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In a recently published 1989 interview with journalists, Donald Trump said he bought his lavish Florida estate after talking to a cab driver.
The then-future and now-former president spoke with Watergate journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in his Trump Tower office, according to an excerpt of Woodard’s new book, “War,” published in the Washington Post. Woodward said the interview was “lost” for more than 30 years after it was taped, transcribed, and put in a manila envelope with a copy of Trump’s book, “The Art of the Deal.”
Trump, who was 42 at the time, told Woodward and Bernstein that he relied “less on people” for information than “just this general flow of information” from places such as “basic” newspapers like the Wall Street Journal (NWS+0.87%), the New York Times (NYT+1.12%), and the New York Post.
“I also speak to cab drivers,” Trump said. “I go to cities and say, ‘What do you think of this?’ That’s how I bought Mar-a-Lago. Talking to a cab driver and asking him, ‘What’s hot in Florida? What’s the greatest house in Palm Beach?’”
Trump said his cab driver told him the “greatest house is Mar-a-Lago,” and that he had the cab driver take him to the property.
“I was in Palm Beach, I was in the Breakers, and I was bored stiff,” Trump told Woodard and Bernstein. Trump eventually bought Mar-a-Lago in 1985 for $10 million.
In August, Trump’s legal team filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Department of Justice for $100 million in damages following the 2022 raid of his Florida estate, claiming the raid was “rooted in malicious prosecution.”