Original subtitles

[Rona Barrett] Tell me about the early days of Donald Trump.

-Well-- -I mean, were you born into wealth?

I mean, was your father-- I know your father was successful,

but when you came along, was he already successful?

Oh, yes. My father was very successful. My father built homes and apartment houses

in various sections and did very well.

And I was brought-- brought up in the construction business, so to speak,

and I enjoyed it from day one.

Donald was given a great gift, and the gift was,

"You love the land, make the most out of it."

But I really believed then, as I believe today, that...

like many young men who had fathers who were very successful,

the most important thing, subconsciously or even consciously,

is that they wanted to prove that they could be bigger and better than Daddy.

For too many years now, we've placed trust in rules,

regulations, and government.

Well, I think it's about time that we placed trust in ourselves.

[launch control man] Minus ten, nine, eight...

[Ronald Reagan] I know that we can't make things right overnight,

but we will make America great again.

[launch control man] ...four. We've gone for main engine start.

Lift-off. Three...

[crowd applauds]

[David Cay Johnston] Ronald Reagan's election in 1980

was the biggest change in America since FDR in 1932.

[indistinct chatter]

Reagan basically said, "Let's just open up the floodgates

and let business be business."

[clamoring]

[Johnston] Suddenly, it was much easier to borrow money.

They were much more willing to take risks.

Look at the arc of Donald Trump's career.

He comes to New York, then he builds Trump Tower,

and he's getting all of these articles and TV shows done about him

as the modern Midas, everything he touches turns to gold.

What do you do for an encore?

What do you do for a second act? What do you do next?

[telephone ringing]

[Marvin Roffman] One day, I receive a telephone call.

At the time, I was working for a member firm

of the New York stock exchange following the gaming industry.

And the man identified himself as Donald Trump...

Donald Trump.

-...who I never heard of. -[inaudible dialogue]

[laughs] I didn't know who it was... And-- And he said that,

"Marvin, I've been reading your reports and I like what I'm reading,

and I wanted to introduce myself to you,

because I'm going to make a very strong presence in Atlantic City,

and I intend to be a major factor in the gaming industry."

And that ended the conversation.

You take care, so long.

[Roffman] I found him to be a very pleasant chap.

I had absolutely no problem with him at all.

At that time. [chuckles]

[indistinct chatter]

[clinking, rattling]

[man] Sixty-five of 'em!

Seven, ladies and gentlemen.

Once!

Do it again. Do it again. Do it again. Ace!

Bust. Ah!

Fantastic. [chuckles] Fantastic.

[laughs]

[clinking, rattling]

The stocks were exploding. It was like the dot-com craze.

[indistinct chatter]

[Wayne Barrett] Fred Trump was never reckless.

Fred Trump...

built 20,000 units of real housing for real people.

Whereas Donald's projects were much more about,

"How do I put the stamp of wealth...

on everything I build?"

So, they were kind of diametrically opposed.

Fred told him, "Don't go to Atlantic City. Don't get involved in casinos."

[male reporter] Gross revenues from 1980 total $623 million.

-Okay, now is the time, folks, go ahead. -[man] All right?

[woman] Yay!

-Beautiful! -[woman cheers]

[female reporter] Trump's Castle opened its doors to the public today.

[Roffman] What he was doing was the early stages of building his brand.

That's the key, building the Trump brand.

[indistinct chatter]

That's me!

Well, I'm very honored. It was a unanimous vote, I'm very happy.

[Johnston] I went to Atlantic City to examine the casino business,

and as soon as I arrived, I meet Donald Trump.

Competitors in the casino business, some big gamblers that I met,

they all said the same thing.

"Donald doesn't know anything about the casino business."

I was skeptical, so when I went to interview him in depth for the first time,

which was a couple of weeks after we met...

I deliberately asked Donald four questions that had falsehoods in them.

-[inaudible dialogue] -[Johnston] In the back of my notebook,

I'd written down false statements about the casino business.

[inaudible dialogue]

[Johnston] I thought he would have corrected me about the facts...

but Trump takes my falsehoods and incorporates them into his answer.

That's what con artists do.

It's going to be tremendously successful. It's going to be great for Atlantic City.

Great for everybody.

Good luck, everybody. Thank you for being here.

[Johnston] How much are you gonna win the first year, Donald?

[Jack O'Donnell] Donald Trump owns two casinos at that point.

Steve Hyde, my boss, is...

the chief operating officer of Trump Plaza.

[reporter] Can you give us your full name and title again?

Steven Hyde, Steven Frank Hyde if you want the full name.

Steven Hyde, President, Trump Plaza.

And Ivana Trump is chief operating officer of Trump Castle.

[inaudible dialogue]

[indistinct chatter]

We'll be number one. The right manager, we're number one.

Nobody competes with it.

[O'Donnell] Donald puts a great deal of faith in family.

There's a trust factor that he puts in family

that he puts above almost everybody else.

[Ivana Trump] They were looking so much forward that I would fall down,

and I just said, "It's no way I'm going to give them the satisfaction."

You have to be strong, because people cannot just run over you.

If you have to make a decision, you just make it.

[Nikki Haskell] Well, Ivana was a worker, she was a doer.

She worked from the time she was a little girl.

-She always had very heavy work ethics. -[reporters clamoring]

I mean, I remember with her when we were down in Atlantic City,

we went through every single room.

It was like 500 rooms.

She would say, "The bannister's coming off of this,

the drapes are too long, the bed is too short,"

and anything that didn't move, walk, or talk, she painted gold.

[male interviewer] When is your flight, Mrs. Trump?

-Excuse me? -When will your helicopter take off?

Uh... It's supposed to be 11, but it's our helicopter,

-I can leave any time, you know. -Okay.

I have something I have to get for some lunch and...

'Course. And you don't mind us following you to the airport just to--

No, I don't.

[O'Donnell] She was a tough personality.

You know, if I can say this, it sounds mean,

but there's nothing warm and fuzzy about Ivana.

[journalist] What's your typical day like when you're here?

I usually come first thing in the morning,

I sign those checks.

There is no check which is coming out of this building which is unsigned.

I have all the contracts and all the requisition orders,

and, uh, then I have a meeting one after the other one.

Every department comes in, casino department,

marketings, uh, hotel operation people,

they come in here and we do the strategies,

we're doing what is right and what is wrong,

looking over the numbers.

[clinking, rattling]

[male reporter] The first month they were open,

the casino broke the all-time first month Atlantic City record

with a profit of $21 million.

This, Trump says, is where the gravy is,

and this is only one of two casinos he has in Atlantic City.

The other, Trump Plaza, opened a year ago.

[O'Donnell] It was no secret that she didn't get along with Steve Hyde.

The Plaza had established ourselves as going after the high-end business

and that was an image that Ivana wanted.

And she was very aggressive in those areas,

to try to take business, you know,

not only from Caesars or any of the other competitors,

but to also take it from us.

You know, if we thought somebody was only worthy of, you know, a limo ride,

as an example, she might give them a helicopter.

To win their favor.

[Donald Trump] Atlantic City is right now at a really great turning point,

and it's gonna go one way or the other.

And I'm gonna damn well make sure it goes the other.

We wanna make it a fabulous place.

[O'Donnell] Donald was clearly amused by the rivalry.

I think it's part of his management style,

is that people fighting with one another...

[laughing]

[O'Donnell] ...is a good thing.

No photos so far, guys.

He had two properties that were on the verge of warfare between each other,

and they were owned by the same guy.

[interviewer] Last question. If you could describe your husband in one word...

I wouldn't brag. I think Donald, for...

in a certain way, is a genius in his field.

[interviewer] Okay, that's great.

Thank you very much for your time, we appreciate it.

[inaudible dialogue]

[Ronald Reagan] To young Americans wondering tonight,

"What will I do with my future?" I have a suggestion.

Follow in the footsteps of those two college students

who launched one of America's great computer firms

from the garage behind their house.

[female interviewer] What are your annual revenues at Microsoft?

We're expecting to do just over 100 million this year.

You too can become leaders in this great new era of progress,

the age of the entrepreneur.

-Well, Mr. Mayor, how do you like it? -This is beautiful. Beautiful.

Matter of fact, I've never seen anything like it.

-It's really... -Not something like it.

It's really something special.

[Johnston] Donald Trump has this cash machine

in the casinos of Atlantic City. They're just throwing money at him.

Rivers of cash are flowing to Donald Trump in ways even beyond,

I suspect, his imagination.

And after a few years of this, he goes on this buying spree.

[female interviewer] This is really spectacular.

Did the Trumps buy it as is?

[man] They re-did the entire interior.

[interviewer] Now, what kind of china and silverware do they use?

-It's, uh, 24-carat. -Twenty-four carat gold?

Yes, 24-carat gold.

-All the utensils? -Is there any other kind?

[Tony Schwartz] It was the go-go era.

Donald Trump very self-consciously wanted to be an exemplar,

an avatar of that era.

This is the great entrance hall to Mar-a-Lago.

[Schwartz] Trump was an irresistible story for almost any reporter.

There was a seductiveness about it, even as I cringed.

When you sit in here with people all around this table

and you eat off of this gold in this room, what do you think?

I say, "What am I doing here?

-How did this happen?" -[laughs]

Oh, Donald, oh, Donald, how you can deal.

Oh, Donald, oh, Donald, you are a big deal.

Look at this.

I mean, would you want your daughter to bring this guy home?

-He's worth 800 million bucks. -I remember that.

That's my article.

[audience applauds]

The deal I struck with him was to be his ghostwriter.

Trump: The Art of the Deal is the title of this book.

Random House is pleased that I'm calling it to your attention.

[Schwartz] "The Art of the Deal."

It came to me in a moment. I've never come up with a title nearly as good.

That notion that you could write a book about a series of deals that he made

in an era that celebrated deal making,

just made sense to me as a saleable product.

During the writing of the book,

I spent hundreds of hours with Donald Trump.

Are you gonna sign books in the stores, do all that stuff?

Every once in a while, I might have to. Whatever it take to make it

nice and successful, 'cause I like having successes.

I like success much better than failure, somehow. I don't know.

-[show host] Uh... [chuckles] -[audience applauds]

[Schwartz] He has a very primitive worldview,

a very binary worldview,

that I believe was born from the relationship with his father.

His father was extremely tough, uh, to the point of even being cruel at times.

Donald perceived that to survive,

he needed to be as tough or tougher than his father.

"If people screw me, I screw 'em... I screw back in spades."

[audience laughs, applauds]

I mean, is there something wrong with that?

-Tell me. What? -[show host] I'm--

Is there something wrong with that?

[Schwartz] So, this binary worldview that he had

was: there are predators and there are victims.

That's it. Black and white.

So, if you're not the predator, you're the victim.

What did I discover about his values?

He was value-free. He was value-free.

I thought he was a sociopath.

He has no conscience.

Doesn't make a distinction between right and wrong.

[crowd clamors]

Historically, big boxing matches took place at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

[crowd cheers]

[O'Donnell] Nobody had ever really challenged Las Vegas

until we did it at Trump Plaza.

Donald had the pockets to do this, the deep pockets to do this,

and nobody else had that.

[cheering escalates]

[announcer] Here he comes...

Our host, Mr. Donald J. Trump!

[crowd cheers, applauds]

[man] He's very smart in that ring, as he is out of the ring.

I can't see anybody beating him.

I'm throwing down. I've got a million dollars right here today.

I got the megabucks!

[O'Donnell] Yes, we did 'em to make money in the casino, but...

we also did it because Donald wanted to be the center of the universe

and boxing made that.

-Fellas... -[photographer] Jack!

[O'Donnell] Celebrities from all over the world coming in...

The A-list from Hollywood, they all wanted to attend these fights.

[inaudible dialogue]

[O'Donnell] He loved to rub elbows with, uh, celebrities,

and talk about celebrities as if they're all his best friends.

Look who we have here. This is the big man.

Good to see you, it looks like an exciting evening.

It is going to be a biggie.

Donald was building a corporate empire.

Fred just saw this as a giant achievement.

Oh, predictions?

[female reporter] Who's gonna win it?

I'll reserve judgment on that, okay?

[Barrett] He's an entrepreneur.

His son's doing what he had dreamed about doing.

Right? I mean, his son was a giant king.

[photographers clamoring]

Hey, John.

[laughing]

-Ivana Trump. -[laughs] I trust you.

-Yeah, here she is, the First Lady. -Yeah. Here-- Here she comes.

-You're gorgeous. Vivacious. -Miss America, right?

-Oh, yes. -Excited?

Behind the scenes, I don't know what Ivana did know or didn't know.

-[man] It's good to see you. -Good to see you.

[O'Donnell] But I had heard, you know, rumors, stories,

that Donald liked to go out at nighttime and he was on the prowl.

It's a great evening.

And then of course, I mean, it became clear that maybe the stories were true

when Marla arrived on the scene.

-[man] Basically, that's all she's doing. -[Marla laughs]

[O'Donnell] Marla Maples was this kind of southern girl from a small town,

charming, beautiful.

[indistinct background chatter]

[O'Donnell] Had a... kind of an amateur background in modeling.

Do you wanna go to the restroom with me too? [laughs]

[cameraman] No, no, no, I don't do that kind of...

[O'Donnell] We desperately tried to manage it at Trump Plaza,

'cause that's where she's staying.

-That's right! -[cameraman] Yeah.

-See you then. I'm sorry. I will be back. -[cameraman] Bye.

She was there all the time. And so, you know, everybody knew.

But the Tyson-Holmes fight was the first time that we had Marla

and Ivana in the same room for an event.

[bell dings]

[announcer] And now, ladies and gentlemen, let's get ready to rumble!

Twelve rounds!

[inaudible dialogue]

[cheering]

[announcer] We go round one. The heavyweight championship of the world.

Tyson quickly on top of Holmes and he nails him right away.

[O'Donnell] It was a big arena, but... you know, both had pretty good seats.

And you could turn one way and see one and turn the other way and see the other.

[crowd cheers]

[announcer] Back with the right hand, the left hand!

He's gotta hang on or they'll stop the fight.

Down he goes!

It's all over! He is knocked out!

[O'Donnell] Donald Trump wasn't the first guy

to bring his girlfriend to a casino,

but really the high-profile nature of it is what-- is what surprised me so much.

[Johnston] By the late 1980s, Donald Trump's marriage

with Ivana is falling apart,

and he has this mistress.

How's he going to keep this separate?

He comes up with a brilliant strategy.

[Trump] She's got an ability to manage, and manage with style,

and I thought the greatest toy that I could give Ivana

would be to put her at the Plaza Hotel.

-Why did you buy the Plaza? -Why did I buy it?

Because it would have driven me crazy if anyone else owned it.

-Why? -'Cause I'm looking at it every day.

How would I feel if somebody else owned it?

Wouldn't that be a horrible? You come to your office,

looking at the most beautiful building

that I've ever seen, the Plaza Hotel, and somebody else owns it

I'd feel guilty, so I had to buy it.

But I look out on buildings all the time and I don't wanna own them.

[Trump] Well, it's a different mindset.

When I buy the Plaza Hotel, to me, that's exciting,

because it's a trophy, it's a total trophy.

Part of the reason it's exciting is because they're mega deals,

they're important deals, they're glamorous deals.

Everybody talks about them,

everybody reads about them, and writes about them.

There's a level of importance there that I think also somewhat turns me on.

[Barbara Res] He bought it for a ridiculous amount of money.

I don't think he even negotiated the price of it.

He had changed.

He was not as conversational, um, as personable, um...

as friendly as he had been.

And he was also very full of himself.

He was definitely not to be challenged, and...

you know, it was very hard for me because I was used to challenging him.

[crowd applauds]

[inaudible dialogue]

The story goes that he was bringing Marla down to Atlantic City,

so he had to bring Ivana back up, and I don't know what--

-I don't know the truth of that or not. -[Ivana exclaiming]

[applause, clamoring]

[crowd cheers]

[woman] Hi, guys!

[man] All right, thank you.

-[female reporter] Ivana, how do you feel? -I feel-- I feel great. I feel great.

-Are you going to miss this place? -Uh... I'm not going anywhere.

I'm here to stay.

And I'm just going to release... And Donald needs me in the Plaza,

and I wanna bring it to... six-star hotel.

It's only five-stars hotel in the world. I wanna bring it to the six-star.

And I'm nearly there and I need a bit more with the family around.

And I'm really being honored, and it's great.

[reporter] How do you feel about all these people here to say goodbye to you?

I think it's fantastic, I think it's a great honor to me,

and to the whole Trump Organization.

-Thank you. -[whistling]

-Have a good time. -[reporter] How you doing, Donald?

-Fine, how are you? -Nice to see you again.

[Chung] You're... You're 43, you have a wife and three children,

a lot of buildings, a lot of debt.

Have you gone through your mid-life crisis yet?

I think I've gone through my mid-life crisis, uh...

You have? You've gone through the-- I mean, a mid-life crisis is very--

I'm saying is I don't think it's been a traumatic period for me.

I mean, maybe I haven't been there yet,

'cause I'm not sure that I'm really at mid-life yet. I hope I'm not.

So maybe I haven't been there yet.

I'll make you a deal. If I do go through a mid-life crisis, I'll call you.

I'll let you know, it'll be very exciting.

[indistinct chatter]

-And you are trying to reproduce-- -I'm trying to re...

-...the curve. -Right.

[Res] Ivana could be mean, and she could be demanding,

and she wouldn't listen, but she worked like a dog.

-She was so totally dedicated to Donald... -[inaudible dialogue]

...and that loyalty... You could not not respect the woman.

Wanna keep the costs down to a very low point.

I watch Donald. Donald, it's incredible. He's incredible in the business.

He's fantastic at dealing with the people, how he negotiates.

I really learned a lot from him.

The big difference was she now considered herself his equal.

[photographer] Look this way, please.

Thank you.

[camera shutters clicking]

[Res] They had a party for her, and he was just a fixture at it,

he was just another person.

And he was seething, and I could tell that he was angry about it.

[inaudible dialogue]

Thank you.

[inaudible dialogue]

He couldn't stand the fact that people at the Plaza deferred to her.

Trump was very, very angry at Ivana. He disliked her.

She had done all the furniture in the apartments,

and I was taking him on a walk through...

and when he saw the furniture, he got irate.

He opened the door to an armoire and he pulled it off, and I thought,

"Oh, my God, this is... This is bad."

He went berserk.

He was horrible to her. Horrible.

Where they had been so respectful of each other,

and what I thought, genuinely loving of each other,

he now was just mean to her, and a monster.

Do you have everything?

Uh... In financial aspect, yes. If I have everything, um, I don't know.

I have a good husband and I have a beautiful family.

I have a good job. You know, it's very-- all very fragile.

It might be here today, might not be here tomorrow,

so you might as well enjoy it when it is there.

[indistinct chatter]

[Reagan] It's been quite a journey this decade,

and we held together through some stormy seas.

And at the end, together, we're reaching our destination.

[Mike Dunbar] I was a staunch Reaganite.

I-- I was very committed to Reagan.

-[woman] President Reagan! -[woman 2] President Reagan!

[gunshots firing]

-[clamoring] - [screaming]

[indistinct shouting]

Get him out! Get him out! Get him out!

-[agent 2] Get back! -[agent 1] Get him out!

-[agent 2] Go! -[agent 1] Get him out of here!

I will tell you that when he was shot by John Hinckley, I cried.

It was... It was actually-- And it's... It's drawing

those emotions up in me again.

Reagan extolled the entrepreneur, people who ran businesses,

people who built things.

The Reagan administration is coming to an end.

To see the presidency revert back to a typical establishment politician,

somebody like a George Bush, would have really distressed me.

Donald Trump came up on my radar screen and I decided this is the guy.

This is the stationary that I came up with.

"The Committee to Draft Donald Trump for President."

"Coordinator Mike Dunbar stated

that the Draft Trump Committee has two objectives,

convince Donald Trump to declare his candidacy for president,

and to put in place an organization that will enable him

to win New Hampshire's first in the nation primary."

Uh... You know, it was a one-man show, this was Mike Dunbar.

Um... I-- I always spoke in the first-person plural, "we,"

so that it sounded like there was a group. It was-- It was me.

Is it true that you're going to go to New Hampshire in October

at the invitation of Mike Dunbar, who is heading a group called Draft Donald Trump?

I am going, I made the commitment to go.

I made the commitment about three weeks ago, and I will go, yes.

[Larry King] You will go?

[Dunbar] I mean, it was sort of like

seeing it all come true right before my eyes.

Out steps Donald Trump and I'm there to greet him.

I was nervous.

It's one thing to be out starting a Draft Trump movement,

it's another thing to actually produce Donald Trump.

[male reporter] No one was quite sure why the man

who likes to name skyscrapers after himself was here.

Except, that he was asked by this local conservative freelance writer,

the man who planted the original seed

for Trump to run for the nation's highest office.

[Dunbar] I had a lot riding on this.

I mean, if he said, "I'm running," you know, my life was going to change.

I'm not here today because I'm running for the presidency, I'm here because--

I don't recall how I felt.

I'm sure I was disappointed.

[Trump] I'm not looking to run for president, I love what I'm doing.

And what I want, is I want strength and extreme competence

at the helm of this country.

Thank you.

[Dunbar] I have heard the suggestion that the whole trip to Portsmouth

was to promote The Art of the Deal.

If he was coming to Portsmouth to promote a book, he never told me.

"To Michael,

I really appreciate your friendship.

You have created a very exciting part of my life,

on to the future.

Donald."

[male announcer] Trump: The Game.

Because it's not whether you win or lose, it's whether you win.

-Good luck, everyone. -[indistinct chatter]

-I wish I was that rich. [giggles] -Yeah.

[female reporter] As Trump toured the toy factory today, women shrieked,

and men begged the million-dollar businessman for his autograph.

Whoever said that money can't buy you love

clearly didn't know Donald Trump.

[crowd] Whoa!

-[boy] He's great. -[female reporter 2] Why?

'Cause I'd just like to be like him when I grow up.

[reporter] How come?

Because of all the money and fame and everything.

[reporter] I see you have his book, are you gonna read it?

Yeah, I already did.

[Trump] I do a book and it becomes the biggest best seller.

I do a game and it becomes the biggest game in America today.

I do things and, for whatever reason, it seems to work.

[Johnston] Trump just keeps on spending.

He-- He believes that he's Midas and everything he touches will turn to gold.

The partially constructed Taj Mahal.

It was this empty white elephant at the north end of the boardwalk.

It will be the largest privately financed building ever built.

It will be the largest private building,

and I think it's second only to the Pentagon in size.

[Johnston] Donald just had this "I've got to have this."

It was this incredible lust, because it was so big.

And he had this notion that, you know, big makes him more important.

[Trump] It'll be over a billion dollars,

and that is far and away the most expensive building ever built.

People will never have seen anything like this.

I mean, who's ever heard of a building that cost one billion dollars?

[Roffman] But he made one mistake.

A serious mistake.

Trump said, "The bankers are standing in line to lend me money...

at friendly rates."

Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.

Bankers weren't standing in line.

And so, to finance the Taj, he had to go in to the bond markets

and borrow $675 million...

at an interest rate of 14%. That's unbelievable.

The break even for that property would be in excess of a million dollar a day win,

and no casino in the world had even come close to that.

[Barrett] Donald was on a manic buying spree,

completely unanchored.

His father was never reckless.

He was incredibly reckless.

[O'Donnell] The opening of the Taj was looming.

Donald looked at this as a way to take complete control of the city...

if done right.

There was just so much that had to be done.

[female reporter] Five men have been killed in a helicopter crash

in New Jersey. Three of the five were top executives

in Donald Trump's Atlantic City casino empire.

[O'Donnell] It's about the most vivid day of my life.

They were here one second and they were gone the next.

And that is a shocking thing.

[female reporter 2] Pronounced dead were 43-year-old Steven Hyde...

They left my office and they said we'll call you in an hour.

They were supposed to take my helicopter,

but they didn't want to wait for two hours because mine was coming back.

So they rented a helicopter from an outside company

that probably didn't know what they were doing.

[O'Donnell] I could sense that he was in a state of shock, disbelief.

The... The thing that winds up standing out to me, of course,

is, you know, he made the comment to me,

right then, um... that he almost got on that helicopter.

He said, "I could have been on that helicopter."

It was a charter, right?

I mean, if Donald Trump was going to come to Atlantic City,

he would get on his own helicopter.

And then, of course, he said it in the press.

Trump had planned to make the trip as well,

but he changed his mind at the last minute.

Donald Trump almost gets on the helicopter, you know, that crashed.

He could have been on there too and... and there was need for attention.

You were supposed to go on that plane, true?

I was going to go from the standpoint that they said,

"Do you want to come down with us?"

I said, "I think so, but maybe I'm just too busy."

I was that close, it would have been like a 50-50 deal.

It was interesting, shocking to some extent.

It was a new piece of information about Donald Trump's personality for me.

There was a real question for the first time:

how does this organization survive?

There was going to be a huge void at the Taj Mahal.

I saw that he was saddened,

particularly with Steve Hyde, that he was going to miss him.

But then he bounced back almost immediately into...

you know, the business mode, the strong mode,

and, "Here's what we're going to do. We're gonna do this."

And he'd make, you know, comments

to my wife even, you know... "I'm really counting on your husband now,

he's the guy that's got to do this." It's like, "Oh, please, not at a wake."

[bell ringing]

[indistinct shouting]

Help. Help!

Send money.

[male reporter] What was it like in there, sir?

[male anchor] Are we skidding into a recession in this country?

Every day brings new word of layoffs, cut backs, bankruptcies.

[indistinct shouting]

[O'Donnell] There was panic in the air.

The calls from Donald were, "How much cash do you have in the bank right now?"

And I'd be like, "Jeez, you know, we've got...

you know, $3 million in the bank."

"Send me a million-and-a-half of it."

And that was just a new way of doing business.

And you go, "Well, we're in trouble."

The Taj Mahal is going to be a tremendous success.

Trump Plaza is right now the number one facility in Atlantic City.

Last year, Trump Plaza won $305 million, that was number one.

The Taj Mahal, which is essentially three times the size of Trump Plaza,

is going to do a lot bigger numbers.

[Roffman] I was getting very nervous about the state of the economy

when the Taj was going to open its doors.

When I input the numbers in my computer,

I kept on getting the same answer every time:

it isn't going to work.

There is no way that this casino could make a profit.

There's... They'll never be able to pay the debt.

I said some negative things in the Wall Street Journal

about the Taj Mahal.

Saying that I thought that it would open to record-breaking business,

but when the cold winds of October came, it wouldn't make it.

The chairman of the company I work for

was faxed a letter written by Donald Trump.

What he wanted was a public apology, or the firm to dismiss me immediately,

or he would institute a major lawsuit against the firm.

They escorted me to the door.

I'd been a security analyst for over 50 years.

When people say something false, I attack those people.

When people make mistakes, I correct them.

[Johnston] The point at which it became clear to me

that Donald Trump was in deep financial trouble

was word was around from contractors that they weren't getting paid.

Why weren't they being paid?

He tells me one day he's worth three billion

and later in the day to somebody else, five,

which tells you how much he just makes it up.

And even though he says he has three billion or five billion,

he can't pay his bills.

[female reporter] How much money is to be collected?

Uh... For us, 1.2 million.

-[reporter] And for all the contractors? -I don't know that figure.

It's in excess of 60 million, I do not know the exact figure.

Has any offer been made to them from the Trump Organization?

-Is there no comment? -[man] I have no comment.

[Johnston] It was very clear to me that he was borrowed up to his eyeballs.

[reporter] When does Trump plan to pay these people?

The news gets away with murder, the news media,

they get away with murder.

I don't stand for it when they write false and malicious stories.

[male reporter] We tried, yesterday, to talk to a number of different analysts

in the wake of the Marvin Roffman affair, some people are now calling it,

but the one's who said negative things and--

-Here we are. -Well, you've got--

-Back to the negative. -Back to the negative.

You know what? Do this interview with somebody else.

We talked about this yesterday on the phone.

-This is exactly what I'm talking about. -Do the interview with somebody else.

[male reporter] There's nothing that we didn't discuss on the phone, Donald.

[Taboo laughs]

Good evening, Master.

I, Taboo, am here at your service.

How well I remember how you wisely realize

that this was the opportunity you had long awaited.

Your opportunity to create an amazing universe

and share it with the world.

The universe of gold and jewels.

[laughs] We're going to be on television.

[Taboo] And so, Master...

your dream is our command.

Open sesame!

[crowd cheers]

[Trump] Thank you. Thank you.

[crowd talking indistinctly]

[woman] Donald Trump!

Hi, folks!

[Deno Marino] It was a monstrous operation.

"The biggest and the best," as Donald would say.

A hundred and twenty thousand square-foot casino.

More than 500 rooms.

Ten-thousand-dollar-a-night suites.

It was just beautiful. Everything was absolutely gorgeous.

His father came to see the casino.

He seemed like a very nice gentleman. He looks up at these beautiful chandeliers

and he said, "Donald, what does a light bill cost for a place like this a month?"

It was way out of his realm.

"Don't worry about it, Dad, it's taken care of."

We're open now and I'm really happy with what I'm seeing.

It's a great turnout, we're really happy.

Good luck, everybody, good luck.

[woman] Eighth wonder of the world!

Good luck.

-[indistinct chatter] -[laughing]

[woman] Whoo!

All right, if you're like me, you want to know too,

is Donald Trump broke?

Uh, "Investors sue the Donald."

I mean this guy can't get up in the morning

without being surrounded by himself.

[Barrett] I mean, he was in dire, dire trouble.

The borrowings and the bonds could not be repaid.

He was about to default on the first casino payment.

[indistinct chatter]

[Barrett] So, in the midst of all of this financial crisis,

suddenly, this lawyer appears at his casino

and acquires three to four million dollars' worth of chips,

but makes no bets.

That's three to four million dollars' worth of additional revenue

which is exactly what the casino needs a day or two later.

Turns out that the lawyer is a stand in for Fred Trump.

At this moment of complete desperation for Donald,

Fred has to be there.

Fred propped him up.

I don't think he can admit it to himself, but...

Fred was indispensable in every way.

[male reporter] Is it true about...

[female reporter] The invincibility of the Trump name is now bombarded by gossip.

An avalanche of publicity

descended on the empire he worked so skillfully to build.

Overnight, it seems, America turned from a fascination with what Trump has,

to what he could lose.

[female reporter 2] Do you wish we'd all go away?

[Trump laughs] Absolutely.