DBWI: Donald Trump stays in the family real estate business

glenn67

40 years ago this month, Donald Trump debuted on the Tonight Show after a few years as a stand-up comedian. Trump would appear on that show about ten more times as his career took off, and of course there were the classic HBO specials and his 16 guest host appearances on Saturday Night Live. In 1989, the sitcom Trump debuted on NBC which was based on Trump's real life and co-starred with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bronson Pinchot and Michael Richards. That show was a hit and stayed on the air until 1999.

Trump has also achieved success on the big screen which included directing the 2009 hit movie Cannonball Run 2009.

It is very unusual for a comic paying his dues to be wealthy. His father Fred was a millionaire building developer with lots of real estate in Brooklyn and Queens. In his autobiography, Donald Trump confirmed that he was personally worth just under $2 million when he decided to be a full time stand-up comedian (he lived in a Park Avenue luxury apartment when he debuted on the Tonight Show) and considered inheriting his father's real estate empire when he retired.

Had Trump chosen a real estate career instead of show business, would he have been successful? And what would a Donald Trump real estate empire have looked like?
 

soutgun2

His "problem" of keeping it zipped, could have been hidden. On the job. a professional. Off, a sleaze. I understand he thought it was right and what women. Still, it added up to a ugly rep..
 

Galba Otho Vitelius

Fred and Robert Trump are important real estate developers in New York City, but what they do is strictly middle income housing. There is nothing glamorous about it.

Donald Trump either tends to the family business, and does well, but remains completely invisible. Or he may try higher end and flashier investments and the whole thing flops, which actually would be pretty bad because though the Trumps' methods get criticized, they have alleviated what would otherwise have been a serious middle income housing shortage in New York.

A more interesting question is if some other comedian gets the 1990s sitcom, and if so how he does.
 
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