1990s: After Bankruptcies, Donald Trump Goes From Building To Branding — NBC News

[0:03] Donald Trump is the Hugh Hefner of the 90s. [0:05] In the 1990s, Donald Trump was building a reputation for himself as a ladies man. [0:10] For an older person, he's very attractive. [0:13] He may be the most eligible bachelor in America. Please welcome Donald Trump. [0:19] Gone were the days when he was known primarily as the real estate mogul of New York. [0:23] Remember the 80s? The yuppies, the buyouts, the junk bonds, and especially the Donald. [0:29] The man who was the darling of the 80s is seen in the 90s as a man in trouble, [0:34] and he knows it. [0:35] The drama started when Donald began cheating on his wife Ivana Trump with aspiring actress Marla Maples. [0:41] After an ugly public falling out, Donald and Ivana divorced in 1992, [0:46] with some reports that Ivana got millions from the split. [0:49] Donald Trump's former or current girlfriend, depending on what day it is, [0:53] is sharing all her secrets for staying in shape. [0:57] Donald eventually married Marla, two months after she gave birth to a baby girl. [1:02] But by the end of the decade, Trump was single again, and he seemed to enjoy the dating scene. [1:06] The reputation of Donald Trump, the man who dates a different woman every year. [1:11] I don't do that. I mean, I've been with a number of women, [1:15] but it's been over a fairly long period of time. I've had great relationships with women. [1:19] If you could have your choice, who would be the one person you'd date? [1:22] Wow. [1:23] Or who are the three most beautiful women in the world? [1:26] Well, how about Lady Di? That would be an interesting one. [1:28] She's going to be available. What kind of women do you like? [1:31] I think my choice might be you. Look at the legs on her. Boy. [1:36] Can you imagine how controversial I'd be? [1:39] You think about Clinton with the women. How about me with the women? Can you imagine? [1:43] Well, I mean, I think there is a certain controversy to me, [1:45] and I am single, and I do go out with women. [1:48] While his family life may have been on the rocks, his business empire was crumbling. [1:53] The headline was quite accurate, [1:55] Welcome to the 90s, Donald, because it was like he got whacked right in the face. It was amazing. [2:01] Trump opened his third casino in Atlantic City in April 1990. [2:05] Lasers, fireworks, and miles of neon lights provided the color [2:08] as Trump opened the Taj Mahal Casino Hotel in Atlantic City. [2:13] But just months after it opened, the Taj Mahal missed one of its debt payments, [2:17] and Trump began looking for a bailout. [2:19] His empire could be at risk of collapse if the New Jersey Casino Commission [2:23] decides not to approve Trump's bailout plan. [2:27] By the fall of 1991, all three casinos had filed for bankruptcy. [2:31] The New Jersey Casino Control Commission has unanimously approved Donald Trump's bailout plan. [2:37] That plan allows him to use his three Atlantic City casinos as collateral for a $65 million loan. [2:43] In order to finance a loan, Trump was forced to sell off his airline, his yacht, [2:48] and a chunk of one of his earliest projects, the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan. [2:52] You know, I had a wife who was suing me for $2 billion. I had the banks. I had this. I had that. [2:58] He did get to keep one asset, an undeveloped piece of land on Manhattan's west side that Trump had [3:03] purchased in 1985. Trump had envisioned a huge project on the site, but in 1994, [3:09] the real estate market fell, leaving Trump unable to make payments on the land. [3:13] So Trump sold off the lots and made a deal where he got to keep some of the profits from any future [3:18] development and to put his name on a few of the buildings, marking a new chapter in which Trump [3:23] was less of a developer and more of a brand. [3:26] Who knows better about hard times than me? I had a company. It was doing well. [3:31] I had tremendous debt like this country. And in 1990, the whole country, it just went very, very bad. [3:38] As his finances stabilized, Trump began to reclaim his status in the public psyche, [3:42] with publicity stunts like a 1995 Pizza Hut commercial in which he appeared with Ivana Trump. [3:48] What are you doing, Ivana? [3:48] What do people think? [3:49] It's wrong, isn't it? [3:50] But it feels so right. [3:52] Then it's a deal? [3:53] By the end of the decade, he was once again sounding like the Trump of the 80s, [3:56] talking big about his finances. [3:58] Back in the 1990s, you owed something like $900 million. [4:03] Your empire was pretty much... [4:04] Much more than that. [4:05] You owed more than that? [4:05] $975 was personally guaranteed. That was just the small part. That was the harder debt. [4:10] But I owed many, many billions of dollars. And now my company is much bigger and stronger [4:14] than it was in the 80s. [4:16] And flirting with a presidential run. [4:17] Businessman Donald Trump tells, meet the press, that tomorrow, he, Trump, [4:23] is also leaving the Republican Party to join the Reform Party. [4:27] He's considered the largest developer in New York. [4:30] In 1999, Trump was on the verge of doing something that he had only hinted at in the 80s. [4:35] He was about to decide whether he could really run for the White House. [4:38] Running mate, if you decide to go at this, who would be the ideal running mate for Donald Trump? [4:43] Oh, I think Oprah would be great. [4:46] Seriously? [4:47] I think that probably that would be serious, actually. 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