The Trump Organization


The Trump Organization is a group of about 500 business entities of which Donald Trump is the sole or principal owner. About 250 of these entities use the Trump name. The organization was founded in 1923 by Donald Trump's grandmother, Elizabeth Christ Trump, and father, Fred Trump, as E. Trump & Son. Donald Trump began leading it in 1971, renamed it around 1973, and handed off its leadership to his children in 2017.
The Trump Organization, through its various constituent companies and partnerships, has or has had interests in real estate development, investing, brokerage, sales and marketing, and property management. Trump Organization entities own, operate, invest in, and develop residential real estate, hotels, resorts, residential towers, and golf courses in various countries. They also operate or have operated in construction, hospitality, casinos, entertainment, book and magazine publishing, broadcast media, model management, retail, financial services, food and beverages, business education, online travel, commercial and private aviation and beauty pageants. Trump Organization entities also own the New York television production company that produced the reality television franchise The Apprentice. Retail operations include or have included fashion apparel, jewelry and accessories, books, home furnishings, lighting products, bath textiles and accessories, bedding, home fragrance products, small leather goods, vodka, wine, barware, steaks, chocolate bars, and bottled spring water.
Since the financial statements of the Trump Organization's holdings and Donald Trump's personal tax returns are both private, its true value is not publicly known, though a wide range of estimates have been made. Trump has publicly released little definitive financial documentation to confirm his valuation claims.
On several occasions, Trump has been accused of deliberately inflating the valuation of Trump Organization properties through aggressive lobbying of the media to bolster his perceived net worth.

History

Founding and early history

The company's background starts with Frederick Trump and Elizabeth Christ Trump, a German immigrant couple who moved to the borough of Queens in 1906. Frederick began developing real estate there. On May 30, 1918, he died of Spanish flu in the 1918 influenza pandemic, leaving an estate valued at $31,359.
Elizabeth carried on in the real estate business after her husband's death. She had contractors build houses on the empty lots Frederick had owned, sold the houses, and lived off the mortgage payments. Her vision was to have her three children continue the family business. Her middle child, Fred Trump, began construction of his first house in 1923, soon after graduating high school. Elizabeth partially financed Fred's houses, and held the business in her name because Fred had not reached the age of majority. They did business as "E. Trump & Son", building hundreds of houses in Queens over the next several years. E. Trump & Son went out of business during the Great Depression. In 1933, Fred Trump opened a supermarket, but quickly sold it and returned to the real estate business.
Around this same time, Fred Trump and a partner acquired the mortgage-servicing subsidiary of Brooklyn's J. Lehrenkrauss & Co., which had gone bankrupt and subsequently been broken up amid charges of fraud. This gave Trump access to the titles of many properties nearing foreclosure, which he bought at low cost and sold for a profit. Trump was quickly thrust into the limelight as one of New York City's most successful businessmen. In 1935, the company moved to Brooklyn, where, in addition to Queens, Trump was a prolific builder of single-family homes.
During World WarII, Trump constructed apartments and temporary housing for military personnel in Virginia and Pennsylvania. In 1944, he shifted his focus back to Brooklyn and began planning to develop large apartment buildings. He opened the 1,344-unit Shore Haven complex in 1949, followed by Beach Haven in 1950 and Trump Village in 1964.
Elizabeth remained involved in the family business throughout her life. Even in her 70s, she collected coins from the laundromats in the Trump buildings.

Leadership under Donald Trump

worked for his father's business while attending the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1968 officially joined the company. In the early 1970s, Donald was made president of the company, while Fred became chairman of the board. Around 1973, Donald began referring to the business, which had previously had no single formal name, as the Trump Organization.
Donald Trump focused his efforts on major development projects in Manhattan, including the renovation of the Commodore Hotel, in partnership with Hyatt, as the Grand Hyatt New York ; the construction of Trump Tower in partnership with The Equitable ; and the development of Trump Plaza. He also opened three casino hotels in Atlantic City, New Jersey: Trump Plaza, Trump Castle, and Trump Taj Mahal.
In 1990, the Trump Organization approached a financial crisis and was believed to be on the brink of collapse, with Donald Trump and his companies owing estimated debts of $3.4 billion. Trump hired Stephen Bollenbach as the company's first chief financial officer, while Allen Weisselberg continued to serve under him as controller. Trump spent the following years renegotiating his debts, and gave up some properties, including the Trump Shuttle airline and a stake in the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. Bollenbach left the company in 1992. In 1995, Trump took another major step towards financial stability, launching a publicly traded company for the Trump casinos, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts. By 1996, Trump was widely considered to be making a comeback. The casino company did not fare as well, however, and Trump eventually lost his stake in the company to bankruptcy.
In 1997, Fred Trump transferred ownership of the bulk of his portfolio of apartment buildings to his four surviving children. Fred died in 1999. In 2004, the four siblings sold the apartments for $700 million to a group led by Rubie Schron, marking the family's exit from ownership of their father's business.

Trump presidency

Donald Trump relinquished his role in the Trump Organization after the 2016 election. On January 11, 2017, he announced that he and his daughter Ivanka would fully resign and his sons Donald Jr. and Eric would take executive charge of the various businesses, along with Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg.
Trump retained his financial stake in the business, despite having offered during the campaign to put all his assets in a "blind trust" should he win the presidency. His attorney at the time, Sheri Dillon, said Trump's assets would be overseen by an ethics officer, and that the Trump Organization would not pursue any new foreign business deals.
Under the pre-inaugural [|management agreement], Forbes magazine reported in March 2017:
The Trump Organization has curtailed some of its international work, pulling out of deals in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Brazil, while pledging to do no new foreign deals. Trump's international hotel licensing and management business makes up only $220 million of his estimated $3.5 billion fortune, but it's the most dynamic part of the Trump portfolio—and it throws off chunks of cash with virtually no risk. As the Trumps have wound down some international deals, they continue to push forward with new domestic agreements.

Eric Trump, in the Forbes article, discussed the "clear separation of church and state that we maintain" between the business and his father and said that with his father's presidency and related changes "ou could look at it either way" in terms of business prospects. He also said that "he will continue to update his father on the business while he is in the presidency... 'probably quarterly... profitability reports and stuff like that'." The article quoted Larry Noble, general counsel of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center and a former chief ethics officer at the Federal Election Commission, and President George W. Bush's former chief ethics lawyer, Richard Painter, as looking negatively at such multiple planned updates of President Trump per year. Noble said in part "if he is now going to get reports from his son about the businesses, then he really isn't separate in any real way." Painter said in part "at the end of the day, he owns the business. He has the conflicts that come with it."
Also in March 2017, Forbes did a listing of all "36 mini-Trumps", as it termed the domestic and international partners—often described as "billionaires"—with whom the Trump Organization has worked over the years. Introducing the listing, the magazine reported that at least 14 of the partners attended the president's inauguration and some of them paid for $18,000-a-night accommodations at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., for the event.
In April 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Eric Trump stated that the Trump Organization had requested rental relief from the landlord for its Trump International Hotel, which is the General Services Administration of the federal government.

Real estate

As of 2019, Trump's net worth is $3.1 billion, with about half of that coming from his New York City real estate holdings, and about a third coming from his national and international properties. Licensing fees paid by outside owners for using Trump's name on their properties also contribute to his overall net worth

Selected completed properties

The Trump Organization operates the Central Park Carousel, a merry-go-round located in Manhattan's Central Park. In 2010, Trump took over the management of the carousel, where he promised to revive the merry-go-round after its previous operator was removed by the city's parks department. The carousel generates $589,000 from annual admissions. The Trump Organization has a contract to operate the carousel through 2021.

Skating rinks

The Trump Organization operates the Wollman and Lasker rinks, both in Central Park, jointly with Rink Management Services of Mechanicsville, Virginia. In 1986, Trump offered New York City mayor Ed Koch to rebuild the deteriorating Wollman Rink at his expense within six months in return for the leases to operate the rink and an adjacent restaurant to recoup his costs. The work was completed two months ahead of schedule and $750,000 under the estimated costs. As part of the agreement to keep operating Wollman Rink, Trump agreed to also take a concession for the Lasker Rink as well, and the Trump Organization won concessions for the rinks in 1987.
The Trump Organization and Rink Management Services won the concessions to operate both rinks when the concessions were renewed in 2001. The Trump name is prominently displayed on the walls of the Wollman Rink as well as on the Zamboni that maintains it. It generates close to $8.7 million in annual income from rink admissions. The Trump Organization has a contract to operate the rinks through 2021.

Trump Winery

is a winery situated on Trump Vineyard Estates near Charlottesville, Virginia. It is valued between $5 million to $25 million.
The vineyard was purchased by Trump in April 2011 from Patricia Kluge, the widow of John Kluge. The property was distressed. and was officially opened in October 2011. Trump Winery is situated in the Monticello Wine Trail. Trump's son Eric was a partner in the purchase.
After purchasing the property, Trump turned over management of the winery to his son.

Golf courses

The Trump Organization owns or manages seventeen golf courses in the United States, Scotland, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates., Trump listed income of at least $176 million in an 18-month span from his golf courses—about 41% of the low-end estimate of his income.

United States

Many developers pay Donald Trump to market their properties and be the public face for their projects. For that reason, Trump does not own many of the buildings that display his name. According to Forbes, this portion of Trump's empire, actually run by his children, has valuation of $562 million. According to Forbes, there were 33 licensing projects under development including seven "condo hotels". Trump has generated more than $74 million in real estate licensing deals and has $823.3 million worth of real estate in joint ventures.

Former licensees

Former properties

Early in the Trump presidency, Eric and Donald Jr. Trump announced the creation two new signature hotel brands, Scion and American Idea, as "the next generation of the company". After initially announcing as many as thirty potential deals in their pipeline, the ventures were scrapped in early 2019, with only one uncompleted hotel in Mississippi.

Other ventures and investments

Trump owns a wide variety of other enterprises outside real estate. Other investments include a 17.2% stake in Parker Adnan, Inc., a Bermuda-based financial services holdings company.
Beyond his traditional ventures in the real-estate, hospitality, and entertainment fields and having carved out a niche for the Trump brand within these industries, Trump has moved on to establish the Trump name and brand in a multitude of other industries and products. He has made millions attaching his name to numerous products and services that range from energy drinks to books. He took in $1.1 million in men's wear licensing royalties. Trump earns $15,000 to $100,000 in book royalties and $2.2 million for his involvement with Trump Model Management every year. Until 2015 Trump owned the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants, collectively worth $15 million.
Trump has marketed his name on a large number of products and services achieving mixed success doing so. Some of his external entrepreneurial and investment ventures include or have included:
In addition, Trump reportedly receives $1.5 million for each one-hour presentation he does for The Learning Annex. Trump also endorsed ACN Inc. a multi-level marketing telecommunications company. He has spoken at ACN International Training Events at which he has praised the company's founders, business model and video phone. He earned a total $1.35 million for three speeches given for the company amounting to $450,000 per speech.
The Trump Organization also houses ventures started by Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka, which includes Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry and the Ivanka Trump Lifestyle Collection.

Coats of arms

Donald Trump has used a number of logos in the style of coats of arms for his businesses.
"Integritas".
Joseph E. Davies, third husband of Marjorie Merriweather Post and a former U.S. ambassador of Welsh origins, was granted a coat of arms by British heraldic authorities in 1939. After Donald Trump purchased Mar-a-Lago, the Florida estate built by Merriweather Post, in 1985, the Trump Organization started using Davies's coat of arms at Trump golf courses and estates across the country. It was also registered with the U.S. patent and trademark office.
In 2008, Trump attempted to establish the American logo at his new Trump International Golf Links in Balmedie, Scotland, but was warned by the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the highest authority for Scottish heraldry, that an act of the Scottish Parliament from 1672 disallows people using unregistered arms. In January 2012, shortly after the inauguration of the golf course, Trump unveiled the new coat of arms that had been granted to "The Trump International Golf Club Scotland Ltd" by the Lord Lyon in 2011.
Sarah Malone, executive vice-president of "The Trump International Golf Links, Scotland", said that "the coat of arms brings together visual elements that signify different aspects of the Trump family heritage , the Lion Rampant makes reference to Scotland and the stars to America. Three chevronels are used to denote the sky, sand dunes and sea—the essential components of the site, and the double- Eagle represents the dual nature and nationality of Trump's heritage. The Eagle clutches golf balls making reference to the great name of golf, and the motto Numquam Concedere is Latin for Never Give Up—Trump's philosophy."
From 2014, Trump used the same logo for "The Trump International Golf Links, Ireland", the golf resort built from his acquisition of Doonbeg Golf Club.

Valuation disputes

The financial statements of the Trump Organization's holdings are private, as are Donald Trump's personal tax returns, and there exist a wide range of estimates of the Trump Organization's true value. Donald Trump has been accused on several occasions of deliberately inflating the valuation of Trump Organization properties through the aggressive lobbying of the media, in particular the authors of the annual Forbes 400 list, in order to bolster his perceived net worth among the public over several decades. He has released little definitive financial documentation to the public confirm his valuation claims.
It is difficult to determine a net value for the Trump Organization's real estate holdings independently since each individual property may be encumbered by debt.
In October 2015, Forbes published an article titled "Inside The Epic Fantasy That's Driven Donald Trump For 33 Years" detailing its struggle to estimate the true net worth of Trump and the Trump Organization. In 2018 a former Forbes journalist who had worked on the Forbes list claimed in an op-ed to The Washington Post that Trump had lied about his wealth to Forbes to get on the list repeatedly and suggested that Forbes' previous low-end estimates of Trump's net worth were still well above his true net worth.

Controversies

In 1973, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division filed a civil rights suit against the Trump Organization charging them for violating the 1968 Fair Housing Act by refusing to rent to black people. The National Urban League had sent black and white testers to apply for apartments in Trump-owned complexes; the white testers got the apartments, whereas the black testers did not. According to court records, four superintendents or rental agents reported that applications sent to the central office for acceptance or rejection were coded by race. A 1979 Village Voice article quoted a rental agent who said Fred Trump had instructed him not to rent to black people and to encourage existing black tenants to leave. In 1975, a consent decree described by the head of DOJ's housing division as "one of the most far-reaching ever negotiated" required Trump to advertise vacancies in minority papers and list vacancies with the Urban League. The Justice Department subsequently stated that continuing "racially discriminatory conduct by Trump agents has occurred with such frequency that it has created a substantial impediment to the full enjoyment of equal opportunity."
Also, it is alleged that the Trump Organization has a history of not paying for services rendered. Several hundred contractors or workers for the organization have filed lawsuits or liens saying they were not paid for their work, and others say they had to settle for cents on the dollar.
In 1989, New York State officials ordered the Grand Hyatt New York, a hotel owned at the time by the Trump Organization and the Hyatt Corporation, to pay New York City $2.9 million in rent that had been withheld by the hotel in 1986 due to "unusual" accounting changes approved by Donald Trump. An investigation by New York City auditors noted that the hotel was missing basic financial records and found the hotel was using procedures that violated generally accepted accounting principles.
From 2000 on, the Trump Organization held 50% of TD Trump Deutschland AG, a corporate venture with a German company, planning to build a skyscraper named "Trump Tower Europe" in Frankfurt, Berlin or Stuttgart, but allegedly never paid the full amount of their €2 million share. At least three lawsuits followed and the company was disestablished in 2005.
AVM in 2012.
In December 2015, Trump said in a radio interview that he had a "conflict of interest" in dealing with Turkey and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan because of his Trump Towers Istanbul, saying "I have a little conflict of interest because I have a major, major building in Istanbul and it's a tremendously successful job... It's called Trump Towers—two towers instead of one... I've gotten to know Turkey very well."
, Tom Scharfeld owns the trademark of "iTrump" mobile app which plays the trumpet. As "the word trump has other meanings", the Court did not rule in favour of the Trump Organization.
On March 15, 2018, the New York Times reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as part of his inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, had previously issued a subpoena for documents from the Trump Organization. Alan S. Futerfas, a lawyer representing the Trump Organization, said: "Since July 2017, we have advised the public that the Trump Organization is fully cooperative with all investigations, including the special counsel, and is responding to their requests."
In August 2018, the New York County district attorney was reported to be considering criminal charges against the organization and two of its senior executives regarding the payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels.
In October 2018, The New York Times published an exposé arguing that the Trump family evaded over $500 million in gift taxes and estate taxes on the transfer of Fred Trump's wealth to his children. The alleged schemes involved siphoning money from Fred's companies to his children throughout their lives, and understating the value of transferred properties. The Trump family denied the allegations. New York tax authorities opened an investigation into the matter.
In December 2018, there were reports of Saudi Arabia's using Trump businesses to indirectly funnel funds to Donald Trump, which may be in breach of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
After former Trump Organization attorney Michael Cohen testified to the House Oversight Committee in February 2019 that the company had inflated its asset values to insurance companies, the New York State Department of Financial Services issued a subpoena to Aon, the Trump Organization's longtime insurance broker. The Trump Organization is under investigation by the Southern District of New York regarding inflated insurance claims allegations, as of May 2019.