All language subtitles for Biography.The.Trump.Dynasty.S01E01.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG

♪

[shutter snapping]

- This American carnage stops

right here

and stops right now.

- His presidency,
and the lead-up

to his presidency,
will be studied

for the rest
of American history.

Donald Trump
is a street fighter.

♪

- When you think
of how we started in 2015,

he understood
where America was going

to some degree
before America did.

- Over the years,
I've surprised

a lot of people.
The biggest surprise

is yet to come.

- I used to think
that Donald Trump

really understood
the zeitgeist of the nation.

- You're fired.
You're fired.

You're fired.
- Now I realized

he is the zeitgeist.

♪

- There was virtually
not a person on the planet

who didn't know
who Donald Trump was.

- To listen to this--
it's just so ridiculous.

- There's a toughness to him.

I mean, he can take
a lot of bullets.

He can catch bullets
in his teeth.

- Donald Trump is a survivor.

- He comes as advertised.

It can be disgusting,

but there is
a genius to it.

- I don't think people change.

I'm a very big believer
in the fact

that when you are
a certain way,

that's the way you are.

I love to fight.

I always loved to fight.

My father was
a very tough man.

♪

- Okay?

Whenever you're ready.

♪

- There's
a clear through line

that's passed down

from generation
to generation.

- If you become
a power broker in Manhattan,

you are the man.

- Trump, Trump,
Trump, Trump, Trump.

His name is his power.

- Do whatever you have to do.

You say whatever
you have to say.

Winning is everything.

♪

- I think that to understand
Donald Trump,

you really have to go back
to the beginning.

♪

[metal creaking]

♪

- Please watch your step.

♪

Okay.
- [laughs]

- This is called, uh,
"topping out," right?

- This is called topping out.

- I--see how much I know?

[laughs]
- Let's grab a handshake.

- Sure.
How you doing, Don?

- Good.

[somber music]

They can live in Houston,
they can live in Paris,

they can live
anywhere in the world.

Many of these
very wealthy people

have chosen Trump Tower,
and I think

it's a very important step
for New York.

I think it's a vital step
for New York.

[applause]

♪

- Trump Tower is nothing

if not a symbol

that winning is everything.

♪

- Trump Tower was really

the thing that put him
on the map in so many ways.

It won him recognition

and even honor

and brought him to a level

that he thought
had not been possible

for his family to date.

- And by the way, uh,
he is a chip

off the old block.

- This is my father,
Fred Trump.

- Right.

- He was able to surpass

his very demanding father,

leaving behind
Brooklyn and Queens

and taking over New York.

♪

But this was not
the beginning.

The Trump family saga

starts much earlier on.

- All right, so you know
I'm trying

to march you
through your life.

- I'm not in the past.
- Yeah.

- I'm--I'm a person
that thinks to the future.

- That's--that's
the thing, is--

- I just don't like
wasting time on the past.

♪

- Other people do have to know

about how you got here.

- I'm never in the past.

- Right, I know, I know.

- In 2014,

I did four sit-down interviews

with Donald Trump.

♪

I wanted to know

how was it
that this kid from Queens

turned himself
into the character

that became
the Donald Trump we know?

Uh, let me see if I can--

- I don't like
talking about the past.

Past is over.

No, I don't want
to think about it.

I don't like to think
too much of the past...

- All right, well--
- Other than--

other than--
this is very important--

I learn from the past.

♪

- Donald's grandfather,
Friedrich Trump,

came to the United States
in 1885.

He was 16.

He came from a wine-producing
small village in Germany,

but wasn't content
to stay there.

- In the middle
of the night,

he writes a letter
and leaves it for his mom,

and in the morning,
he is gone.

♪

- For Friedrich,

the goal was to really become

a wealthy man.

- Railroads were advertising
every day,

"Buy a ticket to fortune.

Buy a ticket west."

- Friedrich took off
for the Northwest,

the last part
of the physical frontier,

where things were wide open,

and a young man
with a lot of energy

might be able
to do very well.

♪

Word began to circulate

of a mining town

just getting going

northeast of Seattle,

called Monte Cristo,

being bankrolled,
of all things,

by John D. Rockefeller.

- Rockefeller is,
of course,

this living emblem

of success in America,

and so,
if John D. Rockefeller

says, "My engineers
have discovered

there's this great vein
of silver ore,"

well, off you go.

♪

All you had to do
to stake a claim

was declare
that you had struck silver

on a piece of land,

and it was yours to work,

and no one else could have it.

In Friedrichs's case,

he announced that he
had found something

when he hadn't even dug
a single hole.

- He had no intention
of mining,

and he, in fact,

instead built a hotel.

He looked at the world
that he had come into

and figured out
where there was an opening

and figured out how to do it.

He was very savvy
about that.

♪

He set himself up
to mine the miners,

providing food, fine dining,

and...

- There is
a wonderful euphemism

called "Rooms for ladies."

- Pretty much of a code word
for prostitutes.

- There were prostitutes
hanging out in the bar,

and, uh, any man

who wanted
to take a hooker upstairs--

there were rooms available.

♪

[jaunty music]

- Friedrich was
supremely ambitious,

was willing to do
whatever it took

in order to get ahead.

♪

- In 1897,

a ship came into Seattle

laden with gold

from the gold fields
of the Yukon.

- These men stagger off

onto dry land,

but they can barely walk
down the gangplank

because of their sacks
and bags of gold,

and that set off
the Yukon gold rush.

Friedrich thought

"I want a share
of the action."

♪

- Friedrich makes his way

to the Yukon.

Like everybody else,

it's by foot,

an astonishing journey

up mountain passes,

single file--

was an extremely arduous,

difficult,
life-threatening situation.

♪

- The White Pass trail--

you could have horses
on it,

and horses
could pull loads over,

but these miners
had no idea

what that, in fact,
involved.

The horses
were completely unsuitable

for the absolutely grim
conditions,

and they died
on the trail,

or they fell
and broke their legs,

or their owners
simply shot them

because they couldn't go
any further.

There was a terrifying piece
of that trail

called the Dead Horse Gulch,

which was packed solid

with dead horseflesh.

In fact, one of the miners
who went up that trail said

that you could've just laid
all the horses end-to-end,

and you would've been walking
over dead horseflesh

for 50 miles.

- But for Friedrich,

it was an opportunity.

He had tent restaurants
along the way,

and where would you get
fresh meat?

What do these people need?
They need food.

So he uses
those dead horses,

and serves up horse burgers,

serves up horse steaks.

♪

- Friedrich arrives in Bennett

with all of his guile

and all
of his resourcefulness intac,

and he is ready
to go into business.

♪

- Bennett was
a newly-built town

that was thrown up by people

on the way to the gold fields.

- Bennett was
a very savvy place to be,

because all the miners
had to come through Bennett,

so there was always
gonna be traffic.

♪

- He establishes himself,

builds his hotel-restaurant.

♪

- It's filled,
it's bustling,

and apparently,
the best restaurant in town.

That's what
the press accounts said.

♪

- But he hears
there's a railway being built

to a place
further down the river

called Whitehorse,
which, at that stage,

was barely more
than a couple of buildings.

♪

- Friedrich knows

that Bennett
would be bypassed.

Now, what's his response
to this?

♪

It is to put his restaurant
and hotel on a raft

and float it down the river
to Whitehorse.

♪

[train horn blows]

- By the time
the train arrived there,

he had a restaurant,
a hotel there.

Of course, that means

that he's in
on the ground floor

and makes a fortune
really fast.

- I don't think,
given Friedrich's character,

anything else
is going to happen.

This is a guy
of consummate ambition.

♪

- And he must have led
a wild life,

'cause you can imagine--
- Right.

- He owned a one-room hotel,

and he'd move the hotel.
He'd take it down--

- Oh, yeah,
and float it on a barge.

- And float it on a barge
and then move it

to a better area.
- And they served

more than food,

'cause--
- Right, right, right.

- You could satisfy
all your appetites.

- He must have led
some wild life.

- Booze, beds, and women.

- Right, and se--
- But he got rich.

- It had to be, uh--
but he did well.

- Yeah.
- And he was--

he was a great guy,
from what I hear.

I mean, he was--he was--
must have been terrific.

♪

- In his early '30s,

Friedrich goes back
to Germany,

and he has
a few things on his mind.

♪

One is to find a wife.

He's looking
for a lovely German woman

to marry, and he discovers

Elizabeth Christ.

♪

The two fall in love

and were eventually married.

[somber music]

In 1905, they return
to New York.

She's carrying her son,

Donald's father,

Fredrick.

Friedrich is not going
to operate

a saloon-slash-restaurant-
slash-house of ill repute.

He is going to become
a businessman,

and his business
is going to be real estate.

♪

Friedrich is looking out

on the world
that is New York City

and searching
for a frontier.

Just as there was a railroad
being built to Whitehorse,

in the Yukon,

he sees that the place to be

is Queens.

The frontier
is going to be reached

by the Queensboro Bridge.

This is a mighty edifice

that is going
to literally open up

to the crush of people

interested in the suburbs.

The people need homes,

and he decides that it's
a wonderful opportunity

for the real estate man
on the make.

♪

♪

- In the spring of 1918,

young Fred, Donald's father,
is 12 years old.

♪

He went out for a walk
with his father.

As they're walking along,

his father says
he's not feeling well...

♪

And within hours,

he's died.

♪

Eventually, it becomes clear

that what's killed him

was the influenza epidemic

that's sweeping the country
in 1918

and has claimed millions
of lives.

[desolate music]

- you can imagine
the sense of siege

and worry

about how you were going
to survive.

Fred--he was the oldest son,
and as the oldest son,

he had to step
into this role

and take care of things.

- Of course, their lives
were drastically changed.

- Fred Trump Sr.'s experience

was in some ways,
a classic, uh,

borough ethnic, uh, story.

His childhood
was foreshortened,

so he worked hard,

and that kind of an upbringing

can make you,
or it can break you.

It made him.

- My father was the greatest,

'cause he taught me
everything.

He was very knowledgeable.

He was a very smart guy.

He was a very good negotiator,

and he taught me a lot,

and I learned a lot
from my father, from Fred.

♪

- At the age of 17,

Fred built his first home.

He took the profits from that
to build another,

and the profits from that
for another,

and pretty soon,
the family business

was taking off.

♪

- At the height
of the Depression, 1934,

with a good deal
of homelessness,

the federal government

is trying to address
this issue by creating

the Federal
Housing Administration.

- The Congress
has made it easier

for private capital
to build modest homes

and low-rental dwellings.

- By seeding all this money,

by backing all these loans,

the FHA creates
this whirlwind of development.

♪

- This was the beginning

of the Trump empire.

- The FHA would be responsible

for the funding

of some of Fred's
biggest projects.

♪

Without the FHA,
there is no Fred Trump.

- From the beginning
of the FHA

until the end
of the 1930s,

he built thousands of homes.

He was touted
as the Henry Ford

of home-building
at one point,

because he had figured out
how to do this

as economically as possible.

♪

- Donald Trump grew up
in a part of Queens

called Jamaica Estates,

which is not
what we generally think of

when we think of the boroughs
in New York City.

♪

- Donald's house,

the first time I saw it
in Jamaica Estates,

was huge.

♪

It had six giant, white,
two-story pillars,

and had
an under-the-house garage.

- 23 rooms

and even a kind
of coat of arms over the doo.

- I was incredibly blown away.

Today, I could say

it was a mega-mansion.

♪

- Donald Trump is the middle
of three boys

in a family of five children,

and his older brother, Freddy,

was kind of his hero.

He was the sibling
that Donald Trump

looked up to the most.

- He was such
an amazing guy,

and the best personality,

best-looking guy
you'll ever see, and...

he was smart.
- Yeah.

- He had everything,
but he was

a very handsome guy.

- He was a guy
with a great sense of humor,

always fun to be around.

♪

We went
to the Trump house often,

but we never went
through the front door.

We always went
through the garage,

because Mr. Trump

would rather not
have us around.

I think he just thought
that, uh,

Fred was wasting his time
with friends

and should be doing
more serious things.

♪

- In the 1950s, the Trumps
are one

of the wealthiest families
in America.

Fred Sr. set the standard,

set the expectations,

and they were very high.

This was not a
"let's go out in the backyard

and play catch" kind of dad.

This was a "do as I say,"

tough, old-fashioned father.

Donald Trump was taught

that life is a competition.

You must win.
You must be tough.

♪

- Fred Trump saw the world

as one of winners and losers,

a very binary approach
to life,

and he impressed
upon his children

the idea that they simply had
to be winners.

- His father was a brutal man.

I think that Donald

got used to being treated

in a totally businesslike

and transactional way.

He himself describes

the relationship
with his father

as businesslike.

- To the boys, he says,

"You are killers
and you are kings."

♪

Fred means
"kings by divine right."

There is a sense
in the Trump family

that we are
genetically superior.

- I think you have
a natural ability

at things.
I'm a big believer in--in--

- Nature.
- No, n-not nature.

I'm a big believer
in natural ability.

Genetically, some people

can handle pressure
better than others.

I knew numerous people
that committed suicide.

So the one thing
I learned about myself,

uh, is that I have
a very unique ability

to handle pressure.
Honestly, in my opinion,

that's a genetic thing.
People don't know about me--

I have very low
blood pressure.

I have the blood pressure
of a great athlete.

I have very low
blood pressure.

♪

- There is a real belief

that Trumps are destined
to rule,

and they got the message,

and the message was that
you were supposed to prevail

at all costs.

♪

- Fred Trump, Jr. would talk

about wanting to go
into the family business

because of his admiration
for his father,

and was very, very clear

that he wanted to be
the next head of the company.

- Donald was not the young man

destined to fulfill

the job of running
the Trump Organization.

- But he refused
to be ignored.

He was the kid that the family

had to pay attention to,

if only because he was
an enormous discipline problem.

♪

- Donald and I
were cutups in school.

We used to throw spitballs
at each other

and play bumper chairs
in class,

pull girls' hair,

and that's how come
we got detentions,

which I politely nicknamed

as DTs--

detentions for Donny Trump.

- He was someone who, uh,
acted out at school.

- Birthday parties,
he would grab the cake

and throw it around.

- He was angry.
He would glue

his brothers'
and sisters' blocks together.

- He was disliked
by many of his teachers.

- Threw erasers around,

actually hit his teacher
under the eye with one.

- He took pride in being, uh,
this tough guy

who pushed back
against other kids,

or against teachers
who would try to tell him

what to do.

♪

- He was, in short,

a terror.

♪

- I was a very, um,
rebellious kind of person.

I don't like to talk
about it, actually,

but I was
a very rebellious person,

and, um,
very set in my ways.

- I don't like that guy.

♪

- Loved to fight.

I always loved to fight.

All types of fights.

Any kind of fight,
I loved it,

including physical,

and I was always
the best athlete,

some--something
that nobody knew about me.

♪

- Okay, throw the ball.

- During this period,
"West Side Story"

was big on Broadway,

and was soon
to become a movie.

- All right!

♪

- The Sharks and the Jets

were in the imaginations
of kids in New York City.

- As Donald tells the story,

after he had seen
"West Side Story,"

he and his buddy

bought themselves
some switchblades.

♪

- Donald wants everyone
to believe

that he's a tough guy.

He promoted this image
of himself.

"I'm gonna play with knives.

I'm gonna do things
that nobody else does."

He was impossible to control.

♪

- Then his dad
found the switchblades,

and that was the last straw.

♪

- Fred Trump was a man
who kept score.

He kept score
every time the school called,

every time a letter came home,

every time
he found something--

the knife collection
that Donald acquires.

He saw it
as a reflection on him.

♪

Something must be done

about it,

and his solution

was going to be extreme.

♪

♪

- At the end of seventh grad,
I went away to camp.

Donald went away to do
whatever Donald did,

and when I came back
in September

with all my friends,
I noticed a seat

in homeroom
that was not occupied

where Donald usually sat,

and I asked
the homeroom teacher,

"Where's Donnie?"

♪

- Against his will,
Donald Trump

is sent to military school
by his father.

In 1959,

he arrives
at New York Military Academy

about an hour north
of New York City.

He's 13 years old.

- I think that had to be

the most miserable existence

Donald Trump could imagine
for himself.

- He has to wear a uniform.

He no longer is driven around

by the family chauffeur.

He is in the dorms
with everyone else,

in the barracks.

♪

- When I got here, it was
"Hello. Good morning.

Now you're in military school,
and your life has changed."

- All these normal things
that go on

in a normal kid's life--

they came
to a screeching halt.

- Your first year, you were
the low man on the totem pole,

and you're responsible
for learning new guy rules.

There was mental hazing.

There was physical hazing,

You had to throw yourself
against a wall

if an upperclassman
came by

and, you know, apologize
for being in his way.

You might get, uh,
a forearm to the chest.

You might get paddled.

You might get hit
with a broomstick,

a couple of right hooks
on your shoulder,

two or three upperclassmen

screaming in your face
for 15 minutes.

- Before you know it,
you're beat up.

♪

- Donald went
through new guy rules

with Major Ted Dobias.

This is a tough guy.

- He was part of
the Allied invasion of Italy,

and at the end of the war,

saw Mussolini
swinging from a noose.

- They used to come here.
They were

flunkies--
they call them flunkies--

and they grew up
to be somebody.

♪

- Donald ran up
against Major Dobias

like running into
a stone wall.

It's not flexible,

and if Major Dobias
would see an attitude,

that attitude ended
very, very quickly.

- He was a rough guy,

physically rough
and mentally rough.

In those days, they'd smack
the hell out of you,

really getting in your face,

I mean, like, big-league.

He said things like
"Stand up,"

and I'm going, "Heh,

give me a [bleep] break."

- [laughs]
- And this guy came at me--

you would never believe it.

These were guys
that didn't take [bleep].

♪

You could go two ways:

you can fight the system.

You're not gonna win,

'cause you're not gonna beat
guys like this.

- Right.
- Or you can acclimate

and deal with the system

and evolve in the system,

and I did that.

♪

- Theodore Dobias
was a taskmaster

far beyond anything

that Donald had seen
from Fred Trump,

and yet, he kind of takes
to it.

He liked the discipline.
He enjoys the hierarchy.

He didn't like
being bossed around--

he never had--

but he liked the idea

that the kids who were on
the receiving end

of all of that aggression

would, in fairly short order,

get to deliver it themselves.

- For Donald, the idea
was to play the game

and win the game,
turn around,

and set the terms yourself.

He literally bowed
and scraped

before Ted Dobias

in order to win his favor,

and he discovered
that it worked.

♪

It was Donald
who wound up an officer.

♪

- You know, I went in there
as a wise guy.

- You were little.
You were 13 years old.

- 13, but I went in
as a wise guy

that... was
a little difficult.

By the time I graduated,
I was, like,

top of the military heap.

♪

- Every year,

we would send
a certain number of cadets

down to New York to march
in the Columbus Day parade.

♪

- So on Columbus Day, 1963,

Donald Trump led the parade.

♪

- In Trump's mind,
this return to the city

and having, clearly,
a position of authority--

this is a bit of a retort
to his father

and a chance to say
to his father,

"Look what I've become.

"You thought that you needed
to send me away

"because I wasn't heading
down the right road.

"Look what I've become.
Look what I can do.

"Look how I can lead.
Look how I can be that winner

that you demanded."

♪

It was a way of taking
that step

into Manhattan, of going
where his father

would not go,

and he was determined
to show

that he could take
the family and its legacy

to a new, tougher,
higher place.

♪

- One of the tactical offices
at the time

was a man named Colonel
Anthony "Ace" Castellano.

As they were walking
up the street,

Donald looked over,

and he goes, "You know, Ace,
I'd really like to own

some of this property someday."

♪

- My father was
a very good builder...

- Mm-hmm.

- And he really did
a good job.

He would build a building,

and next door,
they'd build a building,

and my father's houses
were better...

♪

And he'd build them cheaper,

so he'd spend less money
building a better house,

and he'd sell it for more.

♪

- In the mid-1960s,

Fred Trump starts to think
at this point,

about moving beyond

more modestly-sized projects

and build on a scale

unlike anything Fred Trump
has built before,

named Trump Village.

♪

- Wait a minute,
wait a minute, wait a minute.

Wait a minute.
Hold it.

Trump Village,
a middle-income co-op

in Coney Island,
housing 2,800 families.

♪

- Trump Village Apartments.

How do you get in here?

- [indistinct] Move it.
- Is it worth waiting?

- Yes.
My mother lives

in a terrible apartment.

- They say it will take
six or seven years,

or maybe eight.

- Well, I'll take that chance.

- This is a project
that ends up

being far greater in scope

than anything
he's done before.

His previous projects--

the buildings were, at most,
five, six stories,

and here, he really sets
his sights much higher,

literally...

♪

And it's also the first time

that Fred Trump

labels a project

clearly with the family name.

♪

- Trump Village would emerge

as one of Fred Trump's

greatest public successes,

but ironically,

it also was gonna be
the source

of one of his greatest
public humiliations.

♪

In 1966,

New York State began probing

into what was going on
at Trump Village.

- Fred Trump is hauled in
for questioning

for misusing funds,

over-billing the government

for equipment, for services,

related to Trump Village.

- It includes him
charging the state

about $8,000 apiece
for tile scrapers

that normally cost $500.

♪

More glaringly,

he overcharges the state

for about $6.6 million in fees.

The net result
is it's very clear

Fred Trump is gouging

the state of New York

and New York residents

to line his own pockets.

One of the commissioners
finally says,

"Is there any way

"we can prevent
someone like this

from ever getting
a state contract again?"

♪

- Here he is,
the patriarch of the family,

somebody they looked up to.

To have him being
publicly called out like that

was extremely embarrassing
to them.

- Neighbors, schoolmates--

people were asking questions,

that they were seen

as unpatriotic,
possibly criminal.

- The 1966 state investigation

really had a--

I would say
a devastating impact

on Fred Trump.

♪

Trump Village
really becomes

the last significant project

that he builds.

♪

- Fred spent three decades
building his company,

and he was now looking
for an heir

who he felt was worthy

of inheriting that mantle

and moving the company forward,

but when Donald
graduates from college,

the expectation is that
he's gonna join

the family business

to work first for his father,

and then, eventually,

for his brother Fred,

who is considered
the heir apparent.

♪

- I think
that what Fred expected

of Fred Jr.

was something,
that it was--

it was almost a, um--

a classical king's approach

to raising sons.

"If this son is worthy of me,

he can rise to the throne."

Uh, not every son
is going to thrive

in that kind of environment.

♪

- There was a nervous quality
about Fred.

♪

He was always on.

♪

I wondered,
in retrospect,

whether some
of his anxiety

was, uh, caused

by the constant pressure

of trying to please his father.

- The point of no return

in his relationship
with his father

was the attempted development

of property in Coney Island.

♪

- I remember Steeplechase
vividly.

It had a--a face
with a big smile,

with lots of teeth showing.

It was a happy place.

It was a playground,

and it was a reminder

that Coney Island
was this haven

for people in New York.

Off the subways came streamig
a million people

on a weekend.

A million people
coming to Coney Island,

and many of them were coming
to Steeplechase.

♪

- By the '60s,

Coney Island is in decline,

so Fred Trump buys
the Steeplechase very quickl,

largely under the radar

of the folks in Coney Island.

He wants
to build housing there.

Problem is, Fred Trump
fails to get

the necessary zoning change

that would enable him
to build this housing.

♪

The business community

in Coney Island

is desperate to have
Steeplechase preserved.

Fred Trump knew
that if it got landmarked,

uh, there was nothing much more
he could do with the site.

♪

- Fred got Fred Jr. involved
in accelerating

their demolition
of this property

before they had permission
to build on it.

Fred Jr. is trying his hardest

to work with his father

to demonstrate that he's

as tough and as smart

as his father.

♪

- So Fred Trump organizes

a wrecking party of sorts...

- To celebrate
the development of apartments

along the seashore

and the success
of the Trump Organization.

- Invites all these people
to come

and basically hurl bricks

through the great
glass windows,

through the enormous painting
on the glass

of the great smiling face

of Steeplechase.

♪

- The thought that you would
encourage people

to throw bricks,
to destroy that smile,

that face that was such
an integral part

of growing up
in Coney Island--

I mean, it's unbelievable.

♪

In the end, it was
a public relations nightmare

for the Trumps.

Fred Jr. could never do

the political work

and the other logistical work

that was required
to make the development real,

and the property, even today,

is not the site of any housing.

♪

And after the fiasco
at Steeplechase,

it was clear
to all of the Trumps

that Fred Jr.
was not going to fulfill

his father's expectations.

Early in life,

Donald looked up
to Fred Jr.

as the big brother.

He was a very charming,

very caring young man...

♪

And yet, Donald became
very competitive

with Fred Jr.

and really showed him
no mercy.

♪

- If I were going
to make a movie of this,

I would see a younger brother

trying to get primacy
in a family.

♪

This became

an increasingly terrible
situation.

♪

Fred Trump would belittle
Fred Jr.

In meetings, he would
sadistically attack him,

saying "What do you know?"

♪

- In the early 1970s,

Fred Sr. takes
the fateful move.

He makes Donald president

of the Trump Organization.

What Fred Sr.
is communicating here

is unmistakable.

Donald has made it.

He is the future.

Fred Jr. has not made it,

and he's never going
to make it.

♪

He had talked so much

about working for his dad

and taking over
the company.

I think that the father

at some point

decided that Fred

was... a loser.

♪

I've gotta believe

that, uh--

uh, Fred took that rejection

very hard.

♪

- Fred essentially drove
his son, Fred Jr.,

out of the family,

and I think Fred ended up,

uh, a lost soul.

- He had his own dream:

to be
a commercial airline pilot.

♪

In the end, Fred left
the Trump Organization

and went off to train
as a pilot.

♪

- He was having
a tremendous hard time,

and he started drinking,

and he got hooked
on alcohol...

♪

And he became

a very serious alcoholic,

and it was rough for him.

♪

- I've thought, uh,

long and hard
about Fred's life,

and, uh, wonder
how much of a role

that, uh, rejection
from his father

may have played in his--
in his sad life.

♪

- I like to learn
from other people's mistakes.

I like to learn
from my mistakes,

but I like to learn more

from other people's mistakes,

because why should I have
to make a mistake

if I can learn
from somebody else?

I've learned so many lessons

by watching other people
make mistakes--

some fatal
and some not fatal,

and some not even near-fatal,

but I study
other people's mistakes.

♪

- Fred Jr.

did not do much of anything

the way
that his father expected.

His whole approach to life

was contrary
to the old man's...

♪

And Donald observed
Fred Sr.'s impatience

with Fred Jr.

♪

It's identified by him

as a sign of Fred's weakness.

Donald's takeaway from this

is that it's an example

of what he should never do
in his own life,

and he sees, "Here is
this big opportunity for me

that my brother squandered."

♪

♪

- When I was growing up,

the signs on the Belt Parkway

didn't say "To Manhattan."

They said "To New York City,"

so you had
a very strong sense

that Manhattan

was New York City,

and you were not.

You're in the outer boroughs.

You grew up with this chip
on your shoulder.

- The city so nice,

they had to name it twice.

Well, New York, New York
is Manhattan.

It's the lake in the park.

It's the skyline
after dark.

It's the Empire State,

it's the monument
to world peace,

the UN,

and if you become

a power broker in Manhattan,

you are the man.

♪

- From an early age,
Donald Trump knew

there was more than Queens.

He felt constricted

by, uh, his father's world

of the outer boroughs.

♪

- Imagine a young
Donald Trump.

He leaves this mansion

that he lives in
with his parents

in Jamaica Estates

and every morning,

makes his way down south

along Belt Parkway

to Avenue Z in Brooklyn,

not far from
the waste treatment plant,

and into the shabby offices

of the Trump Organization.

- He was trying so hard

to get away from being the son

of a developer
from Coney Island,

a father who operated

out of a very modest,

almost trailer-like affair

filled with cigar store
Indians.

♪

- Donald Trump hated
going to that job.

He was there
to collect rents.

He was there
to process the paperwork.

He was there to check in

and keep an eye
on the contractors.

This was not
where he wanted to be.

- You're a young guy.
- Right.

- This is early '70s.

You're barely 30 years old

when you start this.
- Right.

Younger.
Younger.

- 28.
- Yeah.

- What are you thinking?
What are you--

are you thinking,
"I've really

got to get into Manhattan"?

- I worked in Brooklyn
for my father.

♪

You know, I did very well.

I did a lot,

but I always wanted
to be in Manhattan.

♪

My father was
a very good builder...

- Mm-hmm.
- But he built

on his own territory.
He felt comfortable

in Brooklyn and Queens.

He never wanted
to enter Manhattan.

He didn't think
it was his place.

♪

- For Donald Trump,

Manhattan--it's like Oz.

He's staring
across the East River at Oz,

and he wants
a piece of that.

♪

- And he gets
a one-room studio

and he moves into Manhattan.

He's gonna become a player.

- He had
his Cadillac convertible

with personalized
license plate,

"DJT," and he would go bombing

up and down the avenues,

looking for properties
to buy,

thinking, you know,
"If I could just start small"

doing in Manhattan
what his father had done

in the outer boroughs.

Real estate prices
were going down,

and so it was

open territory

for a real estate developer

who was eager
to make his mark.

♪

He was generating
and grooming

this image of himself

as a playboy millionaire,

and so he would go out
to the clubs

that were hot
at that moment.

♪

- Le Club was a place

where you would roll up
to the bar

hoping to meet model,

so you can see

that a Donald Trump
would be attracted

to that kind of a scene.

♪

- I was one
of the very first

female members of Le Club,

and it was glamorous and fun,

and they played fabulous music.

It was the hottest place
in town.

It had
a very intimate dance floor.

All the women were chic

and well-dressed
and the men were handsome,

wearing either suits
or tuxedos,

and you could really
fall in love

with anybody in this place.

♪

And I remember one night,

I went over
to the maître d',

and I said, "who is that man?"

He said, "He's a new member.

His name is Donald Trump."

I thought he was
extremely handsome.

He had a way about him
that just

caught my eye immediately.

- You went to Le Club.
- Le Club, right.

- The greatest
I've ever been to.

The level of beauty was--

Le Club, to me,

was the greatest club
that I've ever

been associated--
- In the world?

- I-I've been to every--
I've been everywhere.

♪

- Trump would hang out there

in order to be noticed,
but also

to get to know
the movers and shakers

of this new world
of Manhattan

that he was diving into.

- Donald very much set
his sights

on becoming a player

in the hierarchy
of New York real estate,

but before he could make
his move

in Manhattan,

a problem arrived
on the doorstep

of his father.

♪

The Justice Department
filed a lawsuit

against
the Trump Organization,

alleging that they
had discriminated

against black
and Latin families

wanting to live
in the buildings

that his father had built.

♪

This was a big problem

that could jeopardize
any deal.

♪

- The 1973 lawsuit alleges
rampant discrimination

on the part
of the Trump Organization.

We're not talking

about discrimination

here and there.

We're talking about systemic,

structural discrimination.

♪

- And this
is the kitchen here.

- I was contacted and asked

to be a tester

for the, uh,

Beach Haven apartments,

which were owned
by Trump Management.

♪

- There was a sign outside

that said
"Apartment for rent,"

and this articulate,

well-dressed black man

had applied
for the apartment,

and the superintendent--

he said to the man,

uh, "I'm sorry,
but the apartment is taken."

- As I remember,
there was a gentleman,

and he said,
"I have none to show,

"because there's nothing

vacant right now."

Right after I--I left,

they sent a white person.

- The super greeted me
with open arms

like he was just waiting
for me,

and he handed me the lease,

and I just ran,

and when I got outside,

I met up
with the commissioner,

and we walked back
into the building,

and at this point,

the superintendent--

all he could say was, uh,

"Well, uh, I'm just doing

what my boss told me to do."

- You feel outraged.

You feel insulted.

I'm a young black man

who has been to college,

who has a job,

so you do feel a sense

of anger at the fact

that society still allows

this sort of thing to happen.

♪

- In 1973,

I went out to Trump Village

and tried to interview

as many people as I could...

♪

And we found out
that if a person of color

did apply to live
at Trump Village,

that on their application
would be handwritten

a big C, for "colored."

♪

- Those applications

would then be put
in a separate pile,

and those people

would be offered

either no apartment,

or they'd be offered
a lesser apartment

at a lesser property.

The Justice Department
comes after Donald Trump

and his father Fred,

accusing them
of racial discrimination.

- And everyone around him,
including his father,

is saying,

"Just settle, Donald.

Nobody beats
the federal government."

♪

- As Donald Trump was deciding

whether to settle
the racial bias case

on behalf of the company
and his father,

he goes into Le Club,

he walks in,

and there's a man
at a table,

and that man is Roy Cohn.

♪

The meeting between Roy Cohn
and Donald Trump

began one of the most important
relationships in Trump's life.

♪

- This fight, I have
absolutely total confidence

is going to be won,

and won completely and totally.

- To this day, Roy Cohn is one

of the most controversial
and hated people in America.

Mention his name, and people
will throw things at you.

♪

- To Donald Trump,
Roy Cohn is

exactly what his father
had called a killer.

♪

- Donald Trump had
two mentors:

his dad, who taught him

there are killers and losers,

and Roy Cohn, who said

even when you lose,
you win.

Doesn't matter if it l--
you say it's a win

when it's a loss.

♪

- Roy Cohn, as a young man,

was chief counsel

to Senator Joseph McCarthy.

♪

McCarthy was
the rabble-rousing senator

from Wisconsin

who rose to power on a lie.

- All Senator McCarthy
has been trying to do

is expose the Communists.

- The lie was that
there were hundreds of people

in the government
who were Communist.

It was all fake.

♪

- Roy helped
Senator McCarthy

invent things, s--
out of whole cloth,

invent, you know,
Communist conspiracies

and Communists
in the State Department

and all that.
Roy pushed that through.

- Are you now,
or have you ever been,

a member of the Communist--
- Wait a minute!

Let me answer the question!
- Ask the next question.

- Are you asking me

to violate

the Constitutional guarantee...

- It does not violate
the Constitution

to answer a question.
- It does.

♪

- Years before Twitter,

years before cable news,

Roy knew that he could
get headlines,

he could make allegations,

and that would stick.

♪

- But McCarthy and Roy Cohn

were driven out of Washington

in an utter state of disgrace

when they were belittled
by Joseph Welch

in a beautiful moment
of American theater

when he said...

- Have you no sense
of decency, sir?

At long last,

have you left

no sense of decency?

♪

- When Roy came
to New York,

he played it like a win,

and he rose to become

one of the most powerful fixers

in New York
of the 20th century.

♪

- Roy and Trump met
at Le Club,

which was, in those days,

the place to be,

and Donald proceeds
to tell him

that the U.S.
Justice Department

is going after the Trump family
really hard

for discriminating
against people

in their--in the housing
they own,

and everybody's telling Trump,

"Just settle it."

Roy is the first one
who says to Trump,

"What are you talking about?

"Go after
the Justice Department.

"Counter-attack.

You can win this."

- Roy Cohn was a great lawyer.

You talk about
a controversial guy.

I mean, he
was a controversial guy.

- Unbelievable.
- But if he was your friend,

he would fight to the death.

- Did you know
his reputation?

- I-I-I did,
but his reputation

was tough.
I needed a tough lawyer.

You know, I was dealing
with tough people,

and Roy was very good,

and Roy, for me,
did a great job.

♪

- Donald and Fred Trump,

along with Roy Cohn,

called a press conference.

- He did
something preposterous,

which is they said

that they were suing

the Justice Department

for defamation.

♪

- Donald says
"This isn't about racism.

"I don't want them in there

because they're all
welfare recipients."

- Nothing could be further
from the truth.

It was just a made-up story.

- He knew it was
an effective public statement

to make to spin
the public debate

in a different way.

This was all Roy Cohn.

It's Roy Cohn

who's got Trump at his knee,

telling him
how the world works.

♪

- Roy understood
how to generate news

and how the media worked,

and he understood
the interplay

between public events

and media coverage.

♪

Trump marveled

at Cohn's understanding

of how to sell an idea,

both his legal tactics

and the coverage of the matters

in which he was involved.

♪

- I remember

the first big argument

in court.

Roy Cohn speaks,

uninterrupted,

for 45 minutes.

Donald Trump
was very flippant,

and one of his comments

during one of the breaks
was, you know,

"You don't want
to live with them, either."

♪

- Roy assures Donald

that they can go into this
and win.

They don't.

They lose.
They have to settle

with the federal government.

- The Trump Organization--

they say,
"We didn't admit guilt.

"We didn't say
that we did anything wrong.

"We settled
with the Justice Department

just to make it go away."

To this day, you know,

you ask Donald Trump
about that,

and he says,
"Well, we won that."

♪

- Of course,
that's not true.

It was a big victory
for the Justice Department.

♪

- I think that case,
you know, to this day,

is in--in Trump's mind.

He hated being accused
of discrimination.

He hated the idea
of the government

going after him
and his father...

♪

And he holds animus
towards the government

to this day.

♪

[sirens blaring]

- Standard & Poor's
bond rating service

said today
it is absolutely certain

that New York City
will default on its debt.

- President Ford
has been against

federal help for New York,

saying it would establish
a costly precedent.

- Default if you must,

but don't expect help
from the federal government.

- People were fleeing
the city,

and that was when Ford
said "Drop dead,"

the famous article.
- Right.

- Yeah.
- You know, it wasn't,

like, that competitive.

I was wanting to come in,
and other people

were afraid to touch it.
- Going the other way.

- Everybody was on the
sidelines

- They were all gone or bust,

and--and the city
was doing terribly.

Crime was through the roof.

[sighs]
I didn't think about it,

because I was counter
to the market.

I was very counter to the--
- Yeah.

- I've always been
counterintuitive.

♪

- The Manhattan
that Donald Trump

crossed the bridge
to fulfill his dreams

was a Manhattan
in pretty sorry shape.

♪

- Crime was at record height.

People were afraid.

The city
was near bankruptcy.

I wrote the column
for the "Daily News,"

writing about New York.

The attitude in New York

was a depressing attitude.

It was a feeling that,

"Oh, my God, this city's
really in danger."

♪

- In other news,
the Penn Central,

which has been running
in the red

for a long time now,

decided today to sell off
some choice real estate,

including ten blocks
in downtown Manhattan.

They hope to bring in
about $1 billion in the deal.

♪

- Penn Central--most people
thought of it

as two railroad companies,

but it was really

a landowning company

that happened to have
some railroads.

- Railyards
were on the market.

Grand Central
was on the market,

and even hotel companies.

It was more or less

a fire sale.

♪

- Donald Trump stumbles

upon an announcement
in the press

that the Commodore Hotel,
one of the grand old

hotel properties of Manhattan,

is sitting there, unwanted.

- So it was a big deal

when Donald said
he was gonna restore

a cruddy hotel
on 42nd Street.

- At a time when New Yorkers
were reeling,

were insecure,
were frightened,

here's Donald Trump
on the scene,

bold, optimistic.

He was kind of a rare

ray of light

in a--in a pretty dark scene.

♪

- He began to play
all the players

against each other.

To get the property, he went
to Penn Central and said,

"Hey, look, I have
the agreement of Hyatt,

"and they're gonna make this
a Hyatt hotel,

so you should give it to me.
I'll renovate it."

He didn't have
the agreement of Hyatt,

but he said he did.

Then he went to Hyatt
and said,

"Hey, I'm the one
with the control

of the property
from Penn Central,"

which he didn't have.

They each bought the story,

so now he had
both the land

and the name Hyatt

and their cooperation.

♪

Now he needed money.

He goes to the bank
and says, "Hey, I've got

this tax abatement
from the government."

He didn't have it
at that point,

but he persuaded the bank

that he did,

in the ultimate showman
kind of way.

He was being
part operator,

part savvy businessman.

♪

- Donald Trump came in
to see me,

and he wanted me
to exempt his hotel

from real estate taxes,

which I had the power to do,

but I said no,

because I did not believe,

and do not believe,

that a Hyatt hotel
on 42nd Street

would not earn enough money
to pay taxes.

When I said no,
he was extremely unpleasant.

- Donald got very angry,
and threatened

to have him fired.

- He told me
what to do to myself.

I told him
he'd better get out,

or I'd have him arrested.

- I think he was worried.

He needs
every little bit of help

that he can get.

Donald didn't have a lot,

but he did have one thing:

his father,

so he went to his father

to help him out.

His father was very close

to both the governor

and to the mayor,

and so he had entrée

when he wanted to put forward

this idea of getting
a big tax break,

and so, thanks
to his political connections,

he was able to get
the support

of both the city
and the state.

- Controller?

- Donald Trump,

through a complicated series

of absolute moxie maneuvers,

managed to get

a huge, huge tax break.

- It's been a long, hard fight.
How do you feel?

- Well, I'm very happy,
and I think

the city of New York
is going to be very happy.

We're gonna do something now

which is going to be
a great stride forward

for New York City.

- Donald Trump

is a street fighter,

and Donald Trump wants to win.

He is the consummate,
constant, negotiator.

- People asked me, "How come?

How is it that you got
40 years of tax abatement?"

and I'd always say,
"Because I didn't ask for 50."

- But there was
more work to be done.

♪

Donald Trump,
upon the city's demand,

was required to submit

the contract that indicated

he had permission
from the Penn Central railroad,

so Donald said,
"Here's my contract

for the Penn Central."

No one actually looked
at the last page

to notice
it had never been signed.

♪

So he moved forward
on a project

of immense scale,
guaranteeing the city

that he had
the legal authority to do it,

and he did not have
the authority.

♪

- And nobody noticed.
- And nobody noticed?

- Nobody noticed.

They just said, "Could we see
your contract?"

so I sent them a contract
that was signed by me

and nobody else,
and nobody ever--nobody said,

"Nobody ever
signed the other..."

- All right, if they had said,
"Hey, what--what's going on?"

would you have copped to it?
Would you have said,

"Well, you didn't tell me--"
- I don't know what

I would've done,
and I went through

all of that stuff
to get the tax abatements

that had never been given
in the history of New York

'cause the city
was in trouble, right?

Where did you hear that story?

- I... got my in--sources.

♪

- It's really the model

that sets up
everything that follows,

the idea of playing
one player against the other,

a fair bit of hucksterism
mixed with some business savvy

to create the buzz, the PR.

All of that sense
of Trump as a force

comes out of the Hyatt deal.

♪

- Amid a lot of fanfare,

the Grand Hyatt held
its grand opening today.

The mayor and the governor
of New York

were among those on hand

for the ribbon-cutting.

[cheers and applause]

- Hyatt Regency

is now an architectural gem

for all the world to see.

- Hyatt is a fantastic outfit,

and all of this
is going to combine

to make probably
the most successful hotel--

one of them--in the country,
we feel.

- It was fabulous.

He did it fast
and he did it efficient.

♪

It really gave him
a sense of pride

and a sense that he knew

exactly what he was doing.

The Commodore
was the stepping stone

to the Trump Tower.

♪

- Friend of mine
in the real estate industry

said "You have
the greatest ability

"to get great locations

of any human being
I've ever seen."

It's true.

No matter what it is,

if you look
at any of my projects,

I have the best locations.

♪

- One day, so the story goes,

Donald is looking
for an ideal location

to put up what would become
a signature project.

He's criss-crossing Manhattan
in his car,

looking for
that ideal situation.

♪

- Suddenly, reaching
the corner

of Fifth Avenue
and 56th Street,

and noticing
the Bonwit Teller building,

an old Art Deco
ten-story department store.

Here is the opportunity

Donald is looking for,

and it is at that corner

that he decides

"This is where I'm going
to stake my future."

♪

- The finest piece
of real estate,

considered to be
the finest piece of real estate

in the world, is at the corner

of Fifth Avenue
and 57th Street.

That's the Tiffany corner
of the world.

- "The New York Times"
is reporting

that Bonwit's is being sold
to Donald Trump,

and that the store
could be closed by July.

♪

- Bonwit gives him a six-month

$25 million--the option

to purchase the property.

He was constantly
borrowing money

from his father
during this period

and he had to get
a partner

Equitable bank,

because he can't do this alone.

♪

He just doesn't have
the money

to build his signature tower.

♪

So now he's got a mortgage,

the interest clock
is ticking,

he's got a partner

that's taking the bulk
of the profits.

He needs every little bit
of help

that he thinks he can get,

so he, again,
latched onto tax breaks.

♪

- Donald Trump now faces

the biggest skirmish
in his battle

to build Trump Tower.

He's going to come
into conflict

with the mayor
of New York City.

- The positions that I take

are not ideological.

They are reasonable,
they are sensible,

and that's why people
support me.

- Look, Ed Koch was
a totally overrated mayor.

He was a bad guy--
- A few times, you said--

- And you can quote me.
- Right.

- Ed Koch was a bad guy.
He was a total bully.

All Ed Koch
was concerned about

was press.

In other words,

he wanted to make sure
he looked good.

Ed, go [bleep] yourself.
You're a piece of [bleep].

♪

- The city was offering
tax breaks to developers,

but they were not thinking

that this is
the kind of tax break

they would give away
for luxury apartments.

- This was a program
that would be used

to turn a vacant lot

into an apartment building

for the middle class.

- But here comes
this application

from Donald Trump,

and the city turns him down.

He's outraged.

Trump sues the city,

so now he's at loggerheads

with the Koch administration,

and that potentially meant
a long battle

that could go on for years.

♪

- One of the beneficiaries
of the abatements

is real estate developer
Donald Trump.

- I was entitled
to that abatement,

and I am by law
entitled to that abatement.

- Councilman Henry Stern

and Councilman
Robert Wagner Jr.

opposed it as an excessive gift
of public funds.

♪

I did a weekly show

between Ruth Messenger,

who's the city council member

who was very much against

giving any tax breaks
to businessmen,

particularly businessmen
like him,

Donald Trump,

and Trump believed

in tax breaks,
particularly for him.

- The program has become

a corporate welfare program.

- I really think,
before you make

those statements on the air,

that you should go back

and check your facts
and figures.

- Donald, the statute says
very specifically

that in order to qualify,

the site on which
the residential building

is going up

is either vacant,

predominantly vacant,

or underutilized.
The site on which--

- You don't think
a ten-story building

is an underutilization

when I'm building
a 68-story building?

- Absolutely not.
- Oh, I see.

Okay, okay.
- Correct.

Tell me about it, dear.

- I had the grand time

between these two.
It was a knife fight.

- Ruth, I'd like you to--
- We deny the benefit.

- This ridiculous.
To listen to this is just--

- I mean, look,
at the end of the day,

there's a toughness to him.

I mean,
this is a very tough guy.

I mean, he can take
a lot of bullets.

He can catch bullets
in his teeth.

He can eat broken glass.

A punch-back
sort of a person

with a armadillo skin.

- This is just so ridiculous.

You've asked me
onto a program

I'm supposed to be,

and I listen to this, that--

- It's a calling card.

Attack the person personally.

Don't give them a quarter.
Don't be nice.

Don't be reasonable.
Attack them.

You have to destroy them,

because they're gonna
destroy you.

- If you spent the same time

trying to clean up our subways
and clean up

the city of crime--
- I do.

- Well, I don't know
that you do, or if you do,

you're certainly doing
a very ineffective job.

♪

- Sound familiar?

♪

- When Trump finally got
all the permissions he needed

and was ready to roll
on the construction

of Trump Tower,
his pride and joy,

he needed to get someone

who actually knows
how to build a building.

- Donald and I
sort of worked together

while I was working
on the Hyatt.

I was at a fundraiser
with my husband,

and he said to my husband,

uh, "I'm gonna hire her.
She's gonna work for me.

I'm gonna double her salary,"
[laughs]

and that's how I learned
about Trump Tower.

♪

- She was the first woman
to run the construction

of a major skyscraper.

Trump was always proud
of the fact

that he'd put a woman
in that position

and entrusted her

with this project
from beginning to end.

♪

- Barbara Res
had a very tough job.

It was a culture
of macho men.

A lot of these guys
are chauvinistic pigs,

you know, to be quite honest.

- There were no women
in the construction industry.

You could count them
on one hand,

er, and even if you lost
a few fingers.

♪

He said something to me.

He said, "Men are better
than women,

"but a good woman

is better than ten good men,"

and he meant that
as a compliment.

♪

Donald trusted me implicitly,

and he respected people

that told him things
the way they were,

and it was not easy
to do that,

because when you stood up
to him,

you got--you got hammered.

♪

He said to me, "You know,
you're a killer,"

and--[laughs]

I later learned that his father

actually used that expression
with him,

that people should be killers.

♪

I thought, and I quickly
confirmed it--

he was very inexperienced.

He really didn't know much
about construction at all,

but I thought that he
was intelligent.

Didn't have to tell him
a hundred times,

and with him,
that was a good thing,

'cause he could only
listen once,

if you were lucky,
and you got him to listen

to a whole story.

♪

- Once the project
got the green light,

Donald Trump confronted
the next problem,

which was, "How do we take down

this ten-story
department store?"

- Most famously, that building
had this facade

of gorgeous sculptures

that were the hallmark
of Bonwit Teller,

one of the most prized
architectural features

on Fifth Avenue.

- These stone relief sculptures

at the top of the building

were very stylized,

very naked, dancers

with long scarves.

♪

- Trump made a deal

to remove this piece of art

carefully from the façade
of the building

and give it to
the Metropolitan Museum of Art,

and this would be a compromise.

The--the great landmark art
would be saved,

and Trump would be able
to go ahead

and demolish the building.

♪

In order to get
the demolition done cheaply,

Donald Trump,
as he often did, found

the lowest-bidding company
he could.

- He hired a Polish
demolition company

which turned out to employ

immigrants who were
undocumented.

- They were being paid,
essentially,

less than $5 an hour,
when they got cash,

'cause some of them said
they were being paid in vodka.

♪

They did the work--
12- to 18-hour days.

- And it's dangerous,
dirty work.

You're dismantling concrete,

debris falling down on you.

- They had nowhere to live.

They were sleeping
on the floor

of the Bonwit Teller store
at night.

- And all of this was done
at breakneck pace.

♪

- And then one afternoon,
one of the directors

of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art

gets a call at her office,

and she's told

Donald Trump is destroying
the frieze.

♪

- I got into a taxi,

got into a classic

New York City traffic jam.

I was nine months pregnant
at the time...

♪

But I got out of the cab

and I ran for ten blocks.

I'll never forget that run.

Got out on 56th Street.

♪

[debris clattering]

♪

And we watched them
being jackhammered.

♪

I was furious.
[laughs]

♪

The Trump Organization

could've asked the Met
for help

in taking the pieces down
and removing them...

♪

And they didn't.

♪

- You were recently the object

of a lot of controversy

because you ordered destroyed

some sculptures on the--

a building that you bought

that the Metropolitan
Art Museum wanted.

Why did you have those
destroyed, first of all,

and what happens
to the look of the city?

- As an art building,
or an Art Deco building,

it really was not worth
very much,

and we did take it down,

and there was somewhat
of an outcry,

but I think
that's generally subsided.

♪

- He gets a bunch
of bad publicity,

but in his mind,
it's all good publicity,

because here he's seen
as this force of progress,

this guy who's bulling his way
through all this red tape

and all these fussy
artist types

in order to get
his building built,

and to k--get the commerce
of New York moving again.

- Very carefully,
Donald is putting

all the pieces in place

for this signature project,

but he's also borrowing money
all over the place.

While he often portrays himself

as sort of a self-made man,

the only money he had

is what he borrowed
from his father.

- Fred Trump was nervous.

He was co-signing
all the loans.

He was the one.
It was his money.

♪

- Fred Trump was involved

in the Trump Tower project.

That's how I met him.
I remember, he was--

he didn't like me.
I'm--let's put this way.

He hated me.

He hated the very notion

that a woman would be working
in construction

to begin with, and much less

be in charge of a project

that was his son's project,

so, uh, we were like,
"Ah! Ah!"

He would say,
"Oh, no, that's all wrong.

You don't know
what you're doing."

But I went to Donald.
I said,

"You've got to get your fathr
off of my back.

He's driving me crazy,"
and he--he said to me,

"Suck it up, baby,"
in so many words,

because, you know, he was
putting up with him, too.

♪

- Most buildings, by the time

the Trump Tower was built,

were using steel
to put structures up,

and what was unusual
about Trump Tower

was that it was largely built
out of concrete.

♪

- What we were doing was
what's called a fast track,

which is you build it

before it's
completely designed,

and it was a concrete building,
which was great,

because you design it one day,
and you can pour it the next.

♪

- Most of the contracting

in the construction industry
in New York

was controlled,
to a large extent,

by the mob,

specifically
the concrete business.

- Business that you could call
Mafia, Inc.

- They are said to run
the most powerful

crime families in New York.

- Federal investigators say

the mob controls
the concrete workers

in the construction industry.

♪

- My name is Michael Franzese,

and, uh, you can call me
Michael.

That's fine.

- You know, former caporegime

in the Colombo crime family

is, uh, a normal moniker
for me,

and, uh,

I guess for this purpose,

it's probably the best way
to address it.

♪

Basically, the mob controlled

all the concrete business

in the city of New York.

♪

Because Trump Tower
was a concrete building,

you know, it was a big score
for us guys.

♪

You know, and I want
to be clear.

I'm not saying that, you know,

Trump was in bed
with the mob.

I'm not saying
that he was one of our guys,

but he certainly had
a deal with us.

I mean, he didn't have
a choice,

so in that regard, he did.

♪

- In 1982, there was
a major stoppage

among all
the concrete providers.

- Everybody's worried.

A lot of developers
are in a bind now.

There's a delay
in their construction.

- When it occurred,
we were in the process

of pouring concrete

to get the main structure up,

and every day that you lose

that goes by is a day delayed,

and, uh, it costs money
for Donald,

- They're not gonna beat us.

I mean, we can hold out
as long as we wanna hold out,

so, you know, eventually,
they have to come around.

♪

- John Cody was a union boss

who lived
on the dividing line

between the union
and the mob.

Cody was a guy who could make
things go well for you,

or he could make things
go poorly for you.

♪

- It's an interesting questin
as to why,

when every other developer
in New York

can't get access to concrete,

Donald Trump is still able

to just move along swimmingly.

♪

- One of the things
that Cody was able

to do for Trump was make sure

that drivers continued
to deliver

concrete to the site.

♪

- You have to be able to deal
with many different things

to be able to be
a successful developer.

You have to be able to deal
with the unions.

- And concrete guys
who are mobbed-up.

- You have to get--
you get along

with these people.
You had no choice.

There's nobody else to do it.

♪

- Trump struck a deal

with John Cody,

and Mr. Cody was able

to get an apartment
for his mistress

in Trump Tower.

♪

- She was given
a very prominent apartment

on a high floor
of Trump Tower,

and she had one demand,

and that was she wanted

a swimming pool
in her apartment.

Trump Tower did not come
with a swimming pool.

♪

So Trump went in and had

that part of the building
reinforced

so that it could hold
the weight

of a swimming pool
and all the water in it.

♪

- This is the world
Trump operated in...

♪

And shortly before

Trump Tower was finished,

Cody was convicted
of racketeering

and sent to prison.

♪

- I don't like getting close
to people like that,

but they respected me.

- And a lot of this
is relationships.

- A lot of it is re--
well, a lot of life

is relationship--a lot
of what I've done

is relationship.
A lot of great things

that have happened to me

happened to me
because of relationship.

♪

- Millionaire real estate
developer Donald Trump

will get a handsome tax break

for his latest project
on Fifth Avenue.

- In the case of Trump Tower,

he engaged the city
in a big battle

over getting this deal,

and in the end,

there was a fair umpire

in the Court of Appeals
of New York State,

and he won,
fair and square,

and got his tax abatement.

♪

- Well, here we are on the top

of the Trump Tower.
Today is the topping-off

of this fabulous building.

- When they finally finished
the Trump Tower,

Donald took the opportunity
to have a topping-off party.

- This is the greatest skyline
in the world,

so this is a great addition
to New York skyline.

- What do you think
about the view?

It's pretty nice from up here,
isn't it?

- I've always wanted
to look down on General Motors,

and the--
- [laughs]

It was quite exciting,
being on the top

of the building
when they finished it off,

put the last cornerstone in,

and everybody was there
with balloons,

and it was quite a fanfare.

Trump Tower was
the biggest moment

in Donald's life.

♪

- Eight years ago, I must say,

I was embarrassed to say I was

in the real estate business
in New York.

Today, I can honestly say
I'm proud of it,

and it's the number one city
in the world,

and I say a large part of that

is due
to the tremendous abilities

of Mayor Koch.
I think he's done

a tremendous job.
- Thank you.

- Thank you very much.

- Yeah, all the media
were there

covering this, and, um,

Ed Koch gave a speech,

which was so funny,

because they hated each other.

- And may the windows
of this building

forever look out

upon a place of peace

and prosperity.

- Very nice.
Thank you, sir.

Very nice.
Very good--nice. Very...

- Mr. Trump, what are
your sentiments today

regarding
the whole celebration?

- A very happy day.

The com--the completion

of the tallest
concrete building

in the city of New York.

- How are the sales going?

- Uh, well, I have nothing
to do with sales,

but they--I hear
they're going excellent.

Fantastic.
Unbelievable.

- I think Fred Trump
was authentically proud

of Donald's early successes

in New York.

He was amazed
that his little boy

had graduated from Queens

into a premiere address
in Manhattan

and was able to build
a landmark tower

with the family name on it.

♪

- I remember we were going up
to New York

on spring break

and I asked my son

what he wanted to do
in New York,

what he wanted to see,

and he said, most of all,

he wanted to go see

the lobby of Trump Tower,

and sure enough, we did it,

and we were all
pretty impressed.

- I remember walking in
and looking up,

and seeing this escalator
and seeing the fountains,

and feeling that I was,
you know, as an outsider,

as a--as a Brit,

that this was the apotheosis
of big, glitzy,

you know, vulgar, if you like,
Americana, and I loved it...

♪

Because, you know, that's
what was fun about America.

♪

It was kind of the Liberace

of buildings, really,

if you like.
[laughs]

- Here is Donald being lauded
for this great achievement,

but obviously,
absent from the celebration

is Donald's elder brother,

Fred Jr.

♪

As a pilot, Fred Jr.
continues to struggle

with what, in retrospect,

will be seen
as a lifelong battle

with alcohol,

and he falls out of grace
with the airlines

and cannot function
as a pilot anymore.

By this time in his life,

it's been communicated
by his father

and by his brother

that they don't expect much
from him.

He winds up moving home

and into the family mansion

and is essentially a handyman

for the Trump properties,

ordered about by his father,

asked to do menial tasks.

- He was intended to be
the heir to the throne

of the Trump Organization,

but from this point on,

he really did start
to spiral downward

more rapidly.

♪

- Fred was a great guy, but,
you know,

he had an alcohol problem.
- Yeah.

- Okay.
And he was such

an amazing guy,
and the best personality--

best-looking guy
you'll ever see,

and you know, he had
a lot of things,

but he had an alcohol problem.

- I never really thought
of his having

a problem with drinking

really until the last time
I saw him,

and that was in
the hospital of Manhattan.

He kept saying,

"I've got to get off
the sauce.

I've got to get off
the sauce."

♪

- His passing is
the first real loss

in Donald's life,

but Donald viewed
Fred Jr.'s death

as an example of weakness,

of what happens
when you're not tough enough,

when you don't fight,
when you don't strike back.

It's just a fact of life

that some people win
and some people lose,

and they may be brothers,

but they're still winners
and losers.

What his father taught him,

that he was a killer,

turned out to be true.

Donald Trump had made
all of this happen.

He was not yet 40 years old,

and he was a force
to be reckoned with

on the island of Manhattan.

There was no greater proof

that could be offered by life

of the excellence
of the Trump method

and the superiority
of his own talents

than the completion
of this grand project.

- By the way, uh, he is
a chip off the old block.

This is--
- My father, Fred Trump.

- Right.

- You were gonna say somethig
about your dad.

You said--
- He was very difficult

to work with.
Number one, he was

a very tough man,

but he was also a--a man

that would never let
anything go.

He was a very strong man.

He was
a very detail-oriented perso,

but I did great deals
for him.

In fact, he gave a statement

to "BusinessWeek" magazine

many, many years ago.

"Everything Donald touches
turns to gold."

♪

- Donald Trump was never a man

who was dying to settle down.

♪

- The name Marla Maples
came up shortly after that.

No guy likes talking
about affairs, by the way.

[laughs]

- It had sex, it had beauty,

it had bazillions of bucks.

It had everything.

- The attention he got
in the media

actually made him feel alive.

♪

- Boy, there's a lot
of coverage there.

- Then gradually, of course,

things got out of control.

♪

- He was frightened.

Trump was staring
at destroying

not only his own legacy,

but his father's legacy
as well.

- But you have said
that if you ran for president,

you'd win.
- I think I'd have

a very good chance.
I mean, I like to win.

- He's one of the greatest
shows on Earth,

you don't know
what he's going to do next,

and you can't stop watching.