Original subtitles

[inaudible dialogue]

[siren wails]

[siren wails]

[indistinct radio chatter]

[radio chatter continues]

[overlapping radio chatter]

Mr. Speaker, the president of United States.

[cheering, applause]

[inaudible dialogue]

[seagulls cawing]

[ship horn blares]

[car horns honking]

The city was sort of like very tense, you know.

[car horns honking]

This is my police academy photo.

I'm up there. Top row, all the way in the back.

New York had on average 3,000 homicides a year.

[siren chirps]

-[man] Got the knife? -That's my knife!

-Shut up! -[glass shattering]

[Robert Utsey] Things were grim.

[male TV presenter] Some people once called New York "Fun City."

Now the police in New York are calling it "Fear City."

You have to be careful and watch where you go now.

How late you stay out, and...

It scares you.

[George Arzt] The city was in dire, dire need.

I was excited because...

I recognized there was something to write about every day.

We got a man up there behind...

[sirens wailing]

I was a political reporter for the New York Post.

The business community thought that politicians had ruined the city...

that they didn't know how to govern the city.

Politicians with money are like kids with marijuana.

And you have to tell them, you know, "This is all you've got."

[male reporter] New York, within a matter of weeks, may be bankrupt...

[clamoring]

...'cause eight million people have taken out far more

in social services and welfare than they've contributed in taxation.

[Arzt] They thought that they could overspend

and just roll over the debt to the following year and the following year,

and the last mayor of the city would be caught with it.

[male reporter] New York's Mayor Abraham Beame

led a delegation up to Washington today,

seeking federal financial aid for New York.

The City has done all it can.

[male reporter 2] Thousands of City employees

have already been laid off.

Nineteen thousand municipal workers lost their jobs today...

Nineteen thousand. Yes. I was one of them.

[reporter 2] Pistols and badges were turned in at the precinct houses

by the policemen who were laid off.

This is comparable to laying off soldiers during a war.

I mean, that's how ridiculous it is.

It's a war out in the street.

[Utsey] Everyone deals with stress differently.

[crowd clamoring]

[Utsey] Marriages dissolve because of the stress.

I actually know, personally, of two people that I worked with

who committed suicide during that time.

I lost all faith in the job.

How can you work when you don't know

whether you're gonna get paid on Friday? Two weeks ago, they stopped the checks.

[male reporter 3] Three thousand sanitation workers were laid off...

[male reporter 4] There's about 30,000 tons of garbage sitting uncollected

on the streets of New York today...

[male reporter 5] Mayor Abraham Beame asked the city's largest banks for help.

Two weeks ago, he asked President Ford for help.

Tuesday, he flew to Albany to ask the state legislature for help.

-[sirens wailing] -They've all said no.

[Arzt] It was a feeling of hopelessness, that this is the way it is...

and nothing will get better.

[woman] Hey, yo! Save that shit for me!

People were hoping that out of this crisis would come change.

The great American Dream has always been to become a millionaire

for the people who have nothing.

-Do you think that's a reality today? -[background chatter]

Excuse me. I can hear all of you over there and I can't concentrate,

so could all of you please disappear?

Is there anything you can't have?

Well, I believe if you think that you can't have it, you probably won't have it.

They say that the human mind is only using one percent of its potential,

but if you can get a little bit more out of it than the 1%,

I think you're gonna be able to do pretty much whatever you want to do,

if you have the basic ingredients going in.

[woman] I keep hoping that something will happen

so that we will be safe from this, uh...

catastrophe.

[Donald Trump] My father was very successful

and my father built homes and apartment houses, and did very well.

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

and I enjoyed it from day one.

-Are you like your dad? -Well, I hope so.

I have a very wonderful father, and I would hope

I'd be somewhat like him.

-What's he like? -Strong, dynamic...

[Ken Auletta] Fred Trump was stern.

And I think he was a taskmaster to his son.

I was a, um... a baby journalist at that point.

My intent was to write about politics.

I was angry, I was a kid--

I was in my twenties, and I was... [chuckles] I was angry.

My parents were a working-class family from Coney Island, Brooklyn,

and they lived in Trump Village.

That's where Fred Trump, the father, made the money for the family.

Many working-class people lived in these high rises with long, low dark guarders.

My father had a little sporting goods store,

and he would often go around the corner to Gargiulo's restaurant.

And Fred Trump was there every day with his assistant having lunch.

And he would say, "Hi, Pat," my father-- That's how they knew each other,

just first name. They didn't-- Never talked.

But I was a Daily News columnist at the time with my picture in the paper,

so Fred Trump would whisper to his son, who would often have lunch with his dad...

"That guy over there, Pat, his son writes for the Daily News."

And Trump said, "Oh, I know him. I know him."

[commentator] The 24-second clock, we're down to six seconds.

[Auletta] I'm a New York Knickerbocker basketball fan and he was too,

he would go to games. And he sees me one year at a Knick game...

He says, "Hey, Kenny!" I don't know anyone who calls me Kenny.

And he says, "Hey, Kenny, how's your pop?" And I said, "Actually-- Oh, he died."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

The next year at a Knick game, "Hey, Kenny, how's your pop?"

I said, "Actually, he died." [laughs]

The third year he says, "Hey, Kenny, how's your pop?"

I said the same... [laughs] and walked away.

[Nikki Haskell] Could you bring me a mirror?

-[man] There you go, your mirror. -Thanks, honey.

[Haskell] I met Donald in about '74.

I met him at a club called La Club,

which was a private club in the Upper East Side.

I remember distinctly the first time that I saw Donald...

and I-- I spotted him immediately. I thought he was extremely attractive.

My kind of guy. He was about 6' 3", blond hair.

He had a captivating air about him.

And that's how Donald and I became friends.

And I knew immediately Donald had big dreams.

I always liked people that, you know,

think outside of the box and think bigger than life.

His family was in the building business, but not in Manhattan.

You wanna do something small, you do it in Brooklyn.

You wanna do something big, you do it in Manhattan.

There's no comparison.

[car horns honking]

[Arzt] For Donald, it was important to become a...

upscale version of his father.

A major builder, but in Manhattan, with the big boys.

[railroad bell ringing]

[Utsey] I'm a positive person, so I look for solutions, not for problems.

September of 1975, I saw the listing for a chauffeur-bodyguard.

It seemed interesting, so I went out to Mr. Trump's Brooklyn office...

and I walked in, and there was about six other, uh...

Uh. Police officers in my situation also waiting for an interview.

When I finally met him, I came into his office...

firm handshake, he always had a firm handshake.

And one time he squeezed my wife's hand too hard.

[laughs] And...

we sat down and we talked, and he asked me about my time in the police department,

asked me about my time in college.

He asked me about my time as captain of my school karate team.

And, uh...

And meanwhile, I'm just looking at this office and saying,

"Wow, this guy got it going on."

I remember the plate number. That was the car, "DJT."

And his father's car I think had "FT."

Yeah, it was 40 years ago. Wow, yes.

I was grateful for the job,

and I was curious about the things that were going to happen.

[Arzt] He needed a footprint in Manhattan.

Everyone yearns to get close to the mayor.

They'd figured that's the way to do business.

We didn't write about it.

Wayne Barrett of The Village Voice wrote about it.

[Wayne Barrett] Donald, he was a rookie and I was a rookie.

Donald was the face of Fred, bringing the company into Manhattan.

Dark times are times of great opportunity...

-[indistinct shouting] -...for people of great stealth.

Desperation, it's the land they inherit.

Abe Beame, the mayor of New York,

was as close to Fred Trump as you could possibly be.

-[inaudible dialogue] -Abe Beame is waiting on the steps,

to say to Fred Trump and Donald Trump, whatever they want, they get.

[male reporter] Beame is New York City's 104th mayor.

He's also the shortest mayor in New York history, five feet two inches.

Well, I liked him mainly because

he was the only guy shorter than me in government. Uh...

I hadn't heard of the Trump family.

The first time I had heard of it was when I met Donald Trump for the first time.

If the City would gather around with us,

we can produce with a lease guaranteed by the state of New York...

I mean, he was extremely presentable, full of good cheer, full of optimism.

It was very refreshing to see somebody come in and have ideas

and try to move things forward.

Where it really started to gel was when he came in with the Commodore Hotel project.

The Commodore Hotel, once one of the finest in New York,

is closing its doors next Tuesday because of financial losses.

I feel very bad. The-- The whole hotel going down the drain.

-[man] Forty-five years of service! -[man 2] ...showing 340 dollars.

If we could just stop playing around

and get the politicians, the City officials, who have generally...

[Utsey] His father's name opened the doors for him.

[Donald] ...especially very good for sales...

[Utsey] The Commodore Hotel project. I was there from the beginning.

I remember going to City Hall.

We had the easel to help carry in...

You know, the big cards that you take down one at a time.

This is the easel.

He walks into my office, unannounced, and he has these boards with him

with renderings of the Commodore Hotel.

And he sits down and starts pitching me as if I'm the mayor

and he's pitching me on the Commodore Hotel.

And then after he gets me all excited about what a great project this is,

and how it's going to stave off a disaster,

'cause the Commodore was just about to close,

he says, "But I can't do this project," because he needed 70 million dollars.

The bank would only lend him 30 million dollars and he said,

"Can you help? Can you figure out any way of getting a tax break?"

And off the top of my head I said, "Well, you can do this, this, and that.

We don't have this program, but maybe that's the way to do it."

The Trump real estate interests are willing to put up to 100 million dollars

to refurbish this hotel.

The question is, will the City grant a 40-year tax abatement?

[Michael Bailkin] He had never done a major project before.

It wasn't just his father's credit and expertise,

this was really on Donald.

And if this fell through for any reason, if the City rejected him,

this would've been a horrible thing in his career.

His reputation was on the line.

Basically, he needed help.

[car engine starts]

[Barrett] One of the most striking things about Donald's life is that,

-at the age of 28... -[dialogue inaudible]

...he meets Roy Cohn.

And anybody else would be repulsed. I knew Roy Cohn.

He was the most repulsive figure I ever met in my life.

I would sit at lunches with Roy Cohn,

and feel like I was in the presence of Satan.

[Utsey] Mostly, Donald would pick him up, they would talk.

I just thought he was a member of that upper circle. That's all I knew.

Remember, I'm-- I'm a cop from the Bronx.

This entire matter...

-[reporter] In 1954 at 27... -[Cohn speaks in footage]

...Cohn was chief council on the Senate subcommittee

investigating communist infiltration in the government.

He was considered a brilliant lawyer.

Exposing these communists, these traitors.

[male reporter] Today, the rich and the powerful seek him out

for the biggest of big-money lawsuits.

[female reporter] He defended reputed underworld figures.

[male reporter 2] He's been tried three times on criminal charges,

but he was acquitted each time.

[indistinct dialogue]

[David Lloyd Marcus] My father would not talk to cousin Roy.

So, I grew up kind of knowing that I should hate Roy,

but being fascinated by him in a sort of a...

the way you're fascinated maybe by seeing a car crash.

I said, "How do you get things done in this city?" Like...

He said, "I know how power works."

He was just this person who had such a wide web.

Liberals, conservatives, journalists, politicians, judges,

good people, bad people, Mafiosos.

He kept secrets about people and traded secrets with other people.

Roy was always on the phone to reporters, and, you know,

he would call me up, and he says, "Georgy, baby."

And I said, "Hi, Roy." [laughs] You know? And I would-- You know--

And then he would... tell me some negative things.

[Marcus] He discovered something which, frankly,

I don't think anybody had discovered.

If you used the newspapers, if you used publicity,

if you attacked your opponent, if you blustered,

if you made threats, you could get a lot done.

And yet it wasn't on brilliance. It was just on pure bluster.

Young Donald Trump meets this guy and says,

"I got to have him! I got to have him!"

[Marcus] He knew if you wanted to build a hotel in New York in the '70s,

it helped to know people, it helped to threaten, it helped to cajole.

[Utsey] Pick him up eight, eight-thirty.

He's in the car and, uh, we're on a mission.

[car horns honking]

[Utsey] He was meeting with all these City officials and government people

in order to get his project off the ground.

They had to get approval from A, approval from B, approval from C.

B was waiting to see if A approved it, then C approved it,

and... playing ping pong.

[gavel banging]

[board member] The proposed reconstruction of the Commodore Hotel.

[Bailkin] There was the Board of Estimate hearing itself...

That was-- That was the key day.

We have been presented with a situation with potentially disastrous consequences.

Right now, um, their commitment to managing this particular lease

seems to us, from the brief presented by the City, to be weak.

[Arzt] He was very worried. He was very young.

[man] ....is to know whether, um, item one...

[Arzt] I remember that morning...

I was there because this was a controversy,

in giving away all these tax benefits.

[man] How can there be a profit? or cause their increase ten-fold,

as the number of rooms reduced by 400 or 20 percent?

[board member] Sir? Sir, I'll give you one opportunity to--

If you want to remain in this room, you'll have to be seated.

[man] Gentlemen, what's the...

[male reporter] Trump, who had nervously paced the hall

outside the Board of Estimate chamber

during the daylong session, sat as the vote droned on.

Some of the hesitation due to fears they were about to vote someone a windfall,

because the new hotel won't pay city taxes till 40 years after it reopens.

I'm not sure whether we're making the wisest decision in the world.

[male reporter] Finally, shortly after four this afternoon, the final vote came.

[interviewer] It's been a long, hard fight. How do you feel?

I'm very happy, and I think the city of New York

is going to be very happy. We're gonna do something, Bill,

which is gonna be a great stride forward for New York City.

Who was it that said, "Never waste a good crisis"?

Yo, move your hand, bitch!

[woman] Hey, yo! Save that shit for me!

[Bailkin] I started looking at Donald as a savior of the city.

He was using us to get his tax abatement,

and we were using him to create a new program and a new vehicle,

and a new sense that things could happen in the city.

[applause]

The multi-million-dollar tax breaks is expected to save him 160 million dollars

in city taxes over 40 years.

It was an outrage and it was a political fix,

which I dutifully wrote about... [chuckles] in the Daily News

as a rip-off of-- of the taxpayers.

I think I would have written as... investment in the city.

He takes the risks, he gets the rewards.

[inaudible dialogue]

[Arzt] He talked in hyperbolic terms. "Spectacular," "wonderful,"

"the best," "the greatest." He was a born salesman.

[Donald] Tremendous demand all throughout the country.

The new hotel, which is going to be spectacular,

something New York has never seen,

with elevators on the outside and atriums and the largest ballroom in the city.

We feel all of these are gonna combine with really, potentially,

the best area in New York City,

and probably New York City's most important area: The Grand Central area.

All of this is going to combine to make probably the most successful hotel

in the country, we feel.

[interviewer] Okay, when does the new hotel open?

About two-and-a-half years, the total project, yes.

-[interviewer] Thanks. -Thank you very much.

♪ My friends, they asked me something ♪

[cheering, applause]

♪ How my man and I keep Lovin' every day ♪

♪ But if we work so good It just ain't nothing ♪

Across the country, there is severe heat, drought, water shortages.

The temperature in New York City reached 104.

[male reporter] One of the side effects of rising temperatures is rising tempers.

I'm gonna kill some guy.

I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna kill him.

-[interviewer] How do you stay cool? -Positive thinking. That's all.

Just think positive. Think cool and you'll be cool.

I sit in front of my refrigerator stark naked. [laughs]

-What about the beard? -Beard doesn't bother me at all.

♪ You wanna know how I make it work good ♪

Well, he was an eligible bachelor in New York City and... he liked to date.

♪ I got it, I give it ♪

He dated, uh, you know, some beautiful women,

but, uh, I kept seeing Miss Ivana.

She checked all his boxes. First of all, she had a college degree.

She was a model, so she was a beautiful woman.

And she cooked.

I remember sometimes she would call the office and she made this special dish

with chicken wings and wine and stuff like that,

so I would go to the supermarket and get her a package of chicken wings,

and make sure I give it to the doorman to bring upstairs.

[female reporter] Ivana Zelnícková. She grew up in Czechoslovakia.

She began modeling as a teenager.

[Haskell] I never saw him with the same girl twice until he met Ivana,

and then it became a very hot and heavy romance.

She loved being with me, because I told her where to get her hair done,

what doctor to go to, where to go--

I mean, I actually filled in all the blanks for her.

She didn't live in New York and I became her closest friend, her eyes and ears.

One of the great qualities is that I can understand everything Ivana says,

which is more than most people can.

When I met Donald,

Donald naturally didn't want me to continue with the modeling,

because I think, "How long can you do it?"

And I was working for eight years, and I think it was enough,

and I was ready for a change.

So I said, "Give me anything." [laughs] "I would like to do..."

-[interviewer] "Give me a job!" -"Give me a job! I'll do it!"

[inaudible]

[Haskell] I don't think he ever realized

what a huge asset Ivana was going to be to him.

Ivana was involved in every angle,

every-- every aspect of building the Commodore Hotel. From soup to nuts.

They redid all the ballrooms, Ivana redid every hotel room,

she spotted every mistake.

[Ivana Trump] I like to see the final product.

I don't care what kind of business it is in, I just adore to work.

I can't sit home and look up at a ceiling, it's just not enough for me.

[indistinct chatter]

[Haskell] They were a great team.

The best marriages are when the husbands and wives work together.

Of course, you know what your husband is doing and you get to be part and parcel

of building an empire.

[Utsey] He had picked the right one.

I drove them there when he married Ivana. That was a good day too.

He had city royalty, politicians were there.

It was at the Marble Collegiate Church, that's his church.

[Haskell] It wasn't a very big wedding. Her father walked her down the aisle.

Ivana looked very understated and they had the party afterwards at 21.

[Utsey] His father's driver and I,

we went down the block and we had dinner at a restaurant.

Then we came back and we went inside. We had dessert.

It was, uh... flaming crêpes Suzette, I think it was. I'm not sure.

I think it was. Something was flaming. [laughs]

Could have been cherries jubilee, I'm not sure.

The mayor was there.

Donald told Mayor Beame that I'm one of the cops that got laid off...

through the mayor, and the mayor turns around and says,

"Oh, I'm sorry about that." [chuckles] You know.

But I just held my tongue and just looked away.

[male reporter] So, now, as New Yorkers get ready to vote,

Mayor Abraham Beame is in bad trouble.

The people of this city know and understand...

[crowd booing]

...the tremendous problems we had in the last three-and-a-half years.

-[crowd booing] -I'm confident we can make this...

We've got to have real strong men, real strong leadership.

I'm tired of all kind of leadership in this city!

Bringing people together isn't a matter of telling them what they want to hear.

You can do it by telling them what they need to know.

How many people here are voting for Ed Koch?

[woman] I do!

-[man] Yeah! -[Ed Koch] We got seven or eight?

I love you,

-because you love me. Thank you. -I love you too.

[Auletta] Koch, surprisingly, for someone who lived in Manhattan,

had much more of a feel and a liking for people

in Coney Island, where I grew up,

or people in working-class districts in Queens or the Bronx.

-I need your help. Am I gonna get it? -[woman] Yes.

-Yes. -[Koch] Thank you!

[Auletta] He could talk to anyone on the street,

go anywhere, loved debate... A real New Yorker.

Just want to say hello, and thank you for standing tall.

-[man] Let 'em have it, Ed! -Good morning.

I became Mayor Koch's press secretary.

He was fierce about his views,

he was fierce about integrity and hated corruption.

[cheering]

[Arzt] For Donald, the election of Ed Koch meant that there would be no easy path

through this administration and he did not have a friend.

[female reporter] Amid a lot of fanfare,

the Grand Hyatt held its grand opening today.

The 100-million-dollar hotel has 1,400 rooms.

The mayor and the governor of New York were among those on hand

for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

[applause]

[Auletta] I'm looking at these people and I see the governor,

and I see the mayor, but I don't see Donald Trump.

...is now an architectural gem...

[Auletta] Also, he didn't name it the Trump Hotel.

[Abraham Beame] ...and gleaming facade...

[Auletta] And the reason was he wasn't known.

[Beame] ...brightens and livens this entire...

[Auletta] In the '70s, he didn't leave a footprint...

He was not a figure that electrified attention, um... and opinion. At all.

♪ The best things in life are free ♪

♪ But you can give them To the birds and bees ♪

♪ I want more money That's what I want ♪

[Rona Barrett] In 1980, I was a household name.

♪ That's what I want ♪

Good evening. I'm Rona Barrett.

Tonight, I'm going to give you a close, intimate look at the hopes,

fears, dreams, successes, and even the failures

of America's new super rich.

Some of the people you'll be meeting aren't exactly household names.

Donald Trump's most famous accomplishment to date

is the Grand Hyatt Hotel on 42nd Street.

Some say the age of Trump has just begun.

[Barrett] He was a new face on the block.

We placed a call to his office and he then called back and said,

"I would love to be on your show."

Donald, I think, called me at least twice and wanted to make sure that this was

really the network show. And I said yes, it was a network show,

and this would be his first network interview.

[Auletta] There were only three networks.

If you're on a network in 1980, your audience is huge.

Thirty million.

[Barrett] I spoke with Donald in the living room

of his New York penthouse.

Do you think that the acquisition of wealth is an absolute aphrodisiac?

No, not at all. In fact, I think in many cases it really creates problems

that you normally wouldn't have.

Were you constantly taught from day one,

"Donald, you must be a success and travel down that road,

and never move to the left, and never move to the right?"

We're a very highly motivated family,

but, again, I would never use the word "ambition."

And, uh... Because to me, "ambition's" a bad word. It's not ambitious.

You know, when I see... When I see people saying,

"I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna do that, and I'm so ambitious and I'm--"

It really sickens me to listen to them talking. I think it's just...

Donald was the kind of person, you could tell right off the bat--

First of all, he didn't like the word "ambition,"

but he had plenty of it.

I do understand it's all basically a game.

We're all here to play the game and we're all hopefully gonna play it well,

but some obviously people can't play it well.

The world is made up of people with either killer instincts,

or without killer instincts.

And the people that seem to emerge are the people that are competitive and driven

and with a certain instinct to win.

My sense of Donald was that he was always confident in what he was doing,

the kind of confidence above and beyond most people's reality.

[Barrett] If someone were to make a movie of your life,

who would you see playing yourself?

Maybe, uh... Maybe myself.

Do you wake up one day and you say, "I want 30th Street on the West Side.

I want 42nd Street on the East Side"?

Well, it's a process, and it's something that you maybe have an instinct for.

The finest piece of real estate in the world is at the corner of 5th Avenue

and 57th Street, that's the Tiffany corner.

The Bonwit Teller department store on 5th Avenue and 57th Street

may soon be following some other fashionable stores into oblivion.

[Donald] I tried to buy the block and they said, "Forget it. Forget it."

One day I got a phone call and they wanted to know

if we wanted to make a deal.

Nobody ever assumed that location could possibly be purchased,

but all of a sudden, it was.

And maybe it was mind over matter again.

Maybe you just really believe that someday you'll own that location,

and you end up owning that location.

And we proceeded to buy the air rights over Tiffany, which is a zoning term

for "area and space" over Tiffany.

[Barrett] I mean, no one had heard of buying air

over the space of something that already existed.

That became a big story nationwide.

[female reporter] An active imagination made everybody gasp.

Buy the best property in New York,

tear down the famous Bonwit Teller building...

There were gargoyles that were on the side of these buildings

that the preservation society was trying to find a way to take down.

And then Donald just blew it up. That was it, next case.

You never can impede progress.

Even for a couple of gargoyles.

[applause]

[male presenter] Number one, what is your name please?

My name is Barbara Res.

[presenter] Number two?

My name is Barbara Res.

[presenter] And number three?

My name is Barbara Res.

Where did you get this from?

[presenter] "I, Barbara Res, am a graduate engineer."

Can you send this to me?

[presenter] "And currently project manager of the newest edition

to the New York City skyline known as the Trump Tower.

I am proud of the fact that I am the first woman to have overall supervision

of the construction of a major skyscraper in the New York metropolitan area."

I start the questioning with Soupy.

Yes. [clears throat] Number one, how many men are under you?

Sometimes, you go all the way up to 700.

Number three, do you sit on a sidewalk and go...

-[wolf whistles] ...to the guys? -[Barbara Res] Sure.

[Res] On a construction site, I had the shit harassed out of me.

At the time, the number of women engineers was one or two percent,

so when Trump met me, I probably impressed him

by the fact that I was a woman doing "a man's job."

[female reporter] These people are not only looking

at construction workers pouring concrete. They're looking at Sarah.

A twenty-four-foot-long pin up painted on plywood wearing only a bikini

and a seductive smile.

Sarah was designed for the delight of the construction workers inside.

The artist painted a bathing suit on Sarah,

which will wash off when it rains.

She makes it kinda hard to keep your mind on your work.

Make you feel young again.

I don't think they made them like that when I was a young man. [laughs]

[Res] I was extremely ambitious. I wanted to make a name for myself.

I liked the fact that I was the only woman.

I was aggressive, I didn't take shit from anybody.

Something came up, and the architect would try to blame one of the subcontractors,

and I would say, "That's bullshit!"

And Trump loved that. He absolutely loved that.

When he hired me finally, he called me a "killer."

Number three, what does Donald Trump look like?

I thought he was attractive, which is... [scoffs] I can't believe that I did.

Well, I didn't know that it was going to be what it was,

which is... a spectacular building.

It was cutting edge, it was forward thinking.

The shape of it, the style of it, the idea of it, the location of it,

the height of it... And the views were unparalleled.

I mean, you had an unobstructed view of whatever it was you were looking at.

This was all very special stuff, and he had come up with this himself.

He was a schemer and a dreamer and I just wanted to be part of it.

[presenter] They're ringing that bell again. That means time is up.

Now the votes are all in. Now, will the real Barbara Res please stand up?

-[presenter] That's her. -[applause]

[Res] As far as the public spaces were concerned, it was very top-notch stuff,

but in the apartments, there was a lot of... crap.

[male reporter] At $1 million for two bedrooms,

they're some of the most expensive in the city.

Trump boasts they are the best.

[Donald] But instead of building an average building,

we'll make it the finest building in the world.

[Res] The floor was the absolute cheapest wood floor you could get.

It's funny, 'cause I helped write the offering plan.

It talked about parquetry, you know, marquetry. You know, that kind of thing.

It was nonsense. It was cheap tiles that are glued down.

The kitchens were garbage. Can you imagine Formica counter tops?

Trump always looked to save money.

I went to him and said, "You can't do this, this is shit!"

And we fought like cats and dogs.

But that was not a good thing to take him on,

because you put him up against a wall and he would come out and attack.

And... he attacked two kinds of people.

He attacked weak people, because he found their weakness and then just exploited it,

and he attacked people that attacked him, and he came back at them harder.

He says that he did that and he does.

-[telephone ringing] -[indistinct chatter]

Hello. Hi, how we doing?

[man] You know better about the holdings.

Yeah, shit. I think I may be being played in this thing.

No.

When we were building the Trump Tower...

uh, we were having a discussion about difficulties

we were having with a contractor,

and Donald reached behind his desk...

and pulled out a picture of Roy Cohn.

And he asked everybody in the room, "Do you know who this is?"

"Yeah, it's Roy Cohn."

"Well, Roy is my attorney. Nobody wants to face Roy Cohn."

[Barrett] The godfathers of all five crime families were represented by him.

[male reporter] Tony Solerno, recently indicted,

has long been one of Roy Cohn's clients.

They all met at his townhouse so that the FBI couldn't wire the meetings.

Uh... Did you do any of those things anymore?

It's all false.

[Auletta] Donald Trump said, "If someone threatens me, I will go to Roy Cohn.

It scares the hell out of them and they back off.

So, it's a weapon for me. Roy Cohn is a weapon for me."

[indistinct chatter]

[Artie Nusbaum] No one knows Trump Tower is a unique structural building.

I spoke to the structural engineer...

and said, "Could we do this whole building in concrete?

It's cheaper, it's faster."

He said, "Absolutely, Artie."

In that period of time, the reality was certain trades had mafia connections,

concrete in particular.

[male reporter] Conclusion: to build the largest concrete structure

in New York City, turn again to Roy Cohn.

Cohn is also the lawyer for the New York crime boss

who controls the concrete business.

Payoffs from contractors are dropped off at Cohn's office,

so he may get paid twice for his services here.

But then, you get who you pay for.

As a matter of fact, Fred got involved in the concrete buy.

[reporter] How are the sales going?

Well, I have nothing to do with sales, but I hear they're going excellent,

fantastic, unbelievable.

He was so annoying. He was impossible to deal with.

He was just...

"Oh, no, oh, no, that's all wrong. You don't know what you're doing."

And he just... I couldn't stand him.

And he hated the fact that I was a woman

in charge of construction in this building.

It killed him, and the amount of money I was being paid and all this stuff,

but when I complained about Fred to Donald, he just said,

"Suck it up, baby.

Just put up with him because eventually, he will not be involved."

Donald put up with his father,

he deferred to his father, but there was no question in my mind,

everybody knew who was behind the project. Nobody thought for a second it was Fred.

Fred was just something we had to put up with for a short period of time.

This was Donald's project.

Here's the lady on the sales, Louise Sunshine.

They just asked me one question, "How are the sales going?"

I said, "I have nothing to do with sales."

We're 80 percent sold, and we have the who's who

of the world moving into the tower.

It ought to be very interesting to wait in the lobby for the elevator. [laughs]

Reggie? Hi, what's going on?

[Res] The buzz about this was all Trump.

Trump was his own PR agent. He sold apartments for unheard-of prices.

He now has an apartment for sale, 11 million dollars.

Trump Tower is considered one of the great buildings of the world.

People from all over are coming.

He even managed to get a cover of Paris Vogue,

which had the silhouette of the building. And then in life size,

part of the face of a woman... kissing it.

We were famous. I mean... Trump did all of this.

He is without a doubt the best PR person in the world.

How is your sound coming out? Okay?

Let them up and let them come up and bring them back and everything else.

There was a story in the paper that the queen of England was gonna leave

Buckingham Palace and move into Trump Tower.

[audience laughs]

So they asked me if it was true and I said, "No comment,"

and so they assumed it was true. I mean, nobody could...

From the top of Trump Tower,

it's The Nikki Haskell Show, direct from New York.

[Haskell] The television show was absolutely the greatest thing ever.

I always wanted to do something with Donald, a TV show or something.

-Hi, Donald. -Hi, Nikki.

I'm very proud of what you're doing, changing the face of New York.

Well, we've known each other for a long time, haven't we?

-Yes, and you always said you'd do it. -I did.

Some people say they'll do things and never do.

Okay, thank you, Nikki.

Well, here we are on the top of the Trump Tower.

Today is the topping off of this fabulous building

on the corner of 56th and 5th Avenue,

probably the most luxurious spot in all of New York to live.

Donald Trump has invited us all

for a wonderful party, and the mayor is here,

and I think you'll just enjoy seeing the fabulous panorama view of New York.

[Res] I mean, talk about having pride in something.

It was just great, it was a great day for me.

I don't know. It's gonna be something the press would love seeing,

so at ten after 12 you might want to be on the sidewalk position.

We're gonna release 10,000 balloons, so have a good time. Yes?

[Res] Yes, it was Trump's building, and he conceived it, but I built it.

You know what a topping out party is?

When you reach the top, you have a celebration for the workers.

That's what a topping out party is.

And the interesting thing was Trump was kind of like,

"Do we have to have all the workers at it?"

[Haskell] It was great the mayor was there.

I don't think they were that friendly at that time.

[man] Why weren't they?

I don't know. Politics, you know. You know politics.

[Arzt] Trump Tower was entirely luxury.

It was a building, a tower, for the very, very wealthy.

Mayor Koch believed he should deny tax abatements for this project.

And now, uh, the toast.

May these walls withstand the winters of endless years.

May all who dwell within know only happiness,

and may the windows of this building

forever look out upon a place of peace and prosperity.

[Donald] Very nice. Thank you, sir. Very nice.

[Auletta] A visitor from another planet seeing this interview would say,

"Gee, Koch and Trump are good friends."

Not true.

Koch hated him. I mean, with passion.

-[photographer] How 'bout a handshake? -Sure.

Anytime. Anytime.

Anything else before we conclude?

[Auletta] His first year as mayor, I'm doing this New Yorker profile

and I asked to be a fly on the wall in his office.

Trump's name would come up in our-- in our interview sessions,

and he would just lambast Trump as a fraud, a phony,

self-aggrandizing person who tries to take credit for things he doesn't deserve.

[reporter] ...the common guy in New York City care

if you're topping off your tower today or not?

You really think it's good for the city?

How does it filter down to the common guy?

I'll tell you how it's filtered down. We've employed 5,000 construction workers,

there'll be many people running the building.

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

The fact is that most people aren't wealthy,

and yet we need the taxes that come from those who work and those who invest

so as to make it possible for the city of New York

to deliver essential services to the poorest of the poor and to the...

[Haskell] The Trump Tower opening... everybody in town wanted to go to that.

[security guard] Excuse me! You're not supposed to be in here yet. Sir?

[Haskell] They had people on stilts.

People that sort of look like they came from Buckingham Palace. And the doors...

I shot it for my television show.

I even shot Roy Cohn at the opening of the Trump Tower.

We've all known Donald for a long time. I'm so proud of him, aren't you?

Yeah. When you think back, Nikki, the way you and I knew Donald when,

and there's so many great events in his life.

Tonight is the opening of probably the most important building in the world.

Marble waterfalls...

Sort of restores your faith in the fact that progress, that, uh...

free enterprise is not dead at all, when something like this can be created.

[Haskell] I'm glad you're here. I know we're both

in the right place at the right time.

Whenever we see each other, I know something has to be right.

-Thank you, sweetheart. -Okay, dear.

[male reporter] Trump Tower, the centerpiece of the Trump empire.

Per square foot the most expensive apartments,

shops and office space in Manhattan.

[woman] It's python and leather, it's all hand-tooled in Switzerland,

and it's a theme of the '80s.

It's taken after Superman for kryptonite. This is his kryptonite buckle.

[reporter 1] Priced at the mere £500, its sales are meteoric.

Solid sterling-silver dog or cat bowls with gold-plated interiors,

a £1,300 price tag.

[reporter 2] Harry Winston at Trump Tower,

he's got jewel-encrusted gold taxi whistles for Mother’s Day.

Buy two, and you and Mom can play dueling taxi whistles all day Sunday

-for only $8,000! -[whistles blowing]

[reporter 1] This gold and crystal model of Manhattan at £170,000.

Well, I built Trump Tower thinking I was going to get an abatement,

I should get an abatement, and I am by law entitled to that abatement.

-[Ruth Messinger] That's not true. -It is true.

-The City has-- -I think you really better check

-your facts and figures. -I did.

I think you better, because you'll find out I could've built

an as-of-right office building 77 stories tall.

[reporter] Ruth Messinger is a member of the City Council

for Manhattan's Upper West Side.

She's been an outspoken critic of the tax abatement program.

[Messinger] I was known for being willing to challenge powers that be.

I think on Trump Tower, you know, there was a piece of...

the kind of muscle I'm looking for, in which the City was saying,

"Wait. This is a discretionary benefit, and we won't give it to you."

Why should a multi-millionaire like yourself continue to reap these benefits?

Have you checked my books lately? Do you know that I'm a multi-millionaire?

-I'm trying to-- -Are you denying that you are?

No, I'm not.

I went to the City, I said I'm willing to invest a tremendous amount of money

in this city, in this location.

Now people such as Ruth Messinger and others

are opposed to the tax abatement.

In my judgement, Dick, the program has become...

a corporate welfare program.

We are subsidizing developers like Mr. Trump.

They make a huge profit.

You've gotten something close to 160 million dollars in tax benefits.

Did you read that in the Times?

-I'd like to find out why-- -[Messinger] Times said 168.

Is that your source of information, or have you done this on your own?

Have you read an article and you've taken 160 million dollars--

No, I've gone through calculations.

I understand how the abatement program works--

-[Donald] It's incorrect. -[Messinger] There were lots of insults.

Just in that segment, he's trying to say I haven't checked my facts,

I don't know it, I'm relying on a New York Times article.

"Don't interrupt me, don't challenge me.

I know, and if you're disagreeing, there's something the matter with you."

Ken?

Rather than quibbling about the past, let me just ask you something,

just spin forward.

Is that me?

[Auletta in footage] Among the problems here is that neither side

can really prove with objective truth that abatements either help or hinder.

It's an elite core of developers who are leaching out revenues that we need.

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

If you spent the same time trying to clean up our subways

-and clean the city of crime-- -[Messinger] I do.

Well, I don't know that you do.

If you do, you're doing a very ineffective job.

It's been a stimulating evening and I thank you both for being here,

and speaking for New York and company. I'm Dick Oliver. Good night.

[Auletta] That was kind of interesting.

Donald Trump suddenly is coming on stage

as this combative figure.

He became another person. Um...

He's cocky.

[Roy Cohn] I've been his lawyer since he was 23 years old.

He can't stand losing.

Everyone told Donald not to do it, he didn't stand a prayer.

He believes you can fight City Hall.

I believe you can fight City Hall. And we both fought it together

and got a 74-million-dollar Trump Tower tax abatement,

which the City refused to give us,

by going to the highest court of the state,

which decided seven to nothing in our favor.

Millionaire real estate developer Donald Trump will get a handsome tax break

for his latest project on 5th Avenue...

[Messinger] Trump won.

Ed Koch, he loved his own bravado and his own showpersonship,

but he didn't particularly like being challenged.

[Arzt] Koch was easy to read.

Ed always bled for the city.

Ed was very taken aback by the loss.

He really thought that they would win the case.

Good afternoon, Trump Organization.

[male reporter] Ambition, creativity, money.

This is where the action is.

I don't give a damn if he buys or not.

[reporter] His critics say he is one of the culprits making New York

too much a city for the rich.

[Messinger] The powers that be, being real estate interests, were like,

"Oh, this is a neighborhood where we can get rid of all the poor people,

because rich people wanna live here."

[Utsey] That was what was going on in the "have-not" part of the city.

It's what we call "the tale of two cities."

[Res] Donald had so much press for Trump Tower that, you know,

people thought of him as being

this big developer that did the most important building in the city,

and that was the only building he did in the city.

The Hyatt was a rehab.

So this was the first ground-up building that he ever did,

and yet, he was a player instantaneously.

[indistinct chatter]

[Res] Personally, the couple, the Trumps, I mean,

they were just everything that you wanted to be.

They were gorgeous, they were personable, they were rich,

they were... you know, they had children.

When you make your wish, try and blow all the candles out with one breath,

okay, honey? One breath.

[Res] Ivana and he were the power couple.

Everybody wanted them at their party.

I mean, it was just-- So, it was an incredibly heady time for him.

Nobody could question him and he was very full of himself.

People ask 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."

[Arzt] On this, I don't see Donald as being a representative of business,

but venturing forth into politics.

Remember the Wollman Skating Rink in Central Park?

It was supposed to re-open this weekend, finally,

but as has happened with so many other scheduled re-openings,

this one's been postponed too.

Donald called me and said, "I'm looking out my window,

and I'm looking for months and these people can't do a rink."

[male reporter] The City spent the last seven-and-a-half years

and 12 million dollars on an exotic plan to remodel the rink.

[Arzt] Donald wrote to Mayor Koch.

"Dear Ed, for many years I have watched with amazement as New York City

repeatedly failed on its promises

to complete and open the Wollman Skating Rink.

I and the other New Yorkers are tired of watching

the catastrophe of Wollman Rink.

The incompetence displayed in this simple construction project

must be considered one of the greatest embarrassments of your administration.

During this six-year period,

I have constructed major hotels, apartment buildings, and Trump Tower.

Building the Wollman Rink, which essentially involves

the pouring of a concrete slab,

should take no more than four months' time.

Sincerely, Donald J. Trump."

[reporter] He didn't arrive on a galloping white steed,

but developer Donald Trump has offered to rescue

the troubled Wollman Skating Rink in Central Park.

[cheering, applause]

[Haskell] Everything that you do in a city like New York matters.

If you have a public area, such as Wollman Skating Rink,

that nobody can fix... makes him a hero.

Nobody just does anything just to do it, and Donald did it just to do it.

It was more personal. It was more, "I can do this... and you guys can't."

[Donald] You take the Wollman and Koch,

they were building it for seven years.

You know, it's a pretty sad situation, but you have that all over,

and probably in every government.

[Arzt] He chose to try to embarrass the mayor, and then Koch relented

and gave him the project.

Because of our success and my success...

at the Hyatt and at Trump Towers...

We expect to start next week, and start...

[Nusbaum] ...Donald walked into my office, asked me to build a rink.

He made certain promises to me.

It would be publicity, lots and lots of publicity.

First words he said to me was,

"Artie, you're going to get so much publicity out of this."

-I want another generator. -[man] I don't need...

[Nusbaum] But our fee would be zero.

Bring another generator on the job. Bring more soldiers on the job.

[reporter] Trump did it, not in two years,

not even in the six months he had estimated.

Nope, Trump has finished it two months early and under budget.

[Nusbaum] He didn't finish it in four. We finished it in four.

We're like the Marines, and we get there, and we do it.

[applause]

You know, this morning I placed a call to the great Almighty

and asked him if we could please have some good weather.

And he said, "Dick, don't call me, just call Donald."

[crowd laughs]

We owe a great debt of gratitude, not only for this glorious weather,

but for this wonderful re-opening of this...

When the emcee said, "You now skate courtesy of Donald J. Trump,"

we knew it was all over.

[applause]

[Nusbaum] He threw us under the bus.

"Built by Trump and HRH."

It interferes with the rhythm of the words.

What's wrong with sharing the platform?

I don't mind that he's entitled to the gold medal,

but I should at least have gotten the silver and maybe the bronze.

[applause]

[Nusbaum] Wollman Rink represented a way into the public eye.

"I built Wollman Rink! Nobody else could do it."

Everybody in the city, every paper in the city...

took notice of what he had accomplished.

He's all about publicity.

"Trump, Trump, Trump," everywhere.

[cheering, applause]

[Messinger] He scored all the points and then he's like,

"Okay, I can do anything better than you."

In Trump's mind, no difference between fixing an ice skating rink

and building the largest thing ever to be built.

New Yorkers want to have the world's tallest building,

and frankly, so do I.

[Koch] Okay.

Last week, I released a letter that I had written to Donald Trump.

In the letter, I told Mr. Trump that I would not be granting him

the tax exemptions that he desired.

That letter aroused Mr. Trump's ire.

We have a gentleman in New York who is very disloyal. Every time--

You're talking about the mayor of New York, right?

I'm talking about the mayor of New York, yes.

I regret that much of the public discussion

has appeared to be related to personalities.

I'm saying that Ed Koch could do everybody a huge favor if he got out of office

and they started all over again.

All in all, it was... bad politics by... by Trump,

with the world's tallest building.

Certainly, his father would have known a much better way to do things.

I think Donald is a person who only understands force and power...

and making fun of people.

I would say he's got no talent and only moderate intelligence.

You called the mayor a moron.

Is that any way to talk about a mayor, about another person?

It's only expressing your feelings and that's the way I feel. That's what I say.

What Mr. Trump wanted was simply too expensive...

[Messinger] The city was not the same place it was in 1975.

I remember Koch just saying, like,

"This guy's not going to get his way on everything he wants."

I know what I'm doing, he doesn't need that kind of break.

[interviewer] What if you don't get this? What will happen?

Then what I'll do is I'll wait for a more progressive administration

and more importantly, I'll wait for bad times.

When bad times come, then I'll get whatever I want.

And if that happens, I'll bet he will.

[Donald] I really can say that thus far in life, I've been quite lucky.

But I also understand life, and life is a long-term investment,

and relatively speaking, I guess I'm only mid-term or short term.

I can't really tell you what's going to happen in the future,

but I do feel very positively about the future.

If you lost your fortune today, what would you do tomorrow?

Maybe I'd run for president.

I don't know.

No, I'm only kidding. When I say that, I'm being somewhat facetious.

-Thank you. -Thank you, Rona, very much.

Thank you.

[Barrett] Have we just about done it?

[man] Yes, that's all.

You are excellent, I have to tell you. You are very, very good.