Allen Weisselberg, who grew up in Brownsville, worked as an accountant for Trump’s dad before joining the son, and hasn’t shaken his terrific Brooklyn honk, is now his chief financial officer. “If you go down to Wall Street, that’s not happening.” Eric, like his sister Ivanka and their brother Donald Jr., is a senior executive at the company. The man who manages his Las Vegas hotel “used to drive us to school every day,” middle son Eric Trump says. Navratilova won.Ĭalamari isn’t the only bodyguard Trump has promoted. He remembers Trump’s wife at the time, Ivana, asking for his name on her husband’s behalf. “I ran right at him, I picked him up, I slammed him to the ground, I carried him down,” he says. “I took one guy immediately right down,” he says. “There are no boundaries.”Ĭalamari won his job when the hecklers interrupted Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. “He promotes you until you fail,” he says. Besides security, Calamari’s responsibilities now include building management, construction, and insurance. Calamari tried to emulate Trump when he hired other security guards. “Being able to walk with him to these other job sites, I saw his eye for detail,” he says. “If I would have made it in football, I would not be working for Donald Trump.”Ĭalamari gets up from his chair to show how he escorted his boss in the early days, just behind and slightly to the side. I enjoy working for the man.”Ī commemorative Secret Service knife keeps him company in his office, along with a poster of Tony Soprano, snapshots of his Shih Tzus, and a photo his brother took of the moment his knee was wrecked in a game. He likes to watch over his boss on the trail. Lately, if you catch the right Trump speech and look carefully, you see Calamari. “My thing is, I’ve always promised I would, knock on wood, never let anything happen to him.” His voice wobbles. That was before he tackled hecklers at a 1981 US Open women’s semifinal, won the attention of a young real estate star who happened to be there, got hired as his bodyguard, and rose to become one of his top executives. Trump’s chief operating officer has the mustache and bulk of a late-1970s linebacker because he was one in college. People don’t know.”įour days later, the morning after the debate, Matthew Calamari’s eyes are misting. “Someday before I kick the bucket, somebody is going to get what a great business I built. “I tell you what,” he says a few minutes later. He did a song called Donald Trump-100 million hits!” He takes a breath and goes back to his company. Mac Miller, did you ever hear of Mac Miller? He’s a rapper. See that record?” There’s a plaque across from his desk. “See that? I’m just looking while I’m talking to you. “We evolve very much in this company,” Trump says. His organization is still successful, just not in the way he’s claimed. Trump rose in the glitzy 1980s on borrowed money, survived early 1990s disasters that nearly brought him down, then transformed himself and his business. The story of how he came to be what he is now-above all else a landlord and a golf bigwig-is even weirder than his charge to the White House. From his Trump Tower desk in Midtown Manhattan he controls the teensiest details, rejects hierarchy, and picks top deputies by following his own recipe for promotion. Meanwhile, his corporate leadership is a kind of teenager’s fantasy of adult office power. Trump has built few skyscrapers this century, stumbling twice when he’s tried, and struggled with an array of other projects. Trump is selling himself to America as the king of builders, a flawless dealmaker, and masterful manager. Photographer: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images
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