Inside The Trump Organization

So what does Trump do, exactly?

- Max Abelson, photograph by Evan Ortiz

Past Trump Tower’s bow-tied doorman, through a shiny revolving door, toward the 60-foot waterfall, up a dim elevator, after glass doors and smiling assistants, Donald J. Trump, chairman of the Trump Organization, sits with pictures of himself to his left, to his right, in front of, and behind him. A gun he got at an awards dinner this year in Charleston, S.C., is mounted above his desk. Trump is three days away from his first debate with the nine other Republican presidential candidates who made the cut , the ones he’s pulverizing in polls.

He’s taking a break from a campaign that, though he has no experience in government, has him zooming toward the White House. We're talking business rather than politics — after all, that’s his central qualification for the job he’s seeking.  When Trump is asked to name a leader he looks to for advice on managing his company, his mouth, just as acrobatic as his more famous hair, pulls tight, snaps open, and lets out its most important syllable.

"Me," Trump says. “Mirror,” says one of the two deputies in the room. “The mirror.”

“I look at me,” says Trump.

Does he admire any other business leaders?

“I,” Trump says, “don’t like the word admire.”