Outraged that he'd been duped by this cheap, ungroomed, common-sense commoner, Trump had been forced to withdraw. But he was not ready to let the contest go. In June 1992, during one of the many financial crises in which it has been implicated, Trump, with characteristic insouciance, began a full-throated defense of his own financial worth. "If I wanted to sue somebody," he said in an interview with _The New York Times_ , "I would sue you people, that's right. I'd sue the _New York Times_. I have a lot of financial incentive to do it." If his intention was to intimidate the legal team representing him, it worked. The lawyer's reaction was to drop him as a client. But this decision did nothing to curb Trump's appetite for attention. He started a series of lawsuits that would continue to swirl around him, most notably in 1994 when he sued the publisher of _The Art of the Deal_ , a reference work he had ghostwritten. Trump demanded $5 million for the "use of my name, my picture, and my 'feelings' regarding the contents of _The Art of the Deal_." In the mid-1990s, Trump attempted to build a forty-three-story condominium on a piece of land adjoining Central Park. He had the property rezoned in order to maximize the floor space, but some of the rezoning plans called for two-to-four-story condos on the lot's southern border. He was successful in overturning the lower-zoning limit, but the larger issue was appealed all the way to the State Court of Appeals. What Trump didn't anticipate was that the city's appeal would require a full eight years to be heard. That's a long time in Trump's world. He was now in his forties, and all he wanted to do was fulfill his dreams. With eight years of being told by the appellate court that he couldn't do this or that, how could he fulfill his dreams? The issue was not over. A judge in the lower court threw out his application for a seven-story condo at 130 West 57th Street, which would have had two-to-four-story apartment buildings on its eastern border. Trump appealed, and the case went to the State Court of Appeals, which overruled the lower court. Trump once again filed suit to build his forty-three-story condominium. In the midst of this, the New York State Legislature passed the Residential Buildings and Maximum Dwelling Limit Amendment to the City's Zoning Resolution, an action that raised the number of stories permitted in any given location from three to seven. The city, which had allowed for eight-to-fourteen-story buildings under the original zoning code, now allowed for buildings with as many as thirty-three stories. Had he applied to build the forty-three-story building in 1988, when the new zoning code was enacted, Trump could have built his condo. But Trump's case was in progress, and the newly enacted law seemed to suggest to him that the number of stories he could build on his lot was limited. The situation had become more than he was willing to take on. In an interview, he told _The New York Times_ : "For me, the last straw was the city's insistence that I had only 3 stories to build, when that number was supposed to go up to 10." Trump was clearly feeling some financial pressure now that the value of his property was being constantly scrutinized. He bought two other lots for a total of $5.2 million. This meant a new, more exacting zoning law would apply to those lots. The new law allowed him to build his twenty-story condominium on the lot just above his house, but it also required a reduction in the number of units on his adjoining lot. The effect of the new zoning was to lower his profit by more than $15 million. But again Trump filed suit, this time against his fellow citizens. He sued his neighbor in 1983. The case went to court and was settled in 1984. Trump's lawsuit against the city was dismissed in 1987, but he filed an appeal. The case lingered on the docket for four years. He had taken to calling the judge "an incompetent backstabbing Jew," even though Judge Peter Hall denied he had been Jewish. This was not a good way to build a case that would result in allowing Trump to build more of the type of building he wanted. It wasn't just building permits he was fighting. His enemies accused him of everything from violating the city zoning code to violating its clean-air regulations. At times, they even accused him of being dishonest, and there is no denying that Trump doesn't hesitate to change his mind if it benefits him financially. His reputation as a liar began early in his career when the media focused on his tendency to change opinions and alter stories depending upon what he thought was best for him. And his name. Trump was never known as Trump. He was always known as the "Donald," and it was his name that he was accused of being dishonest about. Trump didn't want to lose the lawsuit against the city. He decided it would be a good idea to file for bankruptcy and settle out of court. It was a bad idea, and it made Trump even more reviled in many parts of the city. What began as a way to get permits to build a twenty-story building had mushroomed into a larger issue of how can we stop this man who does everything he can to make a buck? No, you don't understand. It's not just the property and his building permit. It's his name, his lifestyle, his image. It's him and his personality, his arrogance, his obnoxiousness. It's him and what he stands for. It's him and his wife, and, more recently, his kids. And it's his son Barron who is six years old and only a child in the school of life. To call him arrogant is just to scratch the surface. I have a friend who says he's like an animal trainer who just keeps increasing the number of leashes on a dog until it can't even keep up. So it is with Trump's reputation. What began as building permits morphed into how this man became a billionaire, and the list of complaints grew from that to accusations of being deceitful, a swindler, and a charlatan. He was an _entrepreneur_ , of course. He was accused of _destroying_ real estate. _He destroyed more people's lives than any person in history. That's what Trump stands for_. **A** _bout five years after the start of the New York real estate market collapse in the early 1990s, a strange story broke about Donald Trump's real estate dealings. It was reported on_ The Wall Street Journal _website that the Trump Organization filed a lawsuit against a young Chinese developer named John Casper in a Manhattan federal court. Casper's company, the China-based American International Catch a Rising Star, LLC, had sold Trump a lot at West 57th Street, between Madison and Fifth Avenues, at a price less than half of what Trump had paid for the land. At the same time that Trump made the complaint to a federal judge in Manhattan to get back his land at a lower price, a complaint was filed by Charles C. Bergoff, who represented a group of investors in another federal court against the Trump Organization. Bergoff's complaint said that Trump had defrauded investors in a failed project in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Bergoff was alleging that Trump was defrauding investors by creating bogus corporations and not completing the projects he agreed to do for the money he borrowed. This case filed by Bergoff had not yet been heard in court, and there were no allegations as to the specifics of the case by the time of the publication of_ The Wall Street Journal _story. Donald Trump said in a statement, "The allegations made in Bergoff's complaint are an obvious attempt to extort as much money as possible. No one has ever gotten into trouble for failing to make a deal."_ **T** hat is the beauty of Donald Trump's reputation. Trump gets away with anything. He is on the rise again, and he has just bought the rights to the United States Football League. He has been linked to an NFL franchise, but that isn't all he wants. He has filed a suit in federal court to take the name of the franchise away from the San Diego Chargers. For a guy who is worth more than $500 million, Trump wants to steal the name that was created by a group of people, but all he will settle for is a one-time payment of $5 million. He can't get a regular payment for it, but that will just make him more determined to win. He is trying to get what he wants, because once he has it, he will go away. His lawsuit is just like Trump. It's not a lawsuit Trump will back down from. You go with it or against it. No other choice is even considered. He doesn't think he can lose a courtroom fight. **L** ife could be better in Trump Tower. This is true for anyone, and there are many who think that, but not everyone wants it to be Trump who is making it better. And everyone is hoping it is not him who is causing the problems. The only thing he would want in the building is a "hot" restaurant and a hairdresser. At