NEW YORK \u2014 He was a publicity hound and a tabloid star. He was a developer who bragged about his acquisitions and exaggerated his wealth, emblazoning his name on towers that scraped the sky. He was a Queens boy made good \u2014 with no small amount of help from his father\u2019s money \u2014 bursting onto the Manhattan scene through sheer force of personality.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump was, in short, a certain type of New Yorker \u2014 brash, boorish, bombastic.<\/p>\n
But now, in a New York trial that began Monday \u2014 Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up an alleged hush money payment to an adult-film star during the 2016 election \u2014 the former president\u2019s long-running and turbulent love affair with the city seems to have finally run into irreconcilable differences.<\/p>\n
Trump has officially decamped for his private Mar-a-Lago Club, changing his official residence in the third year of his presidency from Manhattan to Palm Beach, Fla. He has been walloped at the ballot box, losing his home state resoundingly in both 2016 and 2020 \u2014 even as he talks of hosting a rally at Madison Square Garden this year and urges his advisers to say he could win New York in November. A September 2017 NBC 4 New York-Marist New York City poll \u2014 from the first year of his presidency \u2014 found that 21 percent of New York City voters approved of him and 72 percent disapproved, with 54 percent \u201cstrongly\u201d disapproving.<\/p>\n
Now, a jury of his peers is set to decide his fate in one of four criminal cases he faces. But that is not all.<\/p>\n
In February, New York Attorney General Letitia James won a civil fraud case against Trump, who was ordered by a judge to pay more than $350 million \u2014 a penalty that, with interest, tops out at closer to $450 million. And until he posted bond at the beginning of this month, James had been threatening to seize some of his major New York assets, including his prized 40 Wall Street and Trump Tower buildings.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, a New York jury awarded advice columnist E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in a defamation case against Trump, which followed another New York jury last year finding Trump liable for sexual abuse in a civil case filed by Carroll.<\/p>\n
To Trump, according to people who know him, the city he once aspired to inhabit now seems to be conspiring against him, culminating in something of a tabloid-style divorce \u2014 not dissimilar to the Page Six spectacle of the 1990 end of his marriage to his first wife, Ivana.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy take from Trump was that he always had this huge fixation on New York,\u201d said Melissa DeRosa, a top aide to former New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat who met with Trump in the Oval Office on multiple occasions. \u201cHe felt very burned by the people here and by the politicians. But he always wanted to know what was going on in the city, who was saying what, and he was very fixated on what was happening in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s New York is one of big brassy skyscrapers, big buxom blondes and big red ties. It is where he made a cameo in the 1992 \u201cHome Alone\u201d sequel during a scene at the Plaza Hotel \u2014 which he owned at the time \u2014 and it served as the high-pressure, moneyed backdrop for his hit show, \u201cThe Apprentice.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is garish and grandiose, not unlike Trump himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a New Yorker to his bones,\u201d said Tim O\u2019Brien, a senior executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion and a Trump biographer who is critical of the former president. \u201cHe\u2019s an outer-borough New Yorker who loves New York sports and New York money and New York media and New York institutions and the New York business brawl, and he wants for all of that to accept him. And now he\u2019s getting rejected in the most blatant and strong-minded of ways \u2014 by his peers, by voters, by judges.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it is also the New York of a consummate outsider, relentlessly striving for acceptance among the entrenched Manhattan elite \u2014 with Trump a real-life Gatsby, perpetually stretching toward the green light, just out of reach.<\/p>\n
The Rev. Al Sharpton, a longtime New York civil rights activist and current MSNBC host, recalled appearing on MSNBC\u2019s \u201cMorning Joe\u201d just after the 2016 election. The hosts asked him to explain Trump and how he managed to appeal to people seemingly so different from himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to be from New York to understand Trump,\u201d Sharpton said.<\/p>\n
Sharpton offered his explanation on the air: Trump is an outsider from Queens, \u201cnot part of the Park Avenue real estate hierarchy and the blue bloods who eat at the Four Seasons and have breakfast at the Regency.\u201d Trump called minutes later.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told my wife, \u2018Al gets me,\u2019\u201d Trump said on the phone, according to Sharpton. \u201c\u2018Al understands these muckety-mucks downtown, and they look down on me just like the establishment looks down on you. You\u2019re from Brooklyn \u2014 you get it. And now, look at me! Can you believe it? I\u2019m the president of the United States.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
But Sharpton cautioned that a Manhattan jury is unlikely to be sympathetic: \u201cHe better know that 12 New Yorkers from a jury are not people who see themselves as outsiders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Todd Blanche, one of Trump\u2019s lawyers, has suggested to Trump advisers that he believes the actual case is, on the merits, the weakest of the four Trump is facing \u2014 but that it will be difficult to win because the city\u2019s jury pool dislikes him so much.<\/p>\n
In a court filing last month seeking to delay the case, Trump\u2019s lawyers unsuccessfully argued that New York County is \u201coverwhelmingly biased against President Trump.\u201d Alan Garten, another one of Trump\u2019s lawyers, argued privately after Trump\u2019s 2020 election loss that he needed to move his company out of the state, according to a person who heard him.<\/p>\n
Spokespeople for Trump did not respond to questions for this article.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s physical sliver of New York has changed, too. His Trump Tower office in Midtown is mostly cleaned out, with little on the walls and \u201cno hubbub and buzz, like there used to be,\u201d said one adviser who has been there with him. Many of his longtime employees are gone, and his former chief financial officer is in jail.<\/p>\n
Trump no longer ventures out to his favorite haunt for dinner, the throwback 21 Club \u2014 where the waiters knew his preferred table (No. 14) and his usual order (a well-done burger, with fries) \u2014 because the Secret Service and his motorcade snarled traffic. He is now sometimes greeted by loud protesters who can be heard inside his building.<\/p>\n
This adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share candid details, said that Trump \u201cdoesn\u2019t have that many people to see there\u201d anymore, and \u201cit\u2019s not like it once was.\u201d Though the former president still loves his apartment in the city \u2014 a gilded triplex in Trump Tower \u2014 he says \u201cdoing business there isn\u2019t like it used to be,\u201d this person added. While in town for the trial, he has been spending nights there and hosting dinners with donors and world leaders.<\/p>\n
In some ways, Trump\u2019s split with New York, which was hastened by his political career, is unsurprising. The relationship had always been tumultuous and based on unequal, if mutual, need.<\/p>\n
For many financial institutions, the appeal of doing business with Trump changed in the mid-to-late 2000s, said Robert Wolf, a former CEO and chairman of UBS Americas.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump once was a brand that businesses would be fine attaching themselves to,\u201d Wolf said, explaining that changed when all the major banks began viewing risk differently. \u201cSome banks were comfortable with real estate exposure, some weren\u2019t. Some were comfortable with casino risk, and some weren\u2019t. \u2026 We were comfortable until we weren\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kathryn Wylde, the CEO of the Partnership for New York City, the city\u2019s biggest business lobbying group, said the New York business community thought it was \u201cincredible,\u201d in a surreal way, when Trump became president.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone in New York who has dealt with Trump has a story, and most of them reflect unpleasant experiences doing business with him,\u201d Wylde said. \u201cNot all, to be clear \u2014 you have a few who are big fans. But the vast majority of people had a bad experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump often wanted to use his fame to secure better deals. Cristyne Nicholas, a prominent public relations executive, recalled haggling with him over her contract to work on his golf course project in the Bronx in 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe believed we should have been doing this pro bono; his position was a lot of firms would do anything to be associated with the Trump name and fame,\u201d Nicholas recalled.<\/p>\n
Nicholas said she agreed to a below-market rate \u2014 and began courting politicians in the Bronx to appear. Soon, though, she saw perceptions of Trump change. \u201cEvery Bronx politician was chomping at the bit to speak and be invited, and a few weeks later, he announces he\u2019s running for president, and they pretend they don\u2019t know him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Nicholas said she gently warned Trump against running for president, saying it would make him less popular in New York. He disagreed, citing \u201ceveryone I run into on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he announced his presidential campaign in 2015, some former employees believed it was a gimmick to generate buzz for himself in New York, according to people who worked for him at the time.<\/p>\n
Wylde added that Trump had never been a member of her partnership, nor the Real Estate Board of New York, the city\u2019s most influential real estate group.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, in April 2017, Wylde brought a group of the city\u2019s top real estate and finance CEOs to visit Trump in the Oval Office, where he lavishly praised them for being successful, calling them \u201ckillers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very friendly,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was thrilled when they all showed up to pay homage to him. That hadn\u2019t happened before.\u201d<\/p>\n
In one meeting with Cuomo, a Democrat who had known Trump for decades, Trump talked about how New York real estate titans were \u201cnow my best friends\u201d \u2014 a tongue-in-cheek reflection of his becoming president \u2014 and called Cuomo \u201cmy governor,\u201d according to one attendee. After another coronavirus meeting with Cuomo that frequently veered off topic, Trump\u2019s team wanted to have a news conference to highlight the governor of New York visiting the White House, but Cuomo demurred, according to Gareth Rhodes, a former Cuomo aide who attended the meeting.<\/p>\n
But the president wasn\u2019t always jovial. In a different 2020 meeting, he began by berating Cuomo because the New York attorney general had just subpoenaed his son \u2014 a development that wasn\u2019t public, said DeRosa, the top Cuomo aide. Trump insisted that the governor had orchestrated it, but Cuomo was unaware of the subpoena.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe meeting was over before it began,\u201d DeRosa said.<\/p>\n
Over two hours on a recent Friday outside 40 Wall Street, in the Financial District, hundreds of people snapped photos of Trump\u2019s building, while only about 50 people entered and left the building. Three large security guards stood sentry in the marble lobby, taking special notice of individuals who approached.<\/p>\n
Employees in the building have gotten accustomed to Trump visiting because of his court dates, and several said Eric Trump was a regular visitor.<\/p>\n
In some ways \u2014 much like Trump Tower in Midtown \u2014 the iconic Wall Street building has become a tourist curiosity, as well as a recipient of animosity toward the former president. People who work there recounted a slew of incidents of Trump haters directing their ire at the building: the mentally ill man who entered the lobby and began screaming that Trump is a molester; the elderly woman who walked up and spit on the building; the person who flung what looked like urine at the tower; the large inflatable rat that was once positioned outside; the passersby who pause to hold up their middle finger.<\/p>\n
Many of the employees in the building \u2014 which houses law firms, accounting firms and assorted other white-collar businesses \u2014 said they were not fans of Trump, nor of working at a facility with his name emblazoned on it in large letters. They described it as a typical Lower Manhattan high-rise office building, kept clean but with few frills. Since the pandemic, almost every employee said, the building has been far more empty.<\/p>\n
But there were some supporters.<\/p>\n
Ricardo Hudson, a 38-year-old IT professional who works in the building, said he \u201cisn\u2019t very political\u201d but he\u2019s a Trump fan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I think of Trump, I think of billionaires and money,\u201d said Hudson, who was born in Jamaica but grew up in New York, where he now lives. \u201cI don\u2019t think people appreciated him a lot as president, but now they\u2019re saying they want to vote for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Roitblat, the founder of Better Accounting Solutions, which has an office in the building, said that as a businessman, he has closely followed the cases against Trump and believes they are \u201cpoliticized.\u201d If James had seized 40 Wall Steet, Roitblat said, he would have moved his company \u201con principle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luke Hickinbotham, an Australian tourist visiting the United States, had ventured down to stretch his arm up and capture a picture of Trump\u2019s building.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone at home thinks he\u2019s crazy; even the conservative right-wing people think he\u2019s a bit crazy. He\u2019s kind of the epitome of bonkers America,\u201d he said. \u201cBut he\u2019s entertaining to watch if he\u2019s not your president.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily Guskin contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
NEW YORK \u2014 He was a publicity hound and a tabloid star. He was a developer who bragged about his acquisitions and exaggerated his wealth, emblazoning his name on towers that scraped the sky. He was a Queens boy made good \u2014 with no small amount of help from his father\u2019s money \u2014 bursting onto […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}