Trump: The Art of the Deal

Donald J. Trump is the forty-fifth president of the United States. He is the very definition of the American success story, continually setting standards of excellence while expanding his interests in real estate, gaming, sports, and entertainment. He was named the Hotel and Real Estate Visionary of the Century by the UJA Federation. Trump is the New York Times bestselling author of many books, including Time to Get Tough, The America We Deserve, Think Like a Billionaire, How to Get Rich, Surviving at the Top, The Art of the Comeback, and The Art of the Deal. These books have sold millions of copies. An ardent philanthropist, Trump is involved with numerous civic and charitable organizations.

DEALING A Week in the Life IDON'T do it for the money. I've got enough, much more than I'll ever need. I do it to do it. Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That's how I get my kicks. Most people are surprised by the way I work. I play it very loose. I don't carry a briefcase. I try not to schedule too many meetings. I leave my door open. You can't be imaginative or entrepreneurial if you've got too much structure. I prefer to come to work each day and just see what develops. There is no typical week in my life. I wake up most mornings very early, around six, and spend the first hour or so of each day reading the morning newspapers. I usually arrive at my office by nine, and I get on the phone. There's rarely a day with fewer than fifty calls, and often it runs to over a hundred. In between, I have at least a dozen meetings. The majority occur on the spur of the moment, and few of them last longer than fifteen minutes. I rarely stop for lunch. I leave my office by six-thirty, but I frequently make calls from home until midnight, and all weekend long. It never stops, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That's where the fun is. And if it can't be fun, what's the point? MONDAY 9:00 A.M. My first call is to Alan ("Ace") Greenberg, on the trading floor of Bear Sterns, a major Wall Street investment banking firm. Alan is the CEO of Bear Sterns, he's been my investment banker for the past five years, and he's the best there is. Two weeks ago, we began buying stock in Holiday Inns. It was selling in the 50s. As of this morning, Alan tells me, I own just over one million shares, or slightly more than 4 percent of the company. The stock closed Friday at $65 a share, mostly, Alan says, because word is out on the street that I've been a big buyer, and there's speculation I am planning a run at the company. The truth is I'm keeping my options open. I may ultimately go for control of Holiday, which I think is somewhat undervalued. At the current stock price, I could get control for less than $2 billion. Holiday's three casino-hotels could be worth nearly that much-and the company owns another 300,000 hotel rooms besides. A second option, if the stock price goes high enough, is to sell my stake and take a very nice profit. If I did that today, I'd already be up about $7 million. The third possibility is that Holiday may eventually offer to buy back my shares, at a premium, simply to get rid of me. If the premium is big enough, I'll sell. In any case, I enjoy seeing the lengths to which bad managements go to preserve what they call their independence-which really just means their jobs. 9:30 A.M. Abraham Hirschfeld calls me, looking for advice. Abe is a successful real estate developer but he wants to be a politician. Unfortunately for Abe, he's a far better developer than politician. This fall, Abe tried to run for lieutenant governor against Governor Cuomo's hand-picked candidate, Stan Lundine. Cuomo led a court fight to get Hirschfeld off the ballot on technical grounds, and sure enough, halfway into the campaign, the court ruled Hirschfeld out. Abe knows I'm friendly with the governor, and he wants my advice now on whether he should endorse Cuomo or switch parties and endorse Cuomo's opponent. I tell him it's a no-contest question-stick with a winner and a good guy at that. We set a meeting for Thursday. 10:00 A.M. I call Don Imus to thank him. Imus has one of the most successful radio shows in the United States on WNBC, and he's been helping to raise money for the Annabel Hill fund. I'm amazed at how this has snowballed into such a media event. It began last week when I saw a national news report by