Trump’s 1990 Playboy Interview: "We Are Being Laughed At Around The World…"
By Tyler Durden
While The Donald may come across as 'shooting from the hip', it appears based on this 1990 interview with Playboy that Trump has been thinking about the decline of America, the weakness and corruption of government, and the impact of foreign (Chinese, Mexican, and Japanese) trade practices on the average joe. As he says, “I don’t want to be President. I’m one hundred percent sure. I’d change my mind only if I saw this country continue to go down the tubes.”
This interview ran in the March 1990 issue of Playboy magazine.
You aren’t known for being shy at promotion; let’s start by playing a little game. Trump Tower is ______?
The finest residential building anywhere.
The Taj Mahal in Atlantic City is going to be ______?
The most spectacular hotel-casino anywhere in the world.
And the Trump Shuttle will be ______?
Easily the number-one service to Washington and Boston.
Your apartment sales are ______?
The best. Trump Tower and Trump Parc have seventy percent of the top sales in New York per square foot.
Why?
Simple: People know they’re going into a building where no expense is spared, where the level of materials and finishes will be the best, where the location will be the best. Many European and Japanese investors literally give their subordinates instructions to buy apartments only in Trump buildings. A Japanese investor just paid me twenty million bucks for seven apartments he’s turning into one.
OK. But here we are at the start of a new decade. How do you respond when people call you ostentatious, ego-ridden and a greedy symbol of the Eighties?
Rich men are less likely to like me, but the working man likes me because he knows I worked hard and didn’t inherit what I’ve built. Hey, I made it myself; I have a right to do what I want with it.
With so much poverty on the city streets, isn’t it embarrassing for you to flaunt your wealth?
There has always been a display of wealth and always will be, until the depression comes, which it always does. And let me tell you, a display is a good thing. It shows people that you can be successful. It can show you a way of life. Dynasty did it on TV. It’s very important that people aspire to be successful. The only way you can do it is if you look at somebody who is.
And for you, sitting snugly inside the one hundred and eighteen rooms of your Palm Beach mansion– People understand that the house in Florida is business. I use it very seldom. I could be happy living in a studio apartment.
Oh, come on.
I mean it; the houses, the planes and the boat are just investments. I paid twenty-nine million dollars for the Khashoggi yacht; two years later, I’ll be selling it for more than one hundred million dollars and getting a bigger one.
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Source: Trump’s 1990 Playboy Interview: "We Are Being Laughed At Around The World…"
