It is impossible to miss when you fly into New York City and spot the golf course in the shadow of the Whitestone Bridge. It is hard to avoid when you stroll along Fifth Avenue, or venture past the skating rink or carousel in Central Park. And it is there in bright lights, no less, when you pass the sleek hotel near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel: the name of Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Trump has embraced his roots as a New Yorker as being crucial to his presidential bid, and in so doing, the Republican candidate has given the impression as he crossed the country that he is a force to reckon with in the city of his birth.
But while Trump remains a visible brand name around the city’s five boroughs, it is much harder to discern his imprint as a classic power broker, someone who is feared and can make things happen with a phone call or a quiet aside with the right person at the right time.
His real estate holdings in New York are modest; he did not make the top 10 in lists of major condominium developers and power players in real estate in the city, as judged by several publications. He does not belong to trade groups like the Real Estate Board of New York or the Association for a Better New York. He rarely interacts with top politicians or government officials, or contributes to campaigns. Discussions about running for governor in 2014 never got off the ground.
Though he portrays himself as a major developer, his companies’ highest profile ownership stakes in real estate in New York include an office building on Wall Street; part of another on Avenue of the Americas; commercial space at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, where he lives; and parking below the Trump Plaza on East 61st Street.
“It’s a very successful garage,” he said in a telephone interview.
Mr. Trump’s operation also runs Wollman Rink and the carousel in Central Park, through contracts with the city’s parks department.
The major banks, for their part, say they are leery of lending to him after having lost millions of dollars on past deals. Lawyers and contractors he has hired in the past say he is slow to pay his bills, and often shortchanges them. Even the few Wall Street executives who say privately that he is a friend are loath to speak publicly about him.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has been a central figure in local politics for years, does not recall ever meeting Mr. Trump. Mr. de Blasio — who supports a fellow Democrat, Hillary Clinton, for president — noted that one reason some might think Mr. Trump is a major player in New York is he arguably once was.
“I think in the 1980s, for example, some of his developments were controversial and got a lot of attention and he was more in the center of things in this city,” the mayor said. “But at this point I don’t see a lot of influence from Trump in New York City. You see his name on buildings, but you don’t see him.”
Mr. Trump once received favorable treatment from the city’s tabloid newspapers, personally calling in stories that landed on the front page. But as he stokes populist outrage in the Republican presidential primaries, The Daily News, in particular, has hardly embraced him as a local boy done good and has instead served up headlines like “Dawn of the Brain Dead” and “Anti Christ!”
Mr. Trump’s evanescence at home stands in stark contrast to his image around the country and the world, thanks to his celebrity as a reality television star, and through the hotels and golf courses that bear his name.
For his part, Mr. Trump does not disagree that he is less of a New York mover-and-shaker than he once was. He says he does not need anything from Wall Street or the traditional corridors of power and argues his diminished footprint in New York is balanced by his broadening reach. And he has indeed branched out beyond the city, in name at least, licensing “Trump” on hotels and myriad endeavors, including a brand of vodka and energy drinks in Israel and a winery in Virginia.
“I’m less focused on New York now,” he said. “I started going international and national, which is what we are doing now, and then I did the presidential thing, so that to me is cooler than all of it.”
A New York Times review of records of his 500 or so companies, released in July by the Federal Election Commission, highlights just how little of his business empire is now related to anything in the city. Among his many interests elsewhere, he has a stake in the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.; golf courses in Scotland and Ireland; and an office building in downtown San Francisco. Many of the other entities were set up to hold specific trademarks with the Trump name; others were either inactive or connected to his family’s holdings from the 1960s.
Unlike corporations or big developers such as Glenwood Management, Mr. Trump does not appear to funnel money to candidates through obscure limited liability companies, or have significant lobbying operations in New York.
It was not always so.
Dwindling Influence
Mr. Trump, and entities affiliated with him, used to reliably donate to local Democrats and Republicans in New York — more than $700,000 to state candidates, and $140,000 to city candidates since 1980, records indicate.
He actively supported aspiring or incumbent comptrollers — an office that approves city contracts and acts as a fiscal watchdog — showering more than $23,000 to Harrison J. Goldin, $9,000 to Alan G. Hevesi, and $8,000 to Elizabeth Holtzman, between 1985 and 2000.
However, Mr. Trump could appear naïve about the mechanics of campaign finance. In 1996, eager to support Rudolph W. Giuliani’s re-election bid as mayor, he enclosed two checks totaling $6,900 in a letter addressed to the Republican mayor and mailed to City Hall. The money was later returned, according to Mr. Giuliani’s public archives.
He has not been a force in state politics, either, as his brief flirtation with the 2014 race for governor illustrated.
Bill Nojay, a Republican state assemblyman from the Rochester area, was an early supporter, but said there were not many others, in part because Mr. Trump had no base in the state and was not active in the party.
The Trump name was once closely associated with the muscular Brooklyn Democratic machine that, in its heyday, catapulted Hugh L. Carey to Albany.
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Mr. Trump’s father, Fred C. Trump, established himself as a major developer of midrise apartment complexes for middle-class families, especially for World War II veterans, in Brooklyn, in Queens and on Staten Island.
The younger Trump came into his own in the 1970s, when he played a notable role in a number of risky projects, often against the advice of his associates, such as the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the West Side of Manhattan and the Grand Hyatt Hotel on the East Side.
“I was the king of approvals,” Mr. Trump said.
But his organization ran into difficulties, including several bankruptcies. He also became embroiled in a protracted legal battle over the ownership of the Empire State Building.
A low point in his career involved Riverside South on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a large development along the Hudson River that encountered ferocious opposition from neighborhood groups and city planners. Saddled with debt, and in jeopardy of seeing his plans fizzle, Mr. Trump in 1994 was forced to bring in outside investors and eventually lost control over the project.
Mr. Trump’s organization currently owns 40 Wall Street; the commercial space at Trump Tower at 725 Fifth Avenue; and 30 percent of 1290 Avenue of the Americas, another commercial building, according to a review of records and Actovia Commercial Mortgage Intelligence, a real estate research firm. He also manages a number of condominium developments in the city that display his name.
Mr. Trump would not provide a list of his properties, saying his company is privately held.
Unpaid Bills
Besides the legal battles, the way Mr. Trump has managed business relationships has been a source of friction.
One contractor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of being sued by Mr. Trump, said Mr. Trump underpaid on one large job, at one of his towers, by almost $100,000. The contractor opted not to sue, estimating the litigation would cost more than the losses. The two parties have not done business since.
Lawyers who spoke to The Times had similar stories.
Mr. Trump revels in his reputation, boasting about not paying some of his outstanding legal and construction bills. “If they do a bad job, they have to suffer,” he said. “If they overbill me or if they don’t do a good job, I take plenty of time to pay them and I negotiate with them.”
Richard LeFrak, a billionaire real estate executive who is among Mr. Trump’s closest friends, going back four decades, put a positive spin on Mr. Trump’s local relationships. “He doesn’t make political contributions because the industry does it,” Mr. LeFrak said. “He doesn’t join industry associations because everyone does it.”
He added, referring to the local trade groups, “Donald is his own ABNY, his own Rebny — he’s Donald.”
One New York institution Mr. Trump has been forced to deal with is Wall Street. Here bank executives are cautious, citing his previous bankruptcies and his propensity for litigation.
Fifteen companies with ties to Mr. Trump owe banks in excess of $270 million, according to his Federal Election Commission disclosures. The actual amount of debt is higher, however — the top range candidates are required to reveal is $50 million or above for any given loan.
Deutsche Bank is one of his main lenders; his filings show JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are not currently lending to him.
‘I Don’t Need Money’
Mr. Trump says he has no need for banks.
“I don’t use Wall Street much because I don’t need money,” said Mr. Trump, who said he is worth $11 billion and has $1 billion cash on hand. “I do my own financing.”
Business executives and hedge fund managers who piece together multimillion-dollar deals say Mr. Trump is not on their radar.
“He is not known in my industry,” said Stanley Druckenmiller, a billionaire financier who is backing Gov. John Kasich of Ohio in the Republican presidential race. “I’ve never met the man.”
Mr. Trump does have one significant Wall Street power broker in his corner: Carl C. Icahn, the billionaire activist shareholder.
“I really think a lot of people have missed the fact that this country has real troubles and you need a completely fresh personality in the White House,” he said.
Mr. Icahn’s pitch, however, has not resonated. While Mr. Trump has raised almost $7.5 million from individual contributors, records with the Federal Election Commission show Wall Street has not really opened up its wallet.
“A lot of Wall Street guys don’t like him,” Mr. Icahn said. “They don’t like the brashness, maybe.”
At Goldman Sachs, employees have directly contributed since 2013 more than $94,000 to Mrs. Clinton and more than $199,000 to one of Mr. Trump’s opponents for the Republican nomination, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, according to the commission.
Records show just one Goldman employee, a financial adviser in the wealth management division, has donated to Mr. Trump — $534.58, to be precise.
That employee’s name is Luke Thorburn. Public records show Mr. Thorburn trademarked the phrase “Make Christianity Great Again” and is selling hats that mirror Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” caps.
Mr. Thorburn declined to comment.
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