PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP : THE MAN OF HONOUR

Donald Trump had been around his father Fred's real-estate company, Elizabeth Trump and Son, for most of his life. But when he graduated college in 1968, at 22, he began working there full-time. After a few years working directly with his father, Fred, Donald took control of the company in 1971, renaming it The Trump Organization. His father’s business focused on building and renting mid-market apartments in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, New York; however, when he took over, he set his sights on Manhattan.

Donald immediately sought out building projects that were larger and carried higher profiles than his father’s outer-borough apartment blocks. Fred was reluctant at first but eventually backed Donald’s projects in the heart of the Big Apple.

Donald used the tools and tricks that he’d learned at his father’s side, having inherited Fred's eye for distressed real-estate gems. And with the entirety of New York City sliding toward bankruptcy in the early 70s, there were more than a few such gems for the having.

Trump’s biggest early deal was rescuing the once-grand Commodore Hotel from bankruptcy and transforming it into the Grand Hyatt. He opened the refurbished hotel in 1980, with the help of a 40-year tax abatement from the City of New York.

In 1983, Trump put his stamp on the city with his 68-story Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan. The mixed-use skyscraper featured the black glass surfaces and brass trimmings that would mark all too many of his later buildings. The building captured the aesthetic of many baby boomers who were coming into money for the first time during the economic boom of the 1980s.

Around this time, Trump began to use his successes as a developer to dip his toe into politics. He made his first such splash with the renovation of Wollman Rink in Central Park. The fixes had begun in 1980 but were more or less in limbo by 1986. Trump publicly lambasted the inefficiency of the governmental agencies in charge of the renovation, starting a war of words with then-Mayor Ed Koch. As part of the argument, Trump offered to complete the renovation himself, for free. He finished in three months, for well below the city’s budget and to the satisfaction of most, proving his point.

His building projects and persona placed Trump squarely in the public eye. And in 1987, he capitalized on his newfound fame with a business book entitled “The Art of the Deal,” which spent 52-weeks on bestseller lists.

Flush with success, Trump moved into the gaming business, buying the Taj Mahal Casino. But the move proved one gamble too many, and by 1989 Trump was in more debt than he could make the payments on. He kept afloat by taking on more loans until 1991. With bankruptcy looming, Trump’s creditors agreed to restructure his debt, taking half-ownership of the casino. The agreement also forced Trump to sell his airline, the Trump Shuttle airline, and his 282-foot Trump Princess yacht.
Trump gradually restored The Trump Organization’s finances. One of the deals that helped him do so involved 40 Wall Street, a 70-story tower in downtown Manhattan, originally known as the Bank of Manhattan Trust building. Trump bought the building for between $1 million and $10 million in 1995 and renovated it. He would later take out a $160 million mortgage on the building to finance other investments. By 2006, Forbes put a $260 million price tag on the property.

In 1999, when patriarch Fred Trump died, he left behind a handsome estate valued at $250-$300 million. However, the exact amount Donald Trump inherited is unknown.

As the century turned, Donald Trump continued to buy and construct Manhattan real estate. In 2001, he completed the 72-story Trump World Tower, across the avenue from the United Nations building, and began construction on Trump Place, a series of luxury high-rises along the Hudson River.

Another bold move that paid off was Trump’s $73-million purchase of the Chicago Sun-Times building. In its place, he planned to build the tallest building in the world, Trump International Tower, Chicago. But the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks convinced him to scale back, ultimately building the second-tallest tower in Chicago. Since it opened in 2009, the tower has been a success, especially the hotel at that location, which is regularly ranked as one of the best in the country.

Trump’s career as a PUBLIC FIGURE which had shrunk significantly following his near-bankruptcy in the early 90s was revived after he hosted a reality TV show called "The Apprentice" in 2003. The NBC show, in which contestants vied for a management job in one of Trump's companies, was a big hit.

According to some reports, Trump received $3 million per episode of the show. In his July 2015 Federal Election Commission disclosures, Trump stated that NBC had paid him $214 million for hosting and producing the show over the previous 14 seasons.

His newly refurbished fame was an opportunity for Trump to begin licensing out his name and image. He began selling the Trump name to a number of real-estate developments that he didn’t build himself. According to Forbes, Trump’s real-estate licensing business, with more than 30 licensed properties worldwide, is among his most valuable assets, which it estimates as being worth more than $500 million.

Trump has also affixed his brand to a wide range of businesses, including the real-estate-related, though ill-timed Trump Mortgage, which closed in 2007. Beyond real estate, he has opened eateries such as Trump Buffet, Trump Catering, Trump Ice Cream Parlor and the Trump Bar. He has also, at one time or another, launched a Trump-branded clothing line, a fragrance, an array of food and beverage products and countless other businesses.

Currently, he is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization, which he inherited from his father, Fred Trump. He is also the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts, which is now owned by Icahn Enterprises. He has pledged to turn over operations of his business empire to his children when he moves into the Oval Office in January of 2017.

theoffbeatvibes_ : BE A WARRIOR.