特朗普家族“逃税门”（二）：父亲如何为他铺路
Early experience, cultivated connections and a wave of federal housing subsidies helped Fred Trump lay the foundation of his son’s wealth.
早期的经历、人脉关系的培养，以及一大批联邦住房补贴，帮助弗雷德·特朗普为儿子的财富奠定了基础。
Before he turned 20, Fred Trump had already built and sold his first home. At age 35, he was building hundreds of houses a year in Brooklyn and Queens. By 45, he was building some of the biggest apartment complexes in the country.
在20岁之前，弗雷德·特朗普已建造并售出了自己的第一栋住宅。35岁起，他每年都在布鲁克林和皇后区建造数百栋房子。45岁后，他已在建造一些美国最大的公寓综合体。
Aside from an astonishing work ethic — “Sleeping is a waste of time,” he liked to say — the growth reflected his shrewd application of mass-production techniques. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle called him “the Henry Ford of the home-building industry.” He would erect scaffolding a city block long so his masons, sometimes working a second shift under floodlights, could throw up a dozen rowhouses in a week. They sold for about $115,000 in today’s dollars.
除了惊人的工作态度——他喜欢说，“睡觉是浪费时间”——这种增长也反映了他对大规模生产技术的敏锐使用。《布鲁克林鹰报》(Brooklyn Daily Eagle)称他为“住宅建筑业的亨利·福特”。他会搭起一个街区那么长的脚手架，好让他的泥瓦工一周内就能盖起12栋联排住宅——有的工人是在泛光灯下上夜班。以今天的美元计算，这些住宅的售价约为11.5万美元。
By 1940, American Builder magazine was taking notice, devoting a spread to Fred Trump under the headline “Biggest One-Man Building Show.” The article described a swaggering lone-wolf character who paid for everything — wages, supplies, land — from a thick wad of cash he carried at all times, and whose only help was a secretary answering the phone in an office barely bigger than a parking space. “He is his own purchasing agent, cashier, paymaster, building superintendent, construction engineer and sales director,” the article said.
到1940年，《美国建造者》(American Builder)杂志开始注意到他，杂志用横贯两版的篇幅、以《最大的建筑独角戏》(Biggest One-Man Building Show)为标题对弗雷德·特朗普进行了报道。文章描述了一个神气十足的独狼角色，他用随身携带的大叠厚厚的现金支付一切——工资、补给和土地——唯一的帮手是一名接听电话的秘书，秘书的办公室比一个停车位大不了多少。“他是自己的采购代理、司库、出纳员、大楼管理员、建造工程师和销售总监，”文章写道。
It wasn’t that simple. Fred Trump had also spent years ingratiating himself with Brooklyn’s Democratic machine, giving money, doing favors and making the sort of friends (like Abraham D. Beame, a future mayor) who could make life easier for a developer. He had also assembled a phalanx of plugged-in real estate lawyers, property appraisers and tax accountants who protected his interests.
事情并不那么简单。弗雷德·特朗普也花了好多年的时间靠捐款、送人情讨好布鲁克林的民主党机构，他还交了一些能让开发商的日子好过一点的朋友(比如后来当过纽约市长的亚伯拉罕·D·比姆[Abraham D. Beame])。他还集结了一群拥有最新信息的房地产律师、房地产估价师和税务会计师，他们的作用是保护他的利益。
All these traits — deep experience, nimbleness, connections, a relentless focus on the efficient construction of homes for the middle class — positioned him perfectly to ride a growing wave of federal spending on housing. The wave took shape with the New Deal, grew during the World War II rush to build military housing and crested with the postwar imperative to provide homes for returning G.I.s. Fred Trump would become a millionaire many times over by making himself one of the nation’s largest recipients of cheap government-backed building loans, according to Gwenda Blair’s book “The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President.”
所有这些特点——深厚的经验、灵活的头脑、人脉，以及把精力持续不懈地集中在高效地为中产阶级建造住房上——让他占据了有利位置，可以充分利用联邦政府日益高涨的住房支出。住房支出的增加始于新政(New Deal)时期，第二次世界大战期间为军队修建住房时有所增长，在战后为返回家园的老兵提供住房时达到高潮。据格温达·布莱尔的书《特朗普一家：三代建造者和一位总统》(The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President)，通过让自己成为全国政府支持的廉价建筑贷款的最大受益者之一，弗雷德·特朗普揽聚了成百上千万的财富。
Those same loans became the wellspring of Donald Trump’s wealth. In the late 1940s, Fred Trump obtained roughly $26 million in federal loans to build two of his largest developments, Beach Haven Apartments, near Coney Island, Brooklyn, and Shore Haven Apartments, a few miles away. Then he set about making his children his landlords.
那些贷款也成了唐纳德·特朗普财富的来源。20世纪40年代末，弗雷德·特朗普得到了约2600万美元的联邦贷款，修建了他最大的两个开发项目——布鲁克林康尼岛附近的海滩港湾公寓(Beach Haven Apartments)、以及几英里外的海岸港湾公寓(Shore Haven Apartments)。然后他开始着手让他的孩子成为他的房东。
As ground lease payments fattened his children’s trusts, Fred Trump embarked on a far bigger transfer of wealth. Records obtained by The Times reveal how he began to build or buy apartment buildings in Brooklyn and Queens and then gradually, without public trace, transfer ownership to his children through a web of partnerships and corporations. In all, Fred Trump put up nearly $13 million in cash and mortgage debt to create a mini-empire within his empire — eight buildings with 1,032 apartments — that he would transfer to his children.
随着土地租赁付款喂肥了孩子们的信托基金，弗雷德·特朗普开始了一项规模大得多的财富转移。时报获得的记录显示了他如何开始在布鲁克林和皇后区建造或购买公寓楼，然后逐步在不留下公开踪迹的情况下，通过复杂的合伙和公司关系将所有权转移给了自己的孩子。弗雷德·特朗普总共拿出近1300万美元的现金和抵押贷款，在他的房地产帝国内建立了一个迷你帝国(包括八栋大楼共1032套公寓)，他后来将这个迷你帝国转移给了自己的孩子们。
The handover began just before Donald Trump’s 16th birthday. On June 1, 1962, Fred Trump transferred a plot of land in Queens to a newly created corporation. While he would be its president, his children would be its owners, records show. Then he constructed a 52-unit building called Clyde Hall.
转移是在唐纳德·特朗普16岁生日之前开始的。1962年6月1日，弗雷德·特朗普将皇后区的一块土地转让给了一家新成立的公司。记录显示，虽然他是公司的总裁，但他的孩子们是公司的所有者。然后，他建了一栋有52个单位的名为“克莱德厅”(Clyde Hall)的建筑。
It was easy money for the Trump children. Their father took care of everything. He bought the land, built the apartments and obtained the mortgages. His employees managed the building. The profits, meanwhile, went to his children. By the early 1970s, Fred Trump would execute similar transfers of the other seven buildings.
对特朗普的孩子们来说，钱来得很容易。他们的父亲负责照管所有的事情。他购买了土地，建造了公寓，并获得了抵押贷款。他的员工管理着这栋大楼。与此同时，利润都是他的孩子们的。截至20世纪70年代初，弗雷德·特朗普对其他七栋大楼也做了类似的转交。
For Donald Trump, this meant a rapidly growing new source of income. When he was in high school, his cut of the profits was about $17,000 a year in today’s dollars. His share exceeded $300,000 a year soon after he graduated from college.
对唐纳德·特朗普来说，这意味着一个快速增长的新收入来源。当他上高中时，他每年的利润份额以如今的美元计算，大约是1.7万美元。他大学毕业后不久，他的份额已经超过了30万美元。
How Fred Trump transferred 1,032 apartments to his children without incurring hundreds of thousands of dollars in gift taxes is unclear. A review of property records for the eight buildings turned up no evidence that his children bought them outright. Financial records obtained by The Times reveal only that all of the shares in the partnerships and corporations set up to create the mini-empire shifted at some point from Fred Trump to his children. Yet his tax returns show he paid no gift taxes on seven of the buildings, and only a few thousand dollars on the eighth.
目前还不清楚弗雷德·特朗普是如何将1032套公寓转让给了他的子女而不需要缴纳数十万美元赠与税的。查阅这八栋楼的房产记录，没有看到他的孩子们把楼彻底买下来的证据。时报获得的财务记录只显示，为了创建那个迷你帝国而建立起来的合伙关系和公司的所有股份，在某个时候都从弗雷德·特朗普的名下转移到了他子女的身上。然而，他的纳税申报表显示，他没有为其中的七栋楼缴纳任何赠与税，只是为第八栋楼缴纳了几千美元的税。
That building, Sunnyside Towers, a 158-unit property in Queens, illustrates Fred Trump’s catch-me-if-you-can approach with the I.R.S., which had repeatedly cited him for underpaying taxes in the 1950s and 1960s.
位于皇后区、共有158个单位的桑尼赛德大厦(Sunnyside Towers)鉴证了弗雷德·特朗普对国税局的“有本事就来抓我”的态度，国税局曾在20世纪50年代和60年代多次以逃税为由传唤过他。
Sunnyside was bought for $2.5 million in 1968 by Midland Associates, a partnership Fred Trump formed with his children for the transaction. In his 1969 tax return, he reported giving each child 15 percent of Midland Associates. Based on the amount of cash put up to buy Sunnyside, the value of this gift should have been $93,750. Instead, he declared a gift of only $6,516.
1968年，米德兰合伙人(Midland Associates)以250万美元的价格收购了桑尼赛德大厦，该公司是弗雷德·特朗普和他的孩子们为了进行这笔交易而结成的合伙关系。在他1969年的纳税申报表中，他填写的内容包括给了每个孩子15%的米德兰合伙人股份。根据购买桑尼赛德大厦的现金数量，相应的赠与价值应该是93750美元。而他只报了赠与每个子女6516美元。
Donald Trump went to work for his father after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. His father made him vice president of dozens of companies. This was also the moment Fred Trump telegraphed what had become painfully obvious to his family and employees: He did not consider his eldest son, Fred Trump Jr., a viable heir apparent.
1968年从宾夕法尼亚大学(University of Pennsylvania)毕业后，唐纳德·特朗普开始为父亲工作。父亲让他当了数十家公司的副总裁。就在这段时间，弗雷德·特朗普向家人和员工传达了一个相当明确的信息：他不认为长子小弗雷德·特朗普(Fred Trump Jr.)是一个可行的继承人。
Fred Jr., seven and a half years older than Donald, had also worked for his father after college. It did not go well, relatives and former employees said in interviews. Fred Trump openly ridiculed him for being too nice, too soft, too lazy, too fond of drink. He frowned on his interests in flying and music, could not fathom why he cared so little for the family business. Donald, witness to his father’s deepening disappointment, fashioned himself Fred Jr.’s opposite — the brash tough guy with a killer instinct. His reward was to inherit his father’s dynastic dreams.
小弗雷德比唐纳德年长七岁半，大学毕业后也为父亲工作。亲戚和前雇员在采访中说，事情并不顺利。弗雷德·特朗普公开嘲笑长子人太好、太软弱、太懒惰、太爱喝酒。他不赞成长子对飞行和音乐的兴趣，不明白长子为什么对家族的生意那么不感兴趣。唐纳德目睹了父亲对小弗雷德日益加深的失望，把自己塑造成了哥哥的反面——一个具有拼杀本能的盛气凌人的硬汉。他得到的回报是继承了他父亲的王朝梦。
Fred Trump began taking steps that enriched Donald alone, introducing him to the charms of building with cheap government loans. In 1972, father and son formed a partnership to build a high-rise for the elderly in East Orange, N.J. Thanks to government subsidies, the partnership got a nearly interest-free $7.8 million loan that covered 90 percent of construction costs. Fred Trump paid the rest.
弗雷德·特朗普开始逐步把财富聚集在唐纳德一人身上，让他认识到用廉价政府贷款盖楼的吸引力。1972年，父子俩建立了一个合伙公司，以在新泽西州东奥兰治建一栋供老年人居住的高楼。由于政府的补贴，他们的合伙公司获得了780万美元的几乎无息的贷款，相当于建设成本的90%。弗雷德·特朗普支付了其余的费用。
But his son received most of the financial benefits, records show. On top of profit distributions and consulting fees, Donald Trump was paid to manage the building, though Fred Trump’s employees handled day-to-day management. He also pocketed what tenants paid to rent air-conditioners. By 1975, Donald Trump’s take from the building was today’s equivalent of nearly $305,000 a year.
但记录显示，弗雷德·特朗普的儿子获得了经济利益的大部分。除了利润分配和咨询费外，唐纳德·特朗普得到的钱中还包括管理这栋大楼的工资，尽管是弗雷德·特朗普的员工在负责大楼的日常管理工作。唐纳德·特朗普还得到了住户租空调的费用。到1975年时，唐纳德·特朗普从这栋大楼得到的收入用今天的美元来算相当于每年将近30.5万美元。
Fred Trump also gave his son an extra boost through his investment, in the early 1970s, in the sprawling Starrett City development in Brooklyn, the largest federally subsidized housing project in the nation. The investment, which promised to generate huge tax write-offs, was tailor-made for Fred Trump; he would use Starrett City’s losses to avoid taxes on profits from his empire.
弗雷德·特朗普还通过自己的投资给了儿子额外的帮助。20世纪70年代初，他投资了位于布鲁克林的庞大的斯塔雷特城(Starrett City)开发项目，这是美国最大的联邦补贴住房项目。这笔投资有望产生巨额的税务减免，这对弗雷德·特朗普来说简直就是量身定做的;他后来利用在斯塔雷特城的损失来避免政府对其房地产帝国的利润征税。
Fred Trump invested $5 million. A separate partnership established for his children invested $1 million more, showering tax breaks on the Trump children for decades to come. They helped Donald Trump avoid paying any federal income taxes at all in 1978 and 1979. But Fred Trump also deputized him to sell a sliver of his Starrett City shares, a sweetheart deal that generated today’s equivalent of more than $1 million in “consulting fees.”
弗雷德·特朗普投资了500万美元。他为子女们建立的另一个合伙公司对这个项目又投资了100万美元，这让弗雷德的子女们在未来几十年里都能享受大量的税收优惠。这些投资帮助唐纳德·特朗普在1978年和1979年避免缴纳任何联邦所得税。弗雷德·特朗普还委托唐纳德来出售父亲所持的斯塔雷特城股份的一小部分，这项“甜心交易”给他带来相当于今天的100多万美元的“咨询费”。
The money from consulting and management fees, ground leases, the mini-empire and his salary all combined to make Donald Trump indisputably wealthy years before he sold his first Manhattan apartment. By 1975, when he was 29, he had collected nearly $9 million in today’s dollars from his father, The Times found.
在唐纳德·特朗普还远未售出他的第一套曼哈顿公寓的时候，通过咨询费和管理费、地租、迷你帝国以及薪水的形式给他的钱，就已经让他成为毫无疑问的富人。时报发现，到1975年，也就是唐纳德·特朗普29岁的时候，他从父亲那里获得的钱已经相当于今天的近900万美元。
Wealthy, yes. But a far cry from the image father and son craved for Donald Trump.
富有，是的。但这与父子两人渴望的那种唐纳德·特朗普的形象还相去甚远。
THE SILENT PARTNER
闷声不响的合伙人
Fred Trump would play a crucial role in building and carefully maintaining the myth of Donald J. Trump, Self-Made Billionaire.
“唐纳德·J·特朗普，白手起家的亿万富翁”，在这个神话的营造和精心维护中，弗雷德·特朗普将起到至关重要的作用。
“He is tall, lean and blond, with dazzling white teeth, and he looks ever so much like Robert Redford. He rides around town in a chauffeured silver Cadillac with his initials, DJT, on the plates. He dates slinky fashion models, belongs to the most elegant clubs and, at only 30 years of age, estimates that he is worth ‘more than $200 million.’”
“他高瘦，金发，牙齿白得耀眼，看上去非常像罗伯特·雷德福(Robert Redford)。他去哪都坐一辆配司机的银色凯迪拉克，车牌上有他的姓名首字母DJT。他约会身材婀娜的时装模特，出入最高雅的会所，外界估计年方30的他身家已‘逾两亿美元’。”
So began a Nov. 1, 1976, article in The Times, one of the first major profiles of Donald Trump and a cornerstone of decades of mythmaking about his wealth. How could he claim to be worth more than $200 million when, as he divulged years later to casino regulators, his 1976 taxable income was $24,594? Donald Trump simply appropriated his father’s entire empire as his own.
1976年11月1日《纽约时报》的一篇文章这样开头，这是最早的唐纳德·特朗普人物特稿之一，也是后来几十年他的财富神话创造的一块基石。数年之后他曾向博彩业监管机构透露，他在1976年的应税收入是24594美元，他凭什么号称身家逾两亿呢?只不过把他父亲的商业帝国全算成自己的而已。
In the chauffeured Cadillac, Donald Trump took The Times’s reporter on a tour of what he called his “jobs.” He told her about the Manhattan hotel he planned to convert into a Grand Hyatt (his father guaranteed the construction loan), and the Hudson River railroad yards he planned to develop (the rights were purchased by his father’s company). He showed her “our philanthropic endeavor,” the high-rise for the elderly in East Orange (bankrolled by his father), and an apartment complex on Staten Island (owned by his father), and their “flagship,” Trump Village, in Brooklyn (owned by his father), and finally Beach Haven Apartments (owned by his father). Even the Cadillac was leased by his father.
就在那辆配司机的凯迪拉克里，唐纳德·特朗普带着《纽约时报》记者参观了他所谓的“工作”。他告诉她自己计划把曼哈顿一家酒店改造成君悦酒店(他父亲担保了建设贷款)，还有他打算开发的哈德逊河铁路货场(开发权是他父亲公司买下的)。他带她看了“我们的慈善事业”，东奥兰治的高层老年公寓(由他父亲出资)，史丹顿岛的一座公寓楼(由他父亲拥有)，以及他们位于布鲁克林的“旗舰”项目特朗普村(由他父亲拥有)，最后是天堂海滩公寓(由他父亲拥有)。连这辆凯迪拉克也是他父亲租的。
“So far,” he boasted, “I’ve never made a bad deal.”
“到现在，”他吹嘘道，“我还从没做过一笔亏本生意。”
It was a spectacular con, right down to the priceless moment when Mr. Trump confessed that he was “publicity shy.” By claiming his father’s wealth as his own, Donald Trump transformed his place in the world. A brash 30-year-old playboy worth more than $200 million proved irresistible to New York City’s bankers, politicians and journalists.
这是一场惊人的骗局，包括那个不可思议的瞬间——他坦白自己“不喜出风头”。通过把父亲的财富说成自己的，唐纳德·特朗普改变了自己的地位。事实证明，一个自吹自擂的30岁花花公子，是纽约市的银行家、政客和记者都无法抗拒的。
Yet for all the spin about cutting his own path in Manhattan, Donald Trump was increasingly dependent on his father. Weeks after The Times’s profile ran, Fred Trump set up still more trusts for his children, seeding each with today’s equivalent of $4.3 million. Even into the early 1980s, when he was already proclaiming himself one of America’s richest men, Donald Trump remained on his father’s payroll, drawing an annual salary of $260,000 in today’s dollars.
虽然在那些传说里他在曼哈顿独力开拓，唐纳德·特朗普却越来越依赖他的父亲。《纽约时报》的那篇文章见报数周之后，弗雷德·特朗普又给子女设立了更多的信托基金，每个子女都获得了相当于今天430万美元的资助。甚至到了1980年代早期，唐纳德·特朗普已经号称自己是美国最富有的人之一时，他仍在父亲那里领一份薪水，以今天的美元计算，年薪26万。
Meanwhile, Fred Trump and his companies also began extending large loans and lines of credit to Donald Trump. Those loans dwarfed what the other Trumps got, the flow so constant at times that it was as if Donald Trump had his own Money Store. Consider 1979, when he borrowed $1.5 million in January, $65,000 in February, $122,000 in March, $150,000 in April, $192,000 in May, $226,000 in June, $2.4 million in July and $40,000 in August, according to records filed with New Jersey casino regulators.
同时，弗雷德·特朗普和他的公司还开始向唐纳德·特朗普提供大笔贷款和信用额度。这些贷款让另外几个子女的所获相形见绌，有时候这些资金流源源不断，就如同唐纳德·特朗普有自己的印钞机。根据提交给新泽西州博彩业监管机构的记录，以1979年为例，他在1月借款150万美元，2月借6.5万美元，3月借12.2万美元，4月借15万美元，5月借19.2万美元，6月借22.6万美元，7月借240万美元，8月借4万美元。
In theory, the money had to be repaid. In practice, records show, many of the loans were more like gifts. Some were interest-free and had no repayment schedule. Even when loans charged interest, Donald Trump frequently skipped payments.
理论上，这些钱是要还的。实际上，记录显示，许多笔借款更像是赠与。有些是免息的，也没有还款时限。即使某些借款收取利息，唐纳德·特朗普也时常不予偿还。
This previously unreported flood of loans highlights a clear pattern to Fred Trump’s largess. When Donald Trump began expensive new projects, his father increased his help. In the late 1970s, when Donald Trump was converting the old Commodore Hotel into a Grand Hyatt, his father stepped up with a spigot of loans. Fred Trump did the same with Trump Tower in the early 1980s.
这些此前从未披露的大量贷款突显出弗雷德·特朗普慷慨解囊的清晰模式。当唐纳德·特朗普启动昂贵的新项目时，他的父亲便加大援手。1970年代后期，唐纳德·特朗普把过去的海军准将酒店(Commodore Hotel)改造成君悦酒店时，他父亲给他打开了借款的水龙头。1980年代初建设特朗普大厦时也是这样。
In the mid-1980s, as Donald Trump made his first forays into Atlantic City, Fred Trump devised a plan that sharply increased the flow of money to his son.
1980年代中期，当唐纳德·特朗普初次进军大西洋城，弗雷德·特朗普制定了一项计划，大幅增加了流向儿子的资金。
The plan involved the mini-empire — the eight buildings Fred Trump had transferred to his children. He converted seven of them into cooperatives, and helped his children convert the eighth. That meant inviting tenants to buy their apartments, generating a three-way windfall for Donald Trump and his siblings: from selling units, from renting unsold units and from collecting mortgage payments.
这个计划事关一块小产业——弗雷德·特朗普已转移到子女名下的8幢住宅楼。他把其中七幢转换为合作公寓，又帮助子女把第八幢也转了。这意味着鼓励租户把他们住的公寓买下来，如此就给唐纳德·特朗普和兄弟姐妹创造了三条财路：公寓单位销售、未售出单位的租金以及收取按揭供款。
In 1982, Donald Trump made today’s equivalent of about $380,000 from the eight buildings. As the conversions continued and Fred Trump’s employees sold off more units, his son’s share of profits jumped, records show. By 1987, with the conversions completed, his son was making today’s equivalent of $4.5 million a year off the eight buildings.
1982年，唐纳德·特朗普从这八幢楼获得的收益相当于今天的38万美元。记录显示，随着合作公寓转换继续，弗雷德·特朗普的员工卖出了更多单位，他儿子那份利润也随之跃升。到1987年全部转换完毕时，他儿子从这八幢楼获得了相当于今天450万美元的年收入。
Fred Trump made one other structural change to his empire that produced a big new source of revenue for Donald Trump and his siblings. He made them his bankers.
弗雷德·特朗普还对他的帝国做了另一项结构性改变，为唐纳德·特朗普及其兄弟姐妹带来新的收入来源。他让他们成为他的按揭贷款银行家。
The Times could find no evidence that the Trump children had to come up with money of their own to buy their father’s mortgages. Most were purchased from Fred Trump’s banks by trusts and partnerships that he set up and seeded with money.
《纽约时报》没有发现任何证据证明弗雷德·特朗普的儿女需要拿自己的钱买下父亲持有的按揭贷款。大多数贷款都是通过弗雷德·特朗普设立并注资的信托基金及合伙关系，由他自己的银行买下的。
Co-op sales, mortgage payments, ground leases — Fred Trump was a master at finding ways to enrich his children in general and Donald Trump in particular. Some ways were like slow-moving creeks. Others were rushing streams. A few were geysers. But as the decades passed they all joined into one mighty river of money. By 1990, The Times found, Fred Trump, the ultimate silent partner, had quietly transferred today’s equivalent of at least $46.2 million to his son.
合作公寓销售、按揭供款、土地租赁——在设法给所有子女尤其是唐纳德·特朗普输送财富方面，弗雷德·特朗普是个高手。有的方法是细水长流，有的是激流，有少数是喷涌。但几十年后它们都汇聚成一条金钱的大河。《纽约时报》发现，到1990年，弗雷德·特朗普这位闷声不响的合伙人已经静悄悄向儿子转出了相当于今天的4620万美元。
Donald Trump took on a mien of invincibility. The stock market crashed in 1987 and the economy cratered. But he doubled down thanks in part to Fred Trump’s banks, which eagerly extended credit to the young Trump princeling. He bought the Plaza Hotel in 1988 for $407.5 million. He bought the Eastern Airlines shuttle fleet in 1989 for $365 million and called it Trump Shuttle. His newest casino, the Trump Taj Mahal, would need at least $1 million a day just to cover its debt.
唐纳德·特朗普显现出一种所向披靡的风采。1987年美国股市崩盘，经济重创，但他却加倍下注，部分得益于弗雷德·特朗普的银行急切地向年轻的少东家提供信贷。1988年他以407.5万美元买下了纽约广场酒店(Plaza Hotel)。1989年他以3.65亿美元买下“东方航空”(Eastern Airlines)快线机队，改称“特朗普快线”(Trump Shuttle)。他最新的赌场特朗普泰姬陵赌场(Trump Taj Mahal)，每天仅偿还债务就需要至少100万美元。
The skeptics who questioned the wisdom of this debt-fueled spending spree were drowned out by one magazine cover after another marveling at someone so young taking such breathtaking risks. But whatever Donald Trump was gambling, not for one second was he at risk of losing out on a lifetime of frictionless, effortless wealth. Fred Trump had that bet covered.
质疑者认为这种由借贷支撑的狂热收购是有问题的，但一本又一本杂志的封面报道赞叹他这么年轻却敢于冒如此惊人的风险，淹没了质疑声。然而，不管唐纳德·特朗普怎样押注，以他一辈子得来不费吹灰之力的财富，他毫无蚀本之虞。赌注已由弗雷德·特朗普支付。
