Seeing 'oceanfront property' in Ukraine, Trump’s real estate history shapes his presidency
Framing intractable issues in terms of real estate also appears to be how Donald Trump orients himself - a way to process and understand.
If there’s one thing President Donald Trump likes to think of himself as an expert in, it’s real estate.
He’s said it runs in his blood. (He began his career as a developer working under his father, who built a real estate empire.)
On Aug. 11, while delivering the news of a federal takeover of Washington, D.C. police, Trump shared pearls of real-estate wisdom imparted by his father on the importance of first impressions. He might have thought of it as curb appeal.
“I had a wonderful father, very smart, and he used to say, ‘Son, when you walk into a restaurant and you see a dirty front door, don't go in,'” said Trump. “’Because if the front door is dirty, the kitchen's dirty also.’ Same thing with the capital. If our capital's dirty, our whole country is dirty, and they don't respect it.”
Casting Washington, D.C. as America's “front door” in need of a major wipe down, he went on describe his plan of action.
A clean-up crew of 800 National Guard troops would be dispatched to clear out “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor” from the capital. The spruce-up project also has a deadline: 30 days.
"It’s a natural instinct,” he said on Aug. 11. “As a real estate person, I was very good at that and I was very good at fixing things up.”
Trump has a track record of displaying an obsession with the physicality of things: whether it is people (Arnold Palmer, Rosie O’Donnell), places (cities, countries and spaces) or objects (portrait frames and ceiling moldings).
He’s been on a redecorating and remodeling binge in and around the White House – from a golden overhaul of the Oval Office to ripping up the sod in the Rose Garden to pave it over with white stone. He’s also planning on adding a 90,000-square-foot ballroom in the East Wing.
Trump has also shared his enthusiasm for the White House Vault, from which he selects "great pictures and artwork" to be placed around the house.
“I picked it all myself. I'm very proud of it," he said.
But framing intractable issues in terms of real estate also appears to be how he orients himself − a way to process and understand.
For instance, he’s made a habit of describing war-torn areas through the prism of development potential. During the Washington event, he said he would try to “get back” some of Ukraine’s “oceanfront property” during talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15.
“Russia has occupied a big portion of Ukraine. They’ve occupied some very prime territory. We’re going to try and get some of that territory back for Ukraine,” he said.
“They have taken largely - in real estate, we call it oceanfront property. That’s always the most valuable property,” Trump said, describing the land Russia usurped during its three-year war on Ukraine.
Talking to reporters about possible “land swaps” between Russia and Ukraine − an idea Ukraine has rejected − he said his mission was to negotiate an agreement.
“I make deals,” he said. In Trump’s telling, the negotiations seemed to be about a land deal, and he made no mention of any security guarantees for Ukraine.
Back in February, during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu − the first world leader to visit Trump during his second term − Trump spelled out his vision for Gaza amid talks of an Israel-Gaza ceasefire.
He said the United States should take over the war-torn seaside Palestinian territory and turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East.”
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip. We’ll do a job with it. We will own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous bombs and other weapons,” he said. “We will level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.”
But Trump has found that some of his land acquistion pitches, such as buying Greenland from Denmark, do not go over well in the world of international diplomacy.
When Trump hosted Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office in May, he brought up his desire to annex the United States' northern neighbor and make it the 51st state.
Trump, once again, brought up his professional builder bonafides.
“I'm a real estate developer at heart. When you get rid of that artificially drawn line (the U.S.-Canada border), somebody drew that line many years ago… like with a ruler, just a straight line right across the top of the country,” Trump said during the meeting.
"When you look at that beautiful formation, when it's together − I'm a very artistic person − but when I looked at that beaut, I said, 'That's the way it was meant to be,"" he said.
Carney was quick to swat away the suggestion.
“You know, from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale,” said Carney. “Having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign last several months, it's not for sale.”
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for Paste BN. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal