Here's a glowing review of Trump's management style and his experience turning around the Mar-a-Lago property.
Trump's gamble on Mar-a-Lago paid off. What was once a white elephant generates $15.6 million a year in revenue, according to Trump's financial disclosures released by federal election officials.Based on sales of other Palm Beach property fronting on both sides of the 3.75-square-mile island, Mar-a-Lago is now estimated to be worth $300 million.
Unless he is campaigning, every weekend during the season, Trump flies down on his Boeing 757-200 with Melania, who speaks six languages, and his children who live in New York to spend the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, where he likes the prime dry aged strip steak and the meatloaf labeled as his mother's recipe.
Just before she retired in 2006, Norma Foerderer, Trump's vice president and top aide for 26 years, gave me her only in depth interview about Donald.
Foerderer said there are two Donald Trumps: the 'outrageous' one that utters brash comments on television and the real one that only she and other insiders know.'I mean Donald can be totally outrageous, but outrageous in a wonderful way that gets him coverage,' Foerderer told me, presaging the caricature of himself Trump creates running for president.
'That persona sells his licensed products and his condominiums. You know Donald's never been shy, and justifiably so, in talking about how wonderful his buildings or his golf clubs are.'
The private Trump, on the other hand, is 'the dearest, most thoughtful, most loyal, most caring man,' Foerderer said. That caring side inspires loyalty and is one of his secrets to his success.
