Original subtitles

[Donald Trump] Citizen Kane was really about accumulation,

and at the end of the accumulation you see what happens,

and it’s not necessarily all positive.

I think he learned in Kane that maybe wealth isn't everything,

because he had the wealth, but he didn’t have the happiness.

The table getting larger and larger and larger...

with he and his wife getting further and further apart...

as he got wealthier and wealthier.

Perhaps, I can understand that.

[male interviewer] Now, if you could give Charles Foster Kane advice,

what would you say to him?

Get yourself a different woman.

-[woman] Hey. -[man] I definitely had it.

[Nikki Haskell] You know, it was very strange.

I kept hearing Donald was cheating on Ivana, but I never believed it.

It just, like... didn’t seem possible that that could happen.

I actually got in a couple of fights with people.

"You don’t know what you're talking about. Don’t be ridiculous."

So, I told Ivana.

We had had lunch at the Russian Tea Room

and she said, "Well, let's call him."

[telephone ringing]

Then she said, "Nicky has something she wants to tell you."

And I proudly got on the phone... and I told him.

[inaudible dialogue]

He goes, "That's so sweet of you. I really appreciate you calling me.

And I appreciate you taking the time." And you know, "This could never happen."

And he just totally denied it.

But very calm, "Thank you so much for defending me."

Uh...

"You're really a great friend, Nicky."

So long.

Why would he ever have his girlfriend in the lodge

when his wife and kids were on the mountain with him?

It just makes no sense.

[Haskell] I was talking to a girlfriend of mine in Aspen.

She goes, "Oh, my God, you are not going to believe what's happening.

Ivana is on the ski lift and she's there with Donald

and Marla Maples, this girl, you know, he's been going with."

And I'm like, "What?"

She's, like, attacking Ivana on the slopes, saying to her,

"I want your husband and he's not in love with you."

And she's crying. And I'm like, "What? What are you telling me?"

[Sue Carswell] I remember feeling sorry for Ivana.

She had been sucker-punched on the slopes in Aspen.

[Dick Clark] Fifteen seconds from now...

-it'll be 1990. -[crowd cheers]

Five, four, three, two, one... Happy New Year!

[crowd cheers]

I would say that the Trump fiasco really started the '90s off.

My editor called me in and said, "We want you to cover the Trump beat."

[male reporter] When New Yorkers pick up their tabloids,

The Daily News and The Post, each morning,

they expect the headlines to pack a wallop.

[Haskell] Everything seemed to be fine.

They weren’t fighting. I thought it was just going to blow over.

And then Liz Smith got it, called her, or she called her, and that was it.

[inaudible dialogue]

One day...

she phoned me out of the blue, and she was crying...

She said, "Liz, would you come to the Plaza and meet me?"

So, I got dressed, got a taxi, went to the Plaza...

and she threw her arms around me...

like I was her best friend.

And she said, "Donald doesn’t want me anymore."

I began to talk her into letting me write something.

Finally, I went to him.

And he said, "I don’t want to sleep with a woman who's had children."

And I said, "But they're your children."

And he said, "I know, I know. I want to have an open marriage."

Michael Kennedy, Ivana’s lawyer, called me, and said, "Write the story."

[Carswell] Donald’s in Japan.

Liz Smith plots with Ivana how to make this come out.

The story breaks when he’s on the plane coming back.

You didn’t have the internet to get your word out,

so he had to stay quiet for a couple of hours.

The papers just exploded. The world exploded.

Communism is collapsing, the Germanys are reuniting,

South Africa is changing,

but in Manhattan the story is "Trump versus Trump."

I bought the Post, which I never do. [laughs]

[female interviewer] To read about it?

Well, look at the photo. Isn't that great?

[Geraldo Rivera] His divorce from Ivana was something that was a nuclear event.

[audience cheers, applauds]

[Rivera] If you talked about public people in awkward, private situations,

this was the most spectacular thing you could possibly be talking about.

The real-life divorce story you're about to hear about is bigger

than Dynasty, better than Dallas, and spicier than General Hospital.

Newspaper circulation is way up, television news ratings are way up,

because the people just can’t seem to get enough.

Good evening. On this Valentine’s day, the abandoned wife in what's being billed

as "the divorce of the decade" made her first public appearance.

[crowd clamors]

[male presenter] Ivana Trump, the estranged wife

of real estate tycoon, Donald Trump, kept a date with the ladies who lunch today,

attracting a traffic-stopping press hoard

outside the swanky, mid-town restaurant, La Grenouille.

[crowd clamors]

[Smith] People were screaming and shouting,

"Give it to him, Ivana. Make him pay."

[crowd clamors]

[Smith] Everybody had been invited to that birthday party,

all of her best friends, her own mother...

her mother-in-law...

Nobody knew how to act at the party.

His mother made a real attempt...

to make the birthday party normal.

[Carswell] I think they respected Donald’s marriage to Ivana.

And I think that... they were embarrassed by this.

Donald had gone astray.

We had a lot of laughs and so forth and...

-And nobody-- Nobody spoke ill of Donald. -That's right.

-[female interviewer] Say that again. -Nobody spoke ill of Donald.

Oh, in fact, I don’t think his name was mentioned until now.

Who is this?

That is Donald Trump’s mother in the backseat of the limousine

after yesterday's lunch.

What a wonderfully civil thing for this woman to do. She shows up.

She was great. She's a wonderful lady.

And she got up and said, "Well, I guess I'm sort of the villain here today.

But I hate the word 'in-law.'

I don’t consider Ivana my in-law. I consider her my daughter."

[Haskell] Twenty-eight days on the front page of the paper,

Donald was having problems in business and that was a big thing.

It was just awful. It was terrible.

[female announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,

I have the high honor and the great privilege

of introducing Chelsea Clinton,

Hillary Clinton, and our governor

and the next president of the United States, Bill Clinton.

[crowd cheers]

[Bill Clinton] I want to especially thank

Hillary and Chelsea for taking this big step on our life’s journey together.

Hillary for being my wife and friend and partner...

For the love we've shared and the work she's done...

to make life better for the children and families of this state...

I ask you to join with us today.

I believe that together we can make America great again.

[crowd applauds, cheers]

[inaudible dialogue]

The man who says money means nothing to him except as a means of keeping score

may be hurting on his favorite scoreboard.

Suddenly there is talk that the Trump financial empire is shaky.

The most damaging of such suggestions was published this week in Forbes magazine.

It says that you have a debt of about 3.2 billion

and that you are losing money at the rate of 40 million dollars a year. True?

Forbes has been after me for years, uh, consistently after me.

They took properties and devalued the properties.

They say the Plaza Hotel is not worth what everybody knows its worth.

It’s a total hatchet job.

But it’s all borrowed money. You have to service the debt.

Do you know my books? Why do you say it's borrowed money?

-Well, if it's not, tell me. -What right do you have to say--

-Do you know about borrowed money? -Let me tell you what I know.

All I know is what people write about you. I haven't seen your books.

-What they write is-- -See, if you were smart,

-you'd want to see my books. -I'm not competent

-to look over your books. -I can see that you're not--

An accounting firm to look over--

Truly, I can see that you're not competent to look at the books.

What happens is, every asset has-- I'm sure you're not gonna play that.

Every-- But now you might, because I said I'm sure you won't.

Every asset-- Every asset has some debt.

-Okay, how much are you worth? -I have absolutely no idea.

-[reporters clamoring] -[bodyguard] Come on, back off.

-[Trump] You're kidding? -[bodyguard] Back off.

I mean, the proof is, I've-- I've got

Donald Trump’s confidential financial statement,

-okay? I'll tell you what it says. -[man] I guess it’s not confidential

-if you've got it-- -No, we've printed it

-in the Inquirer. He's got two-- -[audience laughs]

Philadelphia Inquirer.

He's got $210 million dollars in cash and stocks.

You dig back into the back of it and you find out that he's borrowed

from a dozen banks a hundred and ninety million of them.

It's all borrowed money.

I think that he was really very nimble in his response to this crisis.

He was highly leveraged, he had all kinds of debt,

and he was trying to take the notoriety

and make the notoriety affect his bottom line in a positive way.

He wanted to make money off it.

Trump’s problem is that he doesn’t have enough cash at the moment

to meet all the interest payments he's got.

And do we know what we're talking about?

And in a capitalist marketplace, where so much is dependent

upon what the customer thinks about you,

can media poison...

the minds of the customer to the extent that you are unfairly victimized?

I have a brilliant answer to this question...

[audience laughs]

but I will not have time to give it.

I'm sorry. It seems coincidental, but I want to know how much all this

has to do with Marla Maples, 'cause all of a sudden it seems like

America hates Donald Trump.

[reporters clamoring]

[male reporter] Mr. Trump, can you tell us why you're suing your wife?

He would either release something negative about Ivana,

or, more likely, something positive about himself.

"I will get through this. I will survive this.

I had no idea this was happening, but life goes on."

[male reporter 2] Did Ivana violate the agreement?

[reporter] Tell me what you think of the St. Regis hotel.

[reporter 2] Do you feel she violated the agreement?

[Trump] The scrutiny has become so much. I'm not a politician.

I'm not in public office. I'm not under the eye in theory.

The story is a story about two people that grow apart,

and frankly, I don’t think it should be covered the way it's being covered.

[male reporter] You'd think he hates this unwanted attention, but maybe not.

Mr. Trump, this maestro of publicity, has been fueling the flames himself,

often placing phone calls to influential columnists.

For the tabloids, it was Cindy Adams versus Liz Smith,

Daily News versus the New York Post.

Ivana was tied in with Liz Smith

and gave all her information to the Daily News

whereas Cindy Adams was tied in with Donald,

and he fed everything to Cindy, or just called them directly,

the New York Post, and put things on the cover.

What special quality does he have that, maybe, viewers don't know about?

It's funny. I always tell Donald,

I said, "I wish that you understood how adorable you are

just being your true, true self.

You don't have to put on a red tie and a blue suit to be likable.

It's what's beneath--"

[Larry King] He's likable. People who work for him like him.

People that work for him, friends like, you know, you that know him personally,

it's hard not to like him.

Well, he's just very supportive and a very, very close friend of mine.

And we're just not really making any big steps right now,

we're just enjoying each other's company, when we can.

[interviewer] I was talking to Miss Gilpatrick earlier, she said...

Do you remember the great line of George Saunders about Zsa Zsa?

He said when Zsa Zsa was through with him,

she "tossed me aside like a squeezed lemon."

I think Marla might find herself like a squeezed lemon.

First tonight, can real estate magnate Donald Trump

keep his financial empire afloat?

Joining us now, Abraham Wallach,

senior vice president of First Capital Management.

Mr. Wallach, at the mercy of the market, speaking as a real estate man,

how much can Donald Trump blame his current troubles

on the state of the real estate market?

Yes, he can blame market conditions to some extent...

uh, but I think the reality is if you pay too much for properties,

and if your ego is as large as his was-- is,

and you just buy everything in sight...

part of the blame has to squarely rest in your own lap.

Now that we see the larger picture, three and a half billion dollars of debt,

properties that in the near term have no chance of achieving

the kinds of revenue necessary to cover debt...

I did something that Donald doesn’t like. I told the truth.

Just being a champ.

[Abraham Wallach] Within a week of being on that program,

the door man rings me up and he says someone's down here

and this man dumps a pile of papers that thick,

and I start to look at them, and it says,

"Trump versus Wallach, 250 million dollars."

And I said, "Oh, my God, I'm being sued by Trump for 250 million dollars,"

defamation of character, lies... You know, just every word you could think of

in a lawsuit was there.

Norma, can I have my calls, please? Calls, please. Thank you.

[Wallach] Our firm used the same law firm that Donald did.

The general partner of the firm, calls, and he says,

"So long as you don’t say anything more about him in the news,

he'll drop the lawsuit."

"But he wants one thing." I said, "What's that?"

"He wants to talk to you."

I arrived a little early.

I was sitting there slumped in this velvet couch,

taking in the panoramic view of Central Park.

This giant. He-- I didn’t realize how tall he was.

He stuck his hand out and I stood up, I shook his hand,

and he couldn’t have been nicer.

It’s as if all that had happened was... nothing, never happened, never existed.

[inaudible dialogue]

He said, "Go back and tell them you're leaving.

I want you to start here on Monday."

I was sort of bitten by the Trump bug.

I quit the other job and Monday morning I appeared at Trump's offices.

Why did Donald call me? I think he saw me as someone

who could in some way help him.

He was not sure where or how, but somehow help him.

[crowd cheers]

[male reporter] It’s been quite a week for Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton.

His problem?

Long-rumored allegations of marital infidelity finally surfaced

in a supermarket tabloid.

[cheering fades]

Fourteen percent of the registered voters in America

said they wouldn’t vote for a candidate who's had an affair.

But what does that mean? That means 86% of the American people...

either don’t think its relevant to presidential performance...

or look at whether a person looking at all the facts

is the best person to serve.

You know, I'm not sitting here, some little woman,

standing by my man like Tammy Wynette.

I'm sitting here because I love him, and I respect him,

and I honor what he's been through and what we have been through together

and, you know, if that's not enough for people, then heck, don’t vote for him.

[male reporter] With all of the gossip and innuendo,

Ivana Trump has never gone public with her side.

Tonight, with Barbara, she breaks her silence

And then came Christmas, Aspen...

can you tell us what happened?

It’s still hard, isn't it?

It’s tough.

[Ivana Trump] I did find out first time on the telephone,

when I did pick the phone in the living room

and Donald did pick the phone in the bedroom.

-[Barbara Walters] In Aspen? -In Aspen.

And he spoke to a mutual friend of ours, and he was talking about Marla,

and I really didn’t understand.

I never heard a name like that in my life,

and I came to Donald and said, "Who is Mula?"

And he said, "Well, that's a girl that's going after me for last two years."

And I said, "Is that serious?"

And he said, "Well, she is just going after me."

I think marriage is an incredible institution.

I think it’s a great institution. I told you my parents were married,

-have been married, are married-- -You’ve come from married stock.

-I come from married stock. -People stay married in the Trumps.

You’re talking about 50 years of marriage with my mother and father,

-that’s a long time-- -Your brother married a long time?

My-- Robert is happily married, and my family's generally happily married,

so, I’m not one that loves the concept of divorce.

In fact, just the opposite, I hate the concept of divorce.

I hate everything it represents.

Um... It really was my decision.

Um, I tried for two months, as you know, until February.

I tried to live with the idea that I had been cheated on and I had been lied to.

And-- And I decided that that's not a life which I want to live.

I never could trust a man who'd cheat on me.

Do you think that Donald is capable of being faithful to one woman?

I don’t think so.

I made a big mistake. I put Ivana into the business a little bit,

and she did a very good job, and she ran the Castle,

and then she ran the Plaza, and she did a nice job.

The divorce from Ivana taught him a great lesson.

Ivana and I were having problems for years.

She's a wonderful woman. But we were having problems like everybody else.

I mean, we were having problems.

He proved that he couldn’t have his reputation destroyed.

She'd come home every night.

"Here’s how we are doing. We are doing this, we are doing that."

It became like I'm married to a business partner

and it really hurt the marriage.

He learned he could ultimately get away with anything.

[male reporter] Donald Trump is running short of cash.

Four major New York banks have been negotiating directly with Trump,

and may force him to sell key properties.

In a statement issued yesterday, Trump insisted his investments

remain excellent values.

He is confident that he and his bankers will work things out,

but there is a problem.

Benjy, hi, what’s going on?

[Wallach] I signed on to work for Trump just as the women and children

were being led to the life boats on the Titanic.

People were running from one room to the other,

lawyers were all over the place...

Accountants doing all kinds of analyses and projections.

Everybody was petrified, and they thought the ship would go under.

All right, find out, Lou, okay? Thanks, Lou.

Hello. Jack, how are you? What's going on?

Part of me was scared,

because of all the chaos I saw going on,

but part of me was comfortable because I said, "Nobody else can do this."

But do you think you come out okay at that number? You really do, huh?

[Wallach] Donald knew how to use the system.

The banks had no choice but to stick with him.

I'll tell you what, Bernie, come in and see me. Let’s you and I talk,

and then we'll see-- we'll go from that stage.

Does that sound all right?

Has Donald dumped Marla for Carla?

Well, those who've been following the soap opera escapades

of billionaire developer Donald Trump

are being treated to yet another chapter tonight.

Marla, who was the other woman when Trump was married to Ivana,

apparently was told by the Donald to pack up and move out

of their posh Upper East Side apartment they were sharing.

And the new woman in Trump’s life is an Italian model.

[Carswell] Now he's dumping Marla for Carla?

And they rhyme? It was just too much.

I call up Donald Trump’s office and I get his assistant Norma on the phone,

and I said, "What is going on, Norma? What is going on?"

And she said, "Darlin', I'll get you a call back in five minutes or so."

And she was true to her word, five minutes later John Miller called.

[Carswell on recording] Good morning. What’s your name again?

-[man on recording] John Miller. -And you work with Donald?

Yes, that's correct.

John Miller, what kind of comment is coming from Donald?

He really decided that he wasn't-- You know, he didn’t want to…

make a big commitment… He didn’t want to make a commitment.

He really thought it was too soon.

He's coming out of a, you know, marriage,

that, uh... And he's starting to do tremendously well financially.

'Cause, you know, there’s a real estate depression

in the United States, and he's probably doing…

as well as anybody there is.

[man on recording] I'm sort of new here. And I'm--

[Carswell] What's your position?

[man] I'm handling PR. He gets so much of it.

[Carswell] Yeah.

You know, I had talked to Donald on the phone a couple of times.

Call me over the weekend. I want to talk to you, okay?

I thought, "It's just so weird that he hired someone

who sounds just like him."

[man] Now off the record, I could tell you that he didn’t care if he got bad PR

until he got his divorce finished.

And I remember thinking, "I gotta keep him on the phone."

[Carswell] What's going to happen? Is she being asked to leave,

-or is she going to be allowed to stay? -[man] Well, he treats everybody well,

-and you know Donald, but he's a-- -Yeah. No, I have met him.

-Have you met him? -Yes.

[man] He's a good guy and he's not going to hurt anybody.

One article said, "He's going to throw her out of the apartment,"

it's total nonsense.

Um, he's somebody that has a lot of options and frankly…

he gets called by everybody in the book in terms of women.

I mean they call, they just call.

Actresses, people that you write about just call to see

if they can go out with him. Madonna called

and wanted to go out with him, that I can tell you.

[Carswell] As soon as I got off the phone with John Miller,

I ran down the hall and I said,

"Oh, my God! You gotta listen to this."

I said, "I think it's Donald."

Everybody in the office was listening in on this tape, and they're like,

“Oh, my God! You gotta get confirmation."

So, I called Cindy Adams

from the New York Post and she's like, "What is he doing? That's Donald."

And then I called Marla,

and I was like, Marla there is something I need to play for you.

[man on recording] Marla wants to be back with him, but he just feels it's too soon.

When he makes the decision, that will be a very lucky woman.

Off the record, he probably thought Marla wasn't the right one.

So, now he has somebody else named Carla.

Then she dropped Mick Jagger for Donald, and that's where it is right now.

[Carswell] She just cries when she hears this tape.

If you are as involved as they were at this time, it was devastating news.

I don’t know what he was thinking about Carla, because she has come out

and said that she had never had anything to do with him.

So this is all very imaginary.

She didn’t leave Mick Jagger for Donald Trump.

Right after she hears the tape,

Marla gets the hell out of town, out of dodge.

Donald kept trying to move her back

and she was like, "I'm not having anything to do with you anymore, Donald."

I had to hurt Marla’s feelings, but it’s a good thing she found out,

to see who he really was.

[show host] He has seen his life, the good and the bad,

splashed all across the front pages

of New York City tabloids, and sometimes you get the feeling

that he doesn’t even mind the notoriety one little bit.

As a single man once again, he may be the most eligible bachelor in America.

Please welcome Donald Trump.

[crowd applauds]

Welcome.

Just this past weekend, you had a big party in Palm Beach.

You invited just a few of your close friends like the Miami Dolphin

-and the Buffalo Bill cheerleaders. -[audience laughs]

Take a look at the monitors, if you will.

-Party at Trump Mansion! Woo! -Yes!

[party guests cheering, exclaiming]

[indistinct chatter]

At that period, Donald Trump’s life was going through all kinds of turmoil.

[cheering]

He was emphasizing his playboy-ness, rather than the fact that his real estate

and gambling empires were going through very turbulent times.

Woo!

It’s been a great year for me, and it's been one of my best years, in a sense.

Yeah, but you are seen in the company of lots of beautiful women, Donald.

I like beautiful women. You're very beautiful.

This is really a beautiful woman.

[audience cheers, applauds]

Way to deflect the reporter's questions, right?

[male reporter] Well, the name Taj Mahal means "crown of the palace."

[male photographer] A still! A still.

[male reporter] Only Trump’s crown is in hock tonight.

Trump has been forced to put his Taj Mahal Hotel

and casino in Atlantic City into bankruptcy,

because he couldn’t pay his debts.

[female reporter] After weeks of negotiations,

at the press conference Trump seemed pleased with the deal.

[Trump] I see so many people here for this, I can’t believe it.

One of these days you'll be writing about other people too,

but I think it’s going to turn out, Chris, to be a very positive...

It was a long, hard negotiation.

Donald understands that most reporters accurately quote what they're told,

but they really don’t know what they're writing about.

I think it's wonderful the way everybody pulled together and worked

on really taking a building that is doing, as Mr. Ross said, record numbers.

And once his story is out there,

then anything else is just a counter story.

Uh, and we're very happy that this all worked out,

and I think that over the long term, it's gonna prove out to be

a great victory for everybody.

[male reporter] Mr. Ross, you said-- Rather, Mr. Miller said that

this is a framework for an agreement.

-I'm wondering if... -[reporters fade out]

All sorts of people who were owed money got stiffed.

[man] Down! Down! Stay down.

[man] When the Trump Taj Mahal went bad...

it didn’t go bad by itself.

It took two other casinos and it took thousands of individuals down with it.

Forget the debt holder. Those people that loaned him that money

assumed that risk.

That's their problem.

But the suppliers, and the small businesses...

that provided services, provided equipment, provided supply,

expected to be paid at the end of 30 days.

A lot of businesses in the Atlantic City area went out of business,

because they could not sustain the loss from the monies

they couldn’t collect from Trump.

And from that day to this,

he has never once publicly expressed regret for that kind of damage.

[male photographer] Marla, over here, please.

-[male photographer 2] Marla! -[male photographer 3] Marla! Over here!

[photographer] How do you feel? Mr. Trump, how do you feel?

Great.

[female reporter] Trump was in the delivery room

for the birth of his fourth child. He even cut her umbilical cord.

-Thank you! -Thank you.

[scattered applause]

[male reporter] In a dramatic, stunning form reversal,

struggling tycoon and media ring master

Donald Trump has asked Marla Maples to marry him.

Trump left his headquarters, went across the street to Harry Winston jewelers,

and bought a ring similar to this one.

[Trump] We really anticipated getting married and having a baby,

not having a baby and getting married.

Why didn’t you marry her right away when you found out she was pregnant?

-Indecision. Really, indecision. -Indecision?

To me, it’s a more difficult decision. You know, it’s in many respects

a much bigger decision.

It's an irrevocable deal, theoretically.

Well, it really is. In theory, it’s an irrevocable deal.

[crowd cheering]

[photographers clamoring]

[male reporter] Celebrity guests swarm New York’s Plaza Hotel for the big events.

The crowd was the expected mix of beautiful people,

business leaders and politicians.

And the hype was pervasive.

[Wallach] The very first function I was invited to was to Donald’s wedding,

and it was a very grand affair.

Huh? What did I get for their wedding? A toaster!

[female interviewer] A toaster!

[Wallach] He knows all these politicians, all these Hollywood stars.

[photographers yelling] O.J.!

I mean, the man just knows everybody.

They've gone through a lot of turmoil, and I think everybody in the country

believes that maybe their relationship could work if this relationship will work,

you know, for all the things that they've gone through,

and I think this will work.

[photographers yelling] Trump! Trump!

[male photographer] Mrs. Trump!

[woman] Donald would not have married her, had his father not pressured him.

He said, "She has a child. Now you have to marry her."

[indistinct chatter]

[female interviewer] Can you tell us what got you to pop the question?

Oh...

Well, I think it was just the relationship that was happening,

and it just feels really good.

-See you later. Have a good time. -And you always find the time. [laughs]

[woman] Donald, give Marla a kiss!

[male reporter] When it was over, Donald and Marla treated fans to the royal wave.

[Wallach] It was in the Plaza Hotel. It cost several hundred thousand dollars

and he charged everything to Citibank, who had the mortgage on the building.

Even though it had huge mortgages,

he was still the owner, so he just charged everything.

For years, they were hounding him to pay the cost of the wedding.

[David Cay Johnston] The Trump shuttle airline goes into bankruptcy.

It’s a complete disaster.

The Trump Plaza Hotel is taken over by a Saudi Prince,

at a loss to Donald.

And so, a whole series of properties fall out of Donald’s hands

over this period of time.

[male reporter] Trump has put another of his trophies up for sale, his yacht.

[Johnston] But Donald still can’t repay his debts.

American banks won't loan him money anymore.

So, Donald starts getting money from other sources.

Trump creates the only publicly traded company

he's ever been involved with.

Make a six bid for 20,000...

For those interested in following the stock,

Trump made it characteristically easy.

He trades under the symbol of DJT. Donald J. Trump.

Donald Trump understands that if he creates this public persona,

that's what people will see.

You sell people what they want to hear.

[Selina Scott] We were following Trump in Britain at that stage.

I think he thought, well, it might burnish his image a little bit.

He wanted to send a message out to his potential investors.

If he was considered to be going down,

well, he had a message for them that he wasn't.

[Trump] Here's our new partner in the deal,

the legendary Selina Scott from Europe.

-Hello. -[Scott] Oh--

[Trump] See you in five minutes. [laughs]

-Hi, guys. -Ah, she’s beautiful.

Now, this is just a small group. Philip Johnson...

-[Scott] Yes. -[Trump] ...also a legend.

Selina is the biggest in Europe.

You know about that? Everybody knows Selina Scott.

[laughter]

He saw himself as a deal maker.

And how do you make sure that you come across in the best way,

that people are going to look at you

and think, "Here's a guy who knows what he is doing"?

Hey Rich, get closer.

When you get next to a building this high, it’s a scary thing.

You know, to me, that's the symbol of lot of things.

That's the ultimate symbol.

It so much represents the greatness of New York and the power of New York.

It was trying to impress me so that the television cameras

could pull out from him...

this image of a man who is in charge, in control, is gonna survive.

He was very much in awe of his mother.

[Scott] Donald’s mother, Mary McLeod,

a dark-haired beauty from the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides,

first met Fred Trump when she was just 18.

What did she see in the young builder from the Bronx?

Why is it ever about the guys we fall in love with?

It's special, right? He was wonderful and a very eligible--

the most eligible bachelor in New York, so there.

[Scott] Donald obviously asked her to come and talk.

He needed his mom there to act as his witness

to his good nature, and his ability, and all the rest of it.

[Scott] Fred and Mary had five children.

Donald was the Trump’s third born.

His older brother Fred apparently found it hard to satisfy

his father’s aspirations. Alcohol became the easy way out.

[Trump] I had a brother who was a great guy, handsome, beautiful guy.

And Fred died at a relatively young age, in his 40s, of pure and simple alcoholism.

I mean, he just drank like a fish. He just drank and drank.

It’s a drug. It’s a horrible drug.

[Scott] This was success for Donald, to display his mother in this way.

To say, "Look how far my mother has come, and look what she's given birth to."

[laughs]

Did you at any stage in that think, "He really has bitten off

more than he can chew. He's really gone and done it now"?

-No, no, never. -[Scott] Never?

I knew. I just knew he'd come back.

[Trump] This is just the right time for this industry.

We’re really happy, and this is a very exciting day.

[Johnston] They sell the stock at a very good price.

[male reporter] Not bad work for a man whose casinos have gone into bankruptcy.

[Johnston] That was sort of an astonishing development.

I mean, this is a man who had a track record of not paying his bills,

of not managing his enterprises well.

Wall Street has a lot of respect for Trump.

[Johnston] Donald gets paid at least 82 million dollars,

and plus, 50 million dollars is used to pay off debts he personally guaranteed.

How could this happen?

[audience cheering, applauding]

He's a guy who has engineered one of the biggest turnarounds

in modern business history. People were taking away control

of your various casinos and your far-flung empire,

your real estate developments had stalled.

As you sit there today, give me a one-word answer,

how are things going business-wise?

It’s probably been the best year of my life from a business standpoint.

One word? I don’t know. Can we say "luck"? Maybe "luck."

[Rivera] "Luck" is a good word. We'll be right back.

[audience cheering]

It increased his image as this man who was all-powerful

and can do anything and has the Midas touch.

And Donald Trump is masterful at exploiting these things.

That's why he is such a great con-artist,

the greatest con-artist in the history of the world.

[female reporter] It is Splitsville for Donald Trump and Marla Maples.

They've decided to separate after three-and-a-half years of marriage,

and say they hope to remain friends.

"Often, I'll tell friends whose wives are constantly nagging them

about this or that, that they' re better off cutting their losses.

When a man has to endure a woman who is not supportive

and complains constantly about his not being home

or being attentive enough, he will not be successful

unless he is able to cut the cord."

-That's true, I mean, I think that-- -It doesn’t say much

for trying to make a marriage work, does it?

It doesn’t. It's very cold and I hate saying it, but it’s true.

I've seen people that are married to women

that, you know, their lives-- They just will not be successful.

Do you think people are going to look at you as someone

they should take marriage advice from?

[laughs] That's a tough question.

[Trump] In real life, I believe that wealth does, in fact,

isolate you from other people.

It’s a protective mechanism.

You have your guard up...

much more so than you would if you didn’t have wealth.

[clattering]

[Trump] There was a great rise in Citizen Kane...

and there was a modest fall.

[clattering, shattering]

[Trump] The fall wasn't a financial fall. The fall was a personal fall...

but it was a fall nevertheless.

So, you had the highs and you had the lows.

Rosebud.

A lot of people don’t really understand the significance of it.

I'm not sure if anybody understands its significance,

but I think the significance

is bringing a lonely, rather sad figure

back into his childhood.

[Scott] The youngest of the family, Robert,

also had problems as a child coping with the acquisitive Donald.

[Mary Anne Trump] I remember he used to be in the playroom building with blocks,

and Robert got building blocks at the same time,

so they had a lot of building blocks...

[chuckles] and Donald borrowed Robert's.

Robert willingly gave the blocks to his brother to build,

but Donald glued the blocks together.

-He never gave the blocks back? -Oh, no.

Of course not, he couldn’t, they were glued in one... [laughs]

-Glued in one big building. [laughs] -[Scott laughs]