groups….
[This became] a pattern of Donald’s business life before and since: The repeated wooing or retention of critical public or legal opponents would become a lifelong hallmark of the Trump style. [Emphasis added.]153
Trump focused on Berger’s personal financial self-interest—and likely offered up a powerful carrot that satisfied this interest.
3. Trump’s Carrot for the Critical City Official—a Great New Job
The third major carrot illustrating Trump’s strategy? To get the Commodore deal done, Trump needed to navigate multiple city bureaucracies and satisfy their interests and the city’s overall interest in redeveloping a rundown section of the city. How did he accomplish this seemingly herculean task for a young developer in his first Manhattan project?
Enter Deputy New York City Mayor Stanley Friedman. Friedman ended up with an extremely powerful personal self-interest in getting this deal done, according to Trump Show.
The inducement was the job Roy Cohn [Trump’s lawyer] had already promised him. Friedman was even to get Roy’s fifth-floor office in Cohn’s townhouse, complete with cathedral ceiling, bar, outdoor patio, a greenhouse where Friedman’s secretary would work, and an adjoining apartment with kitchen, living room, fireplace, and loft bedroom. Friedman was guaranteed a six-figure salary for the first time in his life and, unless he stumbled, the rest of it.154
Friedman got the city’s bureaucracies on board for Trump and Cohn. They reciprocated. “One of Friedman’s best paying clients over the years was Donald Trump,” according to Trump Show.155
4. Trump’s Carrot for the Banks—His Dad’s Personal Guarantee
The final counterpart interest that proved crucial to many future Trump negotiations involved the banks’ security interest for their $70 million construction loan. Since Donald Trump himself had little financial creditworthiness at this time, his father Fred and Hyatt Hotels jointly guaranteed the loan.
Hyatt negotiated in return a promotion to jointly own the hotel and not just operate it. “[Trump] could not have made it happen without Fred’s—and Hyatt’s signatures. Hyatt chairman Jay Pritzker said later that Donald simply ‘couldn’t get the financing’ and ‘we were able to help.’”156
Trump knew the banks would never loan him $70 million based solely on his personal qualities and the project’s strength. Their financial interest would not allow it. But Trump’s carrot was his ace in the hole—Dad’s guarantee.
He would use this carrot and later his trust fund to satisfy his counterpart’s interests several more times in future negotiations.
Trump Tower
Donald Trump needed to build Trump Tower fast. Delays would be disastrous. The main reason he needed to move fast related to the concrete for its construction. The other reason? Time is money in development. The sooner you complete the build, the sooner revenue starts flowing.
The “concrete” problem for New York developers at the time? John Cody, who ran the union controlling the cement truckers and who would be called “the most significant labor racketeer preying on the construction industry in New York” in 1989 by documents cited by the U.S. House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice.157
Trump himself would call Cody—after Cody died in 2001—“one psychopathic crazy bastard” and “real scum.”158
Trump’s interest? Timing. Get Trump Tower built fast with no construction delays.
Cody’s interest? He wanted a Trump Tower luxury apartment for his girlfriend Verina Hixon.
Trump got his concrete on time with no delays. “In 1982, when union strikes froze developments across the city, construction at Trump Tower didn’t miss a beat.”159
And Cody got his girlfriend three large duplexes on two Trump Tower floors, just under Trump’s penthouse, including Trump Tower’s only indoor swimming pool. She wanted upgrades, too. “When Trump resisted one of Hixon’s [many upgrade] requests, she called Cody, and construction deliveries to the building stopped until work at her apartment resumed,” according to Hixon’s sworn testimony in a related case.160
While Trump denied this under oath, having been subpoenaed about it by federal investigators in 1982, Cody said he “knew Trump quite well” and “Donald liked to deal with me through Roy Cohn.”161
Barbara Res, who oversaw the Trump Tower construction, confirmed that “Donald and his wife Ivana were very friendly with a woman whom everyone associated with the project understood to be Cody’s girlfriend.”162
Pulitzer Prize–winning author David Cay Johnston in The Making of Donald Trump (Making Trump) also confirmed much of this, stating:
Cody’s son, Michael, told me that his father was both a loving dad and every bit the notorious racketeer people believed him to be. He said that, as a boy, he listened in when Trump called his father, imploring Cody to make sure concrete flowed steadily at Trump Tower so he would not go broke before it was finished….
[And] John Cody invested $100,000 in [Hixon’s] apartments and stayed there often. Trump helped the woman get a $3 million mortgage to pay for the three apartments…. She said she got the mortgage from a bank that Trump recommended she use, without filling out a loan application or showing financials.163
Much of this information came to light when Trump sued Hixon for $250,000 in unpaid upgrades. She sued him back for $20 million, accusing Trump of “taking kickbacks from contractors.” Trump paid Hixon $500,000 to settle.164
Trump understood his own and Cody’s interests. And he appeared to satisfy both.
Trump’s Understanding of Interests Aligns with the Research
Finding out what the parties want and need and offering up carrots satisfying them represent a tried and true method for getting what you want in negotiations.
RESEARCH: Focusing on the parties’ fundamental interests, not just their positions, has been consistently taught by negotiation professors ever since Roger Fisher and William Ury first made this interests/positions distinction in Getting to Yes (later revised with Bruce Patton as co-author).165
What should all negotiators do? Uncover fundamental interests underlying positions. Interests, according to Fisher, Ury, and Patton, are parties’ needs, desires, concerns, and fears. They’re the fundamental driving forces that motivate parties. For some it’s ego. They want everyone to know they “won.” For others it may be security or economic well-being. Still others crave recognition, a sense of belonging, or control over one’s life. The number and type of interests at issue in negotiations are many and varied.
Positions, by contrast, are what each side believes will satisfy their interests. Positions are what you want. Interests are why you want it.166
Why do you care? Fundamental interests determine success or failure. Negotiation success or failure is directly tied to the extent that the parties involved satisfy their true interests. If you haven’t
