The family business · Before politics · № 6
Trump rented part of his Seven Springs estate for Gaddafi's tent during the 2009 UN visit
“I made a lot of money with Qaddafi, if you remember.”
- Date
- , Quote: CBS Face the Nation interview aired June 5, 2016; rental reported by The Journal News and others in September 2009
- Subject
- Libya
- Benefit
- Real estate and licensing
- Government
- Libya
- Beneficiary
- Donald Trump
- Topic
- Ethics & conflicts
- Era
- Before politics
What happened
In September 2009, ahead of Muammar Gaddafi's first address to the UN General Assembly, the Libyan leader's entourage rented space at Trump's Seven Springs estate in Bedford, New York, and put up his Bedouin-style tent after Central Park and Englewood, New Jersey had refused it. Bedford officials issued a stop-work order on September 22, 2009 because the tent had no permit; the tent came down, went back up and was finally removed days later, and local officials said Gaddafi himself never made it to the property. At the time Trump told town officials, through a spokeswoman and to Reuters, that the property had been leased on a short-term basis to Middle Eastern partners who may or may not have had a relationship with Gaddafi. Trump later acknowledged the deal: in a May 2011 Fox News interview he said, "I rented him a piece of land. He paid me more for one night than the land was worth for the whole year, or for two years, and then I didn't let him use the land," and on CBS's Face the Nation on June 5, 2016 he said he had "made a lot of money with Qaddafi." The amount paid has not been reported. Freedom House rated Libya Not Free in its 2009 and 2010 editions.