Barbara A. Res - Tower of Lies: What My Eighteen Years of Working With Donald Trump Reveals About Him

I have never been afraid of Donald, because I know who and what he is.

I was thirty years old when Donald J. Trump hired me to head construction on the building that would define him, Trump Tower. Every payment, contract, hire, question, issue, and problem with the building went through me. When I started in 1980 as a vice president at the Trump Organization, I was one of only four executives. I reported to Trump and worked for him for eighteen years in similar capacities, making deals, talking to the press on his behalf, acquiring permits on development projects, representing him before agencies and legislative bodies, and managing litigation on his projects. Throughout my years with Trump, I was a close and trusted adviser, one of the few people whom Donald listened to.

Now, whenever Donald Trump pulls a stunt, or launches an unhinged attack against someone like Nancy Pelosi or the Biden family, or he ignores a real crisis and invents a fake one, or he tells a particularly egregious lie, the media reach out to me. Why did he do this? they ask. Has he ever done this before? What will he do now? Im a private person, but at some point I just had to share what I know with the public. In fact, Donald was the one who brought me into this.

During the 2016 campaign Trump announced that he broke the glass ceiling for women by hiring me, to show how wonderful he would be for them. Trump didnt even mention my name at first, but once he started attacking me, he sure did. It wasnt the fact that he was using me that made me speak out against his candidacy. I knew that he was not qualified or fit to be president, and I felt a duty to do whatever I could to prevent it.

As someone who knew Donald very well, I am familiar with what really happened, as opposed to the illusion he has worked so hard to create. Over time, I saw past the public persona and into the racism, sexism, and xenophobia that he carefully hid. Ironically, these things are now part of his brand.

There are people who worked with him longer, or more recently, or both. Most have chosen not to talk for their own reasons: some out of fear of recrimination, others who want to protect their privacy. Many former employees have agreed not to disparage him as a result of settlements. Others do so because they stand to or hope to gain from their relationship with Donald. Because I quit and there was no need for a severance, I am not bound by an NDA. This is rare in Trumpworld, so I am free to speak.

In print, online, and on cable news, Ive offered whatever insight that I can into the character of the man I worked with for eighteen years. I dont believe what he says, but I also dont go out there to mindlessly attack him, as many are paid to or love to do. Journalists ask questions, so I share what I know, what I saw, what I understood then, and what I understand now. The press is looking for any insight into the character of our forty-fifth presidenta man adored by many, reviled by many more, perplexing to just about everyone. But I see the method behind it all. The man I knew so well and worked with for almost twenty years, who gave me a break in construction at a time when women were not given such breaks, my once narcissistic but ultimately human boss is now just a hate-filled and amoral person. And he has been this way for some time.

Some people use the fact that I knew him long ago to discount my words, experience, and perspective. They say he has changed since then. Theyre right. He has. But that fact just supports my case. Hes only become more himself. He is Trump raised to the nth degree, but Trump nonetheless. Donald Squared, I call him.

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In the beginning Donald was glamorous and brash, even handsome. Sure, he was a showman, but he also had charm and moments of humanity, especially with some of us who worked closely with him. I saw him bully people below him and make idle threats, but what New York boss didntespecially in the construction world? You had to be tough or you wouldnt survive one second on those sites or in those meetings. Trump thought of himself as a killer. Thats what you had to be to succeed, and he only wanted killers to work for him. Trump thought that I fit that mold.

In 1980 Trump hired me away from HRH Construction and put me in charge of his newest project, a state-of-the-art building on Fifth Avenue on which he would put his own name: Trump Tower. To this day, it is still his crowning achievement, the place that launched himas a megadeveloper, a celebrity, and, ultimately, a presidential candidate. The fact that I also consider the building mine, and am immensely proud of it, complicates my feelings about him. Donald is intertwined with one of the great professional achievements of my life, and that will always be true.

For Trump, however, there has never been any room for nuance or gray. Back then, just as today, you were either the best or the worst. Because he resisted firing anyone, the worst often stayed around. They served a purposehe always needed people to carry out his plans with no pushback, to blame things on, to vent at, and to brutalize. If you were one of the best, you served a purpose too, beyond just making money for him. Hed call you the best mostly in public, where he could talk you up as a reflection of himself, where he could bask in the glory of having selected you. He did this quite frequently with people inside the company and out. I recognized this characteristic at the start of his presidency when he referred to my generals, and my military, and my Justice Department. Its a way for him to swell his own legend.

During the four years when I was in charge of construction for Trump Tower, I practically lived with him. I was in contact with him multiple times a day, either on the phone, on-site, or in his office. Donald is a creature of habit and familiarity, so the office remained remarkably similar throughout the years; the only thing that changed was the number of framed awards and magazine covers of himself on the wall and the personally autographed sports memorabilia arranged on a table by the window. Again, things that reflected back onto his greatness.