US President Donald Trump once bid to renovate the United Nations building in New York — promising to create a “beautiful” structure with mahogany walls and marble floors. He recalled the decades-old snub in great detail on Tuesday while delivering a speech before the UN General Assembly.
‘As a real estate developer…’
“Many years ago, a very successful real estate developer in New York known as Donald J Trump bid on the renovation and rebuilding of this very United Nations complex. I remember it so well. I said at the time that I would do it for $500 million, rebuilding everything. It’d be beautiful,” Trump told close to 150 world leaders on Tuesday.
He recalled talking about how how he would use “the best of everything” for the project. Trump also also took a swipe at existing UN infrastructure — highlighting several flaws and noting that the renovation project had ultimately incurred massive cost overruns.
“I turned out to be right, they had massive cost overruns and spent between $2 trillion and $4 billion on the building, and did not even get the marble floors that I promised them! You walk on terrazzo, do you notice that? As far as I’m concerned, frankly, looking at the building and getting stuck on the escalator… they still haven’t finished the job!” he fumed.
Did the UN reject Trump’s bid?
According to reports, the UN had ultimately turned down the bid made by Trump in the early 2000s. The rejection had reportedly enraged the future President — making various disparaging comments about the “cheap” marble on the General Assembly dais and other details over the years.
Trump had approached an US Senate committee in 2005 to complain that the UN was bungling the project. He had also appealed to the panel to let him manage the project and offered to waive his fee.