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Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago superimposed over an aerial view of Palm Beach  Photo credit Image name: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from Emilio Labrador / Flickr (CC BY 2.0) and Michael Kagdis / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Donald Trump’s huge error in a Florida business deal raises the question: Beyond his skill at getting attention, how good is he with the actual art of checking out deals — or policies — before going ahead with them. Part 8 of a documentary series.

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Trump has a dangerous weakness. He tends to overlook critical details. For example: Getting 10,000 people to show up at a rally to watch a media sensation is one thing; getting them to show up to vote on a winter day in Iowa or New Hampshire is another.

The eighth installment of the documentary Trump does not want you to see focuses on one of those pesky details. In this case, the mogul purchased the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for $10 million (naturally, he claimed that he got it for a steal at $8 million).

However, he overlooked just one little detail: that mansion was in the direct flight path of West Palm Beach International Airport. Oops.

Without the same kinds of connections in Florida that he had in New York, Trump could not just make his little boo-boo vanish. Not surprisingly, he ended up suing, and, by now, he has filed three lawsuits on the issue — the latest just last year.

It remains to be seen whether Trump the Politician has learned the lesson of minding small details that make big differences in politics.

So far this election cycle, Trump has excelled at sucking up all of the media attention and exciting large elements of the GOP base. But we won’t know until a couple of weeks from now whether his campaign also did those little things that earn wins in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The following video is part of a documentary on Trump that was made a quarter century ago but never released.

The film has a gritty tabloid quality — and is, by definition, a period piece. While some “chapters” will be more explosive or longer than others, what the documentary reveals about Trump’s character and manner of operating is more relevant than ever. We dare you to watch this and say that, like Trump, you already “knew it all.”

From now until the first votes are cast in Iowa, we will stream “chapters” of it here.

This is Part 8 of 12.

Part 1 is available here.

Part 2 is available here.

Part 3 is available here.

Part 4 is available here.

Part 5 is available here.

Part 6 is available here.

Part 7 is available here.

Part 8 is available here.

Part 9 is available here.

Part 10 is available here.

Part 11 is available here.

Part 12 is available here.


Editor’s Note: At the request of the filmmakers, this post was updated on August 23, 2023, with a new link to the full documentary.

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