Donald Trump

La 25 iunie 2009, Donald Trump şi-a exprimat, într-un interviu acordat postului ET, toată admiraţia faţă de Michael Jackson - nu doar ca artist ci şi ca om de afaceri.

Pe blogul propriu, Trump University, Donald Trump (care acolo semnează Donald J. Trump, pentru că al doilea prenume al său este John) a postat, la 30 iunie 2009, un mic articol intitulat "Michael Jackson", care are ca idee centrală afirmaţia unuia dintre comentatori: "Michael Jackson este un Donald Trump al muzicii aşa cum Donald Trump este un Michael Jackson al afacerilor":

There’s been a lot of coverage on Michael Jackson, and rightly so. He was the most amazing performer I have ever seen, and I have seen most of the greats. I knew him personally as well, as he lived at Trump Tower and stayed at my Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach. He stayed there when he and Lisa Marie Presley were married, and they were obviously a romantic item. They had a great time and we loved having them as guests.

Michael Jackson was a shy person which made his gift as a performer even more astonishing. I remember thinking, “This quiet guy is going to bring the house down?” (The ‘house’ being Madison Square Garden). But bring the house down is what he did--consistently. His stage presence and talent were unsurpassed. He’s a performer who will never be forgotten and who most likely won’t be equaled for a very long time, if ever.

La 6 iulie 2009, în emisiunea lui Larry King, Donald Trump a adus câteva precizări privindu-l pe cel pe care-l cunoştea încă din anii '80 (din "era" Bad):

KING: Joining us now on the phone, Donald Trump, old friend, real estate mogul, star of "Celebrity Apprentice."

How well did you know Michael, Donald?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, Larry, as you know, I knew him very well. He was a great guy. He was actually a very, very smart business man. He was somebody that was very special. He lived in Trump Tower for an extended period of time in New York -- and right next to me, actually. And so I got to know him very well.

He would go down to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach a lot. In fact, that's where he was with Lisa Marie Presley when it first came out. And he was there for a very long period of time. But he would go down often.

KING: When was the last time you spoke with him?

TRUMP: Probably a year ago, Larry. You know, Michael was a much different guy in the last seven or eight years, maybe 10 years, than he was. I always view it as two Michael Jacksons. You had...

KING: How do you mean?

TRUMP: Well, you had Michael from, let's say, up to around the age of 35. And that was somebody -- the greatest -- the greatest entertainer I've ever seen.

And then you had the later version of Michael, who was much more reticent. He was much shyer. I mean, you know, the -- he was just a -- a little bit of a different guy.

KING: Yes.

TRUMP: And I -- I really knew both Michaels. He was a terrific guy. He was a wonderful guy. But he lost a certain amount of confidence in the last ten years. I mean, he went through a lot, including some very, very bad doctors.

KING: What about the business aspect of this? Is he going to be worth a lot more gone than here?

TRUMP: Well, he's going to be worth a lot of money. He's got -- all of his albums are number one now. Probably they've never seen anything like it. I guess the debt will be paid off pretty quickly. He really was -- he was a great businessman. He'd come into my apartment, and we'd talk a lot about business.

As an example, he met with Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney was telling him -- and this is a pretty well-known story. Michael told it to me. Paul McCartney mentioned that he was going to try and buy back the other half of the Beatles music. Michael then went out and bought it. You could say it's not very nice. I've heard that Paul has always been very angry at Michael for doing that. Perhaps Paul shouldn't have mentioned it. Perhaps that's just business and the way it is.

But he really was a very, very good businessman. A very smart guy.

KING: You're a sharp realtor guy and you know southern California. I was up at Neverland. We did a whole show from there Thursday. I never saw a property as beautiful as that, 3,000 acres. What would you do with it?

TRUMP: I'm not sure exactly who owns it. A very good friend of mine, Tom Barrack (ph), is very much involved --

KING: He was there. Their company apparently pretty much owns it.

TRUMP: Yes, Tom is a brilliant guy and a wonderful friend. And he was actually somebody who helped Michael Jackson a lot over the last couple of years. But I think Tom has that. I'm just not sure what you can do from a zoning standpoint.

KING: Could you envision a Graceland?

TRUMP: Well, I could, but it's a difficult area. You have to go through this town. As you know, they drove him crazy. The interesting thing is I've known Michael from many different standpoints. And Michael would spend a lot of time with my kids. I have beautiful kids. And at the time, like at Mar-a-Lago and even at Trump Tower, the kids were very young. Michael would come, play with the kids. He just loved children.

He was not a child molester. And I am certain of that. He loved children. He'd play with my son Eric, and my son Donald. And he'd just play with them forever. He loved children.

But he was not a child molester. You know that whole final saga of Neverland and the police and what they did was, I think, a very, very -- a very, very bad part of Michael's life.

KING: Are you coming out for the service?

TRUMP: They invited me today, and they've called me so many times. I'd love to do it. I just won't be able to there be. I'd love to be there. I'd love to be with you. I'd love to be with the family. But I just won't be able to be there.

KING: What do you make of this whole thing, this billions of people going to watch this on television?

TRUMP: Well he was a unique guy, you know? I first met him years ago when he did a concert in Madison Square Garden. I was back stage. I just spoke to him a little while. He was low key even in those days. That was the "Thriller" days, when he had great, great success. It was amazing, because I would talk to him. I would say, there's no way that this guy is going out to that stage to perform. Then you'd see him Moon Walk across the stage and the place would go crazy.

You know, I've had every entertainer working for me, more or less. And I just sort of know them all. I knew Pavarotti. I knew all the great entertainers. I think the greatest entertainer I've ever seen was Michael Jackson. There's never been anyone like him. I guess Elvis was like him, and the Beatles. There were a few every generation.

KING: Sinatra.

TRUMP: Sinatra was great. But there are very few. These people you can count them on your hand. Michael was one of them. Just a great guy. He took tremendous -- I mean, he's just had tremendous -- really difficult last ten years. His last ten years, he's been living in hell.

KING: Donald, thanks so much for sharing these moments with us.

TRUMP: Thank you very much, Larry.

(sursa: transcripts.cnn.com)

În fine, revista Time - după ce aminteşte că Michael Jackosn îşi cumpărase un apartament într-una din clădirile Trump din New York, a publicat, tot în cursul anului trecut, un articol semnat de omul de afaceri, în care Donald Trump deapănă câteva amintiri:

He was a very good friend of mine. He was an amazing guy, but beyond all else, he was the greatest entertainer I've ever known. He had magic. He was a genius. He was also a really good person, and when you got to know him, you realized how smart he was. He was brilliant. We were at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. There were thousands of people literally crushing us. We had 20 bodyguards, but it was really dangerous. He dropped to his knees and started crawling to the exit. He did it so routinely, I thought he fell. And I said, "Michael, is it always like this?" He goes, "Yeah, this is nothing. Japan is much worse."

Now, Michael wasn't the same Michael for the last 10 years. He was not well. He had a lot of problems, a lot of difficulties. But Michael in his prime — there's never been anybody like him. His life was different than anybody I've ever known. But he had a very rough 10 years. He was embarrassed by it. He was embarrassed by what was happening to him. But he's not going to be remembered for the last 10 years; he's going to be remembered for the first 35 years.