When Donald Trump visited Hong Kong: the future US president met Stanley Ho, stayed in The Peninsula and got stuck in Macau by a typhoon – but was he serious about building a second Trump Tower in the city?
In August 1993, Donald Trump visited Hong Kong with the intention of building a Trump Tower in Central. “I’ve got many friends here, and one or two are interested in putting up a building similar to the Trump Tower in New York,” Trump told the South China Morning Post, published on August 19, 1993.
I’m a New York boy, born and bred and there’s only one other city in the world that impresses me – Hong Kong
Trump, who was then 47, had flown to Hong Kong from Tokyo where he said he planned to make major investments “not necessarily in Japan or Hong Kong, but primarily with money from Hong Kong,” he said.
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During his four-day visit to the city Trump scoured the Hong Kong skyline to see where Trump Tower might possibly be located, while Marla Maples joined the Post for afternoon tea at The Peninsula, where the couple were staying in a HK$20,000-a-night (US$2,600) suite.
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Gale also reported that Trump had visited the renowned Sam’s Tailor in Tsim Sha Tsui, which made him “a new wardrobe in 1920s Al Capone style”. Maples did a lot of shopping while in Hong Kong, too.
Trump Tower Hong Kong may never have come about but it seemed like The Donald enjoyed his visit. “I’m a New York boy, born and bred and there’s only one other city in the world that impresses me – Hong Kong,” he said. “I feel very comfortable here and if the taxis were yellow instead of red, I could easily think I was home.”
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He did breeze into town in March the following year. “I’m always excited about coming to Hong Kong because there is so much energy and excitement in this place,” Trump told the Post. “I am here to check out a few things and meet one or two important people.”
One of those important people was Henry Cheng, chairman of New World Development, who Trump met for dinner. Cheng had congratulated Trump on having married Maples. Trump said that it was his first overseas trip he had taken since his then five-month old baby Tiffany was born. Besides dinner with Cheng, Trump fitted in breakfast the next day with property tycoon Allan Zeman before flying back to the United States.
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With Donald Trump vying for a second term in office as president of the United States this week, we look back to the early 1990s when he visited Hong Kong with girlfriend Marla Maples – then seven months pregnant with daughter Tiffany Trump