Date Posted Aug 01, 2016.
I'm in the sign business. Donald Trump is in the business of selling his image. It should come as no surprise that he and I have crossed paths. His projects are blazoned with brassy Trump logos, a number of which my sign company subsidized over the years not intentionally, but that's how it works: Among contractors, Trump is famous for not paying his bills. His underlings drag you out, then sing you a song: We've got staff attorneys; you pay by the hour. We can afford to fight. You can't. Be a good guy. You'll make it up on the next job! Once, in 1991, during an extended wrangle over unpaid invoices, I had a call from the great man himself. The distinctive tin-eared scream Sign Lady! he has a nickname for everyone Come see me. Tomorrow at 10. As prep for the meeting, I speed-read his autobiography. Never did the word contractor appear unaccompanied by thieving. Sure tipoff. Deadbeats don't think they're crooks; in their minds, they're preemptively restoring the balance of nature: Do unto others before they do unto you. He greeted me from behind a slab of mahogany that comically dwarfed him, then nailed me to the chair with a rat-a-tat grilling: What should I call my next project? Celestia? Empyrean? Royal Imperial Regal? He must run that routine on every visitor, I thought, leveraging flattery into a free focus group. Lobbing back reactions left me plenty of bandwidth to contemplate the oxymoron literally, sharp-dull that defines the man. He can't see past his own aura, yet folks scramble to lard him with loot. What does he have? A black-hole force field that bends light. Solipsism as charisma. Once I'm presumably softened up by his regard for my opinion, he demands I leave immediately for Las Vegas to analyze the signage on a hotel he's considering buying; and while I'm at it, study rival hotels' logos to ensure his will be the biggest and best. Report by Monday, he says. No hint of paying for my ticket or my time. Incredible. There I am, thinking he's called me in to discuss my unpaid bills and he's looking to generate more. You want me to drop everything and fly to Vegas on my own dime? Talk to my assistant. She'll get you comped at the Bellagio. Mr. Trump, I replied, you're asking me for three days' work and an airplane ticket! You'll make it back on the job, he says airily, raising one famous eyebrow in mock rebuke at my small-mindedness. What job? He doesn't even own the property! About the outstanding invoices on our previous jobs . . ., I said. He dismissed me: Clerks take care of that. His Vegas deal fell through before I even got back to my office; I heard it on the cab radio. He was still three jobs up on me, with no prospect of my getting paid. Then opportunity struck. Briefly, until Citibank repossessed it, Trump ran an airline out of LaGuardia, Trump Shuttle. My company owned a billboard near the airport and one day we rented it to an ad agency on behalf of a client whose name they were not at liberty to divulge. It was only when the ad copy arrived that I discovered who the client was. Predictably, the rent was promptly in å_arrears. Occasionally the agency sent a small check they paid us when Trump paid them just enough to delay eviction. Soon the one-year contract would be up. Then Trump conceived a yen to plant his own kisser on the billboard: the smirky pout and moussed swoopover, 20 feet tall. My operations man was appalled when I told him to proceed without payment. But this was bait. I had the artist shave off 20 years and 25 pounds. Himself, idealized and sanctified, big as a building. He loves it! said the agency man. He wants to renew for another year! Fine. Tell them to pay up. Six months' back rent, plus the paint, plus what they owed before. They'll pay once they get the renewal. Payment, then we'll see. Trump is the highest form of celebrity, a meta-celebrity, famous for being famous. And he has a fantastic memory. Unthinkable for a pipsqueak like me to cross a big dog like him. But I did. He paid the arrears. And as soon as the check cleared, I regretfully told the agency guy we'd rented the board to someone else. I'll have to leave town! he wailed. He must've told them he had the renewal in hand or they'd never have cut a check. But Trump's a professional: Doesn't hold a grudge. I ran into him some weeks later at a charity shindig. Ya got me, Sign Lady, he chuckled, graciously introducing me to gorgeous, brainy Marla. But there's always next time! He waggled a stubby finger and melted into the crowd. Starr is president of Artkraft Strauss, a sign design and consulting firm in Manhattan. This is adapted from her forthcoming memoir, Ten Thousand Neon Nights. This article first appeared in the November 4, 2015 Daily News.
https://local3ibew.org/news/ugly-art-trumps-deals-businesswoman-reveals-how-she-finally-got-donald-pay-his-bills
Bank TAKES AWAY Trump's PRIVATE AIRPLANE After COMPANY SHUT DOWN.
https://youtu.be/nYaInWNa1hE
https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-airline-shuttle-transportation-pan-am-eastern-new-york-2019-1
POSTED 2015: Debt-Ridden Donald Trump Lost His “Ship Of Jewels” To A Saudi Prince.
Donald Trump has made a habit of criticizing the United States for allowing foreign countries to continue "eating our lunch," a message he has pushed for nearly 30 years.
In 1991, however, it was Trump's lunch that was eaten by a foreign competitor, when the real estate mogul, in debt to the tune of $900 million, ceded his 281-foot super-yacht Trump Princess over to creditors.
The yacht was then purchased by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz al Saud, mogul and member of the Saudi royal family. He also happens to have a stake in another forsaken Trump property: the Plaza hotel in New York.
The Donald had a strange affinity for the swanky yacht he purchased in 1988 from the Sultan of Brunei for $29 million, which at the time was one of the largest in the world. According to former Trump executive John R. O'Donnell, the real estate mogul sailed on it only once, its maiden voyage from the Azores to the New York harbor.
"It so terrified him when they weighed anchor -- the movement convinced him it was sinking -- that he would never sleep on it," wrote O'Donnell in his book Trumped!. "All the time it was docked at the marina, he went on board only to watch boat races or occasionally to entertainment important customers or business associates."
Still, he wrote, "Donald took pleasure in showing off the boat."
President Ronald Reagan even sent a telegram of congratulations on the boats docking.
In his book, Surviving at the Top, ironically released while The Donald was in the midst of massive debt, there's a chapter entitled: "Ship of Jewels: The Trump Princess."
And it was during this time that Trump had to sell the property.
"Faced with massive debts and increasing cash-flow problems, Trump has been forced to get rid of large chunks of his empire to stay afloat. Among properties he is ceding to creditors are his 282-foot Trump Princess yacht, a 49% stake in New York's Grand Hyatt Hotel, the Trump Shuttle airline and his 27% stake in Alexanders Inc., a department store chain," read a Reuters story in 1991 on Trump's restructuring of his considerable debts.
"I bought the boat in the high 20s. I sold the boat essentially for the mortgage that was on the boat. Forty to forty two million, that was the amount of the loan that was on the boat," The Donald told the Boston Herald in 1991 when they heard his boat repossessed by mortgage-holder Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Co.
Trump told the Herald it was "totally incorrect," he was behind on his payments and he said the transfer of the yacht was "friendly." From there, the boat made it's way to Alwaleed.
Today, the boat renamed "Kingdom 5KR," docks in France.
The Trump Princess wouldn't be the last property that Alwaleed came to hold. He would take a controlling stake in the Plaza in 1995.
"The deal is subject to approval by the consortium of banks, led by Citibank, that has controlled the Plaza since 1993, after Trump was unable to make loan payments," wrote Newsday in 1995 on the properties sale.
Since the 1995, Alwaleed's stake in the Plaza has varied over the years.
Earlier this year, Trump tweeted at an Alwaleed parody account, "Saudi Arabia should be paying the United States many billions of dollars for our defense of them. Without us, gone!"
Alwaleed's son, Khaled bin Alwaleed, replied, " lol wrong Twitter user. Just FYI."
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/andrewkaczynski/set-an-open-course-for-the-virgin-sea
TRUMP'S SUCCESS STORIES.
I'm the best businessman - in the world ' because I 4 know how to NEGOTIATE. 1. Bought the Trump Plaza hotel for $400 million. Repossessed by the bank. 2. Bought his yacht for $29 million. Repossessed by the bank. 3. Built 4 Casinos at a cost $3 billion Filed for bankruptcy and went out of business. Stiffed contractors and employees. 4. Started Trump Airlines. Never made a profit. Planes and Helicopters repossessed by Citibank. . Trump Mortgage, Trump Vodka & Trump Steaks. All went out of business. un COUNTER POINT.
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