Ruffin said he saw a “fanatic” interest among Trump supporters. Ruffin wondered if it was the right move, but he said whatever doubts he had were erased by his time on the campaign trail with Trump. Nikolayenko will travel with Ruffin to the White House, though Melania Trump isn’t expected to join them for dinner.īeginning in the summer of 2015, the two men’s friendship took an interesting twist when Trump said he was running for president. Trump paid for the guests’ accommodations as his wedding present, Ruffin said, though he drew the line at footing the bill for their hired entertainer, Lionel Ritchie. Trump, in fact, was Ruffin’s best man when he married Oleksandra Nikolayenko in 2008 - at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. They’ve been on double dates, including one in Florida to see the movie “Lincoln,” Ruffin said. Their wives - Eastern European immigrants decades younger than themselves - are close, trading parenting tips by text message, Ruffin said. “He would approve my girlfriends at the time,” Ruffin said. Ruffin, now 82, and Trump, 70, were single together. and Allen Weisselberg.Īnother idea for the land is to dust off the pre-recession plan of building a second residential tower, although Ruffin says that’s probably not the best way to make money there.ĭuring their business dealings, Ruffin and Trump developed a friendship. Ruffin also owns a 4-acre parcel next to the Trump building and says he’d like to develop it “at some point” with the Trump Organization.įorbes Magazine has reported that Ruffin wants to open a casino on the site, but Ruffin says he’s yet to discuss any plans with the Trump Organization’s leaders, now Eric and Donald Trump Jr. “And it did.” They haven’t sold more than 300 units, though. “Donald’s words were, ‘This is not New Jersey, this is not Atlantic City, this is Vegas, and it will recover,” Ruffin said. One course of action would have been to declare bankruptcy, but Ruffin said Trump decided to “tough it out.” Trump International Hotel Las Vegas opened in 2008 - timing that put Ruffin and Trump in the business of selling condos as the recession took hold. “I said, ‘This is where you ought to be,'” Ruffin recalled. One night in Las Vegas, after dinner, Ruffin took Trump to a Nordstrom parking lot to show him a parcel of undeveloped land. That deal never worked out, but they stayed in touch. The two met when Ruffin traveled to Trump Tower in the early 2000s when he was thinking of adding a Trump-branded hotel to his Treasure Island casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Ruffin calls Trump “brilliant” with “unparalleled business acumen.” Scrawled in gold on a photo of the pair aboard a corporate jet is a note from Trump to Ruffin: “You are the greatest.” “Then he compiles it all in his mind and makes his own decision.”īoth are prone to superlatives. He’ll summon people over and say, ‘What do you think about this? What do you think about that?'” Ruffin told AP at Treasure Island, his casino. “He’s somebody who wants everybody’s opinion. They’re business partners and social friends who enjoy talking about corporate jets and golf games and business deals their acquaintances have made - the usual billionaire stuff, Ruffin said. And he’s a newcomer to Washington with few close allies, even within his party, and an especially small social circle.įew know Trump as well, or in as many capacities, as Ruffin, who described their friendship in two recent interviews with The Associated Press. Trump is living alone in the White House while his wife stays in New York where their son is in school. In short: This president could probably use a friend. Trump has had a rough few weeks, with fellow Republicans dooming a White House-backed health care plan, questions persisting about possible ties between his campaign and Russian interference in the election, and distracting feuds among some of his senior officials. “It’s a lonely job, and I have been friends with him for a long time. On Thursday, he’ll have dinner there with his friend, Donald Trump. Billionaire Las Vegas casino owner Phil Ruffin has never been to the White House.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |