A New York magazine edition of March 5, 1990. The magazine has covered Trump’s business, cultural, political and life-style activities for decades, to the present day.
This accounting of Donald Trump’s days in New York City, came out just as he entered the fray of the presidential race in 2016 – the year he would surprise pundits with an electoral college win over Democratic candidate – and former first lady, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State – Hilary Clinton.
This Trump history may be regarded by many as “old news” – and true enough, it is that. But it is still a useful look at a part of Trump’s life during a revealing time in New York city: – i.e., Donald Trump as realtor, playboy, cultural star, and self-promoter. And in these various roles, Trump then received scrutiny by the New York media, and not least, New York magazine.
As the magazine’s editors would explain in one of the opening paragraphs for its January 2016 “Trump Dump” story:
…Trump went into business in 1968, the same year New York came into being. “The first time anyone heard much about Donald Trump was about five years ago,” contributing editor Marie Brenner wrote in a 1980 profile. “And it all sounded very fishy.” But over the succeeding years, this magazine got to know Trump intimately, chronicling his deals, his bankruptcies, his marriages, his affairs, his casinos, his yacht, his children, his vendettas, his television show, his marketing schemes, and his presidential campaigns. He occasioned and survived multiple bans by editors skeptical that there was anything about Trump left to say. He graced the magazine’s cover numerous times…
…And so, as hordes of Iowan Republicans race to declare Donald Trump their pick to be the nation’s next president, we went into New York’s archives to find our favorite Trump moments…
New York magazine contents page describing Donald Trump in November 1980 story, “Trumping The Town.”
As the editors also explained, Trump’s first appearance in New York magazine was in 1976, a few months after President Ford told New York to drop dead, the city then in desperate financial straits. Trump, then 29, an unknown real-estate developer with a grandiose plan for a convention center seeking big tax breaks, ended up in a feud with hotel mogul Bob Tisch, all of which New York covered in that first Trump story. But many more were to follow.
…If You Missed It
What follows below is a selected portion of New York magazine’s 2016 “Trump Dump” story, to give readers an idea of what’s covered there in more detail. Listed below, for example, are the descriptive section heads the magazine used in compiling the full story on-line. Each of these sections at the New York website, includes a related short summary, typically with links to other publications and/or fuller treatments in New York magazine pieces.
The section heads included here are also complimented with a right-hand column of several of the New York magazine covers that were featured or referred to in the “Trump Dump” compilation.
The general intent here is simply to re-introduce this story to readers who may have missed it years ago, directing them to the New York magazine compilation of useful and informative Trump history up through September 2016.
These stories, while older Trump history known to many, may still offer readers insight into Donald Trump’s various business and cultural activities in the Big Apple and beyond during the 1950s-2016 period. Most of these New York stories are well-written and lively accounts, and some quite revealing of Trump’s personality, values, behavior, and dealings with others in those times. Later in the piece, other Trump stories and magazine covers by The New Yorker, Time magazine, The Economist, Politico.com, and some New York tabloids will also appear. But first, consider New York‘s “Trump Dump.”
___________________________________________________
 May 19. 1980, New York magazine cover, “The Men Who Own New York,” Young Donald Trump among them, top left. |
 Nov 16, 1987. New York cover: “Trump On Trump: How I Do My Deals - Excerpts From His New Book.” |
 November 9, 1992: New York magazine cover, “Fighting Back: Trump Scrambles off the Canvas.” |
 1994: “Trump’s Near-Death Experience” - He claws way back from the abyss – thanks to luck, bluster & Chinese billionaires. |
“The Trump Dump”
New York Magazine, 2016
Chapter 1:
Faking It, Making It
(1946-1982)
He Stole His Brother’s Toys
He Picked His First Development Fight
He Seduced Ivana
He Loved Studio 54
He Learned His Positive Thinking From
the Master
He Tried to Manipulate a Village
Voice Reporter
He Built Trump Tower
Chapter 2:
The Heyday
(1983-1989)
His Tower Defined the Decade
He Tried to Topple the NFL
He Blew Up Palm Beach
He Retained Joe McCarthy’s Favorite Law-yer
He Didn’t Pay Retail
He Tried to Build the World’s Tallest Sky-scraper – And Lost
He Began to Consider Himself Presidential Material
He Became a Best-Selling Author
He Won Nixon’s Endorsement
He Bought the Plaza
He Advised Mike Tyson on His Fights
He Advised Mike Tyson on His Marriage
He Called for the Execution of Black Teens (Who Were Innocent)
He Buried a Documentary That Ultimately Screened Just Twice
His Womanizing Caught Up to Him
Chapter 3:
Debts and Defiance
(1990-2003)
He Began to Lose His Mojo
He Rebounded!
He Gambled on Atlantic City
He Owed the Banks Billions
He Fell Off the Billionaire List – Loudly and Homophobically
His Father Bought Him $3.5 Million in Chips at His Own Casino
He Ran Into Macaulay Culkin
He Blew Up at Barbara Corcoran
He Picked a Fight With the Cuomo Family
He Had a Thing for Princess Di
He Swore He Was a Really Good Dad
He Bought the GM Building, Predicting the Apple Store
He Started Selling Models
He Became a Rap Icon
He Impressed At Least One Architecture Critic
He Began to Mull the White House Again
He Buried His Face in Rudy Giuliani’s Bosom
He Lost the GM Building
Chapter 4:
Celebrity Grotesque
(2004-2015)
He Had an Idea for a Reality Show You’re Gonna Love
He One-Upped Monopoly (Or at Least Tried)
He Dominated the Ratings (At Least by His Telling)
He Was Skewered by Muppets
He Swore He Was a Billionaire
He Patented Himself
He Let Rosie O’Donnell Get Under His Skin
He Almost Shaved His Head
He Monetized His Appetites
He Dabbled in What Certainly Looked Like a Pyramid Scheme
He Married Off His Daughter — To a Jew!
He Wouldn’t Let Oliver Stone Near His Hair
He Was the Most Entertaining of All the Birthers
He Hawked Sunscreen
He Entered the Republican Primary Race,
Shot to the Top of the Pack, and Shows
No Signs of Losing (last entry, Sept 2015)
Concludes with a quote from Donald Trump’s 1987 book, Trump: The Art of The Deal:
Trump: “You can’t con people, at least not for long. You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press, and you can throw in a little hyperbole. But if you don’t deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on.”
** Click here to visit full New York magazine “Trump Dump” story from January 29, 2016.
NYmag Sample Stories
New York’s May 2, 1983 edition, ran a two-page spread (turned sideways) on the Trump Tower’s six-story interior atrium.
When the Trump Tower was completed in 1983, for example, New York lauded the building, offering a headline atop its May 2nd, 1983 cover that read:, “Trump’s Spec-tacular Atrium on Fifth Avenue.” Inside that edition, the magazine also ran a two-page, enlarged, “turn-it-sideways” photo of the building’s six-story interior atrium.
Said the magazine, describing the Trump Tower on the contents page:
“With its 68 stories of bronze glass and its dazzling six-story atrium, its pricey boutiques and pricier apartments, its mock grenadiers and its cascading ‘waterwall,’ the Trump Tower, the ‘world’s most talked about address,’ is getting a lot of talk.”
The magazine also explained that Trump, who became the most recognized New York City builder of the 1980s, was not content with just real estate:
“Trump Tower begat a litter of Trump- branded condo buildings — Trump Parc, Trump Plaza, Trump Palace — but Trump himself was not content to remain a mere real-estate developer. He expanded into Atlantic City casinos, bought the Eastern Airlines shuttle (which he renamed Trump Air), sponsored a professional cycling event called the Tour de Trump. But perhaps his most audacious move came in taking on the entire National Football League” Not all of these ventures would fare the way Trump had hoped, with some falling far short of Trump’s vision, some incurring huge debt and other troubles [see, for example, 2013 ESPN documentary, Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL ]. In some of his subsequent real estate ventures, he would also do battle with renters not willing to leave their apartments.
Feb 1985. NY magazine cover story of Donald Trump’s battle with tenants of a building he wanted for a new project.
A group of tenants in that building – located at a desirable New York City location, 100 Central Park South, with some units looking into the park – had organized to block Trump from raising the building in order to build a new tower there and on an adjoining property. Trump hired a management company to deal with the property and begin eviction proceedings. Tenants charged they were soon receiving reduced services, and repairs had been stopped as well. Soon, the legal wars began, but the tenants held their ground. And New York magazine told the story.
In the end, Trump never realized his original project for that site. But the value of the property soared in the booming 1980s New York City real estate market. By the late 1990s, Trump converted the building into condominiums, though some of renters were allowed to remain at lower-than-market level rents. Among the residents, as of 2016, was Trump’s son Eric, who also served on the condo board.
Doing His Deals
But New York magazine stories also helped to sell Donald Trump and make him a cultural figure in New York and beyond. In November 1987, for example, just prior to publication of Trump’s first book, The Art of The Deal, New York ran extensive excerpts from the book over a generous 14 pages. Trump had collaborated with Tony Schwartz on the book – the writer who did the earlier story on Trump’s battle with Central Park South renters. Along with the excerpts from Trump’s The Art of the Deal, the magazine also included an update of how some of Trump’s deals actually fared in the real world.
Part of a 14-page spread New York magazine offered on Trump with its November 16, 1987 story, “Trump on Trump: How I Do My Deals,” with extensive excerpts from Trump’s first book, “The Art of the Deal.”
As introduction to the November 1987 New York story on the Trump book, the magazine described Trump as follows:
…Donald Trump is one of the most remarkable figures of the roaring eighties – a true creature of the age. More than a New York real estate developer and deal-maker, Trump has become the personification of hustle and chutzpah, flogging Mayor Koch one day, raiding Holiday Inns or United Airlines the next, pronouncing on the Persian Gulf on the back page of the Times the day after that.
At just 41, Trump has amassed a personal fortune (of $850 million by Forbes estimate), put up some of the gaudiest and most popular buildings in New York, made himself the biggest casino operator in the country, and is even flirting with a presidential run.
Trump’s 1987 book, “The Art of the Deal.” Click for copy.
Trump may also be America’s most enthusiastic conspicuous consumers. Over the past two years, he’s acquired Mar-a-Lago, Marjorie Merriweather Post’s 118-room mansion n Palm Beach; an $8 million French helicopter; and an $8 million used Boeing 727 complete with master bedroom, full bath and study….
And with that, the magazine then ran its excepts from the book. That exposure no doubt helped move the book in the New York market and beyond.
Published by Random House in November 1987, a promotional campaign at the book’s release included a celebrity-thick release party at Trump Tower; Trump making the rounds on the TV talk-show circuit; and a number of magazine covers on Trump and the book.
The Art of the Deal became a huge hit, selling 835,000 copies in hardcover alone. After that showing, Random House reportedly paid Trump a $2.4 million advance for a sequel. Trump, however, by all accounts, did not write the book; Tony Schwartz did, reportedly to his great regret (see Wikipedia profile of the Trump book, which includes history on Tony Schwartz).
July 1988 New York magazine cover story on Trump’s yacht.
Big Yacht
Among other New York magazine cover stories in the “Trump Dump,” is a July 11th, 1988 story that focused on his yacht – or as New York’s cover story headline put it: “Trump’s Newest Toy.”
The magazine further explained on its contents page:
“It cost him nearly $30 million, and he says it was a bargain. He calls it the “ultimate toy,” but he plans to use it for business. It’s Donald Trumps new yacht, which he introduced to his New York Fiends at a July 4 bash on the East River. The 292-foot yacht will soon be docked at a marina in Atlantic City, where Trump will use it entertain the high rollers at his casinos….”
That story also included a detailed description and graphic of the boat’s various decks, its size relative to other commercial and military boats, and photos of some of its elaborately-decorated rooms. In a separate story, Newsweek magazine would call it “the world’s most luxurious yacht.”
The yacht was originally built in 1980 for Saudi businessman and billionaire, Adnan Khashoggi, for $100 million. Trump named it the Trump Princess. Although for a time he talked about having a bigger yacht built to accommodate all his high-roller friends – one perhaps 400 feet in size – that never came to pass. The Trump Princess, meanwhile, was sold in 1991.
September 4, 1989 edition: “Trump vs. Stern: The Unmaking of A Documentary,” about once-blocked documentary film about Trump.
Blocked Film
One of the stories featured in New York magazine’s 2016 “Trump Dump” was a cover story that appeared in the September 4th, 1989 edition of the magazine regarding a documentary film that was being made about Trump, and backed by Leonard Stern, a competing New York real-estate developer.
At the time, Stern owned The Village Voice and another publication, 7 Days, which had probed some of Trump’s activities. In 1988 Stern was also financing work on a documentary film titled, “Trump: What’s the Deal?”
According to New York, as Trump learned that the film was being made, he began to try and stop it from being aired, and in the process, became “really nasty, spreading a rumor that Stern’s wife of 18 months, Allison, had repeatedly phoned his office asking for a date,” which she called “absurd.”
In any case, New York magazine’s story, “Trump vs. Stern: The Unmaking of a Documentary,” by Edwin Diamond, laid out all the details on the Trump-Stern fight over the film. The story ran for eight pages with screen shots from the film, its history, and quotes from its principals. Trump threatened lawsuits and used business connections to block the film on TV, although it was later screened briefly at a small theater in Bridgehampton, New York in July 1991 – but only for two showings.
Title card for once-blocked documentary film, “Trump: What’ The Deal,” now available. Click for film at Amazon.
According to Trump author, David Cay Johnston, writing in The National Memo in August 2015, “the documentary shows Trump manipulating politicians and the criminal justice system, pocketing millions in taxpayer welfare, not paying people he hired, doing some of his biggest deals with mobsters, retaining a cocaine dealer as his helicopter pilot, and evidently benefitting from having his sister working in the Justice Department before winning appointment as a federal judge.” As of August 2024, Amazon’s Prime Video described the film as follows: “Donald Trump is one of the richest and most famous men in America, but on what foundation has his success been built? From accusations of harassment to repeated flirtations with bankruptcy, his very public business career has been one of artifice and intrigue. Originally produced in 1991, “Donald Trump: What’s the Deal?” investigates the unscrupulous reality behind this most public of figures.”
Tabloid Coverage
February 16, 1990. Famous cover of New York Post re: Marla on Trump.
Thereafter, the tabloids – especially the New York Post and the New York Daily News – exploded with the news about Trump, Ivana, and Marla, offering nearly non-stop coverage and front-page stories for the next few weeks.
New York magazine, for its part, added its own coverage, beginning with the March 5, 1990 cover story noted at the top of this story – “Trump The Soap.” And in subsequent months and years, other stories on Ivana and Marla would continue to be a part of the Trump media swirl, especially in the New York City tabloids (more on the tabloids later below).
Ivana and Trump had married in 1977, divorced in December 1990. Trump married Maples in 1993 and they divorced in 1999.
New York magazine, meanwhile, continued to include stories about Trump’s marriages, affairs, divorce, and family – some of these mentioned in the “Trump Dump” compilation. An October 1990 cover story by Michael Gross, “Ivana’s New Life,” focused on the life of first wife, Ivana, then not yet divorced, but beginning to plan her new life after Donald’s affair with Marla Maples. Maples, for her part, would get her own New York cover story a few years later, on April 11, 1994 with then Marla Trump on the cover, headlined, “Look Who’s New Age Now: Marla Trump And Her Society Pals Go Holistic.”
 NY mag, October 15, 1990. “Ivana’s New Life,” i.e., after Trump. |
 NY mag, April 11, 1994. Marla Trump. “Look Who’s New Age Now.” |
 NY mag, December 13, 2004. “Growing Up Trump.” |
Regarding Trump’s role as a father, a cover story by Jonathan Von Meter of December 2004 was titled, “Growing Up Trump: How Did Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric Survive New York’s Weirdest Family?” On the magazine’s contents page that story was given a longer title: “Did Their Father Really Know Best? In a City Full of Narcissistic Competitive Parents, Donald and His Ecx-Wife Ivana Trump Seem to Have Won the Prize. Could Their Three Kids Really Have Survived Such Mythic Over-The-Top Dysfunction?”
More Trump…
New York magazine’s “Trump Dump” also includes other Trump history. A “Trump World” section of New York‘s January 16, 1995 edition, included reporting claiming that Princess Diana and Prince Charles were applying for membership at Mar-a-Logo, plus another report that Diana was negotiating to buy a $3.5 million apartment in Trump Tower, both of which were denied by a Palace spokesman. New York also reported that Trump had repeatedly sent flowers to Diana after her marriage ended. But according to Diana friend, Selina Scott in London’s Daily Mail, Trump gave Princess Diana “the creeps.”
Portion of a “Trump World” report from New York magazine’s January 16, 1995 edition noting alleged interest by Princess Diana and Prince Charles in joining Mar-a-Lago, and separately, that Princess Diana was said to negotiating for a Trump Tower apartment – both denied by Palace spokesman.
Other New York stories noted in the “Trump Dump” focused on Trump’s earlier attempted presidential bids – briefly in October 1987 and also, briefly again, in January 2000 with the Reform Party – the latter coming with another Trump book, The America We Deserve. The January 2004 premiere of Trump’s NBC TV show, The Apprentice, is also covered, and a 2005 Muppetts segment about an orange-haired “Donald Grump” – who has more and better trash than anyone else — is also mentioned. More serious matters at the “Trump Dump” involved a January 2006 entry, when Trump sued Timothy O’Brien for libel, as O’Brien’s 2005 book, TrumpNation, found at the time that Trump’s real worth was around $150-$250s million, not the billions Trump claimed.
 Donald Trump’s Jan 2000 book, “Trump: The America We Deserve,” came at 2nd Presidential bid. Click for copy. |
 Tim O’Brien’s “TrumpNation” book of 2005 brought a $5 billion Donald Trump lawsuit. Click for copy. |
Trump then sued O’Brien, seeking $2.5 billion in compensatory damages and $2.5 billion in punitive damages. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2009, and an appeals court affirmed the decision in 2011. A new edition of TrumpNation was published in June 2016 that included O’Brien’s introduction that criticized Trump and also noted his 2016 presidential campaign.
Other New York / “Trump Dump” entries included background on Jared Kushner and family when Jared and Ivanka married in October 2009. President Barack Obama’s remarks on Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April 2011 – when Trump became the butt of Obama’s jokes – is also included.
New York’s Sept 2015 cover story argued that Donald Trump’s campaign may actually be saving Democracy.
The accompanying story, by Frank Rich, held that Trump’s chaos, was actually doing America’s democratic system a favor by “exposing all its phoniness and corruption,” and changing it, and maybe, perhaps, strengthening it for the better.
Throughout his long piece, Rich pulled in elements from journalism, film, politics past, and more to make his points. And while he missed the mark in a few of his predictions, he did succeed in raising some interesting observations about Trump’s impact – which may still hold in 2024.
Trump, he explained, “has performed a public service by exposing, however crudely and at times inadvertently, the posturings of both the Repub-licans and the Democrats and the foolishness and obsolescence of much of the political culture they share.” …And that “Trump may be injecting American democracy with steroids…”
“…[T]he Trump campaign,” explains Rich, “has already made a difference. Far from being a threat to democracy or a freak show unworthy of serious coverage, it matters because it’s taking a much-needed wrecking ball to some of what has made our sterile politics and dysfunctional government as bankrupt as Trump’s Atlantic City casinos….” This was, of course, before Trump won the 2016 election, and before the Trump wrecking ball took a swing at the Constitution on January 6, 2021.
Other Media
April 1984. New York Times Magazine cover story: “The Expanding Empire of Donald Trump,” by William Geist.
Many of these publications had their own Donald Trump coverage during those years, including detailed profiles, featured cover stories, and more, often with photos of Trump on their magazine covers or front pages.
The New York Times Magazine, for example, offered an April 1984 cover story shown at right, with Trump in the cover photo standing in the ornate atrium of his Trump Tower, along with cover tag line, “The Expanding Empire of Donald Trump.”
Coverage of Trump in those years generally ran the gamut, from flattering and praiseworthy, to critical and probing.
How Rich?
One Trump cover story by Forbes magazine of May 14, 1990 targeted his much self-promoted billionaire status. Forbes essentially dropped him from its “Forbes 400 richest list” after investigating his financial standing. That cover, shown below, depicts a scowling Donald Trump with the tagline: “How Much is Donald Really Worth Now?”
Donald Trump on the cover of Forbes for the first time, May 14, 1990. The story inside, explained Forbes, “offered a devastating look at his finances.”
…He conned his way into sharing a spot on the inaugural [Forbes 400] list in 1982 with his father, Fred Trump, by convincing a reporter that he held a larger percentage of Fred’s fortune than he actually did. Trump secured massive loans that led to massive bankruptcies, and he fell off the list in 1990, when Forbes exposed deep problems with his debt-fueled empire, ultimately putting his net worth “within hailing distance of zero.” But Trump emerged from those troubles and regained a legitimate spot on the 400. He remained on the list from 1996 until 2021, when six years of polarization and one year of Covid finally caught up to him, dropping him from the ranks once again.
Time Magazine
Time magazine has also covered Donald Trump as he rose to fame in New York and beyond — in fact, for more than 25 years now — including dozens of Time magazine Trump covers.
Donald Trump first landed on Time’s cover on January 16, 1989 with the headline “This Man May Turn You Green With Envy – or Just Turn You Off. Flaunting It is His Game, and Trump is His Name.”
Trump, in fact, has held a special place in his self-boosterism for Time magazine covers. In his early days as President, in January 2016, he boasted at a CIA appearance about his Time magazine covers: “I have been on their cover like 14 or 15 times. I think we have the all-time record in the history of Time Magazine…. I’ve been on the cover 15 times this year. I don’t think that’s a record that could ever be broken.” Time magazine’s creative director, C.W. Pine, would later correct the record, noting that as of January 2016, Trump had been on 11 covers, and did not then hold the record of most Time magazine covers.
A sampling of Time magazine covers as of January 2021 with various photos, caricatures, and other renditions of Donald Trump making news, controversy, and/or chaos as he went, dating from 1989. (Click for Amazon page of Trump magazine covers).
However, since 2016, as the graphic above illustrates, Trump does have many more Time covers to his credit, with more than 35 as of 2021, though these covers do not always render him in a stately or flattering way, to say the least. Still, as Time’s C. W. Pine noted in 2021, Richard Nixon had more at 55 covers, and Ronald Regan, 46. True, with more Donald Trump chaos and controversy ahead, he may eventually eclipse Nixon and Reagan for the most Time covers.
Fake March 1, 2009 editions of Time magazine found at 7 Trump Golf Clubs.
Shenanigans aside, however, the media – all media; print, electronic, and digital – have been happy about the arrival, antics, and controversy that is Donald Trump, whether in New York, Washington, or anywhere else. Trump boosts circulation, sells books, gets eyeballs, and raises TV, streaming, and podcast viewer/listener share. But it was perhaps the New York tabloids that first sent Trump into the Big Leagues of front-page obsession.
Tabloid King
Trump himself observed of his tabloid coverage during his 1990 marital troubles: “Papers like the Daily News and the New York Post were selling an extra thirty thousand copies whenever they splashed the Trump story across their front pages. In view of the money they were making off Ivana’s and my problems, they weren’t about to let the story drop.” Indeed, the Trump fervor went well beyond Ivana and Marla, and would continue for years, as Politico.com noted, “with more tabloid covers marking Trump’s books, failed business deals, TV reality show and finally his presidential bid. If Trump is a made man, it was perhaps the tabloids that did the making.” By mid -2016, Politico’s Media Issue compiled a collection of “the very best Trump covers” from the New York Post and New York Daily News – “nearly 100 in total.”
A partial collage of “New York Post” and “New York Daily News” front-page treatments of Donald Trump-related news that appeared regularly in the 1990s and beyond – Trump coverage that continues today for dozens of publications wide and far.
Michael Kruse, writing for Politico.com in its May/June 2016 media issue, offered some history on the tabloids and Trump:
…Donald Trump’s staying power as a celebrity and success as a presidential candidate is not because he’s some kind of emblem of wealth—it’s because he’s a product of the tabloids. In the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, starting in the gossip pages of papers like the New York Post and the New York Daily News, the lines between news and entertainment began to blur more and matter less.“…[T]he tabloid writers used him and their papers thrived. But it turns out that he was using them too….” And Trump, the arriviste real estate mogul with attention-grabbing projects and personality to match, was a perfect character. “He was this guy who walked out of tabloid heaven,” says Larry Hackett, who worked for the News. “He was rich. He was vulgar. He was a city guy … and the women… Business, sex and a guy who loves the attention. You couldn’t beat it.” So the tabloid writers used him and their papers thrived. But it turns out that he was using them too. To keep his name in print, to build his brand, to learn the kinds of lessons that have helped him put together a run for the White House the likes of which has never been seen. Talk to some of those tabloid writers now and they can see—with some discomfort—that the seeds of Trump’s celebrity were nurtured in their notebooks….
The tabloids, certainly, were not alone, as the above review of New York’s “Trump Dump” makes clear. And as Trump edged into presidential politics – at first, with a few false starts, but full on by 2015 – more mainstream magazines began feature coverage of him, with Trump showing up on more and more covers.
Trump, in fact, delights in his magazine covers – as Washington Post reporter, Dan Balz, discovered during an October 2015 visit with Trump at his New York office, receiving a guided tour of his “awards wall.” Part of that wall was filled with framed versions of some of Trump’s favorite magazine covers, as he explains in the 2015 Washington Post video clip. below:
As the camera in the above interview pans the top of Trump’s desk – with a stunning view of Central Park out the window of Trump’s office high up in the Trump Tower – piles of other recent magazines featuring Trump can bee seen on his desk – Rolling Stone, Newsweek, The Economist, Time, New York, BloombergBusinessweek, and others. Trump remarks during the interview, that there are so many covers he doesn’t have room for all of them on his wall.
When Trump is asked if he had a favorite, Trump replies that he thought the recent issue of Time magazine (August 31, 2015) — showing him in a portrait-like pose, with the tag line, “Deal With It,” a generally positive story about his surprising rise in the Republican ranks via his unorthodox campaign style — was a “good one.” Some seven months later, however — as Trump was headed for the Republican nomination after months on the campaign trail revealing his tactics — he might not have thought the Time story and cover that appeared then (March 14th, 2016) was a “good one.” That issue, as shown below, had a close-up of Trump’s face filling the entire page with ballot-box check-off options displayed across the page, each separately labeled: “bully,” “showman,” “party crasher,” “demagogue” — all checked – and a remaining one, “the 45th President of the United States,” left unchecked. No, this magazine cover was likely not a candidate for Trump’s wall of greatest hits.
 August 31, 2015 edition of Time -- a "good one." |
 March 14th, 2016 edition of Time -- maybe not so good. |
Still, as those reporting on Trump would come to understand, all Trump media coverage – any coverage, in fact – is good coverage, as far as Trump is concerned. David Von Drehle, for example, reporting for Time in the “checked-boxes” issue, interviewed Trump aboard his plane as he campaigned, with Trump then laying out his media philosophy.
According to Von Drehle’s account: “what matters more than accuracy [to Trump] is the sheer fact of being covered. Own the airwaves, own the campaign, run the world. To be certain that I’ve grasped this point, he expands on the theme: ‘You see what this is, right? It’s ratings. I go on one of these shows and the ratings double. They triple. And that gives you power. It’s not the polls. It’s the ratings’.”
It’s as if Trump views his life as permanently on television, and he’s in a constant game of ratings – ratings secured by any means, honorable or not. P.T. Barnum, indeed. It’s the coverage, stupid!
As magazine editors, artists and creative directors learned more about Trump as he campaigned and later governed, their covers of him became more overtly critical. Consider for example, a selection of some New Yorker covers: one from February 2016 with former presidents huddled around a TV with disapproving expressions while watching Trump speak; another from 2019 with prominent Republicans shining his shoes; and a third from June 2024 with Trump being handcuffed.
 New Yorker: Feb 1, 2016. |
 New Yorker: June 3, 2019. |
 New Yorker: June 10, 2024. |
The Economist, as well, has also offered critical and negative Trump imagery, as shown below: a December 2015 cover with the tag line “Playing With Fear,” as a Trump rendering is shown standing with anti-immigration populist politicians, Marine Le Pen of France and Viktor Orban of Hungary; an October 2016 cover heading into the U.S. Presidential election with the headline, “The Debasing of American Politics,” depicting Trump imagery and takeover effects on a stylized Republican elephant; and a February 2017 cover showing Trump in MAGA ball cap about to throw a Molotov cocktail, and headlined, “An Insurgent in the White House.”
 The Economist: December 2015. |
 The Economist: October 2016. |
 The Economist: Feb 2017. |
New York magazine, meanwhile, continued its coverage of Trump as he became president and thereafter, as a few samples below illustrate. One New York edition in early April 2018, for example, featured a close-up of Donald Trump’s laughing face, filling the entire page, but also fitted with pig’s snout. In small white type, at three places on the cover, the title begins: “Not Collusion… Not Incompetence…. Not Cruelty… It’s The Corruption, Stupid: Why Self-Dealing Is His Biggest Political Liability.” Inside that edition, a collection of stories were focused on then Trump Administration corruption.
 2018: New York's April 2-15 edition, focused on corruption in the Trump Administration. |
 2020: New York September 14-27 edition, “Defeating Trump in November Will Not Be Enough.” |
 2023: October 9-22 edition, “Chasing Trump” - 13 Weeks on the Campaign Trail with Republican Also-Rans. |
New York editor, Eric Bates, explained how the idea for the April 2018 cover first arose: “Reading the news every day, we were struck by the constant drip-drip of reports of corruption by the Trump administration. We wanted to find a way to bring together all the ways that Trump and his circle are using the presidency to enrich themselves into one comprehensive list — something that would drive home the unprecedented scale and of the self-dealing and thievery. It was clear that Trump hasn’t drained the swamp — he’s just cornering the market on it.” The two additional New York covers shown above include a September 2020 cover that features Trump in a swearing-in pose in a court-like setting or hearing room with the tagline: “The Case For Consequences: Defeating Trump in November Will Not Be Enough (September 14 – 27, 2020 edition). And an October 2023 New York cover showing the scramble of Republican candidates trying to challenge Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination with tag line, “Chasing Trump.”
 Politico.com magazine, Friday Cover, August 7, 2015. |
 Politico.com magazine, Friday Cover, November 25, 2016. |
 Politico.com magazine, Friday Cover, October 7, 2016. |
And then there is Politico.com, the online digital news magazine on politics. Shown above are three sample “Friday Covers” from Politico Magazine on Trump — among dozens at Politico on Trump since 2015. The first, above left, is an August 15, 2015 edition with the title line, “I Overdosed on Trump: What I Leaned From 24 Hours of Mainlining The Breakout 2016 Candidate,” by Adam Wren. A second sample, from November 25, 2016, “Donald Trump And the rise of the Alt-Right Media: You Think the Truth Took A Hit Last Year? It’s About To Get Worse. A Lot Worse,” by Charles Sykes. And a third sample with the title, “Trump and The Crash of ‘08: The Celebrity Developer Says He Called the Financial Crisis. Here’s What Really Happened,” by Michael Kruse.
|
“Trumpian Truths” 1. Attention is power. |
Like New York magazine’s “Trump Dump,” Politico did something similar with its Trump reporting by Michael Kruse, who covered Trump extensively for more than five years, filing more than 60 stories.
On the eve of the November 2020 election, Politico and Kruse assembled some 46 of their “Friday Covers” as visual aide, as Kruse then wrote a detailed piece listing “45 Self-Evident Truths About Donald Trump.”
Kruse also explained the scope of his October 29, 2020 piece with an introduction, as follows below, in part:
…It has been well-documented that the 45th president operates with evident disregard for norms and rules. But over the past 5 ½ years of reporting I have determined that he abides by a firm code of conduct as predictable as it is confounding. In more than 60 stories in the Politico Magazine oeuvre that came to be known as “Trumpology,” I documented how his unswerving allegiance to a certain set of principles, unprincipled as they might seem to some, elevated him to the pinnacle of global power. If widespread polling holds true on Election Day, these same traits and tics, and rock-ribbed beliefs, might also be the reasons he’s ousted from office.
Much has been made recently of this election [i.e., 2020 election] as a referendum on the president not just as a politician with a set of policies, but as a person. This list—compiled using excerpts from my pieces and my interviews with sources who have known him most of his life—is the distillation of his worldview, a condensed sketch of Donald Trump as a man. And no matter what happens, and whether or not he retains his grip on the White House or decamps in defeat to Mar-a-Lago, these truths will continue to guide his behavior—and the way we perceive it.
Displayed here in the sidebar at right are the section heads only from the Kruse/Politico story of October 29, 2020. Readers are encouraged to go there via this linked title, “45 Self-Evident Truths About Donald Trump,” for the full story.
* * * * *
Politico’s Trump stories, as well as the New York magazine stories and others profiled here, are, of course, only a portion of the larger media world following Donald Trump since he began his rise in the 1970s. While the focus here has been largely on magazines, there are also countless books about Trump and a number of documentary films about him – all covering his biography, his business history, his campaign history, his presidential term, and more. Some of these are listed and shown below in “Sources.”
As this story is posted in early September 2024, the November presidential election is nearly two months away. And likely battles over Trump’s yet-to-be-resolved legal issues are still to come as well, some possibly stretching well into 2025. So there will certainly be continued media coverage of the Trump circus, with magazines, tabloids, TV, and social media all doing their part to capture all the Trumpian news, imagery, entertainment and outrage likely to come. Yet for sure, during the last decade or so, much gratitude is owed to the Fourth Estate for investigating, reporting, and doing its best to reveal and hold to account the real Donald Trump and the risks he poses still for our nation going forward. Hopefully, the results to come this November will bring us closer to historic political normalcy than what we’ve had since Trump’s arrival.
See also at this website, “Trump on Film: A Partial Listing, 1990-2024,” covering some 30 Trump films. For additional stories on Publishing and/or Politics, see those respective category links. There is also a separate “Topics page” on Magazine History.
Thanks for visiting – and if you like what you find here, please make a donation to help support the research, writing, and continued publication of this website. Thank you. – Jack Doyle.
|
Please Support Thank You |
____________________________________
Date Posted: September 8, 2024
Last Update: September 18, 2024
Comments to: jackdoyle47@gmail.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PopHistoryDig
BlueSky: jackdoyle.bsky.social
Article Citation:
Jack Doyle, “The Trump Dump: New York Magazine,
2016,”PopHistoryDig.com, September 8, 2024.
____________________________________
Related Books & Film at Amazon.com…
 New book, Sept 2024 > How Trump Squandered a Fortune & Created the Illusion of Success. Click for Amazon. |
 “The Accidental President,” 2021 documentary film on how Donald Trump won the 2016 election. Click for film, |
 Charles J. Sykes’ book, “How the Right Lost Its Mind,” w/George Will blurb, 2018 edition, Click for Amazon. |
Sources, Links & Additional Information
 Pulitzer Prize- winning reporter, David Cay Johnston’s 2016 book, “The Making of Donald Trump,” 286 pp. One review noted the book “carefully fleshes out the details of Trump's known biography...with solid documentation.” Click for copy. |
 Philip Rucker & Carol Leonnig’s book, “A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America,” 2021 paperback edition, Penguin Books, 512 pp. Click for copy. |
 PBS Frontline documentary, “Trump's Road to the White House,” an investigation of how Donald Trump defied expectations to win the presidency in 2016. Through interviews with key players, the film shows how Trump rallied millions of supporters, defeated adversaries, and who he brought with him to the White House. Click for DVD. |
 2017 documentary “Trumped: Inside the Greatest Political Upset of All Time,” w/ Mark Halperin, John Heilemann & Mark McKinnon who follow the rise of Trump from the primaries & debates to election night 2016. Click for Amazon. |
 Michael D'Antonio’s 2015 book, “Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success,” Thomas Dunne Books, 400 pp. Click for Amazon. |
 John R. O'Donnell, former President of Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino, tells his story in 1991 book, “Trumped!: The Inside Story of the Real Donald Trump - His Cunning Rise and Spectacular Fall,” Simon & Schuster. Click for copy. |
 PBS/Frontline 2018 documentary film, “Trump's Takeover,” reporting on President Trump's battle for control of the GOP in his first year as President. Click for Amazon. |
 Michael Wolff’s best-selling 2018 book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” 352 pp. Click for Amazon. |
 Bob Woodward’s 2018 best-seller, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” Click for Amazon. |
 Peter Baker & Susan Glasser’s 2022 book, “The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021,”Doubleday, 752 pp. Click for Amazon. |
 2020 documentary film, “Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump.” Is Donald Trump fit to hold the office of President? Analysis of Trump by leading U.S. mental health professionals and Republican strategists. 1 hr 24 min, Click for Amazon. |
 Congressman Jamie Raskin’s 2022 bok, “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy,” Harper, 448 pp. Click for Amazon. |
 “The January 6th Report” (December 2022), The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U. S. Capitol, Preface by The New Yorker’s David Remnick and Epilogue by Congressman Jamie Raskin. Click for Amazon. |
 New York Times reporter, Maggie Haberman’s 2022 book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America,” Penguin, 608 pp. Click for Amazon. |
 Jonathan Karl’s 2023 book, “Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party,” Dutton, 336 pp. Click for Amazon. |
 Anthony T. Michalisko’s 2018 book, “President Trump's Tweets 2016: General Election Edition,” 253 pp. Click for Amazon. |
Donald Trump, Best-Selling Books page at Amazon .com. Click to visit.
Andrew Rice and Nick Tabor, “Our Trump Dump: New York Magazine’s Look Back on the GOP Prince’s Days as an NYC Clown,” New York, January 29, 2016.
“Developer [ i.e., Donald Trump] Proposes a Convention Center in Midtown,” New York Times, December 18, 1975, p. 49.
Dan Dorfman, The Bottom Line, “Will New York Get A New Hotel; The Trump-and-Tisch Tiff,” New York, April 26, 1976, pp 11 -12.
Wayne Barrett, “How a Young Donald Trump Forced His Way from Avenue Z to Manhattan,” The Village Voice (originally published: January 15, 1979).
Howard Blum, “Trump: The Development of a Manhattan Developer,” New York Times, August 26, 1980, pp. B-1, B-4.
Marie Brenner, “Trumping The Town,” New York, November 17, 1980, pp. 26-37.
“Trump’s Spectacular,” New York, May 2, 1983, pp. 30-31.
Marylin Bender, “The Empire and Ego of Donald Trump,” New York Times, August 7, 1983, Section 3, Page 1
By William E. Geist, “The Expanding Empire of Donald Trump,” New York Times Magazine, April 8, 1984, Section 6, p. 28.
Martin Gottlieb, “Trump Says He Wants to Build World’s Tallest Tower at East Side River Site,” New York Times, July 31, 1984, p. B-1.
Carter Wiseman, Cityscape, “Donald Trump’s Fantasy Island,” New York, January 20, 1986, pp, 51-53.
George James, “Trump Drops 5-Year Effort to Evict Tenants,” New York Times, March 5, 1986.
Peter Blauner, “Ice Capades: Donald Trump Takes on the Wollman Rink,” New York, June 23, 1986. p. 25.
“Will The Peacock Roost in Jersey” [re: Trump & TV City], New York, September 8, 1986, p. 15.
Intelligencer, ”Trump Getting New Park View,” New York, October 20, 1986, p. 13.
Joe Klein, “Koch Agonistes: The Mayor and the Big Questions,” New York, July 13, 1987, pp, 29-32.
“Trump Stages a Campaign Event in New Hampshire,” Boston.com, October 1987.
“Trump: The Art of the Deal,” [and Tony Schwartz], Wikipedia.org.
Julie Baumgold, “Mr. Lucky and The Champs: Going To The Big Fight With Donald Trump,” New York, February 15, 1988, pp. 34-40.
Sarah Bernard, “The Plaza Lives!”, New York, April 21, 2005.
Liz Smith, “Donald Trump – Because His Buildings And His Books And His Ego Are So Much Bigger Than Life” (part of New York’s 20th Anniversary Special Featuring “The Top 20: The Most Important New Yorkers for 1988″), New York, April 25, 1988, pp. 113-114.
Intelligencer, “Trump Takes The Pepsi Challenge,” New York, June 13, 1988, p. 13.
David Johnston and Michael Schurman, “Trump’s Ship Comes In – To Cheers” [Atlantic City, NJ], Philadelphia Inquirer, July 10, 1988.
John Taylor, “Trump’s Newest Toy,” New York, July 11, 1988, pp.20-26.
Bill Barol, “Trump Ahoy; The World’s Most Buoyant Billionaire Unveils His New Plaything; The World’s Most Luxurious Yacht,” Newsweek, July 18, 1988. Pp. 62-63.
William H, Meyers, “The Great Plaza Plot: Jockeying for One of the World’s Great Hotels,”(In the Global Bidding for the Old Hotel, Robert Bass Won Out, But Donald Trump Persevered), The Business World / New York Times Magazine, September 25, 1988.
Intelligencer, “Him Again: Donald’s Depart-ment Stores,” New York, December 12, 1988, p. 13.
John Taylor, Circus of Ambition: The Culture of Wealth and Power in the Eighties, 1989.
Otto Friedrich, “Flashy Symbol of an Acquisitive Age: Donald Trump; Young, Handsome and Ridiculously Rich, Donald Trump Loves Making Deals and Money, Loathes Losing and Has an Ego as Big as the Ritz — er, Plaza,” Time, January 16, 1989.
James Barron, “TV Film on Trump Can’t Find a Station,” New York Times, August 19, 1989, p. 27.
Edwin Diamond, “Trump vs. Stern: The Unmaking of A Documentary,” New York, September 4, 1989, pp, 30-38.
“Trump: What’s the Deal?,” Wikipedia.org.
John Taylor, “Trump The Soap; Stay Tuned…”(cover story), New York, March 1990, pp. 30-37.
“Best Sex I’ve Ever Had,” Wikipedia.org.
Edwin Diamond, Media, “Trump Week: Bonfire of The Inanities,” New York, March 5, 1990, pp, 22-23.
“How Much is Donald Trump Really Worth Now?” (cover story), Forbes, May 14, 1990.
Joanna Molloy, Intelligencer, “Trump’s Book: The Forbes ‘Bombshell’,” New York, May 21, 1990, p. 11.
John Taylor, “Fantasy Island: My Weekend at The Taj,” New York, May 21, 1990, p. 48-55.
Christopher Byron, The Bottom Line, “Trump Is US: Signs of A Shrinking City Economy,” New York, June 18, 1990, pp. 18, 22.
Marie Brenner, “After the Gold Rush, Unfortunately for Donald and Ivana Trump, All That Glittered Wasn’t Gold. But the Reign of New York’s Self-Created Imperial Couple Isn’t over Yet. Donald’s Midas Touch May Be Tarnished, but the Banks Are Still Throwing Money at Him, While Ivana Is Busy Brokering a Future of Her Own,” Vanity Fair, September 1990.
Michael Gross, “Ivana’s New Life,” New York (cover story), October 15, 1990, pp. 40-50.
“Trump Castle Complaint; NJ Casino Control Commission Complaint Regarding Fred Trump’s Purchase of $3.5 Million in Chips.” Scribd.com, April 1991.
Christopher Byron, The Bottom Line, “Who’s Laughing Now? Trump Stays Afloat,” New York, April 22, 1991, pp.19-20.
Susan Heller Anderson, “Chronicle,” New York Times, July 5, 1991, p. D-6.
David S. Hilzenrath and Michelle Singletary, “Trump Went Broke, But Stayed on Top; Fearing a Bankruptcy Quagmire, Lenders Made Deals with Developer,” Washington Post, November 29, 1992.
Lisa Birnbach, Cover tagline: “An Exclusive Weekend with Donald Trump in Palm Beach As He Hypes (and hypes and hypes) his Mar-a-Lago Club,” New York, February 12, 1996.
Wayne Barrett, Trump: The Deals and the Downfall, 1992. Click for Amazon.
Julie Baumgold, “Fighting Back: Trump Scrambles Off The Canvas,” New York, November 9, 1992, pp. 36-46.
Craig Horowitz, “Trump Gets Lucky (cover story); The King of Hype Almost Bit It. Now, Thanks to a Very Sweet Deal with Some Chinese Billionaires to Develop the West Side Rail Yards, He’s Starting to Get Back That 1980s Smirk,” New York, August 15, 1994, pp. 20-26.
“Trump World,” New York, January 16, 1995, p.14.
Hugo Lindgren, Cityside, “Railroaded: The Rail Yard Was Supposed To Give Donald Trump Sixteen Luxury Towers and The City A Waterfront Park. Two Bad a Highways Runs Through It,” New York, March 17, 1997, pp. 28-29.
Chris Smith, “The Main Event: How Whitman Ended Up Getting Trumped,” New York, November 3, 1997.
Associated Press (NY), “Donald Trump Regretting Not Asking Out Princess Diana,” Daily News (Bowling Green, KY, Sunday, November 2, 1997, p. 16-C.
Claire Duffin, “’He Gives Me the Creeps’: What Princess Diana Said about Donald Trump after He ‘Bombarded Her with Flowers When Her Marriage Broke Up’,” The Daily Mail (UK), August 16, 2015.
Johanna Berkman, “Fashion Faux Pas,” New York, February 8, 1999.
Herbert Muschamp, “Trump, His Gilded Taste, and Me… Architecture as Personality,” New York Times, Arts & Leisure, Sunday, December 19, 1999, pp. 1, 52.
Walter Kirn, “In Trump We Trust” (review of Trump book, The America We Deserve), “Trump’s platform? Arrest Castro; Oprah in the Cabinet; No hotels for China, among other modest proposals,” New York, January 17, 2000.
Andrew Rice, “The Tummler of Turtle Bay: As Trump Monster Surpasses U.N., Alberto Vilar Puts Up $1 Million,” Observer.com, March 6, 2000.
James Traub, “Trumpologies,” New York Times Magazine, September 12, 2004.
Jonathan Van Meter, “Growing Up Trump: How Did Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric Survive New York’s Weirdest Family” (cover), New York, December 13, 2004.
Lloyd Grove, “Can Barbara Walters’s Career Survive Rosie and Donald’s War?– Barbara Falters,” NYmag.com, March 5, 2007.
“Donald Trump on Failure, “ May 19, 2009, from “The Failure Interview Series; 9 Prominent People Talk About Their Failures,” PsychologyToday.com, May & July, 2009.
Gabriel Sherman, “The Legacy” [Jared Kushner], New York, July 10, 2009.
Jessica Pressler, “If I Can’t Trust Donald Trump, Who Can I Trust?,” New York, January 21, 2011.
“Trump Sends Investigators to Hawaii to Look Into Obama,” CNN.com, April 4, 2011.
Jim Swift, “Trump: The Documentary,” WashingtonExaminer.com, August 1, 2015.
Michael Scherer, “The Donald Has Landed: Deal With It; Trump’s 2016 Hit Show Is Driving the Political Elite Crazy,” Time, August 20, 2015 (story date). Final issue with Donald Trump cover photo, August 31, 2015 (original story also incorporated 8 short videos with Trump).
“Donald Trump Is…13 Historians Scour the Past for Trumpian Precedents,” Politico Magazine / Politico.com, August 29, 2015.
S.V. Dáte, “The 1 Easy Way Donald Trump Could Have Been Even Richer: Doing Nothing By Putting His Inheritance into the Stock Market Back in the 1970s, Trump Might Have Been ‘Really Rich’ Without All the Drama,” NationalJournal.com, September 2, 2015.
Michael Barbaro, “Donald Trump, Praised by Former President Nixon, Biography Says; Former President Richard Nixon Sent Donald Trump a Letter in 1987,” New York Times, September 8. 2015.
Michael Barbaro, “Donald Trump Likens His Schooling to Military Service in Book [Never Enough],” New York Times, September 8, 2015.
Frank Rich, “Donald Trump Is Saving Our Democracy: The Importance of Donald Trump,” NYmag.com, September 20, 2015.
William D. Cohan, “Decades-Old Questions Over Trump’s Wealth and Education,” New York Times, September 28, 2015.
“Trump’s Alliance With National Enquirer,” New York, October 2015.
Graydon Carter, “Steel Traps and Short Fing-ers… Graydon Carter Reveals the Presidential Candidate’s Thin-Skinned Response to a Favorite 25-Year-Old Epithet, VanityFair .com, October 7, 2015.
Gabriel Sherman, “Donald Trump’s Alliance With the National Enquirer,” NYmag.com, October 30, 2015.
David Von Drehle, “Donald Trump’s Wild Ride,” Time.com, March 3, 2016.
Charlotte Triggs and Sandra Sobieraj Westfall, Cover story, “Who Is the Real Donald Trump? ‘I’m a Much Nicer Person Than People Would Think,’ He Insists; Donald Trump Speaks to People About His Presidential Campaign – and Controversy,” People.com, March 30, 2016.
Jonathan Mahler, “Tenants Thwarted Donald Trump’s Central Park Real Estate Ambitions,” New York Times, April 18, 2016.
Susan Mulcahy, “Confessions of a Trump Tabloid Scribe; How New York’s Gossip Pages Helped Turn a Lying Real Estate Developer into a Celebrity Phenom,” Politico.com, April 29, 2016.
Manuela Tobias, Optics, “Shameless Mogul Found in Breathless Tabs! A Quarter-Century of Donald Trump in the Tabloids,” Politico.com, May/June 2016.
Michael Kruse, “Tales From the Tabloids: Six New York Writers Remember the Donald’s Early Years in the Public Eye,” Politico.com, May/June 2016.
Jane Mayer, “Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All,” The New Yorker, July 25, 2016.
Callum Borchers, “Donald Trump Should Hate This Time Magazine Cover, But He’ll Probably Hang it in His Office,” Washington Post / WashPost.com, August 11, 2016 (with video, Dan Balz, “Donald Trump Gives Us A Tour of His Trump Tower Office,” Washington Post video, 2:32 minutes, 2015).
“The Many (Magazine) Faces of Donald Trump,” Time.com, September 2, 2016 [sample covers].
The Data Team, Tracking Trump, Presidential Candidate, “Donald Trump’s Rise Seen Through the Economist’s Covers; From Novelty Outsider to Republican Presidential Candidate,” The Economist / Economist.com, October 13th, 2016.
Christopher Bonanos, “A History of the Trumps on New York’s Cover,” New York, October 31, 2016.
David Cay Johnston, “Trump: Documentary The Donald Suppressed, Free At Last”, The National Memo, August 1, 2015.
Jesse Kornbluth, “25 Years Ago, A Documentary Called ‘Trump: What’s the Deal?’ Told The Truth About Trump. Trump Threatened To Sue. It Was Never Shown. You Can See It Now,” The Huffington Post, April 19, 2016.
Charlie Lyne, “Trump: What’s the Deal?: a distinctly 90s takedown,” The Guardian, August 15, 2015.
“Trump’s Crazy Rise, in 22 Magazine Covers; How Magazines Around the World Have Documented Trump Since He Began His Political Ascent,” Politico.com, May/June 2017.
Collection by Lynnette Heber, “Magazine Covers on Trump,” Pinterest.com, 43 Pins.
“The Life of Donald Trump — Told Through New York Post Covers,” HollywoodReporter .com.
Rahel Gebreyes, “Mike Tyson Just Endorsed Donald Trump; ‘He Should Be President of the United States’,” HuffPost.com, October 26, 2015.
Alex Kuczynski, “Melania Trump’s American Dream; Donald Trump’s First Lady Talks Candidly about Her Husband’s Controversial Presidential Bid, the Secrets to Their Happy Marriage, and Why She’s Stayed out of the Spotlight—Until Now,” HarpersBazaar.com, January 6, 2016,
Peter Grant and Alexandra Berzon, “Trump and His Debts: A Narrow Escape; He Cut Deal with Banks, Took Cash out of Casinos to Weather 1990s Bind,” Wall Street Journal /WSJ.com, updated January 4, 2016 ( w/video).
Ike Swetlitz, “Donald Trump, Bad Science, and the Vitamin Company That Went Bust,” Stat.com, March 2, 2016; originally published on Nov. 4, 2015 (w/video).
Kyle Ligman, “The Trump of Magazines Past,” New York Times, May 18, 2016.
Frank Rich, “Trump’s Appeasers; Why Charles Lindbergh is a Cautionary Tale for Republican Leaders,” NYmag.com, October 31, 2016.
Michael Scherer, “2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump,” Time, December 19, 2016.
Jonathan Chait, “How the Loyal Opposition Will Work in Trump’s America,” NYmag.com, November 2016.
Caitlin Flanagan, “The People’s Princess Ivanka Trump Is Hard at Work in Washington — But for Whom?,” TheCut.com, May 2017.
David A. Fahrenthold, “A Time Magazine with Trump on the Cover Hangs in His Golf Clubs. It’s Fake; Breaking Down Trump’s Fake Time Magazine Cover,” Washington Post, June 27, 2017 ( w/video).
Kalhan Rosenblatt, “Time Asks Donald Trump’s Golf Clubs to Remove Phony Magazine Cover; Trump Has Repeatedly Appeared on the Cover of Time in the Last Year. But the Cover Hanging in at Least Four of His Clubs Is a Phony,” NBCnews.com, June 28, 2017.
Jake Nevins, “’As a Satirist, I Can Barely Keep Up’: The Stories Behind the Trump Magazine Covers, The Artists Who Have Found Inspiration, and a Deep Well of Satire, in a Chaotic Administration Reveal the Thinking Behind Some of the Most Notable Covers of the Past Seven Months,” TheGuardian.com, August 24, 2017.
Aude White, “On The Cover: It’s The Corruption, Stupid,” NYmag.com, April 2018.
Jonathan Greenberg, “Trump Lied to Me About His Wealth to Get onto the Forbes 400. Here Are the Tapes; Posing as ‘John Barron,’ He Claimed He Owned Most of His Father’s Real Estate Empire,” WashingtonPost.com, Outlook, April 20, 2018.
Nick Hilton. “A Visual History of Trump Magazine Covers, A Thematic Organization of How Trump Has Been Illustrated by the Media, from Pre-Election to Now,” Medium.com, April 23, 2018.
David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner, “Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches from His Father; The President Has Long Sold Himself as a Self-Made Billionaire, But a Times Investigation Found That He Received at Least $413 Million in Today’s Dollars from His Father’s Real Estate Empire, Much of it Through Tax Dodges in the 1990s,” NYTimes.com, October 2, 2018.
Dan Alexander, “Why We Took Trump Off The Forbes 400 During His Decade Of Tax Losses,” Forbes.com, May 8, 2019.
Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig, “Decade in the Red: Trump Tax Figures Show over $1 Billion in Business Losses; Newly Obtained Tax Information Reveals That from 1985 to 1994, Donald J. Trump’s Businesses Were in Far Bleaker Condition than Was Previously Known,” NYTimes.com, May 8, 2019.
Michael Kruse, “The Escalator Ride That Changed America: It Seemed like a Stunt When Donald Trump Rode Down to Make His Presidential Announcement, And Maybe it Was. But Nothing Would Be the Same Again. The Full Oral History of That Moment, From People Who Were There,” Politicao.com, June 14, 2019.
Michael Kruse, The Friday Cover, “Trump’s Art of the Steal: How Donald Trump Rode to Power by Parroting Other People’s Fringe Ideas, Got Himself Impeached for It — and Might Prevail Anyway,” Politico.com, January 10, 2020.
Aude White, On The Cover: “Inside Trump’s Reelection Campaign,” NYmag.com, Aug. 16, 2020.
Michael Kruse, Trumpology, “45 Self-Evident Truths About Donald Trump; After Five Years, We Have Learned Who He Really Is,” Politico.com, October 29, 2020.
D.W. Pine (Creative Director at TIME), “The Stories Behind Donald Trump’s TIME Covers,” Time.com, January 19, 2021.
“The Trump Era in Covers; Our Editors Pick out 13 Covers That Chronicled a Presidency like No Other,” The Economist, January 19th, 2021.
Dan Alexander, “Donald Trump Drops Off The Forbes 400 For Second Time In 3 Years; As the New York Attorney General Accuses Donald Trump of Fraud, Forbes Answers the Question at the Heart of the Case: What Is He Really Worth?,” Forbes.com, October 3, 2023,
Patrice Taddonio, “Jan. 6, Three Years Later: 10 Documentaries to Watch,” PBS.org/WGBH, January 5, 2024.
Books at Amazon.com…
 Cropped cover of Melissa Murray / Andrew Weissmann book on Trump Indictments. Click for copy. |
 Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s 2022 book, “Antitrust: Taking on Monopoly Power...,” Click for copy. |
 Liz Cheney’s 2023 book, “Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning.” Little, Brown, 384 pp. Click for copy. |
