Trump's Newest Building's Malaysian Partners May Regret Doing The Deal

Trump’s newest building, in left-leaning Vancouver, has been profitable for its Malaysian partners from the get-go. But they may already regret doing the deal.

- Brian Solomon & Dan Alexander

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony in late February for the world’s newest Trump building, a 69-storey tower of twisted-glass rising above downtown Vancouver, an in house mixologist demonstrated how to make the hotel’s signature cocktail. The $18.5 Juniper’s Knot is the type of gratuitous luxury the Trump Organization has exported around the globe, with five kinds of rum, oxidised ruby port, juniper berries, white truffle and a house-made marshmallow with bitters and peach brandy.

But not even a grand pour of evaporated liquid nitrogen could distract reporters from the scene just outside the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the Trump Champagne Lounge. Less than a hundred feet away, on the sidewalk, about 200 people braved the snowy morning to chant slogans and beat drums. When the hotel deal was negotiated in 2012, no one expected this scripted corporate affair would be marred by protesters, surrounded by police, with signs that called Donald Trump a “pervert”, “usurper” and “fascist”.

At this junction of cultivated opulence and spontaneous, raw anger sits Trump partner Joo Kim Tiah, the son of a Malaysian financial tycoon who serves as the face of the $275 million Vancouver development.