Donald Trump: Campaign Is Good For My Business

(Jennifer Keil’s Article direct from The NEW YORK POST on 24 January 2016.)

Trump’s campaign has been very good for business. He’s leading every national poll in the GOP race for president, but Donald Trump can’t let go of his day job. After almost every event in Iowa or other primary states, Trump boards his private jet and flies back to Trump Tower (New York City), where he continues to make decisions for his global real-estate business. He rarely sleeps anywhere but his own bed.

“He is totally in tune with everything that is going on here,” says one Trump ­executive. “Even the smallest things, like choosing the color of the carpets, the chandeliers, the sconces and the paint palettes in his buildings to the placement of the cup in one of his golf courses.”

And business, Trump claims, is booming. “I’m still running a business. It’s doing phenomenal, and the hotels are doing even better because of the excitement factor,” he told The Post from his office on the 26th floor. The campaign, he says, is “even more of an asset internationally. I have many projects all over the world and for those partners, in China, India and other countries, they read about the [presidential campaign] and they see the big picture,” Trump said. “It’s had a positive impact.”

He says his current projects include residential towers in India. His Web site, in typical Trump fashion, has a laundry list of other nations in which he’s working: Turkey, Panama, South Korea, Canada, the Philippines, Uruguay, Brazil, Scotland, Ireland, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia. “I deal with the top people of these countries. They want to meet me and talk to me. I am more tested with international leaders than a governor or senator,” Trump said.

A company executive who didn’t want to be identified says Trump continues to call from the campaign trail day or night. When he’s around, there’s usually a line outside his office 10 or 12 people deep.

Trump “always works expeditiously,” the executive says. “But now he expects to hear pitches within 20, 30 or 90 seconds instead of three minutes. The amount of time has been truncated, like ‘Shark Tank.’ ” The only thing different, besides how rushed it is, are the Secret Service agents stationed outside the office.

(Now 69, born 14 June 1946) Trump said he begins most days at around 5 a.m. He reads the papers, watches the news and by 7:30 a.m. he’ll take an elevator from his penthouse to his office. His campaign headquarters is a few floors below. So what’s on the desk? “See this photo?” Trump says, as he reaches for an unframed photo of himself with Michael Jackson, floating on one of the piles on his desk. “That’s me with Michael. Sure, he had his problems, but he was a genius.”

Cardboard boxes are stacked up high behind his desk, along with renderings of projects that Trump must approve for marketing purposes. “Those boxes are mainly filled with articles that I plan on reading about politics and the people I’m competing against. Lots of political stories, income-tax stories and more,” he says.

Will the Oval Office be filled with boxes too? “No,” he laughs. “Once the campaign is over, all these boxes will be gone.”

‘I have never needed a lot of sleep, which is lucky’

Ivanka Trump (34).

Trump is convinced that his business experience will help him get the country in better financial shape. “We have the greatest businesspeople in the world, the greatest minds, but we don’t use them,” he said, adding that he would bring in people like Carl Icahn to renegotiate trade agreements with China and elsewhere.

While there has been no time to work out since the campaign began, he has still lost 15 pounds from all of the speeches, which are “really a workout.” Trump says he gets around four hours of sleep a night. “I have never needed a lot of sleep, which is lucky,” he says.

One thing will get Trump to stop working at his company: winning. He says that if elected, he would move into the White House (“Of course. It’s a symbol.”) and turn over control of the company to his children and top executives. Likely his holdings would need to be put into a trust. “The kids do a good job, and I have very good executives,” Trump said.

The Trumps at his presidential candidacy announcement.

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Donald Trump: Next President of The United States?