Trump Tower and Plaza built with Mafia concrete rather than typical structural steel
Trump used ready-mix structural concrete to build both his Trump Tower and Trump Plaza in New York City,1 which were completed, respectively, in 1983 and 1984. It was purchased at inflated prices from S&A Concrete, a company secretly owned by two New York Mafia bosses, Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, head of the Genovese Mafia family, and Paul Castellano, the don of the Gambino family.2 Concrete is rarely used as a structural material for tall buildings due to key disadvantages, including higher cost compared with structural steel girders, which provide significantly higher structural integrity per weight of the material and are typically used in skyscrapers.3
The concrete contract between Trump and S&A Concrete for Trump Tower became one count in the federal racketeering indictment and subsequent conviction of Salerno.4 New York's Trump Tower was the tallest building in the U.S. constructed using structural concrete at the time it was completed5 and the most expensive private concrete job in history, with the weight of its concrete 50% more than all the steel in New York's Empire State Building.6
Trump's use of Mafia-supplied concrete in these two signature buildings was emblematic of his longstanding and deep ties to the Mob, as detailed, for example, in The Wall Street Journal's report of September 1, 2016, "Donald Trump and the Mob."7
- Politico, "Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?," May 22, 2016, https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-2016-mob-organized-crime-213910/; The Washington Post, "Trump swam in mob-infested waters in early years as an NYC developer," October 16, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trump-swam-in-mob-infested-waters-in-early-years-as-an-nyc-developer/2015/10/16/3c75b918-60a3-11e5-b38e-06883aacba64_story.html; The Wall Street Journal, "Donald Trump and the Mob," September 1, 2016, https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-dealt-with-a-series-of-people-who-had-mob-ties-1472736922; David Cay Johnston, Temples of Chance: How America Inc. Bought Out Murder Inc. to Win Control of the Casino Business (New York: Doubleday, 1992), p. 82; Wayne Barrett, Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth: The Deals, the Downfall, the Reinvention, Kindle Ed. (New York: Regan Arts., 2016), Loc. 4026-9, 4072-86; David Cay Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump (New York: Melville House, 2016), pp. 45-48.
- Johnson, The Making of Donald Trump, op. cit., pp. 45-48; Barrett, Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth, op. cit., Loc. 4026-4086.
- Politico, May 22, 2016, op. cit.; Johnson, The Making of Donald Trump, op. cit., p. 45.
- The Washington Post, October 16, 2015, op. cit.; Johnson, The Making of Donald Trump, op. cit., p. 46; Barrett, Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth, op. cit., Loc. 846-50, 3953-58.
- Barrett, Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth, op. cit., Loc. 64-67.
- Barrett, Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth, op. cit., Loc 3941-53.
- The Wall Street Journal, September 1, 2016, op. cit.
