Nearly 50 years ago, The Daily News captured the fighting spirit of `superlandlord' Donald Trump. He's been brawling ever since, so don't expect another indictment to stop him now.
I grew up in NY so I know what Trump did. His father Fred had an "empire" of middling rental properties, mostly in Brooklyn and Queens. The Donald's critical insight was in order to make it BIG in the BIG Apple you got to expand into the big time: Manhattan ... and upscale properties. And that is exactly what he did. Along with this came the local celebrity and mega riches ... so the hundreds of millions of dollars of property may in fact be accurate. And by the way. In those days Donald Trump was a classic NY Liberal. I also remember my mother - and many like her - being quite amused by him as if he was a kinda "lovable blow hard." From the NY Times (November 1, 1976, by the way a great article especially now as we know how his life played out up till now):
"Although the Trumps have been building in New York City since 1923, the family has not gotten as much publicity as other real‐estate developers because they did not enter the Manhattan market until three years ago.
“It was psychology,” Mr. Trump explained. “My father knew Brooklyn very well, and he knew Queens very well. But now, that psychology is ended.”
I was a Manhattan landlord for much of Donald Trump's New York City tenure 1979-98. I was overseer of a tiny building and certainly would agree with his characterization of landlording as combat! After I sold it my building reached a Zillow valuation of $5million
You could write that one, I bet, Jason! Interestingly, he would pass himself off as "John Barron" a lot when talking to the media in those early years. Liked the name so much his 17-year-old son is Barron.
I've been telling anyone who will listen to me that I had known since the mid 70's that Trump was a sleezy, horrible, nasty landlord in NY and Atlantic City. Thanks for finding the article I probably read way back then
While I'd rather you hadn't written about any current Presidential candidate - especially this one, now that you have, I hope you will be giving equal print space to All if the others.
I grew up in NY so I know what Trump did. His father Fred had an "empire" of middling rental properties, mostly in Brooklyn and Queens. The Donald's critical insight was in order to make it BIG in the BIG Apple you got to expand into the big time: Manhattan ... and upscale properties. And that is exactly what he did. Along with this came the local celebrity and mega riches ... so the hundreds of millions of dollars of property may in fact be accurate. And by the way. In those days Donald Trump was a classic NY Liberal. I also remember my mother - and many like her - being quite amused by him as if he was a kinda "lovable blow hard." From the NY Times (November 1, 1976, by the way a great article especially now as we know how his life played out up till now):
"Although the Trumps have been building in New York City since 1923, the family has not gotten as much publicity as other real‐estate developers because they did not enter the Manhattan market until three years ago.
“It was psychology,” Mr. Trump explained. “My father knew Brooklyn very well, and he knew Queens very well. But now, that psychology is ended.”
I was a Manhattan landlord for much of Donald Trump's New York City tenure 1979-98. I was overseer of a tiny building and certainly would agree with his characterization of landlording as combat! After I sold it my building reached a Zillow valuation of $5million
Looking forward to an upcoming article about the art of media manipulation per Trump's playbook.
You could write that one, I bet, Jason! Interestingly, he would pass himself off as "John Barron" a lot when talking to the media in those early years. Liked the name so much his 17-year-old son is Barron.
I've been telling anyone who will listen to me that I had known since the mid 70's that Trump was a sleezy, horrible, nasty landlord in NY and Atlantic City. Thanks for finding the article I probably read way back then
While I'd rather you hadn't written about any current Presidential candidate - especially this one, now that you have, I hope you will be giving equal print space to All if the others.