Friendless in Palm Beach

Two years ago, an article in the New York Times1 about Donald Trump's “friends” made me want to collect the little we know about such friendships, some or all of which may apply to Trump himself.

In the article, Trump, speaking to a crowd in New Hampshire, is quoted as saying: “I have no friends, as far as I'm concerned,” he said. “You know who my friends are? You're my friends.”

Trump's disavowal of friends, which to others might seem like a pathetic admission of failure or deficiency, seems to him like a proof of his superiority. In his grandiosity, he is above having friends; he does not need specific friends the way inferior people do — himself and his money are all that he needs. If he makes friends, it is only because he needs their votes — a purely shallow, functional, and fungible friendship.

Richard LeFrak, a fellow real-estate tycoon who has known Mr. Trump for more than forty years, is quoted as saying: “He's very gregarious and has lots of acquaintances. But people that he's close to? Not so many.”

“He doesn't really have a lot of friends,” said Billy Procida, a financier from New Jersey who served for years as one of Mr. Trump's top lieutenants. “Pretty much all he does is work and play golf.”

Trump named Richard LeFrak as one of his best friends. “If we're both in Florida, Donald might call and say, ‘Come have dinner at Mar-a-Lago,’” Mr. LeFrak said, referring to Mr. Trump's palace in Palm Beach. “But if I tell him, ‘Why don't you come down to Miami?’ he might say yes, but he probably won't do it. He's very much a creature of habit. He doesn't like to leave his own environment.”

Abe Wallach, who once served as head of acquisitions for the Trump Organization, said he was always surprised when Mr. Trump would ask him and his husband to join him for the weekend with Marla Maples, his wife at the time. “Donald would call and say, ‘Abe, what are you doing? Marla and I are flying down to Atlantic City. You and David want to come?’ I always thought: ‘Why me? I work