No Such Thing as Over-Exposure: Inside the Life and Celebrity of Donald Trump

Chapter 4. Changing a Skyline

Long before the marketing of Donald Trump began in earnest, long before he understood how valuable a business strategy it was to promote his name as a brand, he set out to impose his presence and his personal stamp on Manhattan. He was only 30 years old, with no track record in building—only a burning ambition coupled with a boyish enthusiasm. Back then, as in later years, he was brimming with self-confidence. He had boasted to a college friend that he planned to change the skyline of New York, but such youthful dreams were part and parcel of every young real-estate developer's fantasies. No particular reason existed at that time to indicate that this tall, solidly built, golden-haired young man might have such a ...