Trump's true apprentices: his two children

Through it all Trump has nurtured a valuable brand name that has withstood the scorn of his many critics. Dumped from the Forbes 400 during his down spell, he returned in 1996. We estimate Trump’s fortune at $2.9 billion (see box, p. 60). Trump insists he is worth $6 billion.

These days the Trump Organization is more careful. It oversees the building of residential condo towers that it does not own. Other people, ranging from little-known developers to magnates like Forbes 400 member Jorge Perez of Miami, put up the money and hire the contractors. Then the attention-drawing “Trump” moniker gets slapped on the project. The Trumps promote the project and advise on planning, architecture and marketing in exchange for fees and a cut of the gross sales.

An impressive 33 such Trump franchise projects now are under way, seven of them “condo hotels,” where investors buy a room from the Trumps and their backer, getting the right to cream off rental income in the still burgeoning lodging sector. The others are apartment condos. The housing units are packed to their custom crown molding with high-style kitchen appliances, elegant-looking bathroom sinks and enough marble to renovate the Taj Mahal.

Not a risk-free industry
Of course, real estate development is hardly risk-free, even when the Trumps get someone else to cough up the capital. Don Jr. and Ivanka are haunted by the possibility that some of their projects might go wrong. Housing is softening nationally. In South Florida, where 3,000 Trump condos are under construction, the threat of an oversupply looms. With typical Trumpian bravado, Don insists the brand name will carry them through, even in a bad market. Still, Ivanka wonders, “How will the headlines read if Trump has to cut prices?”

Knowing Trump and his seething temper, some close friends wonder how forgiving he will be to the kids should any deals collapse. “He can be an extremely mean guy, even to people very close to him,” says a former business partner.

Now with 300-plus developers per year approaching the Trumps hoping to partner up, Don Jr. and Ivanka are in charge of safeguarding the brand. Don’s small office in Trump Tower, on Fifth Avenue, is cluttered with proposals from possible partners. His job is to vet the paperwork. Then he and Ivanka put the winning projects in motion. Real estate pros seem to respect them as their father’s surrogates. “When developers are talking to Ivanka and me, they know they’re not talking to some flunky,” says Don.

Tall like their 6-foot-2 father — Don is an inch shorter, Ivanka 5-foot-11 — they exude dad’s self-confidence, yet little of his braggadocio. They work well together and finish each other’s sentences.

Like their dad, they both graduated with bachelor’s degrees from the Wharton School.

Don went right to work for his old man. Ivanka, who was summa cum laude, joined the company in 2005 after a stint with developer Forest City Ratner and works for her older brother, technically. “I wanted to ward off any pretensions that I am Don’s equal,” she says, but the two usually work like equal partners.

One sign of the torch passing is the launch last fall of Trump Mortgage, a loan brokerage that is Don Jr.’s brainstorm. “This one’s really my baby,” he enthuses. Thus far Trump Mortgage has arranged $1 billion in loans. It bags a fee of 1 percent to 2 percent of the loan amount.

The brokerage serves as the middleman between lenders and buyers; the buyers are 50 percent commercial types (offices, retail, etc.), and commercial real estate has yet to see a slowdown, as housing has. Don remains confident that the brand name will keep the high-end residential borrowers who make up the rest of the clientele coming, even in a real estate slump. “Try naming a mortgage broker,” he says. “You can’t.”

Don and Ivanka are products of Trump’s first marriage to Czech Olympic skier Ivana, now known for her clothing and jewelry lines sold on TV shopping channels. A third child from the Ivana union, Eric, 22, just graduated from college and joined the business in August. Their childhoods coincided with some of Trump’s better years in the 1980s, when he built Trump Tower, a mixture of residential, retail and offices.

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