In KUSHNER INC, I write about how after Trump’s casinos + the Plaza wound up in bankruptcy proceedings in the 90s, the number of blue-chip lenders who would do business with Trump Org dwindled. Its value was no longer as a conventional real estate development biz, but as a brand.
By the time the Trump children joined the family business, it had morphed from a development firm into more of a licensing shop, dependent on global partners.
The path to success for the Trump kids in this organization was to bring him a new project, of which they could retain ownership. They did not write memos or budgets or project costs. They did not even keep files.
The Trump children would simply meet with a prospective partner and then stroll into their father’s office, tell him about the deal, and he’d make a decision.
Louise Sunshine, a former Trump Organization executive vice president, thought the change was disastrous. “Once we went into the franchise business, his children did not protect him,” she said. “They sold franchises to bad people”—presumably in an effort to please him.
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