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3f92223
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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 ignored leaky faucets and broken appliances and covered up windows of empty apartments with ratty tinfoil. A tenants' group accused Trump of harassment, but he denied all. "Let me tell you something about the rich," he said. "They have a very low thr..
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Michael Kranish |
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d1a269c
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DONALD ARRIVED AT NEW York Military Academy in September of 1959, a stocky teenager bewildered by his new surroundings. An hour north of Manhattan, the school was located in tiny Cornwall-on-Hudson, on a campus with a culture so strict and unforgiving that one desperate cadet was rumored to have jumped into the Hudson River to swim to freedom.
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Michael Kranish |
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577bb4e
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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 cigarette. But when he reached for the ashtray in the middle of the table, it would not budge. Donald, Cohen said, do you have this thing screwed down? This conference table comes from my hotel, the Barbizon, Trump said, and we screwed down al..
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Michael Kranish |
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ac20392
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Instead of adhering to his father's commands, Donald had a new master, a gruff, barrel-chested combat veteran named Theodore Dobias. Dobias, or Doby as he was known, had served in World War II and had seen Mussolini's dead body hanging by a rope. As the freshman-football coach and tactical-training instructor, Doby smacked students with an open hand if they ignored his instructions. Two afternoons a week, he would set up a boxing ring and o..
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Michael Kranish |
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1249943
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Presposterous, Ifshin thought. There's always a negotiation. And then it dawned on Ifshin that he had been used. Donald, he said, this was your way of getting an informal appraisal, to see if someone would bite, and for how much. Trump denied it, but Ifshin pushed back: This was just a ruse to see what the buildings might be worth in the marketplace, and now Trump knew, at least $90 million. You owe me a commission for getting you an inform..
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Michael Kranish |
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a344beb
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Whether his students were the sons of plumbers or millionaires, Dobias did not care. They would follow his orders, no questions or whining tolerated. Donald was no exception.
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Michael Kranish |
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3020156
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Founded in 1889 by a Civil War veteran in what had been a summer resort hotel, the academy modeled its strict code of conduct and turreted academic building after West Point, located five miles south along the Hudson. About 450 students were enrolled, all of them white except for a couple of dozen Latin Americans. The school did not admit blacks until Donald's senior year. Women would not arrive for another decade. The military academy was ..
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Michael Kranish |
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c68b088
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Only high-ranking student officers were allowed off campus in groups on Sunday afternoons, although cadets could leave for a meal with their parents. Fred Trump often came up to see his son. Once, when Fred arrived in a limousine driven by his chauffeur, Donald was too embarrassed to meet him. From then on, Fred drove his own Cadillac to check up on Donald. The
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Michael Kranish |
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b7b8abd
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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 dressed in their uniforms atop radiators or in steam-filled showers until they passed out. Michael Scadron, a close Trump friend at the academy, said his own hazing culminated with upperclassmen requiring him to kiss the school's mascot--a donkey--"..
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Michael Kranish |
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f626f75
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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. For the first time, he took pride in his grades; he grew angry when a study partner scored higher on a chemistry test, even questioning whether he had cheated. Donald also learned to manage Dobias, projecting strength--especially in sports--wi..
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Michael Kranish |
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b2c7baa
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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 mostly to listen to Elvis Presley and Johnny Mathis albums. Sometimes, Donald would screw an ultraviolet lightbulb into the overhead socket and announce to his roommate that it was time to tan. "We're going to the beach," he'd say. As"
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Michael Kranish |
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daaf9c0
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As a senior, Donald drew notice for bringing women to campus and showing them around. "They were beautiful, gorgeous women, dressed out of Saks Fifth Avenue," said classmate George White. Trump was never shy about judging a girl's appearance, pronouncing one of White's visitors a "dog."
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Michael Kranish |
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a54eb52
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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, threw a combat boot at Donald, then hit him with a broomstick. Infuriated, Trump grabbed Levine and tried to push him out a second-floor window, Levine recalled. Two other cadets intervened to prevent Levine from falling.
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Michael Kranish |
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df5fb5a
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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. "Donald picked right up on this. He would tell his teammates, 'We're out here for a purpose. To win.' He always had to be number one, in everything. He was a conniver even then. A real pain in the ass. He would do anything to win"
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Michael Kranish |
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7d4f08d
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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 Avenue toward St. Patrick's Cathedral, where he shook hands with Francis Cardinal Spellman. Turning to Major Anthony "Ace" Castellano, one of NYMA's commanders, Trump said, "You know what, Ace? I'd really like to own some of this real estate somed..
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Michael Kranish |
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af174aa
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For a time, Trump bragged of being a top student among his 333 Wharton classmates, even claiming to have been first in the class. But Trump is not included on the honor roll printed in the Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper, and classmates don't recall Trump as an exceptional student. "Trump was not what you would call an 'intellectual,' " said Louis Calomaris, his classmate. "He wasn't a dumb guy. He had a specific interest. I don'..
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Michael Kranish |
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afd2284
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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 over campus. But although Wharton's place in Trump's biography expanded, his contributions to the school did only rarely. In the 1980s, a Penn development officer said Trump had given the school more than $10,000, but declined to elaborate. "I d..
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Michael Kranish |
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53cb0e5
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One sizable gift came in 1994, when he gave enough to be listed as a "founder" of the Penn Club's new location in midtown Manhattan. The minimum gift for that category was $150,000. Two autumns later, Donald Trump Jr. arrived at the leafy campus. In all, three of the four older Trump children--including Ivanka (transferring after two years at Georgetown) and Tiffany--would attend Penn, making the school almost an inheritance, a family emble..
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Michael Kranish |
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0df4457
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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 screwed on a bench in the middle of the room. There were seven of them and each one was getting screwed by a different guy. This was in the middle of the room. Stuff that couldn't happen today because of problems of death." On"
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Michael Kranish |
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19c094e
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Trump continued, "I'd rather fight than fold, because as soon as you fold once, you get the reputation of being a folder." --
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Michael Kranish |
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5f3d461
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He would insist on his right, his obligation, to tell it straight. His language, the belittling little "bye-bye" wave he gave when security guards ushered out protesters who shouted "You're a bigot!"--Trump would never apologize for that. He explained to the crowd, "I went to an Ivy League school. I'm very highly educated. . . . I don't have to be plainspoken. I have, like, this incredible vocabulary. But, honestly, how can I describe our l..
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Michael Kranish |
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2522877
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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 forcing him to rent to welfare recipients. "What do you think I should do?" "My view is tell them to go to hell and fight the thing in court and let them prove that you discriminated. . . . I don't think you have any obligation to rent to te..
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Michael Kranish |
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6de6e11
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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, working twelve- to eighteen-hour days, seven days a week, often sleeping on Bonwit Teller's floors. They were paid less than $5 an hour, sometimes in vodka. Many went unpaid and were threatened with deportation if they complained."
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Michael Kranish |
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a08f9c1
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There is no secret" to success, Fred explained years later in accepting the Horatio Alger Award, given to people who overcame adversity. "There are just two things. One, you must like what you do. You must pick out the right business or profession. You must learn all about it . . . so you become enthusiastic about it. Nine out of ten people don't like what they do. And in not liking what they do, they lose enthusiasm, they go from job to jo..
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Michael Kranish |
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4f32bf5
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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 of the windows, he began a program "to teach people about using the incinerators." Company employees warned him that he was "liable to get shot" if he tried to collect rent at the wrong time."
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Michael Kranish |
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21dcbd7
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Separately, Trump said, "I'm the least racist person that you've ever interviewed.")"
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Michael Kranish |
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76de4f1
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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 than he had been under his father; Donald, however, couldn't help but pick on Freddy's run-of-the-mill ambitions, asking him, "What's the difference between what you do and driving a bus?"
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Michael Kranish |
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b058c70
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To Trump, winning was always paramount. "If I don't win, what have I done?"
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Michael Kranish |
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5c89992
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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, helping him at key moments in the formative years of Donald's career. Fred would also personally back construction loans from Manufacturers Hanover Trust, guaranteeing that the bankers would be paid even if Donald's venture collapsed. For
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Michael Kranish |
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ec18252
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One Trump tenant disturbed by the de facto segregation was the Oklahoman Woodrow Wilson Guthrie--or Woody, as the folksinger was known. He had moved to New York City in 1940, the same year he wrote one of the nation's most revered ballads, "This Land Is Your Land." Ten years later, he had moved to Beach Haven, the Trump complex a few blocks from the Coney Island beachfront. Guthrie later wrote a number of verses that suggested Fred Trump wa..
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Michael Kranish |
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e220c8d
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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 under Fred's control. In December 1976, a month after that article appeared, Fred Trump opened eight trusts for his children and grandchildren and transferred in $1 million each. Over the next five years, Donald would reap about $440,000 in in..
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Michael Kranish |
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c615107
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Trump had this urge to be a really big name, so he cultivated celebrity. But his lifestyle was surprisingly unglamorous. He's quite disciplined in some ways. Doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, lives above the store. He was not a big New York socialite, never was. He basically enjoyed going upstairs and watching the tube. What he was interested in was celebrity and his businesses--construction, real estate, gambling, wrestling, boxing." *"
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Michael Kranish |
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aad9d87
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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 always felt that if you were close enough to Donald that he would have to be the one to let you go, you had a job for life," Res said. In"
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Michael Kranish |
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a5a2b27
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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 insisted. He was exactly what he presented to the public: a man of business, in it for himself, in it to win. He
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Michael Kranish |
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7178bd0
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The teacher, Charles Walker, who died in 2015, never told anyone in his family about a student's striking him. Yet Walker's contempt for Donald was clear. "He was a pain," Walker once said. "There are certain kids that need attention all the time. He was one of those." Just before his death, as he lay in bed in a hospice, Walker heard reports that Trump was considering a run for the presidency. "When that kid was ten," Walker told family me..
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Michael Kranish |
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6e41ea6
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NORMA FOERDERER, TRUMP'S LONGTIME aide, rushed into the boss's office on the twenty-sixth floor of Trump Tower. The helicopter that carried the three executives had gone down. Agonizing minutes went by. Then a New Jersey police official called with the news: no survivors. Three of Trump's most trusted aides, including the ones most responsible for opening the Taj, had perished, along with the crew of two. Trump would later learn that the sc..
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Michael Kranish |
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0939e5d
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Many rich men don't allow their wives to come to their office. Many women don't know what their husbands do.
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Michael Kranish |
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21e64db
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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, resulting in a questionable status that would undermine any future prospect of return: Friedrich Trump was an illegal emigrant. Luckily, US officials didn't care about the circumstances under which he left Germany. US immigration law at the ti..
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Michael Kranish |
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05ce66f
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Sometimes Trump eschewed the company letterhead and just annotated a copy of the offending piece of journalism and sent it to the author. When Times columnist Gail Collins called Trump a "financially embattled thousandaire," he sent her column back with her face circled. Next to it, Trump had written, "The Face of a Dog!" Sometimes"
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Michael Kranish |