CNN Report Finds Trump Repeatedly Lied About Royal Family Visiting His Properties For Media Attention
During the 1980s and early ’90s, President Donald Trump repeatedly lied to the media about members of the royal family attending his various properties and clubs to gin up brand attention, according to a new report from CNN.
The article, which was released shortly after Trump’s visit to Buckingham Palace and his fraternizing with the royal family this week, analyzes comments and false claims the president or the Trump Organization made or may have made during the years 1981-1995 about dignitaries’ visits — like in 1983 when he spread rumors that Prine Charles and Princess Diana were looking to buy a Trump Tower condo right.
While it was untrue, the claim generated valuable attention right as the building was preparing for its grand opening. An Associated Press report at the report regurgitated Trump’s rumors in an article that they would later update with a Buckingham Palace statement insisting there was “no truth” to the royal family members moving into Turmp Tower.
“Prince Charles and his new bride are planning to buy a $5 million, 21-room apartment in a building under construction here, the New York Post said today,” the AP report read. “Buckingham Palace aides met with Donald Trump, developer of the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue at 57th Street, during the prince’s visit to New York last June, the Post said. It quoted unidentified sources as saying that a deal was on.”
While commenting on the reports in his 1987 New York Times bestseller The Art of the Deal, Trump acknowledged that the false claim helped boost the opening of his flagship building but would not admit to creating the rumor himself:
“Our policy was not to comment about sales, and that’s what I told this reporter. In other words, I refused to confirm or deny the rumor. Apparently, the reporter then decided to call Buckingham Palace. By this time, the royal couple had left for their honeymoon and they were out on the yacht Britannia, so the Buckingham Palace spokesman said just what I had: they couldn’t confirm or deny the rumor. That was all the media needed. In the absence of a denial, the story that the royal couple was considering buying an apartment in Trump Tower became front-page news all over the world. It certainly didn’t hurt us, but I had to laugh to myself.”
The CNN report also details a New York Post story from the early ’90s, in which it was rumored that Princess Diana had plans to spend $5 million on Trump Tower pad — another hoax allegedly spread by the Trump Organization that the royal family denied. After that initial report in 1993, additional rumors circulated a year later in the Post claiming that Princess Diana was interested in a $3.5 million apartment at the Trump property.
After news outlets all over the world began picking up the story, a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace released a statement denying the rumors:
“This report is highly speculative rubbish. It is simply not true. The Princess is not set to buy an apartment in the United States or elsewhere and has no plans to live anywhere but in Britain… The princess has no intention of buying any property in America or of moving to America.”
That same year, rumors began spreading that Princess Diana and Prince Charles were members of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“I handled the applications myself,” Trump told the New York Times in 1994, referencing the royal family’s membership applications, which he used to suggest that his club had reached a new level of celebrity status: “I think it’s different for obvious reasons. We have a lot of incredible celebrities, but this is just different.
Spokespeople for the royal family denounced the claims yet again, calling Trump’s comments “complete nonsense” and assuring outlets that the couple “have not joined the club.”
[featured image via Tolga Akman/WPA Pool/Getty Images]
