Donald Trump Exclusive Insight

The majority of the people I interview are celebrities and politicians. They all need heightened security. I noticed you have elaborate security. This can create a world insulated from the public. What is that like?

I have two lives. I have before and after “The Apprentice.” I was very well-known before it. I guess that’s why they wanted me to do “The Apprentice,” but this has become a little ridiculous. This year, I’ve had number-one bestsellers. “The Art of the Deal” is the largest selling business book of all time. It certainly was a great honor to have the number-one bestselling business book on the New York Times list. Success is great, but it makes you more famous. That can make you more of a target for a wacko out there. I think the term “heightened security” is important because you can have 1,000 people that love you, but you can have the one wacko that doesn’t. Guys like me need security and I have to be very security conscious. Generally speaking, you won’t need it, but it just takes one event.

It must be exciting to have bestselling books and a hit TV show.

Somebody said to me the other day, “Which is more important, having the number one bestseller or having this hot television show?” I’ll tell you, the television show is definitely cool.

I noticed you have a lot of NFL helmets and some very cool sports memorabilia in your office. Are you a sports fan?

I am a sports fan. I love sports. I have a helmet from Tom Brady, I have one from Brett Favre, I have stuff from Ben Roethlisberger, I have a lot of baseball memorabilia from the St. Louis Cardinals. The great first baseman— as you know, Albert Pujols—was in this building and he gave me a jersey. I have Mike Tyson’s championship belt. We have a lot of different stuff. It’s a little sloppy because there’s so much of it, but people love it. It’s the first thing they want to go and look at when they come into my office.

Which of your accomplishments do you take the greatest pride in?

You always want to say family because that’s the nice answer, but I really have good kids. I have nice kids and they’re doing a good job in the business—the ones who have gone into the business. I take a lot of pride in my real estate stuff. It has been fantastic. We haven’t been on a big buying binge over the last three or four years like a lot of my friends were. They went binging and they had a lot of problems. We have focused on having a solid company. We have great cash flow. We’re looking for good investments today, primarily in real estate, because that’s what I like and that’s what I know. Three to four months ago I was saying I felt like a fool for not having been in the stock market, but now I feel it was the smart thing to do because the market seems to be going back down—way down. There are some tremendous real estate opportunities in New York.

What is your take on how British Petroleum handled the oil spill?

British Petroleum has done such a poor job of whatever they’re doing. This was a massive tragedy. This is beyond anything I’ve seen. When you hear the news call it an environmental blunder, this is beyond any of that. I looked at what had happened and I just wondered why they didn’t bring other companies in there. Why didn’t they bring in Exxon Mobil and others to help? This spill has spewed out an unimaginable amount of oil into the gulf. I’ve always had this great respect for the oil companies. Not that they’re good people or not that they’re bad people, but I always thought that they knew what they were doing. This is a screw-up like nobody has ever seen before.

It has been catastrophic.

I’ve never seen anything like it. You can understand storms and you can understand hurricanes. Of course, no hurricane has done this type of environmental damage. Hurricanes are a force of nature. The spill is really a very tragic situation that was man-made and could have been prevented.

Do you use a preventative approach when running your enterprises?

You can and should take calculated risks in business and even make some mistakes in business, but you need to be careful not to get involved with risks that can take down your entire company. I have friends who have gone into deals that were bigger than they were able to recover from. The problem with big deals is that not all deals work. You can be tempted by the greatest deal makers—I could name them right now. Some of the deals made were no good. You don’t want to make a deal that could take down your company. That means sometimes having to pass on a giant deal. I know one particular guy who got into a deal much bigger than his company could support and it turned out to be a disaster. The company went down and it’s just gone. There are too many of those instances. I have made some mistakes, but I think I have learned from my mistakes.

You have an obvious passion for the production world. “The Apprentice,” the beauty pageants and even gaming are all production driven. Where does that interest come from?

The Miss Universe pageant has been amazing. In fact, we’ve done so well with them that the Miss Universe that was recently thrown off ended up signing a contract with ABC because we made the pageants hot again. It’s good that they’re back. I think it’s a real positive.

I suppose I like production because, in part, I enjoy the glamour. I like the glamour of certain things—even in real estate. The other day I was offered a warehouse in Brooklyn with a guaranteed return. I had no interest. It’s just not for me. We could buy it, we’d make a return, but it’s just not my kind of a thing. I like Fifth Avenue; I like the glamour. The warehouse just wasn’t my kind of an asset, even though it was a good deal.

You have an obvious talent for branding. What advice can you provide small- and medium-sized business owners regarding the importance of marketing?

The first thing is you have to have a good product or provide quality services. If you don’t have a good product, forget it. You will need to have more than a good product to truly succeed because you have to get the word out. I know unknown singers that are better singers than some very successful ones. I know somone more talented than Frank Sinatra, but you’ll never hear about that person. I know one person who really is talented and is always practicing, always rehearsing. Yet, when The New York Times calls for an interview, they say, “No, no, no, I’m not ready, yet.” They’re never ready. You’ve got to get out and do it. Also, you have to let the press know that you exist. This is an important part of marketing. I have golf courses that have high ratings. Once you get the ratings, you’ve got to let people know you have the rating. It’s a long process and it takes a long time.

I was very happy the other night. Snapple financed and spent quite a bit of money on doing the final episode of “Celebrity Apprentice” when Brett Michaels won. I see an article came out about the unbelievable deal Snapple made. Their awareness in the market went way, way, way up because of “Celebrity Apprentice.” It works out for everyone and I’m very happy. I didn’t know that they were able to measure that so quickly, but I see, very distinctly, that they can. The people at Snapple are terrific people; they made a great deal. I’m very proud to have somebody else do something good with respect to their company because of our show. They pay you for it and that’s what they’re paying you for. When it hits, like it did for Snapple, it really makes me feel good all the way around.