Did a 'small loan' from Dad launch Trump's career? | CNN

01:09 - Source: http://www.cnn.com/

Donald Trump calls father's $1 million loan 'small'

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Michael D'Antonio: Donald Trump understated the extent of the help he received from his father and others

It was far more than the $1 million loan he cited in a New Hampshire appearance, says D'Antonio

Editor’s Note: Michael D’Antonio is the author of the new book “Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success” (St. Martin’s Press). The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

CNN —

Insisting, “It has not been easy for me” and that “my whole life has been a ‘no’ and I fought through it,” Donald Trump said Monday his father’s “small loan” of $1 million got him started as a developer. This version of events, which seems intended to show he is somehow a self-made man, represents a new direction for the candidate and fails to give Trump the elder the credit he deserves.

Michael D'Antonio

Toni Raiten-D'Antonio

Although Trump may have been told “no” on occasion, his early success depended on many important “yesses” that were obtained with his father’s ample assistance. Privileged to have a name that opened doors at banks and insurance companies and New York City Hall, Trump also benefited from financial assistance that was worth many times more than $1 million. He and his businesses have also enjoyed public help in the form of tax breaks, loans from his siblings, and protection from bankruptcy courts worth well in excess of $100 million. However it was his father who made sure Donald got a big head start in life.

As Donald Trump began his career in real estate, his father was one of the richest individuals in America, with a net worth of roughly $200 million. (The equivalent today of $1 billion.) The candidate is correct when he says that Fred Trump was never eager to work in Manhattan, but this didn’t make him a minor leaguer.

Fred built 15,000 apartments in Brooklyn and Queens, which generated a river of cash that he used to retire debt and invest in new projects. When Donald made his first big deal, to replace the decrepit Commodore Hotel at Grand Central Terminal with a sparkling Hyatt, he depended on his father’s good name and his credit with lenders, which was worth tens of millions of dollars, according to Wayne Barrett’s 1992 book, “Trump, The Deals and the Downfall.”

It was Fred Trump, not Donald, who possessed the political capital – earned through donations to various candidates – that impressed trustees who sold Donald development rights at the hotel site. And it was Fred who reassured city officials that, “I’m going to watch the construction and provide the financial credibility.”

According to Barrett’s book, Donald could not get the money on his own, so Fred guaranteed half the $70 million cost of the project and Hyatt guaranteed the other. Fred was so instrumental in overseeing the project that he attended contract signings and, as was his custom, handed out souvenir silver dollars to those present.

(Evidence of Donald’s limited financial strength was revealed in public documents related to his negotiation of a prenuptial agreement with first wife Ivana in the 1970s, according to Harry Hurt III’s book, “Lost Tycoon.” Although Donald had made public claims of great wealth, his taxable income at the time was less than $2,200 per week. He controlled a small interest in one of his father’s many companies and received regular but modest payments from family-related trusts.)

Fred Trump’s political credibility was also essential to Donald’s first big success. In his book “The Art of the Deal,” Donald wrote that “the only way to get financing was if the city gave me a tax abatement.” Part corporate welfare and part urban renewal scheme, the tax abatements allowed property owners to pay lower taxes than they would normally pay. Donald’s application got lots of attention from city officials, who eventually gave him a $40 million reduction. Without this gift from his father’s friends, Donald’s first project would never have been started.