The failure of a supposed "monumental destination," a father and son both accused of fraud, and fleeing to Florida. Donald Trump inherited a family-built real estate dynasty in New York, only to watch it decay under his control.
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00:00The failure of a supposed monumental destination, a father and son both accused of fraud and
00:05fleeing to Florida.
00:07Donald Trump inherited a family-built real estate dynasty in New York, only to watch
00:11it decay under his control.
00:14The Trump family's history in New York dates back to 1885, when German immigrant Friedrich
00:19Trump arrived in Manhattan, searching for better opportunities.
00:22At the time, Friedrich had nothing but his lofty dreams.
00:25As Trump biographer Gwenda Blair told The Washington Post, he didn't know English.
00:29He didn't have anything like a high school diploma.
00:31He was literate, but in German.
00:33Within the next two decades of his arrival, Friedrich lived in multiple cities, trying
00:37his hands at different businesses and amassing a decent amount of wealth.
00:41He looked at the world that he had come into and figured out where there was an opening
00:46and figured out how to do it.
00:47He was very savvy about that.
00:49Despite his exploits in America, Friedrich tried to remember his roots, visiting Germany
00:54when he could.
00:55It was during one of these visits to Germany that Friedrich met Elizabeth Christ.
00:58The couple got married in 1902, returned to New York, and soon started their family.
01:03Two years after getting married, Friedrich and Elizabeth welcomed their first child,
01:07daughter Elizabeth, closely followed by their son, Fred, born in 1905, and another son,
01:12John, in 1907.
01:14Friedrich soon laid the foundation for the Trump's real estate empire when, in 1908,
01:18he purchased a property on Jamaica Avenue in Queens and put a section of it up for rentals.
01:22Sadly, Friedrich's hope of living out the American dream never came to fruition, as
01:26he died of influenza in 1918 at just 49 years old.
01:31After Friedrich Trump's death, his wife, Elizabeth Christ Trump, took over the family's budding
01:36real estate business, managing the small portfolio of properties, which were valued at over $31,000.
01:41Though she initially ran the business under the name E. Trump, Elizabeth eventually changed
01:46it to E. Trump & Son, after it became clear that the couple's second child, Fred, would
01:50be joining her to carry on Friedrich's legacy.
01:53As Fred later gushed in a 1973 interview with The New York Times,
01:57"...I always wanted to be a builder.
01:58It was my dream as a boy, just as some kids want to be firemen or cops or chemists."
02:03Fred later began his real estate career as a teenager, starting off with a simple neighborhood
02:07garage project.
02:09After finishing high school, Fred built his first home with an $800 loan from his mother,
02:13reportedly selling it for $7,000.
02:15In the years to come, Fred built even more homes, recording impressive profits and setting
02:20himself up for the long journey ahead.
02:22In the following decades, Fred dominated New York's real estate scene, racking up monumental
02:27projects like the highly successful Trump Market and springing up hundreds of buildings
02:31targeted at providing housing for low-income earners in the Manhattan community.
02:36This business expansion was further made possible by subsidized loans provided by the Federal
02:40Housing Administration during and after the Great Depression.
02:44Fred also utilized these loans to cater to the needs of veterans who needed housing after
02:48the war, resulting in the Shorehaven and Beachhaven Apartments in Brooklyn, New York.
02:53According to Gwenda Blair's The Trumps, Three Generations That Built an Empire, it was during
02:58this period when Fred reached the multi-millionaire mark, cementing his status as a prominent
03:03figure in New York's real estate history.
03:05In addition to Shorehaven and Beachhaven Apartments, Fred is also famous for developing Trump Village,
03:10which remains one of his most popular projects to date.
03:14In 1954, Fred Trump found himself under federal scrutiny after accusations emerged that he
03:19falsified figures to profit from government-issued building projects.
03:23The United States Senate Banking Committee subsequently carried out an investigation,
03:27accusing Trump and his business partner of inflating the cost of their Beachhaven Apartments
03:31project by approximately $3.5 million.
03:34During his testimony, Fred admitted to spending less than the obtained loan, but argued against
03:39any wrongdoing simply because he had not withdrawn the excess money.
03:42As a result of the allegations, Fred was banned from securing future federal loans
03:47for his building projects.
03:48Over a decade later, Fred faced new legal troubles after the New York state government
03:52looked into allegations that he had inflated and profited off state loans and used the
03:57excesses for personal projects.
03:59He was a tough, hard-driving guy who had very, very little emotional intelligence.
04:07Among the charges levied against Fred was a $21,000 lease price for a truck that cost
04:12only $3,600 and an $8,280 bill for tile scrapers that cost only a fraction of that price.
04:20All of these disturbing allegations birthed questions about the legitimacy of Fred's success,
04:25but none of these seemed to matter as much once his son, Donald, took over the business.
04:31After graduating from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Donald Trump
04:35joined his father's company, quickly learning the ropes of the real estate business.
04:39By 1971, Donald had become president of the company, marking the beginning of the Trump
04:43family dynasty's crossover from affordable housing to giant, glitzy buildings.
04:54This shift, critics argued, prioritized the ostentatious display of wealth over what was
04:58most important, architectural integrity.
05:01As critic Herbert Muschamp wrote in The New York Times in 1999,
05:05"'To me, these buildings don't quite register as architecture.
05:08They look to me like signs of money, status, power.'"
05:11One of Donald's most notable ventures, his Trump Tower penthouse, has also received its
05:16fair share of criticism.
05:17The gilded Versailles-inspired apartment and the 58-story tower convincingly portrayed
05:23Donald's extravagant tastes to all of New York City.
05:26So while Donald's reputation as a real estate mogul grew, so did perceptions of him as a
05:31man with an insatiable, quote, "'desire for attention,' for the best, the most, the tallest,
05:36the most eye-catching,' as Muschamp put it."
05:39Settling into the business, Donald Trump focused on expanding the Trump dynasty in New York
05:43City, moving away from his father's presence in Brooklyn to focus on Manhattan.
05:48In 1978, he embarked on one of his first major projects, teaming up with Hyatt Corporation
05:53to renovate the then-struggling Commodore Hotel.
05:56Transformed to fit modern demands, the establishment reopened to the public in 1980 as the Grand
06:01Hyatt Hotel.
06:02However, after 17 years, Donald's partnership with Hyatt came to an end in 1996, when he
06:08sold his stake in the hotel for $140 million.
06:12With the Grand Hyatt under his belt, Donald continued making more high-profile acquisitions,
06:16notably buying the historic Plaza Hotel for over $400 million in 1988, with the hopes
06:22of turning it around.
06:23Despite his big dreams, however, the Plaza Hotel struggled to stay financially afloat,
06:27eventually filing for bankruptcy in 1992.
06:30Beyond his hospitality projects, Donald, a longtime golf enthusiast, also diversified
06:35his real estate portfolio to include golf courses across the globe.
06:39Since 1999, Donald has acquired 12 golf courses in the United States and four more abroad
06:44in Scotland, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates.
06:48Despite his many successes as a businessman and a real estate guru, Donald Trump has faced
06:54his share of failures.
06:55In 1990, he launched the Trump Taj Mahal, a gambling resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey,
07:00which he predicted would become one of the world's most monumental destinations.
07:04A year later, the casino filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, having accrued hundreds
07:09of millions of dollars in debt.
07:11The following year, in 1992, Donald filed for bankruptcy protection for Trump Castle,
07:16Trump Plaza, and Casino, as well as the Plaza Hotel for having failed to settle their debt
07:20payments.
07:21Only 12 years later, in 2004, he suffered another setback, forcing him to file bankruptcy
07:26for Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, the holding company of a few of his other businesses.
07:31Despite the financial struggle, Donald maintained a positive outlook, declaring that Trump Hotels
07:36and Casino Resorts had done well given the circumstances at the time, telling NBC News,
07:40"...I don't think it's a failure.
07:42It's a success.
07:43In this case, it was just something that worked better than other alternatives.
07:46It's really just a technical thing, but it came together."
07:50In 2004, Donald Trump co-founded Trump University, a New York City-headquartered, non-accredited
07:55institution offering online and in-person real estate courses.
07:59For Trump, the goal of the university was simple, to share knowledge with people who
08:03were looking to make it big in business and real estate.
08:05The university, however, turned out to be a failed venture, ending operations only six
08:10years later.
08:11In 2013, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a $40 million fraud lawsuit against
08:17Donald and Trump University.
08:19Schneiderman accused the university of fraudulent activities after failing to deliver on its
08:23promise of teaching students how to succeed in the real estate industry.
08:27As he explained in an interview with ABC News, they were convinced by very persuasive motivational
08:31speakers and videos of Trump that they were going to learn how to make money in real estate.
08:36They didn't get anything.
08:37"...I was told to promote and sell the Trump University packages and the programs that
08:42they were offering, and that's what I did."
08:45The students of the school also came together, filing two additional class-action suits against
08:50Donald while demanding that their money be returned.
08:53Despite initially refusing to settle, Donald agreed to a $25 million settlement for all
08:58three cases shortly after his 2016 presidential election victory.
09:03In October 2018, Donald Trump and three of his children, Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka
09:08Trump, were slammed with a class-action lawsuit accusing them of violating anti-racketeering
09:13laws after falsely marketing phony business ventures to investors.
09:17In the filing, four anonymous plaintiffs accused the Trumps of accepting secret payments from
09:22three shady businesses and intentionally promoting them in a bid to deceive the unknowing investors.
09:27Responding to the allegations, the Trumps' lawyer, Alan Garten, called the lawsuit a
09:31politically motivated move, adding that it was the opposition's attempt at getting back
09:35at the then-president.
09:37After a failed move to dismiss the case and move on to arbitration, Donald Sr., Donald
09:42Jr., Eric, and Ivanka agreed to be deposed in 2022, four years after the lawsuit was
09:47first filed.
09:49The following year, the plaintiffs dropped their case against Ivanka, Eric, and Donald
09:53Jr., leaving only their dad as a defendant.
09:55Eventually, after years of back-and-forth, Lorna Schofield, a U.S. district judge, dismissed
10:00the case, noting that it didn't need to be in a federal court.
10:04As part of her ruling, Judge Schofield encouraged plaintiffs to refile in their state courts.
10:10After Donald Trump's 2016 presidential election and move to the White House, the Trump family's
10:14popularity waned in historically liberal New York City.
10:18So did the reputation of their iconic towers.
10:20In January 2021, TB Alliance, a nonprofit organization, shared its plans to evacuate
10:26the famous Trump Tower.
10:27News of TB Alliance's exit plan came shortly after the Girl Scouts of Greater New York
10:32also declared its intention to move out from Trump Tower.
10:35As CEO Meredith Mascara told Business Insider at the time,
10:39"...as a matter of very high priority, our organization has been exploring options for
10:43getting out of the lease and the building."
10:45However, this wasn't the beginning of the Trump Tower decline.
10:48In 2019, Bloomberg released a report revealing that condo owners in Trump Tower were looking
10:53to sell off their properties amid the impacts of global inflation.
10:56The report highlighted the tower's slow fall from grace, with its occupancy rate dropping
11:01from 99 percent to 83 percent over a seven-year period.
11:05As Edward Sun, a real estate analyst, explained to the publication,
11:08"...if I were looking for office space, that would be a building I'd want to avoid."
11:12But while economic factors might have contributed to the building's decline, there's no denying
11:16that Donald's presidency and his decreasing popularity played a significant role in the
11:21exodus of tenants from Trump Tower.
11:23Despite their long-existing ties to New York City, many of the Trumps left the Empire State,
11:28choosing instead to set new roots in sunny Florida.
11:31In September 2019, Donald Trump famously announced he would be changing his primary
11:36residence from Trump Tower to his Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago.
11:40The trend, however, didn't stop with Donald and his wife.
11:43The older Trump kids also quickly ditched the Big Apple for Florida.
11:46Donald Trump Jr. and his fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, have since taken up residence at
11:51Admiral's Cove in Jupiter, while Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, made the move
11:56to Miami.
11:57A source close to the family highlighted the family's unpopularity in their hometown, telling
12:01the New York Post,
12:02"'There is no way they can stay in New York.
12:04They'd be tortured in the streets.'"