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The Trump Organization history
The Trump Organization company history timeline
Donald J. Trump established The Trump Organization in 1980 as the umbrella company for all of his real estate operations and corporate affiliates.
Atlantic City and Other Ventures: 1980-90
Relying on a construction loan guaranteed by his father and the Hyatt Corporation, which became a partner in the project, Trump refurbished the building and reopened it in 1980 as the 1,400-room Grand Hyatt Hotel.
Matthew Calamari, the organization’s chief operating officer, was recruited in 1981 after Mr.
Andrew Weiss, a Romanian immigrant who grew up in Brooklyn, was hired straight out of graduate school in 1981, just as Mr.
After the projected casino was licensed in 1982, Holiday Inns Inc.'s Harrah subsidiary agreed to invest $50 million in a partnership.
Completed in 1983 at a cost of $201 million, the building was a hit.
In 1983 he opened Trump Tower, an office, retail, and residential complex constructed in partnership with the Equitable Life Assurance Company.
Following on Trump Tower's heels, the 36-story, Y-shaped Trump Plaza residential cooperative at Third Avenue and 61st Street was completed in 1984 at a cost of $125 million.
Trump was responsible for the construction of Harrah's at Trump Plaza (soon shortened to simply Trump Plaza), a 39-story casino-hotel that opened in 1984.
In 1984, Donald J. Trump bought the West Side Rail Yards which later became Trump Place, 16 high-rise luxury residential buildings.
In 1985 Trump paid $72 million for the St Moritz, the aging hotel across the street from Trump Parc that also faced Central Park.
Trump installed his family in a penthouse double triplex and bought out Equitable in 1986.
In 1986, after almost a decade of false starts, repeated construction related issues and millions of dollars wasted on the reconstruction of the Wollman Rink in Central Park, Donald Trump stepped in.
His first of many books was The Art of the Deal, published in 1987.
In 1988, Donald Trump purchased the Plaza Hotel, one of New York City's most beloved icons.
He spent another $115 million in 1989 to buy two more properties flanking Trump Plaza.
Forbes magazine had estimated Trump's worth at $1.7 billion in 1989, making him the nation's 19th richest man.
During the first part of 1991 the Trump Organization negotiated with creditors of the other casino holdings concerning a revision of the debt.
Like the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino and Trump's Castle Casino Resort underwent prepackaged bankruptcies in 1992 to restructure their huge bond debts.
Trump's plan for the northern segment of the old Penn Central railyards received approval in 1992 in scaled-down form.
Again in 1994, Trump's relish for high-profile deals was evident when he formed a joint venture with two foreign investors who had paid $42 million for the Empire State Building.
In April of 1995, Mar-a-Lago became established as The Mar-a-Lago Club – today, it is known as the Jewel of Palm Beach.
He reopened the Penthouse--renamed the East Tower--in 1995.
In 1995 Trump bought 40 Wall Street, a 72-story office building.
1995: The Trump casino business goes public.
In 1996 Trump partnered with the NBC television network to purchase the Miss Universe Organization, which produced the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA beauty pageants.
Forbes estimated his worth at $1.4 billion in October 1997--up from $450 million the previous year.
Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts grew to six casinos with the integration of the World's Fair and East Tower properties into Trump Plaza in 1997.
In 1997, Trump and his siblings inherited Fred Trump's remaining real-estate empire, providing a financial shot in the arm after Trump's string of mostly Atlantic City-related bankruptcies in the early '90s.
While Trump continued to buy and sell properties, his spending spree after 1997 largely fell within the private, murky realm of the Trump Organization, though he continued to amass assets.
Trump had bought the building back in 1998 in partnership with Conseco, a financial-services firm.
The first Trump Golf property, Trump International Golf Club, West Palm Beach, opened in West Palm Beach, Florida in 1999.
Donald Trump was an avid golfer, and he became a golf mogul as well, building the spectacular Trump National Golf Course in Westchester County, New York, in 2000.
Trump managed to restructure some debt on the casinos in 2001 to get more favorable terms.
Trump World Tower opened in 2001 to much acclaim for its architectural excellence and was the tallest residential tower in New York City at the time.
In 2001, Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of Donald J. Trump officially joined The Trump Organization.
Donald Trump owned the land under the Empire State Building, which he sold in 2002.
Trump National Golf Club, Westchester, a premier private club located just 30 minutes outside of Manhattan opened in 2002.
In 2002, Trump began the multi-million dollar restoration and conversion of the historic Delmonico Hotel to super-luxury condominium residences.
A dispute with Conseco over profits from the General Motors Building led a court in 2003 to order Trump to sell his interest.
My grandmother died in 2003, the same year Trump set a record by divesting his stake in the General Motors building for $1.4 billion.
Sources quoted by Time magazine (April 12, 2004) acknowledged that the Trump logo added some $100 per square foot to the value of a building.
His biggest publicity coup was his starring role in the 2004 NBC reality show, "The Apprentice." Trump gave a gaggle of contestants business challenges, firing the worst performer every week, until the final contestant won a coveted job with the Trump Organization.
In 2004 these included the Trump Tower at City Center, in White Plains, New York, and a mixed hotel and condominium project in Toronto, the Trump International Hotel & Tower.
In 2004, Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster opened and today it is one of the most impressive and exclusive private golf clubs in the country.
In 2004, he launched the reality television show The Apprentice.
In 2005 Trump married the Slovene model Melania Knauss, and their son, Barron, was born the following year.
Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles officially opened in 2005.
Eric Trump, the second oldest son of Donald J. Trump, officially joined The Trump Organization in 2007.
Trump, he said, remained actively involved when the financial crisis hit in 2008, threatening the financial viability of the Las Vegas venture, and the two men flew to Washington to meet with a tax lawyer.
In 2008, Trump International Hotel, Las Vegas officially opened as the tallest building in Las Vegas.
The hotel continues to receive tremendous accolades since it opened its doors in 2009.
The latter firm, which ceased operating in 2011, was the target of class-action lawsuits by former students and a separate action by the attorney general of New York state, alleging fraud.
When determining whether and how to enter business partnerships, nothing is decided by established committee, or through written recommendation by the children, Donald Trump Jr. explained in the 2011 deposition in the Florida case.
Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Trump Vineyard Estates which opened in 2011 spans 1,300 beautiful acres across the countryside.
Tiah was not sure what to expect from the man whose face was beamed around the world through the reality television show “The Apprentice,” but the conversation that afternoon in 2012 was casual and warm.
The Trump Organization’s first golf course in Scotland, located in Aberdeen, opened in 2012.
In 2012, the Trump Organization bought the famed Doral in the heart of Miami.
Also in 2014, the Trump Organization bought Doonbeg in County Clare, Ireland.
Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point was designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 2015.
After initially denying the allegations, Trump settled the lawsuits for $25 million in November 2016.
Running for president in 2016, Trump said he took "incredible" amounts of money out of Atlantic City.
Another windfall arguably came in 2016, when Trump was elected president.
A bombshell New York Times report says Donald Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and nothing at all for much of the previous decade, a major contrast with his image as a self-made billionaire.
Melania Trump became only the second foreign-born first lady of the United States upon Trump’s inauguration as president in 2017.
Trump International Golf Club, Dubai, designed by Olympic golf course architect, Gil Hanse, opened to rave reviews in 2017.
More specifically, he was making $200,000 a year in 2018 dollars when he was 3 years old, and he became a millionaire at age 8.
Another major Times investigation, from 2018, reported that much of Trump's big spending in his '80s heyday and afterward came from inherited wealth derived from his father, Fred, also a New York City-area developer.
In 2018, President Trump attended a summit with Kim Jong Un, marking the first time a sitting president met with a North Korean leader.
In 2018, there was a partial government shutdown as Trump disagreed with Congress over funding for a border wall between the United States and Mexico.
In 2019, a federal whistleblower filed a complaint that Trump had pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, who had served on the board of Bursima Holdings, a natural gas company in Ukraine.
The first confirmed case of COVID-19 was reported in the United States on January 20, 2020.
Trump lost the 2020 election to former vice president Joe Biden by 306 electoral votes to 232; he lost the popular vote by more than seven million votes.
In 2020, the Senate acquitted Trump on both articles of impeachment.
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The Trump Organization competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silverstein Properties | 1957 | $33.0M | 501 | - |
| Forest City Realty Trust | 1920 | $911.0M | 1,548 | - |
| Federal Deposit Insurance | 1933 | $5.5B | 5,977 | - |
| Morgan Stanley | 1935 | $3.0B | 68,097 | 1,292 |
| Skadden | 1948 | $2.4B | 3,500 | 62 |
| Federal Reserve Bank of New York | - | - | 3,500 | 2 |
| Federal Reserve | 1913 | $43.0M | 2,517 | 8 |
| Eagle Rock Real Estate | 1999 | $1.5M | 42 | 15 |
| Talisker Club | - | $2.8M | 90 | - |
| Fox Theater Foundation | 1990 | $999,999 | 50 | - |
The Trump Organization history FAQs
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The Trump Organization may also be known as or be related to The Trump Organization, The Trump Organization Inc, The Trump Organization LLC and Trump.