Now that Imelda Marcos and Leona Helmsley jokes were growing stale, Trump was a ripe target. “The Tonight Show’s” Jay Leno noted the big sale on repossessed property from the savings and loan scandal. “You can save up to 30 percent on homes, up to 40 percent on condos and up to 50 percent on any building with the name Trump on it.” David Letterman suggested that New York was getting ready for Nelson Mandela’s visit by paying Trump $50 to pick him up at the airport.The comic strip “Doonesbury” depicted a public that rushed to Trump Tower to gloat over Trump’s misfortunes. Two bystanders argue over what they will miss most about the Donald’s lifestyle: his squalid personal life, insists one. No, the hideous decor of his casinos, says the other.
Not everyone was unsympathetic to Trump’s travail. A diner in Elizabeth, N.J., put out a collection plate for Donald. Trump’s bankers weren’t laughing either. They were working on a pact giving Trump $65 million in cash and allowing him to defer payments on part of his $2 billion bank debt. Trump faced a $42 million payment to holders of bonds for his Castle casino– or risked a default that could lead to others, and possibly a not-very-funny bankruptcy.
