get him out! Get him out! Get him out!
-[agent 2] Get back!
-[agent 1] Get him out!
-[agent 2] Go!
-[agent 1] Get him out of here!
I will tell you that when he was shot
by John Hinckley, I cried.
It was It was actually--
And it's It's drawing
those emotions up in me again.
Reagan extolled the entrepreneur,
people who ran businesses,
people who built things.
The Reagan administration
is coming to an end.
To see the presidency revert back
to a typical establishment politician,
somebody like a George Bush,
would have really distressed me.
Donald Trump came up on my radar screen
and I decided this is the guy.
This is the stationary
that I came up with.
"The Committee
to Draft Donald Trump for President."
"Coordinator Mike Dunbar stated
that the Draft Trump Committee
has two objectives,
convince Donald Trump to declare
his candidacy for president,
and to put in place an organization
that will enable him
to win New Hampshire's
first in the nation primary."
Uh You know, it was a one-man show,
this was Mike Dunbar.
Um I-- I always spoke
in the first-person plural, "we,"
so that it sounded like
there was a group. It was-- It was me.
Is it true that you're going to go
to New Hampshire in October
at the invitation of Mike Dunbar, who is
heading a group called Draft Donald Trump?
I am going, I made the commitment to go.
I made the commitment about
three weeks ago, and I will go, yes.
[Larry King] You will go?
[Dunbar] I mean, it was sort of like
seeing it all come true right
before my eyes.
Out steps Donald Trump
and I'm there to greet him.
I was nervous.
It's one thing to be out
starting a Draft Trump movement,
it's another thing
to actually produce Donald Trump.
[male reporter] No one was quite sure
why the man
who likes to name skyscrapers
after himself was here.
Except, that he was asked by this
local conservative freelance writer,
the man who planted the original seed
for Trump to run for
the nation's highest office.
[Dunbar] I had a lot riding on this.
I mean, if he said, "I'm running,"
you know, my life was going to change.
I'm not here today because I'm running
for the presidency, I'm here because--
I don't recall how I felt.
I'm sure I was disappointed.
[Trump] I'm not looking to run
for president, I love what I'm doing.
And what I want,
is I want strength and extreme competence
at the helm of this country.
Thank you.
[Dunbar] I have heard the suggestion
that the whole trip to Portsmouth
was to promote The Art of the Deal.
If he was coming to Portsmouth
to promote a book, he never told me.
"To Michael,
I really appreciate your friendship.
You have created
a very exciting part of my life,
on to the future.
Donald."
[male announcer] Trump: The Game.
Because it's not whether you win or lose,
it's whether you win.
-Good luck, everyone.
-[indistinct chatter]
-I wish I was that rich. [giggles]
-Yeah.
[female reporter] As Trump toured
the toy factory today, women shrieked,
and men begged the million-dollar
businessman for his autograph.
Whoever said
that money can't buy you love
clearly didn't know Donald Trump.
[crowd] Whoa!
-[boy] He's great.
-[female reporter 2] Why?
'Cause I'd just like to be like him
when I grow up.
[reporter] How come?
Because of all the money
and fame and everything.
[reporter] I see you have his book,
are you gonna read it?
Yeah, I already did.
[Trump] I do a book and it becomes
the biggest best seller.
I do a game and it becomes
the biggest game in America today.
I do things and, for whatever reason,
it seems to work.
[Johnston] Trump just keeps on spending.
He-- He believes that he's Midas and
everything he touches will turn to gold.
The partially constructed Taj Mahal.
It was this empty white elephant
at the north end of the boardwalk.
It will be the largest
privately financed building ever built.
It will be the largest private building,
and I think it's second only
to the Pentagon in size.
[Johnston] Donald just had this
"I've got to have this."
It was this incredible lust,
because it was so big.
And he had this notion that, you know,
big makes him more important.
[Trump] It'll be over a billion dollars,
and that is far and away
the most expensive building ever built.
People will never have seen
anything like this.
I mean, who's ever heard of
a building that cost one billion dollars?
[Roffman] But he made one mistake.
A serious mistake.
Trump said, "The bankers
are standing in line to lend me money
at friendly rates."
Unfortunately,
it didn't work out that way.
Bankers weren't standing in line.
And so, to finance the Taj,
he had to go in to the bond markets
and borrow $675 million
at an interest rate of 14%.
That's unbelievable.
The break even for that property would be
in excess of a million dollar a day win,
and no casino in the world
had even come close to that.
[Barrett] Donald was on
a manic buying spree,
completely unanchored.
His father was never reckless.
He was incredibly reckless.
[O'Donnell] The opening
of the Taj was looming.
Donald looked at this as a way
to take complete control of the city
if done right.
There was just so much
that had to be done.
[female reporter] Five men have been
killed in a helicopter crash
in New Jersey.
Three of the five were top executives
in Donald Trump's
Atlantic City casino empire.
[O'Donnell] It's about the most vivid day
of my life.
They were here one second
and they were gone the next.
And that is a shocking thing.
[female reporter 2] Pronounced dead
were 43-year-old Steven Hyde
They left my office
and they said we'll call you in an hour.
They were supposed to take my helicopter,
but they didn't want to wait for two hours
because mine was coming back.
So they rented a helicopter
from an outside company
that probably didn't know
what they were doing.
[O'Donnell] I could sense that he was in
a state of shock, disbelief.
The The thing that winds up
standing out to me, of course,
is, you know, he made the comment to me,
right then, um that he almost
got on that helicopter.
He said, "I could have
been on that helicopter."
It was a charter, right?
I mean, if Donald Trump was
going to come to Atlantic City,
he would get on his own helicopter.
And then, of course,
he said it in the press.
Trump had planned
to make the trip as well,
but he changed his mind
at the last minute.
Donald Trump almost gets on
the helicopter, you know, that crashed.
He could have been on there too and
and there was need for attention.
You were supposed
to go on that plane, true?
I was going to go from the standpoint
that they said,
"Do you want to come down with us?"
I said, "I think so,
but maybe I'm just too busy."
I was that close,
it would have been like a 50-50 deal.
It was interesting,
shocking to some extent.
It was a new piece of information
about Donald Trump's personality for me.
There was a real question
for the first time:
how does this organization survive?
There was going to be
a huge void at the Taj Mahal.
I saw that he was saddened,
particularly with Steve Hyde,
that he was going to miss him.
But then he bounced back
almost immediately into
you know, the business mode,
the strong mode,
and, "Here's what we're going to do.
We're gonna do this."
And he'd make, you know, comments
to my wife even, you know
"I'm really counting on your husband now,
he's the guy that's got to do this."
It's like, "Oh, please, not at a wake."
[bell ringing]
[indistinct shouting]
Help. Help!
Send money.
[male reporter] What was it like
in there, sir?
[male anchor] Are we skidding
into a recession in this country?
Every day brings new word
of layoffs, cut backs, bankruptcies.
[indistinct shouting]
[O'Donnell] There was panic in the air.
The calls from Donald were, "How much
cash do you have in the bank right now?"
And I'd be like,
"Jeez, you know, we've got
you know, $3 million in the bank."
"Send me a million-and-a-half of it."
And that was just
a new way of doing business.
And you go, "Well, we're in trouble."
The Taj Mahal is going to be
a tremendous success.
Trump Plaza is right now
the number one facility in Atlantic City.
Last year, Trump Plaza won $305 million,
that was number one.
The Taj Mahal, which is essentially
three times the size of Trump Plaza,
is going to do a lot bigger numbers.
[Roffman] I was getting very nervous about
the state of the economy
when the Taj
was going to open its doors.
When I input the numbers in my computer,
I kept on getting
the same answer every time:
it isn't going to work.
There is no way that this casino
could make a profit.
There's
They'll never be able to pay the debt.
I said some negative things
in the Wall Street Journal
about the Taj Mahal.
Saying that I thought that it would open
to record-breaking business,
but when the cold winds of October came,
it wouldn't make it.
The chairman of the company I work for
was faxed a letter
written by Donald Trump.
What he wanted was a public apology,
or the firm to dismiss me immediately,
or he would institute
a major lawsuit against the firm.
They escorted me to the door.
I'd been a security analyst
for over 50 years.
When people say something false,
I attack those people.
When people make mistakes, I correct them.
[Johnston] The point at which
it became clear to me
that Donald Trump was
in deep financial trouble
was word was around from contractors
that they weren't getting paid.
Why weren't they being paid?
He tells me one day
he's worth three billion
and later in the day
to somebody else, five,
which tells you how much
he just makes it up.
And even though he says
he has three billion or five billion,
he can't pay his bills.
[female reporter] How much money
is to be collected?
Uh For us, 1.2 million.
-[reporter] And for all the contractors?
-I don't know that figure.
It's in excess of 60 million,
I do not know the exact figure.
Has any offer been made to them
from the Trump Organization?
-Is there no comment?
-[man] I have no comment.
[Johnston] It was very clear to me
that he was borrowed up to his eyeballs.
[reporter] When does Trump plan
to pay these people?
The news gets away with murder,
the news media,
they get away with murder.
I don't stand for it when they write
false and malicious stories.
[male reporter] We tried, yesterday,
to talk to a number of different analysts
in the wake of the Marvin Roffman affair,
some people are now calling it,
but the one's
who said negative things and--
-Here we are.
-Well, you've got--
-Back to the negative.
-Back to the negative.
You know what?
Do this interview with somebody else.
We talked about this yesterday
on the phone.
-This is exactly what I'm talking about.
-Do the interview with somebody else.
[male reporter] There's nothing that
we didn't discuss on the phone, Donald.
[Taboo laughs]
Good evening, Master.
I, Taboo, am here at your service.
How well I remember how you wisely realize
that this was the opportunity
you had long awaited.
Your opportunity to create
an amazing universe
and share it with the world.
The universe of gold and jewels.
[laughs] We're going to be on television.
[Taboo] And so, Master
your dream is our command.
Open sesame!
[crowd cheers]
[Trump] Thank you. Thank you.
[crowd talking indistinctly]
[woman] Donald Trump!
Hi, folks!
[Deno Marino]
It was a monstrous operation.
"The biggest and the best,"
as Donald would say.
A hundred and twenty thousand
square-foot casino.
More than 500 rooms.
Ten-thousand-dollar-a-night suites.
It was just beautiful.
Everything was absolutely gorgeous.
His father came to see the casino.
He seemed like a very nice gentleman.
He looks up at these beautiful chandeliers
and he said, "Donald, what does a light
bill cost for a place like this a month?"
It was way out of his realm.
"Don't worry about it, Dad,
it's taken care of."
We're open now and I'm really happy
with what I'm seeing.
It's a great turnout, we're really happy.
Good luck, everybody, good luck.
[woman] Eighth wonder of the world!
Good luck.
-[indistinct chatter]
-[laughing]
[woman] Whoo!
All right, if you're like me,
you want to know too,
is Donald Trump broke?
Uh, "Investors sue the Donald."
I mean this guy can't get up
in the morning
without being surrounded by himself.
[Barrett] I mean, he was in dire,
dire trouble.
The borrowings and the bonds
could not be repaid.
He was about to default
on the first casino payment.
[indistinct chatter]
[Barrett] So, in the midst of
all of this financial crisis,
suddenly, this lawyer
appears at his casino
and acquires three to four million
dollars' worth of chips,
but makes no bets.
That's three to four million dollars'
worth of additional revenue
which is exactly what the casino needs
a day or two later.
Turns out that the lawyer
is a stand in for Fred Trump.
At this moment
of complete desperation for Donald,
Fred has to be there.
Fred propped him up.
I don't think he can admit it
to himself, but
Fred was indispensable in every way.
[male reporter] Is it true about
[female reporter] The invincibility of
the Trump name is now bombarded by gossip.
An avalanche of publicity
descended on the empire
he worked so skillfully to build.
Overnight, it seems, America turned
from a fascination with what Trump has,
to what he could lose.
[female reporter 2]
Do you wish we'd all go away?
[Trump laughs] Absolutely.