'Our Company Could Not Coexist' with Trump as a Partner
THE MOST PRESCIENT AND POINTED WARNING about Donald Trump may have been raised by a Harrah's executive. In 2016.
Phil Satre wasn't a celebrity, but he stood out in at least two ways: He was Trump's partner on an Atlantic City casino project in the 1980s. And he was willing to stick his neck out and write about it in the Reno Gazette Journal.
The column Satre wrote was so spot-on that in my role then as commentary editor of USA Today, I republished it in our newspaper in hopes it would influence voters throughout the land. That was back when the extent of the Teflon Don syndrome had not fully penetrated our brains—when we still thought, or hoped, that reason and facts could make a difference.
Here's just one paragraph of Satre's column:
In 1985 I filed an affidavit with the court over Trump's claims of mismanagement: Referring to Trump I said, 'His written response to my letter of May 10 is characteristic of the bluster, threats, intemperance and unsupported and unsupportable falsehoods that have permeated the correspondence we have received from him and his key management employees almost since the beginning of our partnership.' My opinion of Donald Trump from the 1980s has not changed. The negative publicity about Donald Trump during this campaign—his conduct toward women, his business failures and his explosive temperament—matches my dealings with him.
As we know, reason and facts did not prevail. Satre's words, so blunt and vivid, probably had the most impact inside my own brain. They have come to mind repeatedly during the first two months of Trump's return to office.
Call it the boomerang presidency. Or the whiplash or rug-pull presidency. The bottom line is the same, whether we're talking about tariffs, Ukraine, Social Security, immigration, or anything else: You cannot count on Trump. You cannot trust him. Also, he knows nothing about the economy.
'I don't have a changed view of him,' Satre told me in a phone call this week—the first time we'd ever talked. 'His whole approach during the periods that I was involved with him in a partnership were examples of somebody who talked a lot about himself with a great deal of bombast. And there was no regard to accuracy of what he said or truthfulness. And as a consequence, ultimately, our company could not coexist with him as a partner.'
Keep up with all our articles, newsletters, podcasts, and livestreams:
Negotiating with Trump then sounds a lot like negotiating with him now. 'What was negotiated in those days was his name and how valuable his name was. We had lots of disagreements about that,' Satre said, deadpan, and we both chuckled. Were they resolved? 'No, they weren't,' he said.
In a way, though, they were. Satre and the rest of the Harrah's team decided to sell their half-interest in the project back to Trump. They didn't lose any money in the transaction, Satre said, but Trump nevertheless claimed it was 'a great deal for him.'
Harrah's went back to operating its 'very successful' Marina District casino in Atlantic City, which had opened in 1980. And Trump went back to doing what he does best, or worst.
The Trump Plaza, as Trump called it after the partnership ended, 'filed for bankruptcy in 1992. It closed in 2014 after additional bankruptcies,' Satre wrote in 2016. And lest you're inclined to blame economic conditions, he made a point of noting that 'in contrast, Harrah's flourished during this same period, and I retired as Chairman in 2005.'
And furthermore: 'I am convinced he simply does not have the temperament to be president, or more importantly, commander in chief: His hair-trigger temper, bluster, racial rhetoric and divisive domestic and international views will endanger our democracy and risk permanent damage to our society.'
Not surprisingly, both Satre and I thought immediately of his long-ago op-ed after the volcanic Oval Office meeting between Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. When Satre read about it and watched clips, he had flashbacks to some of his sessions with Trump. 'We had several of those just really angry outbursts,' he told me.
Satre did not write anything about Trump last year. 'I didn't feel like I could say anything different than what I said then. I actually was quite shocked in 2024, shocked by the outcome,' he said.
Join now
The enduring mystery, for Satre and so many of us, is why Trump's skills at selling and marketing himself have worked so well and for so long. They weren't in evidence, nor was there any hint he had a political future, at the time Satre was trying to work with him.
That came later, he says, when Trump was riding high with The Apprentice: 'He had become a media personality more than a developer personality, and he started talking about running for president and all that. I began to run into people who said we should elect him president. I said 'Really?' The Apprentice. People were attracted to that.'
Satre, now the non-executive chairman of the board of Wynn Resorts, has had a long and respected career in the gaming industry. But like millions of Americans, maybe tens of millions, he has failed at one big thing: Turning the electorate away from Donald Trump.
Years ago, when he and other Harrah's executives contemplated a continued future with Trump, 'We made the decision that we'd be well served by terminating our relationship with him,' he said during our call. 'We decided to do it and we were very happy.'
If only Republicans could find the courage and will to do the same. If I were a betting woman, I'd say they, and their country, would be very happy.
Send this article around—to friends or followers or family.
Share
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
34 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Netherlands Defence Minister: NATO-wide 5% defence spend would be "historic"
Ruben Brekelmans, Netherlands Minister of Defence said they and their European partners support President Donald Trump's calls to encourage Iran to the negotiation table in order to "come to a sustainable solution". Speaking about the upcoming NATO meeting, he told Bloomberg's Oliver Crook "if we agree to 5% spending on core defence and defence-related matters, that would be a historic step" and said it would be of particular significance "if 32 allies in unity agree on this". (Source: Bloomberg)
Fox News
36 minutes ago
- Fox News
Ted Cruz: Biden's foreign policy 'accelerated' Iran's nuclear program
All times eastern FOX News Radio Live Channel Coverage WATCH LIVE: Trump to huddle with top brass after hammering Iran's nuclear sites
The Hill
37 minutes ago
- The Hill
Leavitt: ‘High degree of confidence' strikes hit Iran's stored enriched uranium
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday the Trump administration has a 'high degree of confidence' that its strikes against Iran hit locations where enriched uranium was being stored amid questions about whether officials in Tehran had relocated the nation's stockpile. 'We are confident, yes, that Iran's nuclear sites were completely and totally obliterated, as the president said in his address to the nation on Saturday night,' Leavitt said on ABC. 'And we have a high degree of confidence that where those strikes took place is where Iran's enriched uranium was stored,' she added. 'The president wouldn't have launched the strikes if we weren't confident in that. So this operation was a resounding success.' The U.S. on Saturday struck three Iranian nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. President Trump described them in an address to the nation as 'completely and totally obliterated,' something he reiterated in a social media post late Sunday. But experts have acknowledged it would take time to determine the extent of the damage from U.S. strikes, and some reports raising the possibility that Iran moved some of its enriched uranium away from those sites ahead of the attack. 'Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,' Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said Sunday. The New York Times reported that there was evidence Iran had moved equipment and uranium from the Fordow site in recent days, citing two Israeli officials. The Times also cited text messages from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency indicating Iran had moved its uranium stockpile. Trump administration officials have maintained that the purpose of the strikes was to decimate Iran's nuclear program and severely curtail Tehran's ability to develop a nuclear weapon. 'We're not at war with Iran. We're at war with Iran's nuclear program,' Vice President Vance said Sunday on NBC News's 'Meet the Press.'
