Trump: How to Get Rich

tour, ’N Sync rented a jet and flew in for eight hours the day of the show, performing two songs. They were terrific. Unfortunately, no one knew about it because CBS had chosen not to run a single promotion for the show.

So in February 2002 we were all reevaluating how we wanted to approach the network license renewal. Citing the current ratings, which were caused by the lack of promotion and the fact that CBS would always air the pageant against the toughest competition, Les Moonves, the head of the network, said he was not willing to begin negotiations until the end of the season. Obviously, with the season ending in August, the network schedules would be set and there would be absolutely no room for negotiation with any other network.

I sent a letter to Les telling him I wanted an option to buy CBS out of the partnership, exercisable up until a week after the broadcast of the Miss Universe pageant in May. I feigned disinterest in continuing with the pageants and told him if I did not exercise the option, we would commence with selling or dismantling the company. A few days later, I believed we had a deal.

I immediately signed with Jim Griffin of the William Morris Agency to begin shopping the pageants to other broadcasters. I also called my good friend Bob Wright, chairman and CEO of NBC, to tell him the pageants might become available. I knew that NBC had recently acquired Telemundo, and the pageants are huge in Latin markets. It looked like a great opportunity for cross-promotion.

In the meantime, CBS had given up and allowed us free rein to get back to the basics on the production and put more emphasis on what had worked in the past: beautiful women. We also convinced them to schedule the pageant for a night outside of the all-important ratings sweeps, which would ensure more on-air promotions.

As a result, our 2002 Miss Universe pageant hit ratings gold. Overall, it was number seven for the week and number one in demographics. The pageant even trounced the NBA playoffs on NBC. The Miss Universe pageant quickly became a very hot property.

I immediately sent a letter to Les Moonves telling him I was exercising my option to buy out CBS. To my shock, Les took the position that we had never agreed on an option. NBC was waiting in the wings, and after a weeklong bidding war I bought out CBS and created a new partnership with NBC.

At the first meeting of the new board, I asked the Miss Universe staff to dust off some of the cross- promotional ideas they had pitched to CBS over the years. Within minutes, Jeff Gaspin of NBC approved the production of a Miss USA Fear Factor to lead into the Miss USA telecast. In addition, the Today show agreed to do five-minute live shots from each pageant location. The results were amazing. For years the pageants had tried to get a plug on the third-rated CBS Morning Show and couldn’t get as much as a returned phone call. Now they were getting major promotion on the nation’s number one morning program and an Internet tie-in through NBC.com.

The Miss USA Fear Factor was the highest rated in the series and the 2003 Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants received the highest ratings since I had bought the company. Additionally, the Telemundo simulcast of the pageant was one of the highest-rated programs in the network’s history.

The cross-promotional concept I visualized in 1996 was finally realized in 2003, and it never would have happened if I hadn’t been willing to walk away from CBS, say no, and pursue a better opportunity elsewhere.

The art of the hair.

The Art of the Hair

Over the years, I have been criticized for the way I comb my hair, but never so much as since the opening show of The Apprentice. New York magazine wrote that I’d perfected the pompad-over. The New York Times called it an elaborate structure best left to an architecture critic.

David Letterman and Jay Leno regularly do quips about it. Matt Lauer, who with Katie Couric has taken the Today show to new heights, told me I should just give up the ghost and shave it off or give myself some kind of buzz cut like the one he has. Likewise, Pat O’Brien, the star of Access Hollywood, told me he had heard about Matt Lauer’s comment and totally agrees with him.

Personally, I think it looks good, but I’ve never said my hair was my strongest point. I told Pat and Matt that I’m just not ready to change my style. I’ve been combing it this way for a long time and I might as well keep doing it. The ratings of The Apprentice are sky-high, and maybe they would drop if I changed the look at this point.

I’m amazed by how often people ask me whether or not I wear a hairpiece, a wig, or a rug, as it is affectionately known.

The answer, for the record, is emphatically and categorically no: I do not wear a rug. My hair is one hundred percent mine. No animals have been harmed in the creation of my hairstyle.

However, I must admit that the day may come when I will wear a hairpiece, wig, or rug—but only if I go bald, which I hope never happens. The reason for this is because I, like most men, am very vain. Many times over the years, I’ve heard people say that men are vainer than women, and I believe it. Guys don’t like to talk about it, but Random House is paying me a fortune for this book and specifically requested a chapter on the art of the hair, so I will admit to my vanity.

I will also reveal some of my hair-related secrets.

The reason my hair looks so neat all the time is because I don’t have to deal with the elements very often. I live in the building where I work. I take an elevator from my bedroom to my office. The rest of the time, I’m either in my stretch limousine, my private jet, my helicopter, or my private club in Palm Beach, Florida. If Matt Lauer had my lifestyle, he might not have changed his hairstyle—although his hair looks great now.

If I happen to be outside, I’m probably on one of my golf courses, where I protect my hair from overexposure by wearing a golf hat. It’s also a way to avoid the paparazzi. Plus the hat always has a big TRUMP logo on it—it’s an automatic promotion.

I will also admit that I color my hair. Somehow, the color never looks great, but what the hell, I just don’t like gray hair.

I wonder how much longer my hair will be a national topic of conversation. Letterman and Leno have been funny, but one person I don’t like is Joy Behar, a woman who works for Barbara Walters on The View. For weeks, she was attacking me, insisting that I wear a wig, so Barbara and her staff called me and asked if I would surprise them and appear on the show. I did, and when I ran my hand through my hair and proved that it was real, everybody laughed and that was the end of that.

After The Apprentice premiered, Joy Behar was on The Tonight Show along with the rest of the cast of The View. Out of the blue, Jay Leno started talking about the great success of The Apprentice. Star Jones raved about it, as did the others—except for Joy Behar, a woman with no talent and a terrible accent, who again attacked my hair. I’ve always said that show would do better without her. I did her a favor by going on the show, and it was not appreciated. Being nice to some people never pays off.

I suppose it’s possible that I could rethink my look for the second season of The Apprentice. But probably not—it seems to be working!

Gossip

Whether you’re building a luxury apartment or producing a beauty pageant, you’ve got to give the people what they want.

In a book like this one, that means some good advice, some wisdom, a little bit of gossip, and a glimmer of fame.

I’ve done my best to give you some wisdom and advice. Now, here’s a Palm Beach morality tale about gossip and fame: