Trump. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support for frontliis provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information is available at macfound. Org. Additional support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. The wyncote foundation. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. Narrator on Election Night 2016, donald trump watched as his world suddenly changed. You see in these pictures donald trump sort of wearily and warily looking at the screen. And he looks like someone who cant actually believe that hes winning. Donald trump will be the 45th president of the United States. Impossible political upset to become the president elect. Narrator it was an historic upset for a political outsider. I pledge to every citizen of our land that i will be president for all americans. Narrator and it was a moment of vindication for a candidate who had climbed back from a bitter public humiliation. Were talking about the white house Correspondents Dinner tonight. Donald trump has been invited. Narrator it happened in april 2011, at one of washington, d. C. s most glamorous nights. Annual white house Correspondents Dinner, the event. din of crowd i got to talk to donald as we were going to our seats, and he was in just such a great mood, and he was very jovial, and people were taking pictures. It was very exciting that donald was there. Donald, over here narrator trumps invitation to the exclusive gathering came after weeks of attacking president barack obama on television. You are not allowed to be a president if youre not born in this country. He may not have been born in this country. But theres something on that birth certificate, maybe religion, maybe it says hes a muslim, i dont know, maybe he doesnt want that, or he may not have one. But i will tell you this if he wasnt born in this country, its one of the great scams of all time. Absolutely. Narrator but that night, in front of washingtons journalists, politicians, and powerbrokers, obama would hit back. President obama takes the microphone. All right, everybody, please have a seat. Donald trump is here tonight and proceeds to filet donald publicly. No one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the donald. And thats because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter, like did we fake the moon landing . I was sitting 20 feet from him, and just the look of discomfort on his face. What really happened in roswell . And where are biggie and tupac . Donalds face was so incredibly serious. It was so incredibly just. He just put on a poker face. I was two tables away from trump. The conventional way in washington of absorbing a joke at the white house Correspondents Dinner is to keep your chin up and at least pretend to have a sense of humor about it, even if you go cry into your pillow that night. Trump was steaming. His face was all locked in, he was not having a good time. All kidding aside, obviously, we all know about your credentials and breadth of experience. laughter for example. No, seriously, just recently, in an episode of celebrity apprentice, at the steakhouse, the Mens Cooking Team did not impress the judges from omaha steaks. And there was a lot of blame to go around. But you, mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. And so, ultimately, you didnt blame lil jon or meatloaf. You fired gary busey. And these are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night. And hes being treated like a pinata by the president of the United States. And i think he felt humiliated. applause well handled, sir. Well handled. But it just kept going and going, and he just kept hammering him. And i thought, oh, barack obama is starting something that i dont know if hell be able to finish. Say what you will about mr. Trump, he certainly would bring some change to the white house. Lets see what weve got up there. Donald dreads humiliation and he dreads shame. And this is why he often attempts to humiliate and shame other people. So in the case of the president ridiculing him, i think this was intolerable for donald trump. I think that is the night that he resolves to run for president. I think that he is kind of motivated by it. Maybe ill just run. Maybe ill show them all. Every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to President Trump. Its everyone whos ever doubted donald, who ever disagreed, who ever challenged him. It is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe. God bless you, and may god bless the United States of america. Donald trumps fantasy was to be the guy who takes the key to the oval office from Barack Obamas hand in 2017. And its personal. This is a burning, personal need that he has to redeem himself from being humiliated by the first black president. This is new york, a miracle city, a city of tall buildings, narrow, dark streets, magnificent parks. Narrator back in the 1940s. The borough of queens, occupying part of long island. Narrator just across the east river from manhattan. A municipally operated Electrical Railway system spreads through four of the five boroughs. Narrator . Donald trump grew up in a posh suburb called jamaica estates. Its perhaps typical of new yorks residential areas. The trump family had a huge house in queens that they used to refer to as tara. It had nine bedrooms, it had columns, it was quite beautiful, but it was in queens. Narrator the trump family would spend 50 years building memories here. Fred trump, a real estate developer, designed the house himself and raised donald and his brothers and sisters in luxury. Its not like he knew anything but comfort. When it rained and he had to deliver his papers, the chauffeur would take him around. Narrator but donalds father was tough and insisted everyone learn the family business. He was a guy who worked seven days a week. Its sunday why wouldnt you be working . And would, even on the weekends, pile the kids in the car and go to a building site, pick up old nails that werent used. Why would you waste a nail . Fred trump was a machine. I mean, he was a human machine. He was driven beyond whatever the description of driven could ever mean. And when you look at the picture of fred and you look at donald, you see the great resemblance between the two. And when you think about freds energy, you see how it is channeled through donald. Narrator fred was seen as passionate about the business, but not warm with his children. Cold he was not a warm person. I see his father at the beach, even, with a suit and a tie and a hat, a clipped very kind of military mustache, and simply being. Correct. Narrator fred had theories. He shared them with his kids. Donald especially liked one of them. This is a very deep part of the trump story. The family subscribes to a racehorse theory of human development. They believe that there are superior people, and that if you put together the genes of a superior woman and a superior man, you get a superior offspring. Narrator freds other theory life was a competition. There were winners and there were losers. He called the winners killers. The way the game got played in his household was if you did not win, you lost. And losing was you got crushed. Losing was you didnt matter. Losing was you were nothing. Narrator donald took the lessons to heart always tried to be the winner. But he was also a handful. His brother, robert, whos very discreet, told me that donald was always the kid in the family who would start throwing birthday cake at all the parties, that you would build up a tower of blocks, he would come knock your blocks down. This is the person hes been, i think, since he was five years old. Donald told me that he is essentially the person he was in first grade and that he hasnt really changed. His selfdefinition was built around the idea that he was one tough son of a bitch. That meant in classrooms, that meant with teachers, that meant with his father. Narrator by the seventh grade, even fred had had it with donalds mischief. He sent him up the hudson river just a few miles from west point to the toughest boarding school he could find the new York Military academy. drumline performing you have to think of this 13yearold kid whos lived a very comfortable life, but then all of a sudden, hes the one child of five to be banished to this austere life. Goodbye, luxury. Goodbye, mom and dad, brothers and sisters. Hello, drill sergeant. Narrator the new York Military academy was nononsense, heavy on the discipline; over the years, home to the children of gangster john gotti and cuban dictator fulgencio batista. It was a very austere, very scary place. I was homesick. I was crying hysterically. In fact, i was crying so much the first couple of nights, they put me in the infirmary. We were in a culture of hazing at the military school. Everyone. I mean, thats just the way it was. You got hit, you may have gotten slammed against the wall, you got put artificially into fights. Narrator but the rough and tumble didnt seem to bother donald. He thrived. He liked it. Apparently he really liked it. He liked the accountability. He liked the kind of clarity of it. And he liked that there was a medal and a prize for everything. Narrator he was a star athlete. He claimed he could have played pro baseball. But his classmates agree he was proudest of winning the ultimate accolade in an allboys school. He was named ladies man in the school yearbook. Hugh hefner, the publisher of playboy, was a role model for many of the boys. Yeah, you know, he had a very hugh hefner, Playboy Magazine view of success. Narrator the young cadets learned a lot from Playboy Magazine and what they called barracks talk. In fact, our biggest advice in our lives came from Playboy Magazine. Thats how we learned. Thats what we learned about women. So that was all of my adolescence. And thats why getting out of military school was difficult. You had to realize that you couldnt just follow the playboy philosophy. Narrator they would graduate and grow up. But donalds classmates say in some ways, he hasnt changed at all. The things that we talked about at that time in 1964 really are very close to the kind of way he talks now. I hear these echoes of the barracks life that we had and that we grew out of. You can tell by the way i use my walk. Narrator by the early 1970s, trump had graduated from college. He headed out of queens and into manhattan. From the very first time i met trump, i thought of saturday night fever and travolta. Whether youre a brother or whether youre a mother, youre stayin alive he was the kid who grew up as an outsider to where the real action was. Ah, ah, ah, ah. And he was acutely aware of it. Ah, ah, ah, ah. He always had his eye on what he thought was a glamorous, hollywoodish life, and that was the life of manhattan. I think if you had to pick sort of three stereotypes that are probably constantly tapdancing in donalds mind and in his imagination of himself, its clint eastwood, james bond, and hugh hefner. Hes really spreading his wings when he comes to manhattan. Well, i think hes having the time of his life. Hes a bachelor hes an eligible bachelor. Narrator he frequented the citys hottest places. He met nikki haskell, the host of an underground cable show about the party scene. When i saw donald, nobody knew who he was. He was just a young, very aggressive, smart boy. A hotshot, so to speak, someone that had big dreams, and thats what this town is built on. Whats going on . Narrator during the day, he worked hard to do something his father never did break into manhattan real estate. Hes a kid who wants to figure out how to make deals, to figure out how to establish a presence for himself in manhattan. And hes right to believe that thats not easy to do. Narrator he needed a mentor. He found one in roy cohn, the notorious new york lawyer. Well, he was savage. Cohn had an incredible reputation for being a tough, tough guy. The scene is washington and the senate investigating subcommittee mr. Cohn, his friend and aide, was present with senator mccarthy to answer accusations. Narrator cohn had become famous during the mccarthy hearings, a witch hunt that accused americans of communist sympathies. He delighted in the fact that he had ruined so many lives in the mccarthy era. There is detailed testimony of that in the record, mr. Chairman, of levitskys association, close personal association with Julius Rosenberg over a period of years. Roy cohn humiliated people. He made up things. He had no morals. You couldnt even say that he had the morals of a snake. He had no morals. He had no moral center. Everyone knows the most famous legal eagle, my pal and yours, roy cohn. Good evening, nikki. How are you . Roy was like a street guy. You know, he was like, punch. You punch me, ill punch you. And i think he made donald very confrontational. And i think you had that sort of tough guy, dont take any kind of bull bleep from anybody kind of an attitude. And i think a lot of that, you know, he instilled in donald. And in his drawer, he had a picture of roy, and it was a grainy blackandwhite picture, and roy looked like the devil. And he would pull it out and he would say, this is my lawyer. If we cant make an agreement, this is who youre going to be dealing with. Narrator in 1973, trump hired cohn to defend him and his father. They had been sued by the federal government for discriminating against black renters looking for apartments in their buildings. The lawsuit revealed that trump agents allegedly were writing down c for colored or number 9 to indicate a black prospective tenant, and those people were often turned away. And trump asked him for advice what do i do . Do i settle . And roy cohn said, never settle. Roy cohn said, you need to fight back harder than they ever hit you. Narrator at a press conference and in court filings, trump and cohn claimed they were the victims. He comes right back with a 100 million lawsuit, which was filed by roy cohn. And that was roy cohns signature kind of thing. Roy cohn taught donald how to come out punching, how to use lawsuits like machine gun bullets, and take a noprisoners approach to city hall, to your business opponents, to anyone else who might get in your way. And i think donald reveled in that. Narrator but with damning evidence of racial discrimination, the company was forced to settle. Nevertheless, trump didnt admit any wrongdoing and even declared the outcome a victory. This is a classic example of where trump begins to demonstrate something he talks about all the time today, which is hes a counterpuncher. So somebody comes after him and says that hes done something nefarious and horrible, and he just goes back at them with all guns blazing. You know, boom, boom, boom and admits nothing. Never admit anything. Never say you made a mistake. Just keep coming. And if you lose, declare victory. And thats exactly what happened there. He lost as clearly as you can lose, but he loudly proclaimed his victory. Narrator the controversy didnt diminish trumps ambitions to leave his mark on manhattan. He had been searching for the perfect location. And donald came upon this site, which had the Bonwit Teller building on it. It was kind of a landmark building. It was next door to tiffanys. He loved it. Narrator it was to be called trump tower 58 stories of highend retail and highpriced condominiums. A chance for donald to finally surpass his father. To oversee the project, trump surprised the construction world he put a woman in charge. He said that i would be his representative and act sort of like a donna trump, he said, calling me a killer. I would be in charge of everything that would normally come to him. Narrator the mens world of unions and subcontractors in new york had never seen it before. Donald told me that he thought that men were better than women, especially in this field, but he said a good woman is better than ten good men. I think he believed that women had to prove themselves more than men, so a good woman would work harder. Narrator res kept the contractors in line, and executive Vice President louise sunshine handled the sales. He hired the right people to help him, myself being one of them. And we got the job done. Look at my next guest. This is a reporter on wall street. This is what he has in mind. Narrator and trump personally took care of the marketing. Donald trump, as i say, is just 33 years old. He now has an apartment for sale in a new Trump Building called the trump tower, one floor of it, 11 million all together. Youre worth all this money. You say you didnt say that you want to be worth a billion dollars. No, i really am not looking to make tremendous amounts of money. Im looking to enjoy my life, and if that happens to go with it, thats fabulous. Narrator and to help sell the apartments, trump had a novel idea he inflated the floor numbers. His 58story building became a 68story building. How he got away with that, im not sure, but he did, and it made a lot of sense in his mind because if youre renting a room, youd rather be on the 14th floor than on the sixth floor. In his mind, having an apartment, the higher the apartment was, the better it would look. Narrator in his autobiography, written with author tony schwartz, trump would call it truthful hyperbole. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. I came up with the phrase truthful hyperbole, and of course its a ridiculous term because there is no such thing as truthful hyperbole, but its kind of a winning phrase. It really does capture a way in which he sees the world. The truth doesnt mean much to donald trump. In the time that i was reporting on him, his lawyer said to me, donald is a believer that if you repeat something enough, people will start to believe it. Its Opening Party was one to end them all. Guests, thousands of them, mingled. Narrator and at its grand opening, the marketing, the publicity, paid off. Whoohoo this is your celebration. Its donald trump constructed out of marble and brass. Thats what trump tower is. Its him. You know, its bold, its big, its polished, and its highly marketed. Trump tower made him. It was a moment where glitz took over new york, and donald embodied that glitz. Narrator by his side, his wife, ivana zelnickova, a model. And that was one of the first times he really got a taste of real celebrity. And donald trump is a man who thrives in the spotlight. Outside of the spotlight, i think he feels diminished. Narrator he had succeeded. Trump tower was a reality. He had proof he was a winner, but not in everyones eyes. There is an old money elite in manhattan that has never accepted donald. He was considered, i think, loud and obnoxious and too selfcentered and illmannered and not someone who fit in. And so i think this is where donalds resentment of the elite comes from. Narrator as donald and ivana moved into a penthouse on the top three floors of trump tower, something was missing. He doesnt have a lot of friends, but how can somebody in his position have friends . How do you trust anyone that, you know, isnt working for you . What do they want out of you . Its very difficult, its very lonely at the top, and he is the epitome of loneliness at the top. Narrator but trumps celebrity was rising. Its another dazzling lifestyles of the rich and famous, your password to the last word in moneynoobject adventure and excitement narrator on television, he was becoming a symbol of business success. He claimed he was a billionaire. Welcome to the world according to trump, the billionaire builder with a big bang approach who dared to autograph the manhattan skyline. Narrator he was now determined to make trump a household name all over america. He began with a legendary buying spree. Banks were lining up to give him money, and they would beat each other on terms to provide money to him. He was spending money like a drunken sailor. He buys a giant yacht that he doesnt really enjoy at all. Narrator there was an airline. He bought the trump shuttle from bankrupt eastern airlines, had no idea how to run an airline. Donald trump, the biggest casino owner. Narrator then he built a gambling empire in Atlantic City two casinos and a hotel. cheering then, the Iconic Plaza Hotel in new york city. It did seem out of control and possibly even pathological. Casino after casino after casino after casino. Hotels, yacht. Everywhere he turned, another big piece of real estate here, another big piece of real estate there. Narrator by the late 1980s, Donald Trumps ambition pushed him into uncharted territory president ial politics. The signs of power and opulence in place, Donald Trumps personal helicopter descended onto this small airfield, greeted by a oneman trump for president bandwagon. I arranged for the portsmouth, New Hampshire, chamber of commerce to invite him for a luncheon speech. And a local Portsmouth City councilman named mike dunbar forms the first known draft trump for president committee. Narrator trumps political advisor roger stone was a longtime associate of roy cohn. In truth, i dont think he was ever serious about running in 1988. I think he liked the publicity, he liked the notoriety. It was great media. What i want is i want extreme competence. I want strength and extreme competence, and you need a combination of both, but i want strength and extreme competence at the helm of this country. Narrator in one speech after another, trumps political message was simple and direct. I am personally tired of seeing this great country of ours being ripped off and really decimated and hurt badly by so many foreign nations that are supposedly our allies. Natos ripping us off. Why are we paying for this . Why dont the japanese pay for themselves . Why dont all our allies, theyre rich now, why dont they pay for themselves . Trade, were getting taken to the cleaners in these trade deals. So hes already formulating his views as early as 88. Thank you, bye. So long, so long. Narrator he loved the attention, and even began to insert himself into controversial issues in new york city. It is the ages of the accused, 14 to 17 years old, and the horror of their alleged crimes that has caused a furor. A woman jogging in new yorks central park last wednesday night raped and nearly beaten to death. What happened in central park was a violation to him, and he felt it keenly and he had a deep emotional reaction to it, and so he lashed out. He took out a fullpage ad after the central park jogger case and said, the kids who did this should be executed. This is terrible. Theyre beasts, animals. You Better Believe that i hate the people that took this girl and raped her brutally. You Better Believe it. And its more than anger, its hatred. And i want society to hate them. The unstated text of this was, because they were five minority kids who brutalized a white woman in central park and everybodys outraged about it. And theyre different from us, and so we need to treat them with the severest methods possible. Narrator the five young men spent years in prison, but were later exonerated when the actual rapist admitted his guilt. But donald trump never apologized. He didnt want to admit he was wrong, and to this day he has not apologized for the statements he made at the time. Narrator but for trump, his Television Rage had made his celebrity bigger than ever, and talk of President Trump had begun. I dont believe that trump himself felt that he was running for president , but once the notion got stirred up in him, it never went away. Narrator he had fame and success, but in the early 1990s, Donald Trumps life was about to fall apart. The rumors began that he had a girl and so forth, and i was being bombarded with these stories. Narrator liz smith was a wellknown gossip columnist in newspapers and on television. Smith kept a close eye on donald and ivana. Ivana was totally fixated on donald. I heard all these things that she had tried to please him and gone away and had her breasts augmented, and a face lift. Narrator but now there was another woman 26yearold marla maples. Ivana and donald had been married 12 years. They had three children. She threw herself in my arms sobbing and crying and saying, donald doesnt want me anymore. He has told me he cant be sexually attracted to a woman whos had children. The trumps are good copy, and the gossip columnists are in for a field day. The unfolding saga of trump versus trump. A highoctane mix of the stuff that sells newspapers. Narrator for months, the tabloids reported on every detail of the affair, the breakup, and the divorce. The model from georgia cast as the other woman. It was ugly, it was horribly ugly. The press was devastating, in my mind. Linking trump to a bevy of beauties. But donald didnt seem to think it was so devastating at all. He just rode with it, and he had his camp and ivana had her camp. In manhattan, the story is trump versus trump. And he was totally comfortable in that period under the tutelage of roy cohn and the idea that all publicity is good publicity. Donald trump felt that his name, his image, his brand were enhanced by having this war go on in the tabloid newspapers of new york, complete with sexual details of relationships. The worst publicity in the world can end up being good publicity. Meaning, yeah, people said terrible things about me, but they sure know who i am. And a month later, or three months later, they dont remember what it was they didnt like about you; they just remember they know your name. Narrator just then, trump took on the biggest deal of his lifetime the taj mahal casino. If trump tower is one bookend of Donald Trumps career in business and represents everything that he did right, the taj mahal is the other bookend that represents everything he did wrong. Narrator it was huge 1,250 rooms. The casino was the size of two football fields. 14 million worth of chandeliers. On wall street, some analysts were worried, and one of them spoke to the wall street journal. I saw a real problem. I didnt think that the company could cover its interest expenses on that debt. Plus the payroll was enormous because of the scope of the property. Narrator trump had spent more than a billion dollars on the taj. Once the cold winds blow from october to february, it wont make it. The market just isnt there. Narrator donald trump sent marvin roffmans boss this letter. Mr. Roffman is considered by those in the industry to be a hairtrigger and, in my opinion, somewhat unstable in his tone and manner of criticism. Donald trump sees the people who have criticized him or have predicted that he would do poorly, he sees them as traitors. And so his immediate instinct is to tear that person down. I am now planning to institute a major lawsuit against your firm unless mr. Roffman makes a major public apology or is dismissed. Narrator roffman had worked at his Brokerage Firm for 16 years. He says they told him to back down. Donald trump was trying to send a message to other people on wall street you better not badmouth me, or your job may be in jeopardy. Narrator roffman stood his ground. My firm, i mean, fired me, like, on the spot, and not just in a nice way. They actually escorted me out the building, and when the elevator got down to the lobby to exit, my boss made a comment to me. Marvin, you know, i like you as a person, but a little friendly advice keep your mouth shut about this or youll never work in the industry again. Narrator burdened by debt, the taj would not turn a profit. By that winter, as roffman predicted, the casino was in serious trouble. His Business Condition was terrible, worse than terrible. We were in a deep recession and people werent going to Atlantic City, so the revenue stream from Atlantic City, the taj mahal, and the other casinos was poor. Narrator trumps other investments had not fared much better. The plaza hotel a financial disaster. The Airline Trump shuttle was bleeding money. He sort of blamed the people around him for what went wrong instead of himself. He started blaming people, he started firing people, he started yelling at people. He said, i can be a screamer, and he certainly was, according to various accounts. Narrator trump had long cast himself as a winner. Now he was looking like a loser. I think that the downtime for him was really a shock, and he was not prepared for it. It caught him totally off guard. It was probably the biggest challenge of his life. The donald is facing an incredible cash crisis. Big troubles for donald trump. Narrator trump and his Companies Owed more than three billion dollars, much of it to the banks that had fueled his spending spree. As quickly as the banks loved him, thats as quick as they saw him as a pariah. He was like, ew, its donald trump. They didnt want to have anything to do with him. They wanted their money and they wanted to be rid of donald trump. Narrator the bankers descended on trump tower. Bankers held gigantic meetings at trump tower with, like, 40 banks all sitting around in a room, donald very soberlooking, not quite penitent, perhaps, but serious. When you were talking to him in these meetings, he just didnt seem that he had any idea how big the problem was or how it would be resolved. But he, as far as being a ceo and understanding numbers and understanding the ramifications, doesnt seem like he took economics or accounting in college. Donald trumps assets are on the line. Citibank and trumps other lenders are working on a bailout plan. Narrator the bankers faced a fundamental decision. The Trump Organization confirmed today. It was at a time when we all were trying to figure out, is it better off this guy being alive financially, or is it better off having him dead financially . Narrator as they stared into the Trump Organizations abyss, the banks came to believe that trumps assets the buildings, the casinos were worth more with his name on them than in foreclosure. If they were to take trump out of it, they would no longer have the name for the casinos, which was a tremendous part of their allure. Otherwise, basically what could they do . Liquidate and take a tremendous hit . The brand was worth now so much that bankers were willing to take a haircut in order to hang onto the name. The trump princess is said to have a price tag. Narrator they sold the yacht and the airline. Trump may have to unload the trump shuttle, worth about 220 million. Narrator and they put trump on a 450,000 a month allowance. By next summer, he could become Atlantic Citys biggest loser ever. Narrator in exchange, he would continue to promote the business. I think bankers look at trump as a promoter, not as a ceo. At least thats the way i looked at him, and if you talked to other bankers, i think they share that opinion. Hes a wonderful promoter. You know, hes the p. T. Barnum of the 21st century. Donald trump may have pulled off his biggest deal to date. Narrator donald trump had survived. Working on a bailout plan. Narrator but his casinos were still deeply in debt. The bankers do not want trump to file for bankruptcy. Narrator he was looking for a way out. He found one wall street. Donald trump is gambling investors want to bet on him. This is a very exciting day. This is just the right time, and its the right time for this industry. So were really, uh. Were really happy, and this is a very exciting day. Narrator he was selling shares in the casinos. With trump as the pitchman, the stock djt hit a high of 35 a share. And, of course, it left donald trump as the steward of a publicly traded company, which is kind of like leaving a kid locked in a candy store overnight. Narrator trump paid himself 44 million for services, and hed been reimbursed millions in expenses even as the stock price began to fall. So he was making tens of millions of dollars a year personally while the stock price was sinking, almost collapsing. Narrator the company filed for bankruptcy three times. Investors lost billions. He never earned a dime for his shareholders, for pensioners who had their Retirement Funds tied up in those casinos. Never earned a dime until he just drove the whole thing off the cliff. With all your financial problems, do you think you will survive . Why do you say there are problems . Narrator trump characteristically described his time in Atlantic City as a success. Everything financially okay . Dont believe everything you read, ill tell you. Donald trump believes that he came out ahead because, as he puts it, he was looking out for donald trump. And all of the other people who lost their shirts, it didnt work out for them. Thats the way things go, they should have done a better job of vetting their investment. Narrator and trump walked away with a key asset his name. It really dawned on trump that he could make a huge Business Empire out of putting his name everywhere. God, i dont have to kill myself trying to buy up land and deal with zoning boards and, you know, go crazy, and half the time it doesnt work anyway. Why dont i just sell my name . Narrator for trump, real estate was increasingly a side business; marketing his own name, a fulltime job. Do you really think this is the right thing for us to be doing, ivana . But it feels so right. Then its a deal. Yes, we eat our pizza the wrong way. Crust first. Narrator along with his exwife, trump turned his marital problems into a pizza commercial. May i have the last bite . Actually, youre only entitled to half. Hes seen that its a consumer country. Were all consumers. Were trained to be consumers. Were used to being sold to. Hes a really good salesman. He knows how to sell. Its amazing. A big n tasty for just a dollar . How do you do it . Whats your secret . Narrator he used his celebrity to sell everything from computers to hamburgers. Got a buck . Youre in luck together, grimace, we could own this town. He realizes that if youre on tv and youre considered a celebrity and youre considered a success, and that you can essentially trade on that for the rest of your life. Whats going on over here . Narrator he even took a turn as a professional wrestler. Hey, look at this donald trump donald trump taking down Vince Mcmahon the hostile takeover he was seen for quite a long time as a punchline to jokes about the excesses and the failures of the 1980s, and hed become, you know, a human shingle and a punchline. The apprentiturned all of that on its head. New york my city, where the wheels of the Global Economy never stop turning. Money, money, money, money. He became seen as a credible businessperson with a real track record, even though that was at odds with reality. And the guy who became a reality tv star vthe apprentice learned that he could become a reality political star. Who will succeed and who will fail . And who will be the apprentice . Narrator for 14 seasons, millions of americans watched a carefully crafted donald trump. Hes perfectly made up. Hes perfectly coiffed. Hes perfectly lit. Hes in the highback chair making tough decisions. What does he look like . He looks like a president. Donald connected with the American Public because they wanted to be like him. They aspired to be just like him. They wanted to see all this affluence, and he let them see it. He let them into every aspect of what it meant to be successful in america. Good morning. Good morning. Everybodys saying i should run for president. Let me ask you a question. Meatloaf, should i run for president . Absolutely. Now you would definitely vote for me . Narrator as the show took off, trump again began to discuss a run for the white house. Who would not vote for me . Who would not vote for me . All right, good. Dont raise your hand. I would say anybody that raised their hand would immediately be fired. He was very serious, theres no question about it. His popularity was never higher than it was, you know, during this apprentitime, and he was literally. He could do no wrong at that stage. And i think that he realized, wow, if ive hit the high, lets take it to the. Where can you go from there . I want to be president. Narrator and for his political guru roger stone, the tv audience could become trump voters. Which is the greatest single asset to his president ial campaign, because for 14 seasons, he is viewed by the voters, by the population, in a perfect light. Now i understand the elites say, oh, thats reality tv. Voters dont see it that way. Television news and television entertainment, its all television. Narrator he was wealthy again. He had rehabilitated his image. The world knew him. Donald trump believed he was ready. Please welcome my friend donald trump. Narrator now he saw an issue that he could turn into headlines. Why doesnt he show his birth certificate . I think he probably. Why should he have to . Because i have to and everybody else has to, whoopi. Why wouldnt he show. . Excuse me. No, excuse me. I really believe theres a birth certificate. Why. Look, shes smiling. Why doesnt he show his birth certificate . The birther thing is interesting because it harkens back to roy cohn and joe mccarthy. Donald gets insight into the fact that you can sensationalize someones personal history in a brutal and insensitive way. Ive never heard any white president asked to be shown the birth certificate when he was becoming the leader of the birther movement, i think he understood who he was speaking to. It was the archie bunkers, who were uncomfortable with an africanamerican president. If youre going to be the president of the United States, it says very profoundly that you have to be born in this country. Donald trump is a billionaire, hes famous, hes on tv, and hes saying hes uncomfortable too. And hes practicing roy cohn, roger stone innuendo. Wheres that coming from . Excellent question. I assume the internet. I am not the progenitor of that, meaning i dont first bring it. I dont bring the phenomena to his attention. But trump understands among republicans, theres a very substantial majority who have questions about obamas origins and how he just pops up out of nowhere to become a National Figure and whether he was in fact eligible to serve as president. Another political story making news this morning Donald Trumps growing poll numbers on a list of possible president ial. Narrator as the birther issue raised his polls numbers, trump arrived in New Hampshire for what looked like the beginning of a president ial campaign. As promised, donald trump speaking now in portsmouth, New Hampshire. Lets listen. You ready . You get ready. Whenever youre ready, im okay. Narrator trumps speech was carried live on national television. But president obama had a surprise for trump. If you put a tax on chinese products. Okay, were going to leave New Hampshire and go to washington and the white house, where president obama is speaking. As many of you have been briefed, we provided Additional Information today about the site of my birth. Narrator obama had released his birth certificate and upstaged trump. Yes, in fact, i was born in hawaii, august 4, 1961, in kapiolani hospital. President barack obama put an end to questions. Narrator with the birth certificate no longer an issue, washington expected donald trump to recede into the background. Put the birther issue to rest once and for all. Narrator they were certain he was finished. But he would spend the next four years laying the groundwork for a comeback. And at trump tower in 2015, he made it official. He would run for president , prove his critics wrong and get even with the establishment. Hes got a great sense of theater. The orchestration of it recognizes his showmanship. Hes a showman above all. He enters as the royal presence. He understood the drama of coming down the escalator. Narrator he was joined by his third wife, melania, a supermodel from slovenia. He descended almost from heaven. He descends down the gold plated escalator into the rosy marble lobby of trump tower. crowd cheering that is some group of people. Thousands got on the stage, said, what a crowd thousands it was hundreds. It was like the next chapter of the apprenticeand it was the moment that he had actually been building toward for decades. Great to be in a wonderful city, new york. He proceeded to launch into an announcementslashrant of the type no one has seen in president ial politics before. When mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. And so in this moment, he says, im just going to be myself. Then he takes a sevenminute script and just goes off and goes on and on, and its kind of stream of consciousness. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And some, i assume, are good people. Its totally his gut. We didnt know he was going to talk about crimes committed by illegal aliens. Illegal immigrants, and that, you know, that people had been murdered and raped. Sadly, the American Dream is dead. Bring it back but if i get elected president , i will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before, and we will make America Great again. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. crowd cheering its like a man working without a net. Youre going to tune in to see what hes going to say because it could be anything. Its got a daredevil quality to it. Its genuine, its real. Youre holding your breath. Whats he going to say next . Narrator at the time, some thought it was just another publicity stunt. He made a lot of statements that immediately made people dismiss him, that this guy must be a joke, but donald trump was somehow finding a way to connect with the people who mattered at that moment for him. Narrator it would turn out to be the first day of what trump would call a movement, the beginning of a campaign that would win him the ultimate prize. Donald trump pulled off one of the biggest political upsets. Donald trump is the 45th president elect. President elect trump meets with president obama. Narrator five years after being humiliated by president obama. Mr. President , it was a great honor being with you. Narrator donald trump came to the white house as his successor. On the nexfrontline, divided states of america. Over two nights, a fourhour special series. A new president in a deeply divided country. The donald Trump Presidency is going to be anathema to at least part of the population and greatly welcomed by another part, and those two americas have been at war with one another and theyre likely to continue to be so. Frontlines awardwinning political team, the inside story of how we got here. The republicans told the members, just say no. They thought they could ram this right through and to heck with conservatives. Through two terms of a democratic president. They had decided, we dont need to work with republicans, because we have supermajorities on the hill. And the civil war within te republican party. I had members who thought sitting down with the president was a big mistake. The searing events that dre the country further apart. The contradiction of this happening in the midst of a black presidency sharpened the irony and intensified the pain. One of my few regrets is my inability to reduce the polarization in our politics. One of his biggest disappointments was not being able to bridge that party divide, that toxicity in this town. And the voters new choice for change. Make America Great again donald trump is the representation of the antiobama. He was speaking straight to tens of millions of americans who think that theyve been betrayed not anger, betrayal by washington. Coming in two weeks to frontline. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support for frontliis provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information is available at macfound. Org. Additional support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. The wyncote foundation. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. Captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs. Org frontline. FrontlinePresident Trump is available on dvd. To order, visit shoppbs. Org. Or ca1800playpbs. Frontline is also available for download on itunes. Youre watching pbs. Ive adopted a love for morning runs. Ive adopted a love for getting interrupted. Ive adopted a love for landscaping. At the petco foundation, we believe when you adopt a pet, theres so much more to love about life. Thats why since 1999, weve brought pets in need and people together, with 4. 2 million pets adopted, and counting. Hello, i am jane goodall. Ive devoted most of my life to learning about and protecting animals all over the world. As a child, my dog, rusty, was a wonderful companion. He showed me that animals not only have personalities, but minds and feelings as well. Shelter me is a series that celebrates that beautiful bond we have with our pets