Donald Trump Jr. says family belongings show his father’s genius

Donald J. Trump’s signature properties are at the center of a sweeping civil fraud case in which he is accused of manipulating their values ​​and his wealth. But to hear the former president’s eldest son tell it, those properties prove something much rosier: the genius of the Trump family business.

Trump Tower, Donald Trump Jr. declared on the witness stand on Monday, is admired as ‘genius’. Mar-a-Lago is “one of the few American castles.” And 40 Wall Street, the family’s towering office building across from the New York Stock Exchange, has vaults that are “a mechanical work of art.”

In a recurring appearance at a trial that saw a parade of Trumps on the stand as they fought for the future of their family business, the junior Trump testified in bursts of exaggerations and platitudes. His rhetoric sounded as if it had been torn from the pages of an airline magazine or a travel brochure, and he reserved the highest praise for the man he said made it all happen: his father, a “visionary” who is “an artist.” with real estate” and “creates things that other people would never imagine.”

Yet some of his lofty claims clashed with contemporary reality.

In recent years, the Trump Organization has shrunk as the family name was dropped from some of the properties he touted and taken from buildings in New York, Washington and soon Hawaii. Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street have also lost some tenants at times. Some of the former president’s properties even struggled to turn a profit.

None of this seemed to deter Donald Trump Jr. during his three-and-a-half-hour appearance on the stand on Monday. His testimony was the beginning of the defense’s case, the family’s rebuttal to New York Attorney General Letitia James.

She has targeted former president, his company and his sons Donald Jr. and accused Eric of fraudulently inflating the value of assets to obtain favorable loans from banks. When Mr. Trump last testified, Ms. James’ office called him to the witness stand to face criticism about the accuracy of his father’s financial statements.

As his own lawyers questioned him, Trump’s testimony took on a rhapsodic tone that aimed to create a parallel universe to the one operating in the previous six weeks of the trial, as the attorney general’s office laid out its case . As Ms. James’s office presented spreadsheets, emails and financial statements, Mr. Trump’s lawyers showed him dozens of photos of luxury properties, and he reflected fondly and at length on them.

His testimony was key to the defense’s argument: that Trump’s assets are extremely valuable and that the company’s financial statements understate them if anything. His father, who was summoned to the hearing by the attorney general’s office last week, is expected to return in the coming weeks to make the same claim.

The judge who will decide the non-jury case, Arthur F. Engoron, has often been impatient with the Trumps and their lawyers, holding back on nonsensical and off-topic responses. And he has already ruled that Mr. Trump and his sons committed fraud, meaning the trial is largely intended to determine the sentence he will impose. (Ms. James is seeking a $250 million fine, among other things).

But on Monday, Judge Engoron brushed aside state attorneys’ objections to Mr. Trump’s testimony, saying, “Let him go on and talk about how great the Trump Organization is.”

Mr. Trump started at the beginning, describing his great-grandfather who developed hotels in the Yukon during the gold rush. A photo of his father with his grandfather, Fred Trump, appeared on a screen, injecting sentiment into a proceeding rooted in cold facts.

Although the company has gone global, he says it is still run as “a mom-and-pop operation” and is successful because of the variety and value of his father’s properties and leadership.

Asked for an example, Mr. Trump cited the inclusion of gyms as amenities in luxury buildings, stating that his father was “at the forefront” of creating value that way. Trump later acknowledged that “maybe someone” had put a gym in a building before, but not on the scale his father did.

He also told a generous story about the company’s turnaround of once-neglected assets, including Wollman Rink in Central Park and 40 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan. In both cases, Mr. Trump said the properties had fallen into disrepair and that no one understood their potential. He claimed it took his father’s genius to bring them to light.

However, the company no longer manages the ice rink. New York City decided to cut ties with Trump after the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The Trumps also recently sold their lease on a public golf course in the Bronx, which did not stop the defense from playing a promotional video for the property during Mr. Trump’s testimony on Monday.

And 40 Wall has seen better days. One of Ms. James’ lawyers noted during cross-examination that the building’s occupancy rate has fallen, although the Trumps have not missed a payment.

She also asked Mr Trump if it was true that the 18th hole of one of the family’s golf courses had collapsed into the ocean. He acknowledged that this was so.

Mr. Trump testified that he once did the leasing at 40 Wall, and that he, his sister Ivanka and his brother Eric came to take their own jobs at the Trump Organization. Although he and his siblings all eventually became executive vice presidents, Mr. Trump argued that the country was “much more of a meritocracy.”

But when his father became president and Ivanka joined him in the White House, he and Eric took on much more responsibility. “We were protecting the incredible assets we had,” he testified.

Mr. Trump was alternately boastful and self-deprecating. Speaking of his father’s love of golf, Mr. Trump showed off his sense of humor: “I’m the non-golfer of the family that forever relegated me to the kid’s table,” he said.

Ms. James’ team reacted angrily to Mr. Trump’s rote recitation of the company’s history, drawing many objections. But Judge Engoron was patient and seemed to find some rapport with Mr. Trump.

Several times, Mr. Trump turned his head and body toward the judge and spoke directly to him, often prompting the judge to smile.

As they first greeted each other as testimony began Monday morning, Mr. Trump said, “I would say it’s good to be here, Your Honor, but I have a feeling the attorney general would charge me with perjury.”