President Trump participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased the fortune he received from his parents, an investigation by The New York Times has found.

《紐約時報》的一項調查發現，川普總統在上世紀90年代採取了一些可疑的避稅方案，包括一些完全屬於欺詐的做法，從而大大增加從父母那裡得到的財富。

Mr. Trump won the presidency proclaiming himself a self-made billionaire, and he has long insisted that his father, the legendary New York City builder Fred C. Trump, provided almost no financial help.

川普以一個白手起家的億萬富翁的形象贏得了總統大選。他長期以來一直堅稱，他的父親、傳奇的紐約建造商弗雷德·C·川普(Fred C. Trump)幾乎沒有給他提供任何經濟幫助。

But The Times’s investigation, based on a vast trove of confidential tax returns and financial records, reveals that Mr. Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate empire, starting when he was a toddler and continuing to this day.

但時報基於大量的保密納稅申報單和財務記錄進行的調查顯示，川普從他父親的房地產帝國獲得了以今日價格為計至少4.13億美元的財產，財產的轉移從他蹣跚學步時開始，一直到持續到今天。

Much of this money came to Mr. Trump because he helped his parents dodge taxes. He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents, records and interviews show. Records indicate that Mr. Trump helped his father take improper tax deductions worth millions more. He also helped formulate a strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings.

流向川普的錢有相當一部分是由於他在幫助父母避稅。記錄和採訪顯示，他和他的兄弟姐妹們成立了一個皮包公司，用以遮掩父母贈送給他們的成百上千萬美元。記錄顯示，川普幫助父親使用不正當的稅收減免，總減免數額高達數百萬美元。他還幫助制訂了一個策略，將納稅申報單上父母持有的房產的價值低估了數億美元，大幅降低了將這些房產轉移給他和他的兄弟姐妹時的稅負。

These maneuvers met with little resistance from the Internal Revenue Service, The Times found. The president’s parents, Fred and Mary Trump, transferred well over $1 billion in wealth to their children, which could have produced a tax bill of at least $550 million under the 55 percent tax rate then imposed on gifts and inheritances.

時報發現，這些做法幾乎沒有受到來自美國國稅局的反對。總統的父母弗雷德和瑪麗·川普(Mary Trump)將遠高於10億美元的財富轉移給了自己的孩子們，按照那時對贈與和遺產徵收的55%的稅率計算，這可能會產生至少5.5億美元的稅金帳單。

The Trumps paid a total of $52.2 million, or about 5 percent, tax records show.

稅務記錄顯示，川普父母總共支付了5220萬美元的稅，即大約5%。

The president declined repeated requests over several weeks to comment for this article. But a lawyer for Mr. Trump, Charles J. Harder, provided a written statement on Monday, one day after The Times sent a detailed description of its findings. “The New York Times’s allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false, and highly defamatory,” Mr. Harder said. “There was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone. The facts upon which The Times bases its false allegations are extremely inaccurate.”

時報在幾週裡多次請求總統對這篇報導置評，均被拒絕。不過，川普的律師查爾斯·J·哈德(Charles J. Harder)在時報送去關於調查結果的詳細描述的一天後，於上週一提供了一份書面聲明。「《紐約時報》關於欺詐和逃稅的指控是百分之百不實的，屬嚴重的誹謗，」哈德說。「不存在任何欺詐或逃稅。時報進行錯誤指控所依賴的事實極其不準確。」

Mr. Harder sought to distance Mr. Trump from the tax strategies used by his family, saying the president had delegated those tasks to relatives and tax professionals. “President Trump had virtually no involvement whatsoever with these matters,” he said. “The affairs were handled by other Trump family members who were not experts themselves and therefore relied entirely upon the aforementioned licensed professionals to ensure full compliance with the law.”

哈德試圖讓川普與他的家人使用的稅收策略保持距離，他說，總統把這些任務委託給了親戚和稅務專業人士。「川普總統與這些事務幾乎毫無瓜葛，」他說。「這些事情是由川普的其他家庭成員處理的，他們本身並不是專家，因此完全依賴上述持牌專業人士，以確保完全遵守法律。」

The president’s brother, Robert Trump, issued a statement on behalf of the Trump family:

總統的弟弟羅伯特·川普代表川普家族發表聲明：

“Our dear father, Fred C. Trump, passed away in June 1999. Our beloved mother, Mary Anne Trump, passed away in August 2000. All appropriate gift and estate tax returns were filed, and the required taxes were paid. Our father’s estate was closed in 2001 by both the Internal Revenue Service and the New York State tax authorities, and our mother’s estate was closed in 2004. Our family has no other comment on these matters that happened some 20 years ago, and would appreciate your respecting the privacy of our deceased parents, may God rest their souls.”

我們敬愛的父親弗雷德·C·川普於1999年6月去世。我們親愛的母親瑪麗·安妮·川普於2000年8月去世。所有適當的贈與和遺產稅報稅表都已提交，並已支付了應繳的稅款。美國國稅局和紐約州稅局都已於2001年註銷了我們父親的遺產帳戶，並已於2004年註銷了我們母親的遺產帳戶。我們的家人對這些發生在約20年前的事情沒有其他的評論，並希望你們尊重我們已故父母的隱私，願上帝讓他們的靈魂得到安息。」

The Times’s findings raise new questions about Mr. Trump’s refusal to release his income tax returns, breaking with decades of practice by past presidents. According to tax experts, it is unlikely that Mr. Trump would be vulnerable to criminal prosecution for helping his parents evade taxes, because the acts happened too long ago and are past the statute of limitations. There is no time limit, however, on civil fines for tax fraud.

時報的調查結果引發了人們對川普拒絕公布個人所得稅申報表的新質疑，川普違反了前任總統幾十年來的做法。根據稅務專家的說法，川普不太可能因為幫助父母逃稅而受到刑事起訴，因為這些行為發生在很久以前，已經超過了法定訴訟時效。然而，對於稅務欺詐的民事罰款沒有時限。

The findings are based on interviews with Fred Trump’s former employees and advisers and more than 100,000 pages of documents describing the inner workings and immense profitability of his empire. They include documents culled from public sources — mortgages and deeds, probate records, financial disclosure reports, regulatory records and civil court files.

這些調查基於對弗雷德·川普的前僱員和顧問的採訪，以及描述他的房產帝國內部運作和巨大盈利能力的逾10萬頁的文件。其中包括從公共來源文件中找到的東西——抵押貸款和契約、遺囑認證記錄、財務披露報告、監管記錄和民事法庭文件。

The investigation also draws on tens of thousands of pages of confidential records — bank statements, financial audits, accounting ledgers, cash disbursement reports, invoices and canceled checks. Most notably, the documents include more than 200 tax returns from Fred Trump, his companies and various Trump partnerships and trusts. While the records do not include the president’s personal tax returns and reveal little about his recent business dealings at home and abroad, dozens of corporate, partnership and trust tax returns offer the first public accounting of the income he received for decades from various family enterprises.

調查還使用了數萬頁的保密記錄——銀行結單、財務審計、會計賬薄、現金支出報告、發票和註銷的支票。最值得注意的是，這些文件包括了來自弗雷德·川普、他的公司以及各種川普合作夥伴關係和信託公司的200多份納稅申報表。儘管這些記錄不包括總統本人的個人納稅申報表，也幾乎沒有披露任何他近年來的國內外業務往來，但數十份企業、合作夥伴和信託公司的納稅申報表首次公開了總統幾十年來從各種家族企業獲得的收入。

What emerges from this body of evidence is a financial biography of the 45th president fundamentally at odds with the story Mr. Trump has sold in his books, his TV shows and his political life. In Mr. Trump’s version of how he got rich, he was the master dealmaker who broke free of his father’s “tiny” outer-borough operation and parlayed a single $1 million loan from his father (“I had to pay him back with interest!”) into a $10 billion empire that would slap the Trump name on hotels, high-rises, casinos, airlines and golf courses the world over. In Mr. Trump’s version, it was always his guts and gumption that overcame setbacks. Fred Trump was simply a cheerleader.

從這些證據中得到的信息可以說是第45任總統的金融傳記，這份傳記與川普在他的書、電視節目和政治生活中兜售的故事有著根本的差異。在川普講述的自己如何致富的版本裡，他擅長做交易，他擺脫了父親在偏僻城區經營「小」生意的限制，把從父親那裡借來的唯一一筆100萬美元貸款（「我必須得連本帶利還給他的！」），變成了一個100億美元的帝國，把川普的名字貼上了酒店、高樓大廈、賭場、航空公司和世界各地的高爾夫球場的門面。在川普的版本中，永遠是他的勇氣和進取心讓他克服了困難。弗雷德·川普只不過是一個啦啦隊員。

“I built what I built myself,” Mr. Trump has said, a narrative that was long amplified by often-credulous coverage from news organizations, including The Times.

「我自己營造了我營造的東西，」川普說。這種說法長期以來一直被輕信的媒體報導（包括時報的）加以放大。

Certainly a handful of journalists and biographers, notably Wayne Barrett, Gwenda Blair, David Cay Johnston and Timothy L. O’Brien, have challenged this story, especially the claim of being worth $10 billion. They described how Mr. Trump piggybacked off his father’s banking connections to gain a foothold in Manhattan real estate. They poked holes in his go-to talking point about the $1 million loan, citing evidence that he actually got $14 million. They told how Fred Trump once helped his son make a bond payment on an Atlantic City casino by buying $3.5 million in casino chips.

當然，個別記者和傳記作家，尤其是韋恩·巴雷特(Wayne Barrett)、格溫達·布萊爾(Gwenda Blair)、戴維·塞·約翰斯頓(David Cay Johnston)和蒂莫西·L·奧布萊恩(Timothy L. O’brien)，對這個故事提出過質疑，尤其是川普聲稱的自己高達100億美元的身家。他們描述了川普如何利用他父親的銀行關係，在曼哈頓的房地產市場站穩了腳跟。他們戳穿了他對那項100萬美元貸款的常用說法，稱有證據表明他實際上從父親那裡得到了1400萬美元。他們講述了弗雷德·川普如何通過購買350萬美元的賭場籌���，幫助兒子支付了大西洋城(Atlantic City)一家賭場的一筆債券還款。

But The Times’s investigation of the Trump family’s finances is unprecedented in scope and precision, offering the first comprehensive look at the inherited fortune and tax dodges that guaranteed Donald J. Trump a gilded life. The reporting makes clear that in every era of Mr. Trump’s life, his finances were deeply intertwined with, and dependent on, his father’s wealth.

但時報對川普家族財務狀況的調查在廣度和準確度上都是前所未有的，調查首次揭示了確保唐納德·J·川普(Donald J. Trump)過上富貴生活的遺產繼承和避稅行為。時報報導清楚地表明，在川普一生的每個時期，他的財務都與他父親的財富緊密相連，並依賴於他父親的財富。

By age 3, Mr. Trump was earning $200,000 a year in today’s dollars from his father’s empire. He was a millionaire by age 8. By the time he was 17, his father had given him part ownership of a 52-unit apartment building. Soon after Mr. Trump graduated from college, he was receiving the equivalent of $1 million a year from his father. The money increased with the years, to more than $5 million annually in his 40s and 50s.

川普3歲時就已從父親的房地產帝國掙到了（以今天的美元計算）20萬美元的年收入。他8歲時已是一名百萬富翁。到他17歲的時候，父親已經給了他一棟有52套公寓的大樓的部分所有權。川普大學畢業後不久，他就從父親那裡得到相當於100萬美元的年收入。這些錢隨著年齡的增長而增加，到他四五十歲的時候，已超過每年500萬美元。

Fred Trump’s real estate empire was not just scores of apartment buildings. It was also a mountain of cash, tens of millions of dollars in profits building up inside his businesses, banking records show. In one six-year span, from 1988 through 1993, Fred Trump reported $109.7 million in total income, now equivalent to $210.7 million. It was not unusual for tens of millions in Treasury bills and certificates of deposit to flow through his personal bank accounts each month.

弗雷德·川普的房地產帝國不只是幾十棟公寓樓。銀行記錄顯示，他的財產還包括一筆巨額現金，這些錢是他從經營中積累起來的數千萬美元的利潤。在1988年至1993年的六年時間裡，弗雷德·川普報稅表上報告的總收入為1.097億美元，相當於現在的2.107億美元。數千萬美元的短期國庫券和定期存單每月從他的個人銀行帳戶中流過，並不罕見。

Fred Trump was relentless and creative in finding ways to channel this wealth to his children. He made Donald not just his salaried employee but also his property manager, landlord, banker and consultant. He gave him loan after loan, many never repaid. He provided money for his car, money for his employees, money to buy stocks, money for his first Manhattan offices and money to renovate those offices. He gave him three trust funds. He gave him shares in multiple partnerships. He gave him $10,000 Christmas checks. He gave him laundry revenue from his buildings.

弗雷德·川普殫精竭慮、千方百計把這筆財富轉移給子女。唐納德不光成了他的受薪僱員，還成了他的不動產經理人、房東、銀行家和顧問。他借給唐納德一筆又一筆款，許多都從未償還。他給了唐納德買車的錢、僱傭員工的錢、在曼哈頓買下第一處辦公室的錢和重新裝修這些辦公室的錢。他給了他三個信託基金。他給了他好幾家合夥企業的股份。他給了他10000美元的聖誕節支票。他給了他自己房產項目裡洗衣房的收入。

Much of his giving was structured to sidestep gift and inheritance taxes using methods tax experts described to The Times as improper or possibly illegal. Although Fred Trump became wealthy with help from federal housing subsidies, he insisted that it was manifestly unfair for the government to tax his fortune as it passed to his children. When he was in his 80s and beginning to slide into dementia, evading gift and estate taxes became a family affair, with Donald Trump playing a crucial role, interviews and newly obtained documents show.

他給的這些錢很多都設法避開了贈與及遺產稅，稅務專家對《紐約時報》說那些手段是不正當的，可能是非法的。儘管弗雷德·川普當年是受惠於聯邦政府的住房補貼政策才發的家，他卻堅持認為政府在他把財產過戶給子女時徵稅是明顯不公平的。記者採訪及新近獲得的文件顯示，在他八十多歲開始患上失智症時，逃避贈與稅和不動產稅就成了家族事務，而唐納德·川普扮演了至關重要的角色。

The line between legal tax avoidance and illegal tax evasion is often murky, and it is constantly being stretched by inventive tax lawyers. There is no shortage of clever tax avoidance tricks that have been blessed by either the courts or the I.R.S. itself. The richest Americans almost never pay anything close to full freight. But tax experts briefed on The Times’s findings said the Trumps appeared to have done more than exploit legal loopholes. They said the conduct described here represented a pattern of deception and obfuscation, particularly about the value of Fred Trump’s real estate, that repeatedly prevented the I.R.S. from taxing large transfers of wealth to his children.

合法避稅和非法逃稅之間的界限往往是模糊的，而且不斷被勇於創新的稅務律師們改變著。有不少巧妙的避稅手段是蒙法院或國稅局本身所賜。那些最富有的美國人幾乎從不繳足額的稅。但看過《紐約時報》所獲材料的稅務專家說，川普一家的做法似乎不僅僅是利用法律漏洞。他們說這些材料裡描述的做法呈現出一種瞞天過海、混淆視聽的套路，尤其是有關弗雷德·川普名下不動產的價值，這一次次阻止了國稅局在他向子女轉移大筆財富時徵稅。

“The theme I see here through all of this is valuations: They play around with valuations in extreme ways,” said Lee-Ford Tritt, a University of Florida law professor and a leading expert in gift and estate tax law. “There are dramatic fluctuations depending on their purpose.”

「我從這些材料裡看到的主題是估值：他們用各種極致手法在估值上做手腳，」佛羅里達大學法學教授李-福特·特里特(Lee-Ford Tritt)說，他也是贈與及遺產稅法的權威專家。「出於不同的目的，估值有極大的波動。」

The manipulation of values to evade taxes was central to one of the most important financial events in Donald Trump’s life. In an episode never before revealed, Mr. Trump and his siblings gained ownership of most of their father’s empire on Nov. 22, 1997, a year and a half before Fred Trump’s death. Critical to the complex transaction was the value put on the real estate. The lower its value, the lower the gift taxes. The Trumps dodged hundreds of millions in gift taxes by submitting tax returns that grossly undervalued the properties, claiming they were worth just $41.4 million.

唐納德·川普一生中最重要的一個財務事件中，通過價值操縱來逃稅起到關鍵作用。川普和兄弟姐妹於1997年11月22日，也就是弗雷德·川普去世前一年半，獲得了父親商業帝國的絕大部分所有權，此事此前從未披露。複雜的財產移交當中至關重要的是不動產的價值。價值越低，贈與稅就越低。川普一家提交了嚴重低估不動產價值的報稅表，聲稱其價值僅為4140萬美元，由此躲過了數億美元的贈與稅。

The same set of buildings would be sold off over the next decade for more than 16 times that amount.

這批房產在隨後十年內售出，價錢比這個數字高出16倍多。

The most overt fraud was All County Building Supply & Maintenance, a company formed by the Trump family in 1992. All County’s ostensible purpose was to be the purchasing agent for Fred Trump’s buildings, buying everything from boilers to cleaning supplies. It did no such thing, records and interviews show. Instead All County siphoned millions of dollars from Fred Trump’s empire by simply marking up purchases already made by his employees. Those millions, effectively untaxed gifts, then flowed to All County’s owners — Donald Trump, his siblings and a cousin. Fred Trump then used the padded All County receipts to justify bigger rent increases for thousands of tenants.

最明目張膽的欺詐發生在「奧康提樓宇物資及維修」(All County Building Supply＆Maintenance)，這家公司是川普家族在1992年建立的。奧康提明面上的作用是弗雷德·川普建持有樓宇的採購代理商，負責購買從鍋爐到清潔用品的所有物資。公司記錄及記者採訪顯示，這些事它從沒做過。實際上奧康提只是通過簡單地虛增弗雷德·川普手下員工已完成的採購，就從他的資產帝國抽走了幾百萬美元。這幾百萬實際上成為未繳稅的贈與，流向奧康提的持有人——唐納德·川普、他的兄弟姐妹和一個表親。然後弗雷德·川普再用奧康提注了水的發票來向數千租戶說明房租大漲是合理的。

After this article was published on Tuesday, a spokesman for the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance said the agency was “reviewing the allegations” and “vigorously pursuing all appropriate areas of investigation.”

本週二的文章發表後，紐約州稅務和財政部(New York State Department of Taxation and Finance)的一名發言人表示，該機構正在「審閱各項指控」並「積極推進所有適用領域的調查」。

All told, The Times documented 295 streams of revenue that Fred Trump created over five decades to enrich his son. In most cases his four other children benefited equally. But over time, as Donald Trump careened from one financial disaster to the next, his father found ways to give him substantially more money, records show. Even so, in 1990, according to previously secret depositions, Mr. Trump tried to have his father’s will rewritten in a way that Fred Trump, alarmed and angered, feared could result in his empire’s being used to bail out his son’s failing businesses.

《紐約時報》記錄了五十年來弗雷德·川普為了兒子致富而創造的295項收入來源。大多情況下，四個子女受益均等。但記錄顯示，隨著時間推移，當唐納德·川普從一場財務災難沖向另一場財務災難，父親給的錢要多了許多。即便如此，根據此前保密的幾份證詞，在1990年川普還是試圖讓他父親改寫遺囑，這讓弗雷德·川普感到驚慌憤怒，擔心這可能會使他的江山被用來拯救他兒子失敗的生意。

Of course, the story of how Donald Trump got rich cannot be reduced to handouts from his father. Before he became president, his singular achievement was building the brand of Donald J. Trump, Self-Made Billionaire, a brand so potent it generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue through TV shows, books and licensing deals.

當然，並不能把唐納德·川普如何發家簡單說成靠父親施捨。在成為總統之前，他的一大成就是打造了唐納德·J·川普這個品牌，一個自我奮鬥而成的億萬富翁。這個品牌如此強大，僅通過電視節目、圖書出版和授權交易就產生了數億美元的收入。

Constructing that image required more than Fred Trump’s money. Just as important were his son’s preternatural marketing skills and always-be-closing competitive hustle. While Fred Trump helped finance the accouterments of wealth, Donald Trump, master self-promoter, spun them into a seductive narrative. Fred Trump’s money, for example, helped build Trump Tower, the talisman of privilege that established his son as a major player in New York. But Donald Trump recognized and exploited the iconic power of Trump Tower as a primary stage for both “The Apprentice” and his presidential campaign.

塑造這個形象光有弗雷德·川普的錢是不夠的。他兒子超凡的營銷技巧和一定要成交的爭勝勁頭同樣重要。弗雷德·川普出資營造了財富的外表，而自我推銷大師唐納德·川普把這些外表編造成誘人的敘事。比如弗雷德·川普出錢幫助建造了川普大廈，一個權力的符號，使他的兒子成為紐約生意場上的一個主力玩家。但唐納德·川普看到並利用了川普大廈的標誌性力量，把它當作電視真人秀《學徒》(The Apprentice)的主舞台，也當作他總統選戰的主舞台。

The biggest payday he ever got from his father came long after Fred Trump’s death. It happened quietly, without the usual Trumpian news conference, on May 4, 2004, when Mr. Trump and his siblings sold off the empire their father had spent 70 years assembling with the dream that it would never leave his family.

川普得到父親的最大一筆贈與，是在弗雷德·川普去世多年之後。它是悄無聲息地進行的，並沒有一貫的川普式新聞發布會，那是2004年5月4日，川普和兄弟姐妹賣掉了父親用70年營造的商業帝國，他當初還夢想著這份家業永遠不會離開他的家族。

Donald Trump’s cut: $177.3 million, or $236.2 million in today’s dollars.

唐納德·川普分得1.773億美元，換算成今天的幣值是2.362億美元。

‘ONE-MAN BUILDING SHOW’ 

Before he turned 20, Fred Trump had already built and sold his first home. At age 35, he was building hundreds of houses a year in Brooklyn and Queens. By 45, he was building some of the biggest apartment complexes in the country.

在20歲之前，弗雷德·川普已建造並售出了自己的第一棟住宅。35歲起，他每年都在布魯克林和皇后區建造數百棟房子。45歲後，他已在建造一些美國最大的公寓綜合體。

Aside from an astonishing work ethic — “Sleeping is a waste of time,” he liked to say — the growth reflected his shrewd application of mass-production techniques. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle called him “the Henry Ford of the home-building industry.” He would erect scaffolding a city block long so his masons, sometimes working a second shift under floodlights, could throw up a dozen rowhouses in a week. They sold for about $115,000 in today’s dollars.

除了驚人的工作態度——他喜歡說，「睡覺是浪費時間」——這種增長也反映了他對大規模生產技術的敏銳使用。《布魯克林鷹報》(Brooklyn Daily Eagle)稱他為「住宅建築業的亨利·福特」。他會搭起一個街區那麼長的腳手架，好讓他的泥瓦工一週內就能蓋起12棟聯排住宅——有的工人是在泛光燈下上夜班。以今天的美元計算，這些住宅的售價約為11.5萬美元。

By 1940, American Builder magazine was taking notice, devoting a spread to Fred Trump under the headline “Biggest One-Man Building Show.” The article described a swaggering lone-wolf character who paid for everything — wages, supplies, land — from a thick wad of cash he carried at all times, and whose only help was a secretary answering the phone in an office barely bigger than a parking space. “He is his own purchasing agent, cashier, paymaster, building superintendent, construction engineer and sales director,” the article said.

到1940年，《美國建造者》(American Builder)雜誌開始注意到他，雜誌用橫貫兩版的篇幅、以《最大的建築獨角戲》(Biggest One-Man Building Show)為標題對弗雷德·川普進行了報導。文章描述了一個神氣十足的獨狼角色，他用隨身攜帶的大疊厚厚的現金支付一切——工資、補給和土地——唯一的幫手是一名接聽電話的秘書，秘書的辦公室比一個停車位大不了多少。「他是自己的採購代理、司庫、出納員、大樓管理員、建造工程師和銷售總監，」文章寫道。

It wasn’t that simple. Fred Trump had also spent years ingratiating himself with Brooklyn’s Democratic machine, giving money, doing favors and making the sort of friends (like Abraham D. Beame, a future mayor) who could make life easier for a developer. He had also assembled a phalanx of plugged-in real estate lawyers, property appraisers and tax accountants who protected his interests.

事情並不那麼簡單。弗雷德·川普也花了好多年的時間靠捐款、送人情討好布魯克林的民主黨機構，他還交了一些能讓開發商的日子好過一點的朋友（比如後來當過紐約市長的亞伯拉罕·D·比姆[Abraham D. Beame]）。他還集結了一群擁有最新信息的房地產律師、房地產估價師和稅務會計師，他們的作用是保護他的利益。

All these traits — deep experience, nimbleness, connections, a relentless focus on the efficient construction of homes for the middle class — positioned him perfectly to ride a growing wave of federal spending on housing. The wave took shape with the New Deal, grew during the World War II rush to build military housing and crested with the postwar imperative to provide homes for returning G.I.s. Fred Trump would become a millionaire many times over by making himself one of the nation’s largest recipients of cheap government-backed building loans, according to Gwenda Blair’s book “The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President.”

所有這些特點——深厚的經驗、靈活的頭腦、人脈，以及把精力持續不懈地集中在高效地為中產階級建造住房上——讓他佔據了有利位置，可以充分利用聯邦政府日益高漲的住房支出。住房支出的增加始於新政(New Deal)時期，第二次世界大戰期間為軍隊修建住房時有所增長，在戰後為返回家園的老兵提供住房時達到高潮。據格溫達·布萊爾的書《川普一家：三代建造者和一位總統》(The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President)，通過讓自己成為全國政府支持的廉價建築貸款的最大受益者之一，弗雷德·川普攬聚了成百上千萬的財富。

Those same loans became the wellspring of Donald Trump’s wealth. In the late 1940s, Fred Trump obtained roughly $26 million in federal loans to build two of his largest developments, Beach Haven Apartments, near Coney Island, Brooklyn, and Shore Haven Apartments, a few miles away. Then he set about making his children his landlords.

那些貸款也成了唐納德·川普財富的來源。20世紀40年代末，弗雷德·川普得到了約2600萬美元的聯邦貸款，修建了他最大的兩個開發項目——布魯克林康尼島附近的海灘港灣公寓(Beach Haven Apartments)、以及幾英里外的海岸港灣公寓(Shore Haven Apartments)。然後他開始著手讓他的孩子成為他的房東。

As ground lease payments fattened his children’s trusts, Fred Trump embarked on a far bigger transfer of wealth. Records obtained by The Times reveal how he began to build or buy apartment buildings in Brooklyn and Queens and then gradually, without public trace, transfer ownership to his children through a web of partnerships and corporations. In all, Fred Trump put up nearly $13 million in cash and mortgage debt to create a mini-empire within his empire — eight buildings with 1,032 apartments — that he would transfer to his children.

隨著土地租賃付款喂肥了孩子們的信託基金，弗雷德·川普開始了一項規模大得多的財富轉移。時報獲得的記錄顯示了他如何開始在布魯克林和皇后區建造或購買公寓樓，然後逐步在不留下公開蹤跡的情況下，通過複雜的合夥和公司關係將所有權轉移給了自己的孩子。弗雷德·川普總共拿出近1300萬美元的現金和抵押貸款，在他的房地產帝國內建立了一個迷你帝國（包括八棟大樓共1032套公寓），他後來將這個迷你帝國轉移給了自己的孩子們。

The handover began just before Donald Trump’s 16th birthday. On June 1, 1962, Fred Trump transferred a plot of land in Queens to a newly created corporation. While he would be its president, his children would be its owners, records show. Then he constructed a 52-unit building called Clyde Hall.

轉移是在唐納德·川普16歲生日之前開始的。1962年6月1日，弗雷德·川普將皇后區的一塊土地轉讓給了一家新成立的公司。記錄顯示，雖然他是公司的總裁，但他的孩子們是公司的所有者。然後，他建了一棟有52個單位的名為「克萊德廳」(Clyde Hall)的建築。

It was easy money for the Trump children. Their father took care of everything. He bought the land, built the apartments and obtained the mortgages. His employees managed the building. The profits, meanwhile, went to his children. By the early 1970s, Fred Trump would execute similar transfers of the other seven buildings.

對川普的孩子們來說，錢來得很容易。他們的父親負責照管所有的事情。他購買了土地，建造了公寓，並獲得了抵押貸款。他的員工管理著這棟大樓。與此同時，利潤都是他的孩子們的。截至20世紀70年代初，弗雷德·川普對其他七棟大樓也做了類似的轉交。

For Donald Trump, this meant a rapidly growing new source of income. When he was in high school, his cut of the profits was about $17,000 a year in today’s dollars. His share exceeded $300,000 a year soon after he graduated from college.

對唐納德·川普來說，這意味著一個快速增長的新收入來源。當他上高中時，他每年的利潤份額以如今的美元計算，大約是1.7萬美元。他大學畢業後不久，他的份額已經超過了30萬美元。

How Fred Trump transferred 1,032 apartments to his children without incurring hundreds of thousands of dollars in gift taxes is unclear. A review of property records for the eight buildings turned up no evidence that his children bought them outright. Financial records obtained by The Times reveal only that all of the shares in the partnerships and corporations set up to create the mini-empire shifted at some point from Fred Trump to his children. Yet his tax returns show he paid no gift taxes on seven of the buildings, and only a few thousand dollars on the eighth.

目前還不清楚弗雷德·川普是如何將1032套公寓轉讓給了他的子女而不需要繳納數十萬美元贈與稅的。查閱這八棟樓的房產記錄，沒有看到他的孩子們把樓徹底買下來的證據。時報獲得的財務記錄只顯示，為了創建那個迷你帝國而建立起來的合夥關係和公司的所有股份，在某個時候都從弗雷德·川普的名下轉移到了他子女的身上。然而，他的納稅申報表顯示，他沒有為其中的七棟樓繳納任何贈與稅，只是為第八棟樓繳納了幾千美元的稅。

That building, Sunnyside Towers, a 158-unit property in Queens, illustrates Fred Trump’s catch-me-if-you-can approach with the I.R.S., which had repeatedly cited him for underpaying taxes in the 1950s and 1960s.

位於皇后區、共有158個單位的桑尼賽德大廈(Sunnyside Towers)鑒證了弗雷德·川普對國稅局的「有本事就來抓我」的態度，國稅局曾在20世紀50年代和60年代多次以逃稅為由傳喚過他。

Sunnyside was bought for $2.5 million in 1968 by Midland Associates, a partnership Fred Trump formed with his children for the transaction. In his 1969 tax return, he reported giving each child 15 percent of Midland Associates. Based on the amount of cash put up to buy Sunnyside, the value of this gift should have been $93,750. Instead, he declared a gift of only $6,516.

1968年，米德蘭合伙人(Midland Associates)以250萬美元的價格收購了桑尼賽德大廈，該公司是弗雷德·川普和他的孩子們為了進行這筆交易而結成的合夥關係。在他1969年的納稅申報表中，他填寫的內容包括給了每個孩子15%的米德蘭合伙人股份。根據購買桑尼賽德大廈的現金數量，相應的贈與價值應該是93750美元。而他只報了贈與每個子女6516美元。

Donald Trump went to work for his father after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. His father made him vice president of dozens of companies. This was also the moment Fred Trump telegraphed what had become painfully obvious to his family and employees: He did not consider his eldest son, Fred Trump Jr., a viable heir apparent.

1968年從賓夕法尼亞大學(University of Pennsylvania)畢業後，唐納德·川普開始為父親工作。父親讓他當了數十家公司的副總裁。就在這段時間，弗雷德·川普向家人和員工傳達了一個相當明確的信息：他不認為長子小弗雷德·川普(Fred Trump Jr.)是一個可行的繼承人。

Fred Jr., seven and a half years older than Donald, had also worked for his father after college. It did not go well, relatives and former employees said in interviews. Fred Trump openly ridiculed him for being too nice, too soft, too lazy, too fond of drink. He frowned on his interests in flying and music, could not fathom why he cared so little for the family business. Donald, witness to his father’s deepening disappointment, fashioned himself Fred Jr.’s opposite — the brash tough guy with a killer instinct. His reward was to inherit his father’s dynastic dreams.

小弗雷德比唐納德年長七歲半，大學畢業後也為父親工作。親戚和前僱員在採訪中說，事情並不順利。弗雷德·川普公開嘲笑長子人太好、太軟弱、太懶惰、太愛喝酒。他不贊成長子對飛行和音樂的興趣，不明白長子為什麼對家族的生意那麼不感興趣。唐納德目睹了父親對小弗雷德日益加深的失望，把自己塑造成了哥哥的反面——一個具有拼殺本能的盛氣凌人的硬漢。他得到的回報是繼承了他父親的王朝夢。

Fred Trump began taking steps that enriched Donald alone, introducing him to the charms of building with cheap government loans. In 1972, father and son formed a partnership to build a high-rise for the elderly in East Orange, N.J. Thanks to government subsidies, the partnership got a nearly interest-free $7.8 million loan that covered 90 percent of construction costs. Fred Trump paid the rest.

弗雷德·川普開始逐步把財富聚集在唐納德一人身上，讓他認識到用廉價政府貸款蓋樓的吸引力。1972年，父子倆建立了一個合夥公司，以在紐澤西州東奧蘭治建一棟供老年人居住的高樓。由於政府的補貼，他們的合夥公司獲得了780萬美元的幾乎無息的貸款，相當於建設成本的90%。弗雷德·川普支付了其餘的費用。

But his son received most of the financial benefits, records show. On top of profit distributions and consulting fees, Donald Trump was paid to manage the building, though Fred Trump’s employees handled day-to-day management. He also pocketed what tenants paid to rent air-conditioners. By 1975, Donald Trump’s take from the building was today’s equivalent of nearly $305,000 a year.

但記錄顯示，弗雷德·川普的兒子獲得了經濟利益的大部分。除了利潤分配和諮詢費外，唐納德·川普得到的錢中還包括管理這棟大樓的工資，儘管是弗雷德·川普的員工在負責大樓的日常管理工作。唐納德·川普還得到了住戶租空調的費用。到1975年時，唐納德·川普從這棟大樓得到的收入用今天的美元來算相當於每年將近30.5萬美元。

Fred Trump also gave his son an extra boost through his investment, in the early 1970s, in the sprawling Starrett City development in Brooklyn, the largest federally subsidized housing project in the nation. The investment, which promised to generate huge tax write-offs, was tailor-made for Fred Trump; he would use Starrett City’s losses to avoid taxes on profits from his empire.

弗雷德·川普還通過自己的投資給了兒子額外的幫助。20世紀70年代初，他投資了位於布魯克林的龐大的斯塔雷特城(Starrett City)開發項目，這是美國最大的聯邦補貼住房項目。這筆投資有望產生巨額的稅務減免，這對弗雷德·川普來說簡直就是量身定做的；他後來利用在斯塔雷特城的損失來避免政府對其房地產帝國的利潤徵稅。

Fred Trump invested $5 million. A separate partnership established for his children invested $1 million more, showering tax breaks on the Trump children for decades to come. They helped Donald Trump avoid paying any federal income taxes at all in 1978 and 1979. But Fred Trump also deputized him to sell a sliver of his Starrett City shares, a sweetheart deal that generated today’s equivalent of more than $1 million in “consulting fees.”

弗雷德·川普投資了500萬美元。他為子女們建立的另一個合夥公司對這個項目又投資了100萬美元，這讓弗雷德的子女們在未來幾十年裡都能享受大量的稅收優惠。這些投資幫助唐納德·川普在1978年和1979年避免繳納任何聯邦所得稅。弗雷德·川普還委託唐納德來出售父親所持的斯塔雷特城股份的一小部分，這項「甜心交易」給他帶來相當於今天的100多萬美元的「諮詢費」。

The money from consulting and management fees, ground leases, the mini-empire and his salary all combined to make Donald Trump indisputably wealthy years before he sold his first Manhattan apartment. By 1975, when he was 29, he had collected nearly $9 million in today’s dollars from his father, The Times found.

在唐納德·川普還遠未售出他的第一套曼哈頓公寓的時候，通過諮詢費和管理費、地租、迷你帝國以及薪水的形式給他的錢，就已經讓他成為毫無疑問的富人。時報發現，到1975年，也就是唐納德·川普29歲的時候，他從父親那裡獲得的錢已經相當於今天的近900萬美元。

Wealthy, yes. But a far cry from the image father and son craved for Donald Trump.

富有，是的。但這與父子兩人渴望的那種唐納德·川普的形象還相去甚遠。

THE SILENT PARTNER

 悶聲不響的合伙人

“He is tall, lean and blond, with dazzling white teeth, and he looks ever so much like Robert Redford. He rides around town in a chauffeured silver Cadillac with his initials, DJT, on the plates. He dates slinky fashion models, belongs to the most elegant clubs and, at only 30 years of age, estimates that he is worth ‘more than $200 million.’”

「他高瘦，金髮，牙齒白得耀眼，看上去非常像羅伯特·雷德福(Robert Redford)。他去哪都坐一輛配司機的銀色凱迪拉克，車牌上有他的姓名首字母DJT。他約會身材婀娜的時裝模特，出入最高雅的會所，外界估計年方30的他身家已『逾兩億美元’。」

So began a Nov. 1, 1976, article in The Times, one of the first major profiles of Donald Trump and a cornerstone of decades of mythmaking about his wealth. How could he claim to be worth more than $200 million when, as he divulged years later to casino regulators, his 1976 taxable income was $24,594? Donald Trump simply appropriated his father’s entire empire as his own.

1976年11月1日《紐約時報》的一篇文章這樣開頭，這是最早的唐納德·川普人物特稿之一，也是後來幾十年他的財富神話創造的一塊基石。數年之後他曾向博彩業監管機構透露，他在1976年的應稅收入是24594美元，他憑什麼號稱身家逾兩億呢？只不過把他父親的商業帝國全算成自己的而已。

In the chauffeured Cadillac, Donald Trump took The Times’s reporter on a tour of what he called his “jobs.” He told her about the Manhattan hotel he planned to convert into a Grand Hyatt (his father guaranteed the construction loan), and the Hudson River railroad yards he planned to develop (the rights were purchased by his father’s company). He showed her “our philanthropic endeavor,” the high-rise for the elderly in East Orange (bankrolled by his father), and an apartment complex on Staten Island (owned by his father), and their “flagship,” Trump Village, in Brooklyn (owned by his father), and finally Beach Haven Apartments (owned by his father). Even the Cadillac was leased by his father.

就在那輛配司機的凱迪拉凱瑞，唐納德·川普帶著《紐約時報》記者參觀了他所謂的「工作」。他告訴她自己計劃把曼哈頓一家酒店改造成君悅酒店（他父親擔保了建設貸款），還有他打算開發的哈德遜河鐵路貨場（開發權是他父親公司買下的）。他帶她看了「我們的慈善事業」，東奧蘭治的高層老年公寓（由他父親出資），史丹頓島的一座公寓樓（由他父親擁有），以及他們位於布魯克林的「旗艦」項目川普村（由他父親擁有），最後是天堂海灘公寓（由他父親擁有）。連這輛凱迪拉克也是他父親租的。

“So far,” he boasted, “I’ve never made a bad deal.”

「到現在，」他吹噓道，「我還從沒做過一筆虧本生意。」

It was a spectacular con, right down to the priceless moment when Mr. Trump confessed that he was “publicity shy.” By claiming his father’s wealth as his own, Donald Trump transformed his place in the world. A brash 30-year-old playboy worth more than $200 million proved irresistible to New York City’s bankers, politicians and journalists.

這是一場驚人的騙局，包括那個不可思議的瞬間——他坦白自己「不喜出風頭」。通過把父親的財富說成自己的，唐納德·川普改變了自己的地位。事實證明，一個自吹自擂的30歲花花公子，是紐約市的銀行家、政客和記者都無法抗拒的。

Yet for all the spin about cutting his own path in Manhattan, Donald Trump was increasingly dependent on his father. Weeks after The Times’s profile ran, Fred Trump set up still more trusts for his children, seeding each with today’s equivalent of $4.3 million. Even into the early 1980s, when he was already proclaiming himself one of America’s richest men, Donald Trump remained on his father’s payroll, drawing an annual salary of $260,000 in today’s dollars.

雖然在那些傳說裡他在曼哈頓獨力開拓，唐納德·川普卻越來越依賴他的父親。《紐約時報》的那篇文章見報數週之後，弗雷德·川普又給子女設立了更多的信託基金，每個子女都獲得了相當於今天430萬美元的資助。甚至到了1980年代早期，唐納德·川普已經號稱���己是美國最富有的人之一時，他仍在父親那裡領一份薪水，以今天的美元計算，年薪26萬。

Meanwhile, Fred Trump and his companies also began extending large loans and lines of credit to Donald Trump. Those loans dwarfed what the other Trumps got, the flow so constant at times that it was as if Donald Trump had his own Money Store. Consider 1979, when he borrowed $1.5 million in January, $65,000 in February, $122,000 in March, $150,000 in April, $192,000 in May, $226,000 in June, $2.4 million in July and $40,000 in August, according to records filed with New Jersey casino regulators.

同時，弗雷德·川普和他的公司還開始向唐納德·川普提供大筆貸款和信用額度。這些貸款讓另外幾個子女的所獲相形見絀，有時候這些資金流源源不斷，就如同唐納德·川普有自己的印鈔機。根據提交給紐澤西州博彩業監管機構的記錄，以1979年為例，他在1月借款150萬美元，2月借6.5萬美元，3月借12.2萬美元，4月借15萬美元，5月借19.2萬美元，6月借22.6萬美元，7月借240萬美元，8月借4萬美元。

In theory, the money had to be repaid. In practice, records show, many of the loans were more like gifts. Some were interest-free and had no repayment schedule. Even when loans charged interest, Donald Trump frequently skipped payments.

理論上，這些錢是要還的。實際上，記錄顯示，許多筆借款更像是贈與。有些是免息的，也沒有還款時限。即使某些借款收取利息，唐納德·川普也時常不予償還。

This previously unreported flood of loans highlights a clear pattern to Fred Trump’s largess. When Donald Trump began expensive new projects, his father increased his help. In the late 1970s, when Donald Trump was converting the old Commodore Hotel into a Grand Hyatt, his father stepped up with a spigot of loans. Fred Trump did the same with Trump Tower in the early 1980s.

這些此前從未披露的大量貸款突顯出弗雷德·川普慷慨解囊的清晰模式。當唐納德·川普啟動昂貴的新項目時，他的父親便加大援手。1970年代後期，唐納德·川普把過去的海軍准將酒店(Commodore Hotel)改造成君悅酒店時，他父親給他打開了借款的水龍頭。1980年代初建設川普大廈時也是這樣。

In the mid-1980s, as Donald Trump made his first forays into Atlantic City, Fred Trump devised a plan that sharply increased the flow of money to his son.

1980年代中期，當唐納德·川普初次進軍大西洋城，弗雷德·川普制定了一項計劃，大幅增加了流向兒子的資金。

The plan involved the mini-empire — the eight buildings Fred Trump had transferred to his children. He converted seven of them into cooperatives, and helped his children convert the eighth. That meant inviting tenants to buy their apartments, generating a three-way windfall for Donald Trump and his siblings: from selling units, from renting unsold units and from collecting mortgage payments.

這個計劃事關一塊小產業——弗雷德·川普已轉移到子女名下的8幢住宅樓。他把其中七幢轉換為合作公寓，又幫助子女把第八幢也轉了。這意味著鼓勵租戶把他們住的公寓買下來，如此就給唐納德·川普和兄弟姐妹創造了三條財路：公寓單位銷售、未售出單位的租金以及收取按揭供款。

In 1982, Donald Trump made today’s equivalent of about $380,000 from the eight buildings. As the conversions continued and Fred Trump’s employees sold off more units, his son’s share of profits jumped, records show. By 1987, with the conversions completed, his son was making today’s equivalent of $4.5 million a year off the eight buildings.

1982年，唐納德·川普從這八幢樓獲得的收益相當於今天的38萬美元。記錄顯示，隨著合作公寓轉換繼續，弗雷德·川普的員工賣出了更多單位，他兒子那份利潤也隨之躍升。到1987年全部轉換完畢時，他兒子從這八幢樓獲得了相當於今天450萬美元的年收入。

Fred Trump made one other structural change to his empire that produced a big new source of revenue for Donald Trump and his siblings. He made them his bankers.

弗雷德·川普還對他的帝國做了另一項結構性改變，為唐納德·川普及其兄弟姐妹帶來新的收入來源。他讓他們成為他的按揭貸款銀行家。

The Times could find no evidence that the Trump children had to come up with money of their own to buy their father’s mortgages. Most were purchased from Fred Trump’s banks by trusts and partnerships that he set up and seeded with money.

《紐約時報》沒有發現任何證據證明弗雷德·川普的兒女需要拿自己的錢買下父親持有的按揭貸款。大多數貸款都是通過弗雷德·川普設立並注資的信託基金及合夥關係，由他自己的銀行買下的。

Co-op sales, mortgage payments, ground leases — Fred Trump was a master at finding ways to enrich his children in general and Donald Trump in particular. Some ways were like slow-moving creeks. Others were rushing streams. A few were geysers. But as the decades passed they all joined into one mighty river of money. By 1990, The Times found, Fred Trump, the ultimate silent partner, had quietly transferred today’s equivalent of at least $46.2 million to his son.

合作公寓銷售、按揭供款、土地租賃——在設法給所有子女尤其是唐納德·川普輸送財富方面，弗雷德·川普是個高手。有的方法是細水長流，有的是激流，有少數是噴涌。但幾十年後它們都匯聚成一條金錢的大河。《紐約時報》發現，到1990年，弗雷德·川普這位悶聲不響的合伙人已經靜悄悄向兒子轉出了相當於今天的4620萬美元。

Donald Trump took on a mien of invincibility. The stock market crashed in 1987 and the economy cratered. But he doubled down thanks in part to Fred Trump’s banks, which eagerly extended credit to the young Trump princeling. He bought the Plaza Hotel in 1988 for $407.5 million. He bought the Eastern Airlines shuttle fleet in 1989 for $365 million and called it Trump Shuttle. His newest casino, the Trump Taj Mahal, would need at least $1 million a day just to cover its debt.

唐納德·川普顯現出一種所向披靡的風采。1987年美國股市崩盤，經濟重創，但他卻加倍下注，部分得益於弗雷德·川普的銀行急切地向年輕的少東家提供信貸。1988年他以407.5萬美元買下了紐約廣場酒店(Plaza Hotel)。1989年他以3.65億美元買下「東方航空」(Eastern Airlines)快線機隊，改稱「川普快線」(Trump Shuttle)。他最新的賭場川普泰姬陵賭場(Trump Taj Mahal)，每天僅償還債務就需要至少100萬美元。

The skeptics who questioned the wisdom of this debt-fueled spending spree were drowned out by one magazine cover after another marveling at someone so young taking such breathtaking risks. But whatever Donald Trump was gambling, not for one second was he at risk of losing out on a lifetime of frictionless, effortless wealth. Fred Trump had that bet covered.

質疑者認為這種由借貸支撐的狂熱收購是有問題的，但一本又一本雜誌的封面報導讚歎他這麼年輕卻敢於冒如此驚人的風險，淹沒了質疑聲。然而，不管唐納德·川普怎樣押注，以他一輩子得來不費吹灰之力的財富，他毫無蝕本之虞。賭注已由弗雷德·川普支付。

THE SAFETY NET DEPLOYS

 部署安全網

As the 1980s ended, Donald Trump’s big bets began to go bust. Trump Shuttle was failing to make loan payments within 15 months. The Plaza, drowning in debt, was bankrupt in four years. His Atlantic City casinos, also drowning in debt, tumbled one by one into bankruptcy.

到了1980年代末，唐納德·川普下的大賭注開始賠錢。川普快線未能在15個月內償還貸款。廣場酒店因負債累累，四年後就破產了。他的大西洋城賭場也陷入了債務危機，一個接著一個地走向破產。

What didn’t fail was the Trump safety net. Just as Donald Trump’s finances were crumbling, family partnerships and companies dramatically increased distributions to him and his siblings. Between 1989 and 1992, tax records show, four entities created by Fred Trump to support his children paid Donald Trump today’s equivalent of $8.3 million.

但川普安全網沒有破。就在唐納德·川普的財務情況不斷惡化的時候，家族合夥和公司大幅增加了派發給他和兄弟姐妹的錢。稅務記錄顯示，在1989至1992年間，弗雷德·川普創建的四個支持子女的實體向唐納德·川普支付了相當於今天830萬美元的錢款。

Fred Trump’s generosity also provided a crucial backstop when his son pleaded with bankers in 1990 for an emergency line of credit. With so many of his projects losing money, Donald Trump had few viable assets of his own making to pledge as collateral. What has never been publicly known is that he used his stakes in the mini-empire and the high-rise for the elderly in East Orange as collateral to help secure a $65 million loan.

弗雷德·川普的慷慨，也為兒子在1990年向銀行家們申請緊急信貸額度提供了關鍵的支持。由於唐納德·川普的許多項目都在虧損，他手中幾乎沒有了任何可供抵押的資產。公眾以前從不知道的是，他用自己在迷你帝國和東奧蘭治老年公寓的股份作為抵押，幫助他獲得了6500萬美元的貸款。

Tax records also reveal that at the peak of Mr. Trump’s financial distress, his father extracted extraordinary sums from his empire. In 1990, Fred Trump’s income exploded to $49,638,928 — several times what he paid himself in other years in that era.

稅收記錄還顯示，在唐納德的財務困境最糟糕的時候，他的父親從自己的商業帝國中提取出巨額錢款。1990年，弗雷德·川普的收入暴增至49638928美元，是他在那個時代的其他年份給自己開的工資的好幾倍。

Fred Trump, former employees say, detested taking unnecessary distributions from his companies because he would have to pay income taxes on them. So why would a penny-pinching, tax-hating 85-year-old in the twilight of his career abruptly pull so much money out of his cherished properties, incurring a tax bill of $12.2 million?

前僱員們說，弗雷德·川普不喜歡從自己的公司獲取不必要的派發錢款，因為他不得不為這些錢繳納所得稅。那麼，為什麼一個吝嗇的、對納稅深惡痛絕的85歲老人，會在他職業生涯暮年突然從自己珍愛的房地產中抽出這麼多的錢，引來了一張1220萬美元的稅單呢？

The Times found no evidence that Fred Trump made any significant debt payments or charitable donations. The frugality he brought to business carried over to the rest of his life. According to ledgers of his personal spending, he spent a grand total of $8,562 in 1991 and 1992 on travel and entertainment. His extravagances, such as they were, consisted of buying his wife the odd gift from Antonovich Furs or hosting family celebrations at the Peter Luger Steak House in Brooklyn. His home on Midland Parkway in Jamaica Estates, Queens, built with unfussy brick like so many of his apartment buildings, had little to distinguish it from neighboring houses beyond the white columns and crest framing the front door.

時報沒有找到弗雷德·川普有任何大筆債務支付或慈善捐贈的證據。他一生在經營上恪行節儉。據他的個人支出賬薄，在旅行和娛樂上，1991年和1992年他總共花了8562美元。他的奢侈消費（如果夠得上奢侈的話）包括從安東諾維奇皮草行(Antonovich Furs)給妻子買的零星禮物，或在布魯克林的彼得魯格牛排屋(Peter Luger Steak House)舉辦的家庭慶祝活動。他位於皇后區牙買加莊園(Jamaica Estates)米德蘭公園路(Midland Parkway)的家，與他蓋的許多公寓樓一樣，是用毫不講究的磚砌成的，除了白色的立柱和大門框上的紋章外，與相鄰的房子沒有什麼區別。

There are, however, indications that he wanted plenty of cash on hand to bail out his son if need be.

然而，有跡象表明，他想在手頭上有足夠���現金，以備有必要時為兒子提供緊急援助。

Such was the case with the rescue mission at his son’s Trump’s Castle casino. Donald Trump had wildly overspent on renovations, leaving the property dangerously low on operating cash. Sure enough, neither Trump’s Castle nor its owner had the necessary funds to make an $18.4 million bond payment due in December 1990.

救助兒子的川普城堡賭場就是一個例子。唐納德·川普在改造賭場上的支出嚴重超支，使賭場運營現金低到了危險的程度。不論是川普城堡，還是城堡的所有者，無疑都無力支付1990年12月到期的1840萬美元債券。

On Dec. 17, 1990, Fred Trump dispatched Howard Snyder, a trusted bookkeeper, to Atlantic City with a $3.35 million check. Mr. Snyder bought $3.35 million worth of casino chips and left without placing a bet. Apparently, even this infusion wasn’t sufficient, because that same day Fred Trump wrote a second check to Trump’s Castle, for $150,000, bank records show.

1990年12月17日，弗雷德·川普派值得信賴的簿記員霍華德·斯奈德(Howard Snyder)帶著一張335萬美元的支票前往大西洋城。斯奈德購買了價值335萬美元的賭場籌碼，沒有下注就離開了。看來這筆資金注資還是不夠，因為銀行記錄顯示，就在同一天，弗雷德·川普又給川普城堡開出了一張15萬美元的支票。

With this ruse — it was an illegal $3.5 million loan under New Jersey gaming laws, resulting in a $65,000 civil penalty — Donald Trump narrowly avoided defaulting on his bonds.

唐納德·川普利用這個騙術——根據紐澤西州的博彩法，這是一筆350萬美元的非法貸款，會產生6.5萬美元的民事罰款——勉強避免了債券違約。

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

兒子和父親都是操縱資產價值的高手，根據他們的需要讓資產看起來或者價值很高，或者不值多少。

As the chip episode demonstrated, father and son were of one mind about rules and regulations, viewing them as annoyances to be finessed or, when necessary, ignored. As described by family members and associates in interviews and sworn testimony, theirs was an intimate, endless confederacy sealed by blood, shared secrets and a Hobbesian view of what it took to dominate and win. They talked almost daily and saw each other most weekends. Donald Trump sat at his father’s right hand at family meals and participated in his father’s monthly strategy sessions with his closest advisers. Fred Trump was a silent, watchful presence at many of Donald Trump’s news conferences.

正如籌碼事件所顯示的那樣，父子二人對規章規則的看法是一致的，他們認為那是需要巧妙處理的東西，或在必要時予以忽略。就像他們的家人和同事在採訪和宣誓證詞中所描述的那樣，他兩人的關係是一個親密無間的永久聯盟，是血緣、共享的祕密，以及對主宰和取勝的霍布斯式觀點凝結而成的。他們幾乎每天都通話，週末也經常見面。唐納德·川普在家庭聚餐時坐在父親的右手邊，他還參加父親與其最親密的顧問每月一次的戰略會議。在唐納德·川普的許多新聞發布會上，弗雷德·川普都是以沉默的、保持警惕的樣子出現。

“I probably knew my father as well or better than anybody,” Donald Trump said in a 2000 deposition.

「我可能像所有的人那樣了解我父親，甚至比任何人都更了解他，」唐納德·川普在2000年的一份證詞中說。

They were both fluent in the language of half-truths and lies, interviews and records show. They both delighted in transgressing without getting caught. They were both wizards at manipulating the value of their assets, making them appear worth a lot or a little depending on their needs.

採訪和記錄顯示，他們都熟練地使用半真半假的語言。他倆人都以違規而不被抓為樂。他們都是操縱資產價值的行家，根據他們的需要讓資產看起來或者價值很高，或者不值多少。

Those talents came in handy when Fred Trump Jr. died, on Sept. 26, 1981, at age 42 from complications of alcoholism, leaving a son and a daughter. The executors of his estate were his father and his brother Donald.

當42歲的小弗雷德·川普因酗酒併發症於1981年9月26日去世，留下一對兒女後，這些才能派上了用場。小弗雷德的遺產執行人是他的父親和他的弟弟唐納德。

Fred Trump Jr.’s largest asset was his stake in seven of the eight buildings his father had transferred to his children. The Trumps would claim that those properties were worth $90.4 million when they finished converting them to cooperatives within a few years of his death. At that value, his stake could have generated an estate tax bill of nearly $10 million.

小弗雷德·川普最大的資產是父親轉移給子女的八座大樓中七座的股份。在小弗雷德死後的幾年內裡，這些房產被改造為合作公寓的形式，川普家族報的改造後價值是9040萬美元。按這個價值計算，小弗雷德所持的股份可能會產生近1000萬美元的遺產稅。

But the tax return signed by Donald Trump and his father claimed that Fred Trump Jr.’s estate owed just $737,861. This result was achieved by lowballing all seven buildings. Instead of valuing them at $90.4 million, Fred and Donald Trump submitted appraisals putting them at $13.2 million.

但是，在有唐納德·川普和父親簽名的納稅申報表上，小弗雷德·川普的遺產帳戶僅欠737861美元的稅款。這是通過對所有七座建築進行過低估值來實現的。弗雷德·川普和唐納德·川普並沒有把這七座建築估價為9040萬美元，他們提交的估價把這些建築的價值定為1320萬美元。

Emblematic of their audacity was Park Briar, a 150-unit building in Queens. As it happened, 18 days before Fred Trump Jr.’s death, the Trump siblings had submitted Park Briar’s co-op conversion plan, stating under oath that the building was worth $17.1 million. Yet as Fred Trump Jr.’s executors, Donald Trump and his father claimed on the tax return that Park Briar was worth $2.9 million when Fred Trump Jr. died.

皇后區有150個單位的帕克布瑞爾(Park Briar)公寓是他們膽大冒險的象徵。就在小弗雷德·川普去世的18天前，川普兄弟姐妹們提交了將帕克布瑞爾改造為合作公寓的計劃，他們在受宣誓約束之下表示這棟樓價值1710萬美元。然而，作為小弗雷德·川普的遺囑執行人，唐納德·川普和父親在納稅申報單上聲稱，小弗雷德·川普去世時，帕克布瑞爾的價值是290萬美元。

This fantastical claim — that Park Briar should be taxed as if its value had fallen 83 percent in 18 days — slid past the I.R.S. with barely a protest. An auditor insisted the value should be increased by $100,000, to $3 million.

這個荒誕的主張——即應該當作帕克布瑞爾的價值在18天裡驟減了83%來計算對它的徵稅——躲過了國稅局的眼睛，幾乎沒有異議。只有一個審計員堅持要把價值提高到300萬美元，比原來的高出了10萬美元。

During the 1980s, Donald Trump became notorious for leaking word that he was taking positions in stocks, hinting of a possible takeover, and then either selling on the run-up or trying to extract lucrative concessions from the target company to make him go away. It was a form of stock manipulation with an unsavory label: “greenmailing.” The Times unearthed evidence that Mr. Trump enlisted his father as his greenmailing wingman.

20世紀80年代，唐納德·川普開始有了故意透露風聲的臭名。他先是透露自己要購進某個公司的股票，暗示可能要將其收購，然後或是在股價上漲時賣出股票，或是試圖讓目標公司為了擺脫他而給出有利可圖的讓步。這是一種股票操縱形式，有一個聲名狼藉稱號：「綠色勒索」。時報偶然發現的證據表明，唐納德把父親招募來為自己的綠色勒索做幫手。

On Jan. 26, 1989, Fred Trump bought 8,600 shares of Time Inc. for $934,854, his tax returns show. Seven days later, Dan Dorfman, a financial columnist known to be chatty with Donald Trump, broke the news that the younger Trump had “taken a sizable stake” in Time. Sure enough, Time’s shares jumped, allowing Fred Trump to make a $41,614 profit in two weeks.

弗雷德·川普的報稅表顯示，1989年1月26日，他花934854美元購買了8600股時代公司(Time Inc.)的股票。七天後，眾所周知與唐納德·川普有私下往來的金融專欄作家丹·多爾夫曼(Dan Dorfman)透露，唐納德·川普已「購買了相當份額的時代股票」。果然，時代的股價大幅上漲，弗雷德·川普得以在两週內獲得了41614美元的利潤。

Later that year, Fred Trump bought $5 million worth of American Airlines stock. Based on the share price — $81.74 — it appears he made the purchase shortly before Mr. Dorfman reported that Donald Trump was taking a stake in the company. Within weeks, the stock was over $100 a share. Had Fred Trump sold then, he would have made a quick $1.3 million. But he didn’t, and the stock sank amid skepticism about his son’s history of hyped takeover attempts that fizzled. Fred Trump sold his shares for a $1.7 million loss in January 1990. A week later, Mr. Dorfman reported that Donald Trump had sold, too.

同年晚些時候，弗雷德·川普購買了價值500萬美元的美國航空公司股票。從弗雷德·川普買股票時所付的每股81.74美元的價格來看，他似乎是在多爾夫曼報導了唐納德·川普正在購買美航股票的消息不久前買進的。幾週內，美航股價就超過了每股100美元。如果當時弗雷德·川普就把股票賣掉的話，他本該能賺到130萬美元的快錢。但他沒有這樣做，隨著人們開始質疑他兒子熱炒收購企圖而後不了了之的前科，美航股價下跌了。弗雷德·川普於1990年1月賣掉了手中的股票，虧了170萬美元。一周後，多爾夫曼報導說，唐納德·川普也把股票賣掉了。

With other family members, Fred Trump could be cantankerous and cruel, according to sworn testimony by his relatives. “This is the stupidest thing I ever heard of,” he’d snap when someone disappointed him. He was different with his son Donald. He might chide him — “Finish this job before you start that job,” he’d counsel — but more often, he looked for ways to forgive and accommodate.

根據其親屬的宣誓證詞，弗雷德·川普對待別的家族成員可能會暴躁、粗魯。「這是我聽過最愚蠢的事情，」有人讓他失望時他會這樣痛罵。對兒子唐納德就不一樣了。他也會責備——「做那件事之前先完成這一件，」他會這樣規勸——但更多的時候，他想盡辦法寬待和遷就他。

By 1987, for example, Donald Trump’s loan debt to his father had grown to at least $11 million. Yet canceling the debt would have required Donald Trump to pay millions in taxes on the amount forgiven. Father and son found another solution, one never before disclosed, that appears to constitute both an unreported multimillion-dollar gift and a potentially illegal tax write-off.

例如，到1987年的時候，唐納德·川普在父親那裡的貸款債務已增長到至少1100萬美元。即使免除債務，唐納德·川普也必須繳納數百萬美元稅款。父子倆想了另外的辦法，這個方案此前從未披露，看起來包括一筆數百萬美元未報稅的贈與和一項可能非法的稅務沖銷。

In December 1987, records show, Fred Trump bought a 7.5 percent stake in Trump Palace, a 55-story condominium building his son was erecting on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Most, if not all, of his investment, which totaled $15.5 million, was made by exchanging his son’s unpaid debts for Trump Palace shares, records show.

記錄顯示，1987年12月，弗雷德·川普購買了川普宮(Trump Palace)7.5％的股份，這是他兒子正在曼哈頓上東區建造的一座55層公寓樓。記錄顯示，這筆總額為1550萬美元的投資即便談不上全部，至少大部分是通過把他兒子的未償債務轉為川普宮股份。

Four years later, in December 1991, Fred Trump sold his entire stake in Trump Palace for just $10,000, his tax returns and financial statements reveal. Those documents do not identify who bought his stake. But other records indicate that he sold it back to his son.

弗雷德·川普的報稅表和財務報表顯示，四年後，在1991年12月，他僅以1萬美元價格出售了自己在川普宮的全部股權。這些文件並未明確是誰買下了他的股份。但其他記錄顯示他是賣回給了兒子。

Under state law, developers must file “offering plans” that identify to any potential condo buyer the project’s sponsors — in other words, its owners. The Trump Palace offering plan, submitted in November 1989, identified two owners: Donald Trump and his father. But under the same law, if Fred Trump had sold his stake to a third party, Donald Trump would have been required to identify the new owner in an amended offering plan filed with the state attorney general’s office. He did not do that, records show.

紐約州法律規定，開發商必須提交「銷售計劃書」，向未來的共管公寓購買者明確項目發起人的身份，換句話說就是物業的業主。1989年11月提交的川普宮銷售計劃書裡註明了兩個業主：唐納德·川普和他父親。然而同一部法律規定，如果弗雷德·川普把他的股份售予第三方，唐納德·川普就必須在一份修訂後的計劃書中註明這位新的業主並提交給州檢察長辦公室。記錄顯示，他並未修訂及提交計劃書。

He did, however, sign a sworn affidavit a month after his father sold his stake. In the affidavit, submitted in a lawsuit over a Trump Palace contractor’s unpaid bill, Donald Trump identified himself as “the” owner of Trump Palace.

父親售出股份一個月後，唐納德·川普倒是簽署了一份宣誓書。這份宣誓書曾呈交給一場關於川普宮建設承包商未收到應付款的訴訟，唐納德·川普在宣誓書中確認自己是川普宮的「唯一」業主。

Under I.R.S. rules, selling shares worth $15.5 million to your son for $10,000 is tantamount to giving him a $15.49 million taxable gift. Fred Trump reported no such gift.

按國稅局規定，把價值1550萬美元的股份以1萬美元的價格賣給兒子，就等同於給了他一份1549萬美元的應稅贈與。弗雷德·川普不曾為這份贈與報稅。

According to tax experts, the only circumstance that would not have required Fred Trump to report a gift was if Trump Palace had been effectively bankrupt when he unloaded his shares.

稅務專家表示，僅在一種情況下弗雷德·川普不需要為此申報贈與稅，那就是當他脫手股份之時川普宮實際上已破產。

Yet Trump Palace was far from bankrupt.

而川普宮遠未破產。

Property records show that condo sales there were brisk in 1991. Trump Palace sold 57 condos for $52.5 million — 94 percent of the total asking price for those units.

資產記錄顯示，1991年時該項目的公寓銷售仍然活躍。川普宮以5250萬美元價格售出了57套公寓，達到這些單位總報價的94％。

Donald Trump himself proclaimed Trump Palace “the most financially secure condominium on the market today” in advertisements he placed in 1991 to rebut criticism from buyers who complained that his business travails could drag down Trump Palace, too. In December, 17 days before his father sold his shares, he placed an ad vouching for the wisdom of investing in Trump Palace: “Smart money says there has never been a better time.”

1991年，一些購買者抱怨唐納德·川普的生意困境可能也會拖累川普宮的價值，川普多次發布廣告來反駁這種批評，他自己在廣告中宣稱川普宮是「當下市面上最保險的公寓」。這年12月，在他父親售出股份前17天，他發布了一則廣告打保票說，投資川普宮是明智之舉：「聰明錢說這是前所未有的好時機。」

By failing to tell the I.R.S. about his $15.49 million gift to his son, Fred Trump evaded the 55 percent tax on gifts, saving about $8 million. At the same time, he declared to the I.R.S. that Trump Palace was almost a complete loss — that he had walked away from a $15.5 million investment with just $10,000 to show for it.

贈與兒子的1549萬美元，弗雷德·川普沒有告知國稅局，他由此逃掉55％的贈與稅，省下約800萬美元。同時，他向國稅局報稱川普宮的投資幾乎徹底蝕本——他投入1550萬美元最後離場時只剩1萬美元就是明證。

Federal tax law prohibits deducting any loss from the sale of property between members of the same family, because of the potential for abuse. Yet Fred Trump appears to have done exactly that, dodging roughly $5 million more in income taxes.

由於存在被濫用的可能，聯邦稅法禁止用任何家庭成員間出售資產的損失來抵扣應稅收入。而弗雷德·川普似乎恰恰就是這麼做的，另外又避過了約500萬美元的所得稅。

The partnership between Fred and Donald Trump was not simply about the pursuit of riches. At its heart lay a more ambitious project, executed to perfection over decades — to create that origin story, the myth of Donald J. Trump, Self-Made Billionaire.

弗雷德和唐納德·川普的合夥關係不僅僅是為了追求財富。這個關係的核心是一個宏大得多的、在幾十年裡不斷完善的計劃——書寫唐納德·J·川普的崛起故事，一個白手起家的億萬富翁的神話。

Donald Trump built the foundation for the myth in the 1970s by appropriating his father’s empire as his own. By the late 1980s, instead of appropriating the empire, he was diminishing it. “It wasn’t a great business, it was a good business,” he said, as if Fred Trump ran a chain of laundromats. Yes, he told interviewers, his father was a wonderful mentor, but given the limits of his business, the most he could manage was a $1 million loan, and even that had to be repaid with interest.

1970年代唐納德·川普把他父親的商業帝國算作自己的，為這個神話打下基礎。到了1980年代後期，他不再挪用這個帝國，而是開始貶損它。「那不是什麼了不起的生意，也就是還不錯的生意，」他說得好像弗雷德·川普開的是一家連鎖自助洗衣房。他告訴採訪者，父親是一位出色的導師，但限於父親的生意規模，他從父親那裡最多只能拿到100萬美元的借款，而且還是要付利息的。

Through it all, Fred Trump played along. Never once did he publicly question his son’s claim about the $1 million loan. “Everything he touches seems to turn to gold,” he told The Times for that first profile in 1976. “He’s gone way beyond me, absolutely,” he said when The Times profiled his son again in 1983. But for all Fred Trump had done to build the myth of Donald Trump, Self-Made Billionaire, there was, it turned out, one line he would not allow his son to cross.

弗雷德·川普全程配合。他從未公開質疑兒子對100萬美元借款說法。「好像什麼東西只要他一碰就都變成了黃金，」在1976年那篇人物特稿中他這樣告訴《紐約時報》。「他比我強多了，絕對，」1983年《紐約時報》再次報導他兒子時他說。不過事實證明，儘管在「白手起家的億萬富翁唐納德·川普」這個神話營造過程中不遺餘力，弗雷德·川普還是設下了一條不許兒子越過的界線。

A FAMILY RECKONING

 一場家族算計

Fred Trump had given careful thought to what would become of his empire after he died, and had hired one of the nation’s top estate lawyers to draft his will. But in December 1990, Donald Trump sent his father a document, drafted by one of his own lawyers, that sought to make significant changes to that will.

弗雷德·川普對他的商業帝國在自己去世後會怎樣有過仔細的考慮，他聘請了美國頂尖的遺產律師之一來為自己起草遺囑。但是，唐納德·川普在1990年12月交給了父親一份由他自己的一名律師起草的文件，試圖對父親的遺囑做一項重大修改。

Fred Trump, then 85, had never before set eyes on the document, 12 pages of dense legalese. Nor had he authorized its preparation. Nor had he met the lawyer who drafted it.

當時已85歲的弗雷德·川普在那之前從未看到過這份長達12頁、充滿法律術語的文件。他也未曾授權任何人準備這份文件，也沒有見過起草這份文件的律師。

Yet his son sent instructions that he needed to sign it immediately.

然而，他的兒子卻吩咐說，需要立即在文件上簽字。

What happened next was described years later in sworn depositions by members of the Trump family during a dispute, later settled, over the inheritance Fred Trump left to Fred Jr.’s children. These depositions, obtained by The Times, reveal something startling: Fred Trump believed that the document potentially put his life’s work at risk.

好多年後，川普家族的成員在一場後來達成和解的糾紛中宣誓作證時描述了接下來發生的事情。（那場糾紛是關於弗雷德·川普留給小弗雷德的孩子們的遺產的。）時報獲得的這些證詞揭示了一件驚人的事情：弗雷德·川普認為，那份文件可能會讓他一生的工作面臨危險。

The document, known as a codicil, did many things. It protected Donald Trump’s portion of the inheritance from his creditors and from his impending divorce settlement with his first wife, Ivana Trump. It strengthened provisions in the existing will making him the sole executor of his father’s estate. But more than any of the particulars, it was the entirety of the codicil and its presentation as a fait accompli that alarmed Fred Trump, the depositions show. He confided to family members that he viewed the codicil as an attempt to go behind his back and give his son total control over his affairs. He said he feared that it could let Donald Trump denude his empire, even using it as collateral to rescue his failing businesses. (It was, in fact, the very month of the $3.5 million casino rescue.)

這份被稱為遺囑修改附錄的文件做了很多事情。文件保護了唐納德·川普繼承的那部分遺產不成為債權人追債的目標，也不受他即將與第一任妻子伊萬娜·川普(Ivana Trump)達成的離婚協議的影響。文件加強了原有遺囑中讓他作為父親遺產的唯一遺囑執行人的條款。但家人的證詞顯示，比其中的細節更讓弗雷德·川普擔心的，是整個遺囑修改附錄，以及把這個附錄作為既成事實讓他簽字的做法。他向家人吐露，他認為這份附錄是試圖在背地裡讓兒子完全控制他的事務。他說，他擔心這會讓唐納德·川普削弱他的商業帝國，甚至會將其作為抵押品來挽救唐納德·川普瀕臨破產的生意。（事實上，挽救賭場的350萬美元就是在那個月支付的。）

As close as they were — or perhaps because they were so close — Fred Trump did not immediately confront his son. Instead he turned to his daughter Maryanne Trump Barry, then a federal judge whom he often consulted on legal matters. “This doesn’t pass the smell test,” he told her, she recalled during her deposition. When Judge Barry read the codicil, she reached the same conclusion. “Donald was in precarious financial straits by his own admission,” she said, “and Dad was very concerned as a man who worked hard for his money and never wanted any of it to leave the family.” (In a brief telephone interview, Judge Barry declined to comment.)

弗雷德·川普與兒子的關係如此親密——或許正是因為他們如此親密——他並沒有當即與兒子對質，而是向女兒瑪麗安·川普·巴里(Maryanne Trump Barry)求助，女兒當時是一名聯邦法官，弗雷德經常向女兒諮詢法律事務。據女兒在證詞中回憶，弗雷德對女兒說，「這東西有點不對頭。」當巴里讀了遺囑修改附錄後，她得出了同樣的結論。「唐納德自己承認，他的經濟狀況非常糟糕，」她說。「而爸爸是一個為掙這些錢拚命工作了一輩子的人，他從來都不希望他掙來的錢離開這個家，所以他對此非常擔心。」（在一次簡短的電話採訪中，巴里拒絕置評。）

Fred Trump took prompt action to thwart his son. He dispatched his daughter to find new estate lawyers. One of them took notes on the instructions she passed on from her father: “Protect assets from DJT, Donald’s creditors.” The lawyers quickly drafted a new codicil stripping Donald Trump of sole control over his father’s estate. Fred Trump signed it immediately.

弗雷德·川普迅速採取行動阻撓了兒子的做法。他派女兒找來新的遺產律師。其中一名律師把她傳達的父親的吩咐記了下來：「不讓DJT、唐納德的債權人碰資產。」律師們很快起草了一份新的遺囑修改附錄，剝奪了唐納德·川普作為父親遺產的唯一控制人的權利。弗雷德·川普立即在上面簽了字。

Clumsy as it was, Donald Trump’s failed attempt to change his father’s will brought a family reckoning about two related issues: Fred Trump’s declining health and his reluctance to relinquish ownership of his empire. Surgeons had removed a neck tumor a few years earlier, and he would soon endure hip replacement surgery and be found to have mild senile dementia. Yet for all the financial support he had lavished on his children, for all his abhorrence of taxes, Fred Trump had stubbornly resisted his advisers’ recommendations to transfer ownership of his empire to the children to minimize estate taxes.

雖然唐納德·川普的做法有些笨拙，但他試圖改變父親遺囑未遂的事情讓家人不得不考慮兩個相關的問題：弗雷德·川普日益不佳的健康狀況，以及他不願放棄對自己帝國的所有權的問題。幾年前，外科醫生曾切除了他頸部的一個腫瘤，他不久還會接受髖關節置換手術，後來又發現患有輕度老年失智。然而，儘管弗雷德·川普為子女們提供了大量的財物支持，儘管他對納稅深惡痛絕，但他一直在固執地拒絕顧問們的建議，即將自己的帝國的所有權移交給子女們，這樣可以把遺產稅降至最低。

With every passing year, the actuarial odds increased that Fred Trump would die owning apartment buildings worth many hundreds of millions of dollars, all of it exposed to the 55 percent estate tax. Just as exposed was the mountain of cash he was sitting on. His buildings, well maintained and carrying little debt, consistently produced millions of dollars a year in profits. Even after he paid himself $109.7 million from 1988 through 1993, his companies were holding $50 million in cash and investments, financial records show. Tens of millions of dollars more passed each month through a maze of personal accounts at Chase Manhattan Bank, Chemical Bank, Manufacturers Hanover Trust, UBS, Bowery Savings and United Mizrahi, an Israeli bank.

隨著時間一年一年地過去，一種可能性也變得越來越大，那就是，弗雷德·川普去世時仍擁有價值數億美元的公寓樓，所有這些樓都將面臨55%的遺產稅。同樣面臨高遺產稅的是他坐擁的巨額現金。他的大樓都維修得很好，債務也很少，每年都給他帶來數百萬美元的利潤。財務記錄顯示，即使他在1988年至1993年間給自己支付了1.097億美元的薪酬之後，他的公司仍持有5000萬美元的現金和投資。每個月還有數千萬美元的現金從他在大通曼哈頓銀行(Chase Manhattan Bank)、化工銀行(Chemical Bank)、製造商漢諾威信託(Manufacturers Hanover Trust)、瑞銀(UBS)、寶威利儲蓄銀行(Bowery Savings)，以及以色列的聯合東方銀行(United Mizrahi)的錯綜複雜的個人帳戶中轉來轉去。

Simply put, without immediate action, Fred Trump’s heirs faced the prospect of losing hundreds of millions of dollars to estate taxes.

簡言之，如果不立即採取行動，弗雷德·川普的繼承人們可能會因遺產稅損失數億美元。

Whatever their differences, the Trumps formulated a plan to avoid this fate. How they did it is a story never before told.

儘管存在種種分歧，川普一家制定了一個避免這種命運的計劃。他們如何做成了這件事，是一個此前從未有人講過的故事。

It is also a story in which Donald Trump played a central role. He took the lead in strategy sessions where the plan was devised with the consent and participation of his father and his father’s closest advisers, people who attended the meetings told The Times. Robert Trump, the youngest sibling and the beta to Donald’s alpha, was given the task of overseeing day-to-day details. After years of working for his brother, Robert Trump went to work for his father in late 1991.

這也是一個唐納德·川普在其中起了核心作用的故事。他帶頭召集了幾次戰略會議，參加過會議的人對時報說，他在有父親和父親最親密的顧問們參與及同意的情況下，制定了這個計劃。最小的弟弟羅伯特·川普(Robert Trump)是性情與唐納德·川普截然不同的人，羅伯特被賦予負責日常細節的任務。在為哥哥工作了多年後，羅伯特·川普在1991年底開始為父親工作。

The Trumps’ plan, executed over the next decade, blended traditional techniques — such as rewriting Fred Trump’s will to maximize tax avoidance — with unorthodox strategies that tax experts told The Times were legally dubious and, in some cases, appeared to be fraudulent. As a result, the Trump children would gain ownership of virtually all of their father’s buildings without having to pay a penny of their own. They would turn the mountain of cash into a molehill of cash. And hundreds of millions of dollars that otherwise would have gone to the United States Treasury would instead go to Fred Trump’s children.

川普家的計劃在接下來的10年裡得到了執行，該計劃將傳統的技術（比如為了最大幅度地避稅改寫弗雷德·川普的遺囑）與非常規的策略結合起來，稅務專家對時報說，這些非常規策略在法律上有些可疑，在某些情況下，看起來具有欺詐性。結果是，川普的子女們不花一分錢就擁有了父親幾乎所有的房地產。他們把堆積如山的現金變成了一小筆錢。數億美元原本會流入美國財政部的金錢，最終流進了弗雷德·川普子女們的腰包。

‘A DISGUISED GIFT’

 一個家族公司讓弗雷德·川普得以將錢輸送給子女們，其辦法實際上等於在對自己的房產進行維護和修繕時向自己收取過高的費用。

One of the first steps came on Aug. 13, 1992, when the Trumps incorporated a company named All County Building Supply & Maintenance.

這種做法的頭幾步之一發生在1992年8月13日，川普家人在那天成立了一家名叫「奧康提樓宇物資及維修」的公司。

All County had no corporate offices. Its address was the Manhasset, N.Y., home of John Walter, a favorite nephew of Fred Trump’s. Mr. Walter, who died in January, spent decades working for Fred Trump, primarily helping computerize his payroll and billing systems. He also was the unofficial keeper of Fred Trump’s personal and business papers, his basement crowded with boxes of old Trump financial records. John Walter and the four Trump children each owned 20 percent of All County, records show.

這家公司沒有辦公場所。公司的地址在紐約州的曼哈塞特，也就是弗雷德·川普最喜歡的侄子約翰·沃爾特(John Walter)的家。沃爾特已於今年1月去世，他曾為弗雷德·川普工作了幾十年，主要是幫助弗雷德·川普將其工資和開帳單系統計算機化。他也是弗雷德·川普私人文件和商業文件的非正式保管人，他的地下室裡塞滿了成箱的老川普的舊財務記錄。記錄顯示，約翰·沃爾特和川普的四個子女分別擁有這家公司20%的股份。

All County’s main purpose, The Times found, was to enable Fred Trump to make large cash gifts to his children and disguise them as legitimate business transactions, thus evading the 55 percent tax.

時報發現，這家公司的主要目的是為了讓弗雷德·川普能夠對他的子女們進行大筆的現金贈與，並把贈與偽裝成合法的商業交易，從而逃避55%的贈與稅。

The way it worked was remarkably simple.

其原理非常簡單。

Each year Fred Trump spent millions of dollars maintaining and improving his properties. Some of the vendors who supplied his building superintendents and maintenance crews had been cashing Fred Trump’s checks for decades. Starting in August 1992, though, a different name began to appear on their checks — All County Building Supply & Maintenance.

弗雷德·川普每年花費數百萬美元維護和改善他的房地產。一些為他提供大樓管理員和維修人員的公司幾十年來一直在兌現弗雷德·川普的支票。但是，從1992年8月開始，這些支票的戶頭開始出現了一個不同的名字——奧康提樓宇物資及維修。

Mr. Walter’s computer systems, meanwhile, churned out All County invoices that billed Fred Trump’s empire for those same services and supplies, with one difference: All County’s invoices were padded, marked up by 20 percent, or 50 percent, or even more, records show.

與此同時，沃爾特的計算機系統以奧康提樓宇物資及維修的名義向了弗雷德·川普的帝國提交了大批提供相同服務和物資的費用清單，但有一點不同：記錄顯示，奧康提樓宇物資及維修的費用清單都比實際費用高，有時高20%，有時高50%、甚至更多。

The Trump siblings split the markup, along with Mr. Walter.

川普兄弟姐妹們和沃爾特分攤了這些漲幅。

The self-dealing at the heart of this arrangement was best illustrated by Robert Trump, whose father paid him a $500,000 annual salary. He approved many of the payments Fred Trump’s empire made to All County; he was also All County’s chief executive, as well as a co-owner. As for the work of All County — generating invoices — that fell to Mr. Walter, also on Fred Trump’s payroll, along with a personal assistant Mr. Walter paid to work on his side businesses.

羅伯特·川普最能說明這一做法的核心是內部交易，他父親給他開了50萬美元的年薪。弗雷德·川普的商業帝國支付給奧康提的許多款項都是他批准的，他是奧康提的首席執行官，也是共同所有人。奧康提這邊的工作，也就是開具發票，則落在約翰·沃爾特肩上，他也在弗雷德·川普那裡領薪水，此外還有沃特爾雇來幫他處理其他生意的一名助理。

Years later, in his deposition during the dispute over Fred Trump’s estate, Robert Trump would say that All County actually saved Fred Trump money by negotiating better deals. Given Fred Trump’s long experience expertly squeezing better prices out of contractors, it was a surprising claim. It was also not true.

幾年後，在弗雷德·川普遺產引發的糾紛期間，羅伯特·川普會在他的證詞中說，奧康提通過談下更好的交易實際上給弗雷德·川普省了錢。考慮到弗雷德·川普久已擅長向承包商索要更好的價格，這是個讓人感到意外的說法。並且也不屬實。

The Times’s examination of thousands of pages of financial documents from Fred Trump’s buildings shows that his costs shot up once All County entered the picture.

《紐約時報》查核了弗雷德·川普持有樓宇的數千頁財務文件，發現只要奧康提一出現，他的成本就猛增。

Beach Haven Apartments illustrates how this happened: In 1991 and 1992, Fred Trump bought 78 refrigerator-stove combinations for Beach Haven from Long Island Appliance Wholesalers. The average price was $642.69. But in 1993, when he began paying All County for refrigerator-stove combinations, the price jumped by 46 percent. Likewise, the price he paid for trash-compacting services at Beach Haven increased 64 percent. Janitorial supplies went up more than 100 percent. Plumbing repairs and supplies rose 122 percent. And on it went in building after building. The more Fred Trump paid, the more All County made, which was precisely the plan.

天堂海灘公寓就說明了這種情況：在1991及1992年，弗雷德·川普從長島電器批發公司(Long Island Appliance Wholesalers)為天堂海灘公寓購買了78套冰箱灶具組合。平均單價是642.69美元。但在1993年他開始付錢給奧康提採購冰箱灶具組合，價格就躍升了46%。同樣，他為天堂海灘公寓垃圾壓縮服務支付的費用也上漲了64%。保潔用品的費用漲了100%。管道維修及物資費用漲了122%。這種情況隨後在一幢又一幢公寓接續發生。弗雷德·川普花得越多，奧康提掙得就越多，這就是他們的計劃。

While All County systematically overcharged Fred Trump for thousands of items, the job of negotiating with vendors fell, as it always had, to Fred Trump and his staff.

當奧康提在數千種物品上全面向弗雷德·川普多收費用時，同供應商討價還價的任務則一如既往地落到弗雷德·川普和他的員工身上。

Leon Eastmond can attest to this.

利昂·伊斯特蒙德(Leon Eastmond)可以證明。

Mr. Eastmond is the owner of A. L. Eastmond & Sons, a Bronx company that makes industrial boilers. In 1993, he and Fred Trump met at Gargiulo’s, an old-school Italian restaurant in Coney Island that was one of Fred Trump’s favorites, to hash out the price of 60 boilers. Fred Trump, accompanied by his secretary and Robert Trump, drove a hard bargain. After negotiating a 10 percent discount, he made one last demand: “I had to pay the tab,” Mr. Eastmond recalled with a chuckle.

伊斯特蒙德是A·L·伊斯特蒙德父子公司(A. L. Eastmond & Sons)的所有人，這是布朗克斯的一家工業鍋爐製造商。1993年，他與弗雷德·川普在康尼島上川普最喜愛一家傳統義大利餐廳Gargiulo’s見面，敲定60套鍋爐的價錢。弗雷德·川普帶著秘書和羅伯特·川普，開始了艱難的討價還價。談下10%的折扣之後，他又提了最後一個要求：「飯錢得我來付。」伊斯特蒙德笑著回憶道。

There was no mention of All County. Mr. Eastmond first heard of the company when its checks started rolling in. “I remember opening my mail one day and out came a check for $100,000,” he recalled. “I didn’t recognize the company. I didn’t know who the hell they were.”

飯桌上沒有提到奧康提。伊斯特蒙德是在支票開始寄來時才頭一次聽說這家公司。「我記得有一天打開郵箱收到一張10萬美元的支票，」他回憶說。「我不認得那家公司。我不知道他們到底是誰。」

But as All County paid Mr. Eastmond the price negotiated by Fred Trump, its invoices to Fred Trump were padded by 20 to 25 percent, records obtained by The Times show. This added hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of the 60 boilers, money that then flowed through All County to Fred Trump’s children without incurring any gift tax.

但紐約時報獲得的記錄顯示，奧康提按照弗雷德·川普談下來的價錢向伊斯特蒙德付了款，給弗雷德·川普開出的發票卻上浮了20-25%。這讓60台鍋爐的成本多出數十萬美元，這筆錢通過奧康提流向弗雷德·川普的子女，又完全不必繳納贈與稅。

All County’s owners devised another ruse to profit off Mr. Eastmond’s boilers. To win Fred Trump’s business, Mr. Eastmond had also agreed to provide mobile boilers for Fred Trump’s buildings free of charge while new boilers were being installed. Yet All County charged Fred Trump rent on the same mobile boilers Mr. Eastmond was providing free, along with hookup fees, disconnection fees, transportation fees and operating and maintenance fees, records show. These charges siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars more from Fred Trump’s empire.

奧康提的所有人又設計出另一個伎倆從伊斯特蒙德的鍋爐上獲利。為談下弗雷德·川普的業務，伊斯特蒙德還同意在新鍋爐安裝過程中，為弗雷德·川普的公寓樓免費提供移動式鍋爐。然而記錄顯示，就用伊斯特蒙德免費提供的這些移動鍋爐，奧康提向弗雷德·川普收取了租金，以及接入費、撤出費、運輸費和運營維護費。這些收費又從弗雷德·川普的帝國裡吸走了���十萬美元。

Mr. Walter, asked during a deposition why Fred Trump chose not to make himself one of All County’s owners, replied, “He said because he would have to pay a death tax on it.”

在一份證詞中，沃爾特被問及為什麼弗雷德·川普不讓自己也成為奧康提的所有人之一，他回答說，「他說因為那樣的話死了還要為它交遺產稅。」

After being briefed on All County by The Times, Mr. Tritt, the University of Florida law professor, said the Trumps’ use of the company was “highly suspicious” and could constitute criminal tax fraud. “It certainly looks like a disguised gift,” he said.

聽取了《紐約時報》關於奧康提的簡述後，佛羅里達大學法學教授特里特說川普家族對這家公司的使用「極其可疑」，並有可能構成稅務欺詐的刑事罪。「這看上去是明顯的變相贈與。」他說。

While All County was all upside for Donald Trump and his siblings, it had an insidious downside for Fred Trump’s tenants.

奧康提給唐納德·川普和兄弟姐妹帶來的全是好處，給弗雷德·川普的公寓租戶卻帶來一個隱患。

As an owner of rent-stabilized buildings in New York, Fred Trump needed state approval to raise rents beyond the annual increases set by a government board. One way to justify a rent increase was to make a major capital improvement. It did not take much to get approval; an invoice or canceled check would do if the expense seemed reasonable.

作為紐約州租金穩定型公寓樓的業主，弗雷德·川普提高房租如果超出了政府指導委員會設定的租金逐年漲幅限制，就必須先獲得州政府批准。漲房租的一種合理化手段就是花錢進行重大修繕。這樣就比較容易獲得批准，如果花費看上去合理，一張發票或已付支票就管用。

The Trumps used the padded All County invoices to justify higher rent increases in Fred Trump’s rent-regulated buildings. Fred Trump, according to Mr. Walter, saw All County as a way to have his cake and eat it, too. If he used his “expert negotiating ability” to buy a $350 refrigerator for $200, he could raise the rent based only on that $200, not on the $350 sticker price “a normal person” would pay, Mr. Walter explained. All County was the way around this problem. “You have to understand the thinking that went behind this,” he said.

川普家族就用奧康提注了水的發票，使弗雷德·川普名下受到租金監管的公寓樓合理地漲了更高的房租。根據沃爾特的說法，弗雷德·川普也把奧康提看作魚和熊掌兼得的手段。如果他能用「專家級的講價能力」只花200美元買到350美元的冰箱，他就只能依據這200美元來漲房租，而不是依據「一般人」花費的350美元標價���沃爾特這樣解釋。奧康提就是繞開這個問題的辦法。「你必須明白這背後的心思，」他說。

As Robert Trump acknowledged in his deposition, “The higher the markup would be, the higher the rent that might be charged.”

就像羅伯特·川普在證詞中承認的，「加價越高，能收的租金就越高。」

State records show that after All County’s creation, the Trumps got approval to raise rents on thousands of apartments by claiming more than $30 million in major capital improvements. Tenants repeatedly protested the increases, almost always to no avail, the records show.

州政府的記錄顯示，奧康提公司成立後，川普家族報稱花費逾3000萬美元進行重大修繕，為數千套公寓提高租金獲得了批准。記錄顯示，租戶多次抗議漲租，幾乎總是無濟於事。

One of the improvements most often cited by the Trumps: new boilers.

川普家族最常用到的修繕項目之一就是新鍋爐。

“All of this smells like a crime,” said Adam S. Kaufmann, a former chief of investigations for the Manhattan district attorney’s office who is now a partner at the law firm Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss. While the statute of limitations has long since lapsed, Mr. Kaufmann said the Trumps’ use of All County would have warranted investigation for defrauding tenants, tax fraud and filing false documents.

「這一切頗有犯罪之嫌，」亞當·S·考夫曼(Adam S. Kaufmann)說，他曾是曼哈頓地區檢察官辦公室的調查主管，現在是LBKM律師事務所(Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss)合伙人。雖然早過了訴訟時效，但考夫曼表示，川普家族對奧康提公司的運用已足令司法機關對其進行欺詐租戶、逃稅和提交虛假文件的調查。

Mr. Harder, the president’s lawyer, disputed The Times’s reporting: “Should The Times state or imply that President Trump participated in fraud, tax evasion or any other crime, it will be exposing itself to substantial liability and damages for defamation.”

總統的律師哈德對《紐約時報》的報導提出反駁：「如果《紐約時報》聲稱川普總統參與了欺詐、逃稅或任何其他罪行，那麼它將面臨因誹謗而要承擔的重大責任和損失。」

All County was not the only company the Trumps set up to drain cash from Fred Trump’s empire. A lucrative income source for Fred Trump was the management fees he charged his buildings. His primary management company, Trump Management, earned $6.8 million in 1993 alone. The Trumps found a way to redirect those fees to the children, too.

川普家族用來從弗雷德·川普帝國抽取資金的公司，並非僅奧康提一家。弗雷德·川普持有公寓樓收取的管理費是他一項可觀收入的來源。他主要物業管理公司川普管理公司(Trump Management)僅在1993年就賺了680萬美元。川普家族同樣設法將這些錢轉移給子女。

On Jan. 21, 1994, they created a company called Apartment Management Associates Inc., with a mailing address at Mr. Walter’s Manhasset home. Two months later, records show, Apartment Management started collecting fees that had previously gone to Trump Management.

1994年1月21日，他們成立了公寓管理聯營公司(Apartment Management Associates Inc.)，公司的郵件地址就是沃爾特在曼哈塞特的家。記錄顯示，兩個月後，公寓管理公司就開始收取以前交給川普管理公司的各項費用。

The only difference was that Donald Trump and his siblings owned Apartment Management.

唯一的不同在於公寓管理公司的所有人是唐納德·川普和兄弟姐妹。

Between All County and Apartment Management, Fred Trump’s mountain of cash was rapidly dwindling. By 1998, records show, All County and Apartment Management were generating today’s equivalent of $2.2 million a year for each of the Trump children. Whatever income tax they owed on this money, it was considerably less than the 55 percent tax Fred Trump would have owed had he simply given each of them $2.2 million a year.

奧康提和公寓管理公司左右夾擊，弗雷德·川普的大量現金迅速減少。記錄顯示，到1998年，奧康提和公寓管理公司每年為弗雷德·川普每個子女帶來相當於今天的220萬美元。無論他們要為這筆錢交多少所得稅，都遠遠低於弗雷德·川普每年直接給他們每人220萬美元需要繳納的55％的稅。

But these savings were trivial compared with those that would come when Fred Trump transferred his empire — the actual bricks and mortar — to his children.

但是，比起弗雷德·川普把整個帝國——磚瓦構建的實體——移交給子女時將要省下來的稅，這些都微不足道。

THE ALCHEMY OF VALUE

In his 90th year, Fred Trump still showed up at work a few days a week, ever dapper in suit and tie. But he had trouble remembering names — his dementia was getting worse — and he could get confused. In May 1995, with an unsteady hand, he signed documents granting Robert Trump power of attorney to act “in my name, place and stead.”

在弗雷德·川普90歲那年，他每週仍有幾天去上班，而且總是衣冠楚楚，穿著西裝，打著領帶。但他已經記不起人名字了——他的失智症正變得越來越嚴重——他有時會感到困惑。1995年5月，他用不太穩的手在文件上籤了字，授予羅伯特·川普代理權，以「我的名義和身份，代替我」行事。

Six months later, on Nov. 22, the Trumps began transferring ownership of most of Fred Trump’s empire. (A few properties were excluded.) The instrument they used to do this was a special type of trust with a clunky acronym only a tax lawyer could love: GRAT, short for grantor-retained annuity trust.

六個月後的11月22日，川普家族開始轉移弗雷德·川普大部分帝國的所有權。（幾處房地產沒有被包括進來。）他們用來做這件事的工具是一種特殊類型的信託，有一個只有稅務律師才會喜歡的笨拙的首字母縮寫：GRAT，全稱是「捐贈者保留年金信託」(grantor-retained annuity trust)。

GRATs are one of the tax code’s great gifts to the ultrawealthy. They let dynastic families like the Trumps pass wealth from one generation to the next — be it stocks, real estate, even art collections — without paying a dime of estate taxes.

這種信託是美國稅法送給超級富豪的一份厚禮。它讓川普這樣的王朝家族把財富從一代傳給下一代——無論是股票、房地產，還是藝術品收藏——而無需繳納一分錢的遺產稅。

The details are numbingly complex, but the mechanics are straightforward. For the Trumps, it meant putting half the properties to be transferred into a GRAT in Fred Trump’s name and the other half into a GRAT in his wife’s name. Then Fred and Mary Trump gave their children roughly two-thirds of the assets in their GRATs. The children bought the remaining third by making annuity payments to their parents over the next two years. By Nov. 22, 1997, it was done; the Trump children owned nearly all of Fred Trump’s empire free and clear of estate taxes.

這種信託的細節複雜得讓人發懵，但機制卻很簡單。對川普家族來說，這意味著把一半財產轉移到弗雷德·川普名下的GRAT，把另一半財產轉移到他妻子名下的GRAT。然後，弗雷德和瑪麗·川普將他們各自的GRAT信託中大約三分之二的財產給他們的子女。子女們在接下來的兩年裡，通過向父母支付年金的方式購買餘下的三分之一。1997年11月22日，大功告成；川普子女們擁有了弗雷德·川普的幾乎全部帝國，而不用付任何遺產稅。

As for gift taxes, the Trumps found a way around those, too.

至於贈與稅，川普家族也找到了避免的辦法。

The entire transaction turned on one number: the market value of Fred Trump’s empire. This determined the amount of gift taxes Fred and Mary Trump owed for the portion of the empire they gave to their children. It also determined the amount of annuity payments their children owed for the rest.

整個交易取決於一個數字：弗雷德·川普帝國的市場價值。這個價值決定了弗雷德和瑪麗·川普把房地產帝國的一部分給子女們所應付的贈與稅，也決定了子女們拿到帝國其餘部分需要支付給父母的年金金額。

The I.R.S. recognizes that GRATs create powerful incentives to greatly undervalue assets, especially when those assets are not publicly traded stocks with transparent prices. Indeed, every $10 million reduction in the valuation of Fred Trump’s empire would save the Trumps either $10 million in annuity payments or $5.5 million in gift taxes. This is why the I.R.S. requires families taking advantage of GRATs to submit independent appraisals and threatens penalties for those who lowball valuations.

國稅局承認，GRAT為大幅低估資產價值製造了強大的動機，尤其是當資產不是公開交易的股票，沒有透明的價格時。的確，弗雷德·川普帝國的價值每減少1000萬美元，川普子女們就能少給父母1000萬美元的年金，父母則可少繳550萬美元的贈與稅。正因如此，國稅局要求想利用GRAT的家庭提交獨立的資產評估，並威脅對低估價值的人予以懲罰。

In practice, though, gift tax returns get little scrutiny from the I.R.S. It is an open secret among tax practitioners that evasion of gift taxes is rampant and rarely prosecuted. Punishment, such as it is, usually consists of an auditor’s requiring a tax payment closer to what should have been paid in the first place. “GRATs are typically structured so that no tax is due, which means the I.R.S. has reduced incentive to audit them,” said Mitchell Gans, a professor of tax law at Hofstra University. “So if a gift is in fact undervalued, it may very well go unnoticed.”

但是，在實踐中，贈與稅的報稅表很少受到國稅局的嚴密審查。稅務從業人員中一個公開的祕密是，逃避贈與稅的做法相當猖獗，而且很少受到起訴。處罰雖說是有，但通常不過是審計師要求支付與原本應該支付的稅款更接近的數目而已。「GRAT的典型結構是讓所涉及者不需繳稅，這意味著國稅局缺少審計這種信託的積極性，」霍夫斯特拉大學(Hofstra University)稅法教授米切爾·甘斯(Mitchell Gans)說。「因此，如果一筆贈與實際上被低估了的話，它可能非常容易不引起注意。」

This appears to be precisely what the Trumps were counting on. The Times found evidence that the Trumps dodged hundreds of millions of dollars in gift taxes by submitting tax returns that grossly undervalued the real estate assets they placed in Fred and Mary Trump’s GRATs.

這似乎正是川普家族確信會發生的。時報發現的證據表明，川普家族提交的納稅申報表，嚴重低估了轉移到弗雷德和瑪麗·川普的GRAT中的房地產資產的價值，從而逃避了數億美元的贈與稅。

According to Fred Trump’s 1995 gift tax return, obtained by The Times, the Trumps claimed that properties including 25 apartment complexes with 6,988 apartments — and twice the floor space of the Empire State Building — were worth just $41.4 million. The implausibility of this claim would be made plain in 2004, when banks put a valuation of nearly $900 million on that same real estate.

據時報獲得的弗雷德·川普1995年提交的贈與稅申報表顯示，川普夫婦聲稱，他們的房地產包括25棟公寓大樓，總共有6988套公寓——相當於帝國大廈建築面積的兩倍，但這些財產的價值僅為4140萬美元。2004年，他們的說法顯然變得毫無道理，銀行那年對同一批房地產的估價接近9億美元。

The methods the Trumps used to pull off this incredible shrinking act were hatched in the strategy sessions Donald Trump participated in during the early 1990s, documents and interviews show. Their basic strategy had two components: Get what is widely known as a “friendly” appraisal of the empire’s worth, then drive that number even lower by changing the ownership structure to make the empire look less valuable to the I.R.S.

文件和採訪顯示，川普家族用來實現這種令人難以置信的財產縮水的方法，是在1990年代初唐納德·川普參與的戰略會議上醞釀出來的。他們的基本戰略有兩個組成部分：得到對房地產帝國價值的所謂「友好」估價，然後通過改變所有權結構把這個數字壓得更低，從而使房地產帝國在國稅局眼裡不那麼值錢。

A crucial step was finding a property appraiser attuned to their needs. As anyone who has ever bought or sold a home knows, appraisers can arrive at sharply different valuations depending on their methods and assumptions. And like stock analysts, property appraisers have been known to massage those methods and assumptions in ways that coincide with their clients’ interests.

關鍵的一步是找到一位熟悉他們需求的房地產估價師。任何曾經買賣過房子的人都知道，估價師的估價會因其方法和假設的不同而相差很大。與股票分析師一樣，人們知道房地產估價師有時會用符合客戶利益的方式來調整其使用的方法和假設。

The Trumps used Robert Von Ancken, a favorite of New York City’s big real estate families. Over a 45-year career, Mr. Von Ancken has appraised many of the city’s landmarks, including Rockefeller Center, the World Trade Center, the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. Donald Trump recruited him after Fred Trump Jr. died and the family needed friendly appraisals to help shield the estate from taxes.

川普家族找的是羅伯特·馮·安肯(Robert Von Ancken)，他是紐約市大房地產家族最愛用的估價師。在45年的職業生涯中，馮·安肯評價過這座城市的許多標誌性建築，包括洛克菲勒中心(Rockefeller Center)、世界貿易中心(World Trade Center)、克萊斯勒大廈(Chrysler Building)和帝國大廈。小弗雷德·川普去世後，唐納德·川普聘用了他，川普家族需要友好的估價，以保護遺產不受稅收影響。

Mr. Von Ancken appraised the 25 apartment complexes and other properties in the Trumps’ GRATs and concluded that their total value was $93.9 million, tax records show.

據稅務記錄顯示，馮·安肯對老川普夫婦的GRAT中的25棟公寓大樓和其他房產進行了評估，得出的結論是，這些房產的總價值為9390萬美元。

To assess the accuracy of those valuations, The Times examined the prices paid for comparable apartment buildings that sold within a year of Mr. Von Ancken’s appraisals. A pattern quickly emerged. Again and again, buildings in the same neighborhood as Trump buildings sold for two to four times as much per square foot as Mr. Von Ancken’s appraisals, even when the buildings were decades older, had fewer amenities and smaller apartments, and were deemed less valuable by city property tax appraisers.

為了判別這些估值的準確性，時報查閱了馮·安肯給出這個估值前後一年的時間裡出售的同類公寓大樓的價格。一種模式很快顯示出來。在川普家族擁有的大樓所在的街區，每平方英尺的售價每每是馮·安肯估價的兩到四倍，就連那些建築年代更久、設施更少、公寓更小，而且被紐約市財產稅估價師認為價值更低的大樓也是如此。

Mr. Von Ancken valued Argyle Hall, a six-story brick Trump building in Brooklyn, at $9.04 per square foot. Six blocks away, another six-story brick building, two decades older, had sold a few months earlier for nearly $30 per square foot. He valued Belcrest Hall, a Trump building in Queens, at $8.57 per square foot. A few blocks away, another six-story brick building, four decades older with apartments a third smaller, sold for $25.18 per square foot.

馮·安肯對特朗家族普位於布魯克林的一棟六層磚砌建築阿蓋爾廳(Argyle Hall)的估價是每平方英尺9.04美元。在六個街區之外，有一棟六層磚砌建築，年代比川普家族的建築早20年，幾個月前以每平方英尺近30美元的價格賣出。馮·安肯對川普家族位於皇后區的建築貝尓科瑞斯特廳(Belcrest Hall)的估價為每平方英尺8.57美元。幾個街區之外，另一棟六層磚砌建築比川普家族的建築老40年、其公寓比川普家族的公寓小三分之一，��後以每平方英尺25.18美元的價格賣出。

The pattern persisted with Fred Trump’s higher-end buildings. Mr. Von Ancken appraised Lawrence Towers, a Trump building in Brooklyn with spacious balcony apartments, at $24.54 per square foot. A few months earlier, an apartment building abutting car repair shops a mile away, with units 20 percent smaller, had sold for $48.23 per square foot.

這個模式也延續到弗雷德·川普更高端的建築上。馮·安肯對勞倫斯大廈(Lawrence Towers)的估價為每平方英尺24.54美元，該大廈位於布魯克林，其公寓有寬敞的陽台。在馮·安肯給出上述估價的幾個月前，一英里外有一棟與汽車修理店相鄰的公寓大樓，其公寓比勞倫斯大廈的公寓小20%，曾以每平方英尺48.23美元的價格賣出。

The Times found even starker discrepancies when comparing the GRAT appraisals against appraisals commissioned by the Trumps when they had an incentive to show the highest possible valuations.

時報把川普家族的GRAT中用的財產估價，與川普家族有意顯示最高可能價值時讓人做的估價相比較，結果發現了更加明顯的不一致。

Such was the case with Patio Gardens, a complex of nearly 500 apartments in Brooklyn.

天井花園(Patio Gardens)就是這樣一個例子，這是一處位於布魯克林的建築群，有近500個公寓。

Of all Fred Trump’s properties, Patio Gardens was one of the least profitable, which may be why he decided to use it as a tax deduction. In 1992, he donated Patio Gardens to the National Kidney Foundation of New York/New Jersey, one of the largest charitable donations he ever made. The greater the value of Patio Gardens, the bigger his deduction. The appraisal cited in Fred Trump’s 1992 tax return valued Patio Gardens at $34 million, or $61.90 a square foot.

在弗雷德·川普所有的房地產中，天井花園是最不賺錢的樓盤之一，這也許是他決定將其用來做稅收減免的原因。1992年，他將天井花園捐贈給了國家腎臟基金會紐約/紐澤西分會，這是他所做過的最大慈善捐贈之一。天井花園的估價越高，他可以減免的課稅就越多。弗雷德·川普在1992年的報稅表中對天井花園的估價是3400萬美元，合每平方英尺61.90美元。

By contrast, Mr. Von Ancken’s GRAT appraisals found that the crown jewels of Fred Trump’s empire, Beach Haven and Shore Haven, with five times as many apartments as Patio Gardens, were together worth just $23 million, or $11.01 per square foot.

相比馮·安肯為GRAT做的估價，把弗雷德·川普帝國的皇冠瑰寶「海灘海灣公寓」和「海岸海灣公寓」加在一起的價值定為區區2300萬美元，合每平方英尺11.01美元，這兩處房地產的公寓數量是天井花園的五倍。

In an interview, Mr. Von Ancken said that because neither he nor The Times had the working papers that described how he arrived at his valuations, there was simply no way to evaluate the methodologies behind his numbers. “There would be explanations within the appraisals to justify all the values,” he said, adding, “Basically, when we prepare these things, we feel that these are going to be presented to the Internal Revenue Service for their review, and they better be right.”

在一次採訪中，馮·安肯說，因為他和時報手中都沒有那些描述他是如何做出估值的工作文本，所以根本無法評判他得出那些數字所用的方法。「在估價材料中會有解釋來說明所有估價的正當性，」他說，並補充說，「基本上，當我們準備這些東西時，我們覺得這些東西會提交給美國國稅局審閱，所以它們應該是正確的。」

Of all the GRAT appraisals Mr. Von Ancken did for the Trumps, the most startling was for 886 rental apartments in two buildings at Trump Village, a complex in Coney Island. Mr. Von Ancken claimed that they were worth less than nothing — negative $5.9 million, to be exact. These were the same 886 units that city tax assessors valued that same year at $38.1 million, and that a bank would value at $106.6 million in 2004.

在馮·安肯為川普夫婦做的所有GRAT估價中，最讓人震驚的的是他對位於科尼島的川普村(Trump Village)有886套出租公寓的兩棟大樓的估值。馮·安肯聲稱它們的價值比零還低——確切地說，是負590萬美元。同一年，同樣是這886套公寓，市稅務評估人員對其估價是3810萬美元，而一家銀行在2004年對其估價是1.066億美元。

It appears Mr. Von Ancken arrived at his negative valuation by departing from the methodology that he has repeatedly testified is most appropriate for properties like Trump Village, where past years’ profits are a poor gauge of future value.

馮·安肯曾反覆作證說，他使用了最適宜的方法，來為川普村這種過去幾年的利潤不能很好衡量未來價值的房產估值，他得出的負價值結論顯然偏離了自己的這種說法。

In 1992, the Trumps had removed the two Trump Village buildings from an affordable housing program so they could raise rents and increase their profits. But doing so cost them a property tax exemption, which temporarily put the buildings in the red. The methodology described by Mr. Von Ancken would have disregarded this blip into the red and valued the buildings based on the higher rents the Trumps would be charging. Mr. Von Ancken, however, appears to have based his valuation on the blip, producing an appraisal that, taken at face value, meant Fred Trump would have had to pay someone millions of dollars to take the property off his hands.

1992年，川普家族將川普村的兩棟樓從一個經濟適用房項目中抽了出來，這樣他們就可以提高租金，增加它們產生的利潤。但這樣做也讓川普家人失去了一項房產稅減免，使得這些建築短暫處於虧損狀態。馮·安肯所描述的方法本該忽略這個暫時的虧損，並根據川普家族未來能收取到的更高租金來評估這些建築的價值。然而，馮·安肯看來用了這個短暫的虧損來得出自己的估價，他給出的估價從表面上看意味著，弗雷德·川普需要向他人支付數百萬美元，才能甩掉這處房產。

Mr. Von Ancken told The Times that he did not recall which appraisal method he used on the two Trump Village buildings. “I can only say that we value the properties based on market information, and based on the expected income and expenses of the building and what they would sell for,” he said. As for the enormous gaps between his valuation and the 1995 city property tax appraisal and the 2004 bank valuation, he argued that such comparisons were pointless. “I can’t say what happened afterwards,” he said. “Maybe they increased the income tremendously.”

馮·安肯對時報說，他不記得他對川普村的兩棟建築用了哪種評估方法。「我只能說，我們是基於市場信息、基於建築的預期收入和支出，以及它們的可能售價來評估這些房產的，」他說。至於他的估價與1995年的市財產稅估價和2004年的銀行估價之間的巨大差距問題，他辯稱，這種比較毫無意義。「我不能說後來發生的事情，」他說。「也許他們極大地增加了收入。」

THE MINORITY OWNER

Armed with Mr. Von Ancken’s $93.9 million appraisal, the Trumps focused on slashing even this valuation by changing the ownership structure of Fred Trump’s empire.

有了馮·安肯作出的9390萬美元估值，川普家族又一心通過更改弗雷德·川普商業帝國的持有人結構，再度削減這個估值。

The I.R.S. has long accepted the idea that ownership with control is more valuable than ownership without control. Someone with a controlling interest in a building can decide if and when the building is sold, how it is marketed and what price to accept. However, since someone who owns, say, 10 percent of a $100 million building lacks control over any of those decisions, the I.R.S. will let him claim that his stake should be taxed as if it were worth only $7 million or $8 million.

國稅局素來接受一個觀點，即控股所有權比非控股所有權更有價值。某人對一幢樓擁有控股權益就能決定這幢樓是否出售、何時出售、怎樣營銷、什麼價格可以接受。然而假設某人持有價值1億美元大樓的10%股權，對上述決定沒什麼控制權，那麼國稅局會允許他申請對所持股份僅按700萬或800萬美元的價值徵稅。

But Fred Trump had exercised total control over his empire for more than seven decades. With rare exceptions, he owned 100 percent of his buildings. So the Trumps set out to create the fiction that Fred Trump was a minority owner. All it took was splitting the ownership structure of his empire. Fred and Mary Trump each ended up with 49.8 percent of the corporate entities that owned his buildings. The other 0.4 percent was split among their four children.

但弗雷德·川普在七十多年裡對他的帝國行使全面控制。除了極少例外，他百分之百地持有名下物業。於是川普家族動手製造假象,表明弗雷德·川普是少數股份持有人。方法無非是分拆他商業帝國的所有人結構。最後，對擁有他房產的那些公司實體，弗雷德和瑪麗·川普夫婦各持49.8%的股份。剩下的0.4%由四個子女分別持有。

Splitting ownership into minority interests is a widely used method of tax avoidance. There is one circumstance, however, where it has at times been found to be illegal. It involves what is known in tax law as the step transaction doctrine — where it can be shown that the corporate restructuring was part of a rapid sequence of seemingly separate maneuvers actually conceived and executed to dodge taxes. A key issue, according to tax experts, is timing — in the Trumps’ case, whether they split up Fred Trump’s empire just before they set up the GRATs.

把所有權分拆為少數股份權益是一種廣泛運用的避稅手段。不過有一種情況，有時會讓這個手段變為非法。它涉及稅法中所稱的步驟交易原則——為避稅目的而構思並執行的一系列看似不相干的快速操作，公司重組是其中的一部分。稅務專家介紹，這種情況裡的關鍵問題是時機——就川普家族的案例來說，就在於他們是否恰好在成立GRAT之前分拆了弗雷德·川普的帝國。

In all, the Trumps broke up 12 corporate entities to create the appearance of minority ownership. The Times could not determine when five of the 12 companies were divided. But records reveal that the other seven were split up just before the GRATs were established.

川普家族一共分拆了12家公司實體來造成少數股份持有的表象。《紐約時報》未能確認其中五家是何時分拆。但記錄顯示，另外七家公司恰好在成立GRAT之前分拆。

The pattern was clear. For decades, the companies had been owned solely by Fred Trump, each operating a different apartment complex or shopping center. In September 1995, the Trumps formed seven new limited liability companies. Between Oct. 31 and Nov. 8, they transferred the deeds to the seven properties into their respective L.L.C.’s. On Nov. 21, they recorded six of the deed transfers in public property records. (The seventh was recorded on Nov. 24.) And on Nov. 22, 49.8 percent of the shares in these seven L.L.C.’s was transferred into Fred Trump’s GRAT and 49.8 percent into Mary Trump’s GRAT.

操作模式很清晰。幾十年來，這些公司都由弗雷德·川普獨自擁有，每家公司經營一處公寓樓或購物中心。在1995年9月，川普家族成立了七家新的有限責任公司。10月31日至11月8日，他們把七處物業的房契過戶到相應的七家有限責任公司。11月21日，他們把其中六起房契過戶錄入了公開產權記錄。（第七份房契的過戶在11月24日錄入。）在11月22日，這七家有限責任公司49.8%的股份轉入了弗雷德·川普的GRAT，49.8%的股份轉入了瑪麗·川普的GRAT。

That enabled the Trumps to slash Mr. Von Ancken’s valuation in a way that was legally dubious. They claimed that Fred and Mary Trump’s status as minority owners, plus the fact that a building couldn’t be sold as easily as a share of stock, entitled them to lop 45 percent off Mr. Von Ancken’s $93.9 million valuation. This claim, combined with $18.3 million more in standard deductions, completed the alchemy of turning real estate that would soon be valued at nearly $900 million into $41.4 million.

這使得川普家族用法律上可疑的做法，削減了馮·安肯作出的資產估值。他們聲稱弗雷德和瑪麗·川普只是少數股權持有人，再加上房產不能像股份那樣輕易出售這個事實，使他們把馮·安肯的9390萬美元估值又砍掉了45%。這一主張外加超過1830萬美元的標準扣除額，神奇地把不久後即將價值近9億美元的房產變成4140萬美元估值。

According to tax experts, claiming a 45 percent discount was questionable even back then, and far higher than the 20 to 30 percent discount the I.R.S. would allow today.

稅務專家稱，即使在當年，要求45%的應稅額折扣也是存疑的，這也比現在國稅局能夠容許的20-30%的折扣高多了。

As it happened, the Trumps’ GRATs did not completely elude I.R.S. scrutiny. Documents obtained by The Times reveal that the I.R.S. audited Fred Trump’s 1995 gift tax return and concluded that Fred Trump and his wife had significantly undervalued the assets being transferred through their GRATs.

事實上，川普家族的GRAT也未能完全躲過國稅局的審查。時報獲得的文件顯示，國稅局審計了弗雷德·川普1995年的贈與稅申報表，得出的結論是弗雷德·川普及其妻子嚴重估低了通過他們的GRAT轉移的財產。

The I.R.S. determined that the Trumps’ assets were worth $57.1 million, 38 percent more than the couple had claimed. From the perspective of an I.R.S. auditor, pulling in nearly $5 million in additional revenue could be considered a good day’s work. For the Trumps, getting the I.R.S. to agree that Fred Trump’s properties were worth only $57.1 million was a triumph.

國稅局判定，川普夫婦的財產價值5710萬美元，比他們申報的高出38%。從國稅局審計員的角度看，獲得近500萬美元的額外收入算得上收成不錯的一天。而從川普家族的角度，讓國稅局承認弗雷德·川普的物業只值5710萬美元則是重大勝利。

“All estate matters were handled by licensed attorneys, licensed C.P.A.s and licensed real estate appraisers who followed all laws and rules strictly,” Mr. Harder, the president’s lawyer, said in his statement.

「一切房地產事務均由嚴格遵守法律法規的持證律師、持證註冊會計師和持證房地產估價師辦理，「總統的律師哈德在其聲明中說。

In the end, the transfer of the Trump empire cost Fred and Mary Trump $20.5 million in gift taxes and their children $21 million in annuity payments. That is hundreds of millions of dollars less than they would have paid based on the empire’s market value, The Times found.

最終，川普商業帝國的移交使弗雷德和瑪麗·川普付出2050萬美元的贈與稅，他們的子女付出2100萬美元年金收入所得稅。時報發現，這比依其市值他們應繳的稅款少了幾億美元。

Better still for the Trump children, they did not have to pay out a penny of their own. They simply used their father’s empire as collateral to secure a line of credit from M&T Bank. They used the line of credit to make the $21 million in annuity payments, then used the revenue from their father’s empire to repay the money they had borrowed.

對弗雷德·川普的子女而言，更妙的是，他們自己一分錢都不用掏。他們直接以父親的資產做抵押，從M&T銀行獲得信貸額度。他們用這一信貸額度支付了2100萬美元的年金收益所得稅，然後再用父親產業的收入還上他們借的錢。

On the day the Trump children finally took ownership of Fred Trump’s empire, Donald Trump’s net worth instantly increased by many tens of millions of dollars. And from then on, the profits from his father’s empire would flow directly to him and his siblings. The next year, 1998, Donald Trump’s share amounted to today’s equivalent of $9.6 million, The Times found.

到子女們最終擁有了弗雷德·川普商業帝國的那天，唐納德·川普的凈資產立刻增長了數千萬美元。而且從那時起，父親產業所獲的利潤就直接流向他和兄弟姐妹。時報發現，第二年，即1998年，唐納德·川普從中的分成已相當於今天的960萬美元。

This sudden influx of wealth came only weeks after he had published “The Art of the Comeback.”

這筆突如其來的財富，是他在出版了《東山再起》(The Art of the Comeback)一書僅數週之後收到的。

“I learned a lot about myself during these hard times,” he wrote. “I learned about handling pressure. I was able to home in, buckle down, get back to the basics, and make things work. I worked much harder, I focused, and I got myself out of a box.”

「在這些艱難時日，我對自己了解了很多，」他寫道。「我學會了應對壓力。我能夠全神貫注、放開手腳，做回最基本的業務，讓事情行之有效。我工作得更刻苦了，我很專注，我把自己從條條框框裡解放了出來。」

Over 244 pages he did not mention that he was being handed nearly 25 percent of his father’s empire.

全書244頁裡，他沒提過自己正要得到父親商業帝國的近四分之一。

REMNANTS OF EMPIRE

During Fred Trump’s final years, dementia stole most of his memories. When family visited, there was one name he could reliably put to a face.

在弗雷德·川普生命的最後幾年，失智症奪走了他的大部分記憶。不過，家人來看他時，他總能可靠地說出一個名字。

Donald.

唐納德。

On June 7, 1999, Fred Trump was admitted to Long Island Jewish Medical Center, not far from the house in Jamaica Estates, for treatment of pneumonia. He died there on June 25, at the age of 93.

1999年6月7日，弗雷德·川普因肺炎被送進長島猶太醫療中心，這家醫院離他在牙買加莊園的家不遠。他於6月25日在醫院去世，享年93歲。

Fifteen months later, Fred Trump’s executors — Donald, Maryanne and Robert — filed his estate tax return. The return, obtained by The Times, vividly illustrates the effectiveness of the tax strategies devised by the Trumps in the early 1990s.

15個月後，弗雷德·川普的遺囑執行人——唐納德、瑪麗安和羅伯特——提交了父親的遺產稅報稅表。時報得到的申報表生動地說明了川普家族在20世紀90年代初制定的避稅收策略的有效性。

Fred Trump, one of the most prolific New York developers of his time, owned just five apartment complexes, two small strip malls and a scattering of co-ops in the city upon his death. The man who paid himself $50 million in 1990 died with just $1.9 million in the bank. He owned not a single stock, bond or Treasury bill. According to his estate tax return, his most valuable asset was a $10.3 million I.O.U. from Donald Trump, money his son appears to have borrowed the year before Fred Trump died.

弗雷德·川普是他那個時代最多產的紐約開發商之一，而在他去世的時候，他在紐約僅擁有五片公寓樓盤、兩處小型購物中心和零星的合作公寓。這位在1990年給自己開過5000萬美元年薪的人，死的時候銀行裡只有190萬美元的存款。他不持有任何股票、債券或國庫券。根據他的遺產稅報稅表，他最值錢的資產是唐納德·川普開給他的一張1030萬美元的欠條，這是兒子在弗雷德去世前的那年向父親借的錢。

The bulk of Fred Trump’s empire was nowhere to be found on his estate tax return. And yet Donald Trump and his siblings were not done. Recycling the legally dubious techniques they had mastered with the GRATs, they dodged tens of millions of dollars in estate taxes on the remnants of empire that Fred Trump still owned when he died, The Times found.

弗雷德·川普商業帝國的大部分在他的遺產稅報稅表上不見了。不過，唐納德·川普及其兄弟姐妹們並沒有就此罷休。時報發現，他們再次把他們設立GRAT時掌握的法律上可疑的技術用在了弗雷德·川普去世時仍擁有的商業帝國的殘餘部分，逃避了數千萬美元的遺產稅。

As with the GRATs, they obtained appraisals from Mr. Von Ancken that grossly understated the actual market value of those remnants. And as with the GRATs, they aggressively discounted Mr. Von Ancken’s appraisals. The result: They claimed that the five apartment complexes and two strip malls were worth $15 million. In 2004, records show, bankers would put a value of $176.2 million on the exact same properties.

與設立GRAT時一樣，他們從馮·安肯那裡得到了對那些殘餘部分的大大地低於實際市場價值的估價。也與設立GRAT時一樣，他們對馮·安肯的估價大打折扣。結果是：他們聲稱餘下的五片公寓樓盤和二個購物中心只值1500萬美元。記錄顯示，2004年，銀行家們對同是這些房地產的估價為1.762億美元。

The most improbable of these valuations was for Tysens Park Apartments, a complex of eight buildings with 1,019 units on Staten Island. On the portion of the estate tax return where they were required to list Tysens Park’s value, the Trumps simply left a blank space and claimed they owed no estate taxes on it at all.

這些估值中最荒唐的是泰森斯公園公寓(Tysens Park Apartments)，該公寓樓盤由八棟大樓組成，位於斯塔頓島，共有1019個單元。在遺產稅報稅表中，川普家族被要求給出泰森斯公園公寓價值的地方，他們什麼都沒填，並聲稱對這處遺產根本不欠任何遺產稅。

As with the Trump Village appraisal, the Trumps appear to have hidden key facts from the I.R.S. Tysens Park, like Trump Village, had operated for years under an affordable housing program that by law capped Fred Trump’s profits. This cap drastically reduced the property’s market value.

正如對川普村的估價那樣，川普家族看來對國稅局隱瞞了關鍵的事實。泰森斯公園公寓與川普村一樣，多年來曾一直作為保障性住房項目的一部分經營，這對弗雷德·川普能夠賺取的利潤有一個法律上限。上限大大降低了這片房地產的市場價值。

Except for one thing: The Trumps had removed Tysens Park from the affordable housing program the year before Fred Trump died, The Times found. When Donald Trump and his siblings filed Fred Trump’s estate tax return, there were no limits on their profits. In fact, they had already begun raising rents.

但有一個不同：時報發現，川普家族在弗雷德·川普去世的前一年，將泰森斯公園公寓從保障性住房項目中抽了出來。當唐納德·川普及其兄弟姐妹們提交弗雷德·川普的遺產稅報稅表時，他們能夠得到的利潤已不再受限制。事實上，他們已經開始在提高房租。

As their father’s executors, Donald, Maryanne and Robert were legally responsible for the accuracy of his estate tax return. They were obligated not only to give the I.R.S. a complete accounting of the value of his estate’s assets, but also to disclose all the taxable gifts he made during his lifetime, including, for example, the $15.5 million Trump Palace gift to Donald Trump and the millions of dollars he gave his children via All County’s padded invoices.

作為父親的遺囑執行人，唐納德、瑪麗安和羅伯特對他的遺產稅報稅表的準確性負有法律責任。他們不僅有義務向國稅局提交父親房地產價值的完整匯總，也有義務向國稅局披露父親一生中給出的所有應納稅的贈與，包括比如那筆給唐納德·川普的1550萬美元的川普宮贈與，以及弗雷德·川普通過奧康提的加價發票送給子女們的數百萬美元。

“If they knew anything was wrong they could be in violation of tax law,” Mr. Tritt, the University of Florida law professor, said. “They can’t just stick their heads in the sand.”

「如果他們知道這裡面有不對之處的話，他們很可能違反了稅法，」佛羅里達大學(University of Florida)法學教授特里特說。「他們不能只是迴避問題。」

In addition to drastically understating the value of apartment complexes and shopping centers, Fred Trump’s estate tax return made no mention of either Trump Palace or All County.

除了大幅低估公寓樓盤和購物中心的價值外，弗雷德·川普的遺產稅報稅表也沒有提川普宮或奧康提。

It wasn’t until after Fred Trump’s wife, Mary, died at 88 on Aug. 7, 2000, that the I.R.S. completed its audit of their combined estates. The audit concluded that their estates were worth $51.8 million, 23 percent more than Donald Trump and his siblings had claimed.

直到弗雷德·川普的妻子瑪麗於2000年8月7日以88歲的年齡去世之後，國稅局才完成了對他們兩人遺產的審計工作，國稅局得出的結論是，他們的遺產價值為5180萬美元，比唐納德·川普及其兄弟姐妹們聲稱的高23%。

That meant an additional $5.2 million in estate taxes. Even so, the Trumps’ tax bill was a fraction of what they would have owed had they reported the market value of what Fred and Mary Trump owned at the time of their deaths.

這意味著他們要額外繳納520萬美元的遺產稅。即便如此，川普家族所欠的稅單也只是他們可能會支付的遺產稅的很小一部分，如果他們按照弗雷德和瑪麗·川普去世時所擁有資產的市場價值如實申報的話。

Mr. Harder, the president’s lawyer, defended the tax returns filed by the Trumps. “The returns and tax positions that The Times now attacks were examined in real time by the relevant taxing authorities,” he said. “The taxing authorities requested a few minor adjustments, which were made, and then fully approved all of the tax filings. These matters have now been closed for more than a decade.”

川普總統的律師哈德為川普家人提交的納稅申報表進行了辯護。「時報現在攻擊的報稅表和納稅狀況，已被相關稅務部門實時審查過，」他說。「稅務當局當時要求進行了一些小的調整，然後全部批准了所有的稅務申報。這些事情已經了結十多年了。」

A GOOD TIME TO SELL

In 2003, the Trump siblings gathered at Trump Tower for one of their periodic updates on their inherited empire.

2003年，川普兄弟姐妹在川普大廈聚會，就他們繼承下來的商業帝國進行一次定期的情況通報。

As always, Robert Trump drove into Manhattan with several of his lieutenants. Donald Trump appeared with Allen H. Weisselberg, who had worked for Fred Trump for two decades before becoming his son’s chief financial officer. The sisters, Maryanne Trump Barry and Elizabeth Trump Grau, were there as well.

和往常一樣，羅伯特·川普帶著他的幾個副手開車來到曼哈頓。唐納德·川普與艾倫·H·魏塞爾貝格(Allen H. Weisselberg)一同到場，魏塞爾貝格為弗雷德·川普工作了20年之後，成了唐納德的首席財務官。姐妹倆瑪麗安·川普·巴里和伊麗莎白·川普·格勞也在場。

The meeting followed the usual routine: a financial report, a rundown of operational issues and then the real business — distributing profits to each Trump. The task of handing out the checks fell to Steve Gurien, the empire’s finance chief.

會議按通常的順序進行：財務報告，經營問題總結，然後才是實質性的事情——給每個人分配利潤。分發支票的任務落到了商業帝國的財務主管史提夫·古雷恩(Steve Gurien)身上。

A moment later, Donald Trump abruptly changed the course of his family’s history: He said it was a good time to sell.

片刻之後，唐納德·川普突然就改變了家族的歷史進程。他說，現在正是出售資產的好時機。

Fred Trump’s empire, in fact, was continuing to produce healthy profits, and selling contradicted his stated wish to keep his legacy in the family. But Donald Trump insisted that the real estate market had peaked and that the time was right, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

實際上，弗雷德·川普的帝國仍在繼續創造穩健的盈利，而且出售資產與他公開表達過的將遺產保留在家族之內的願望相悖。但據一位了解這次會議情況的人透露，唐納德·川普堅持認為房地產市場已經見頂，時機成熟。

He was also, once again, in financial trouble. His Atlantic City casinos were veering toward another bankruptcy. His creditors would soon threaten to oust him unless he committed to invest $55 million of his own money.

當時也是他再度陷入財務困境之際。他的大西洋城賭場又一次滑向破產。他的債權人很快就會威脅要他出局，除非他答應再投入5500萬美元他本人的資金。

Yet if Donald Trump’s sudden push to sell stunned the room, it met with no apparent resistance from his siblings. He directed his brother to solicit private bids, saying he wanted the sale handled quickly and quietly. Donald Trump’s signature skill — drumming up publicity for the Trump brand — would sit this one out.

不過，如果唐納德·川普突然提出出售資產令在場的所有人震驚的話，這個建議並沒有遭到他兄弟姐妹的明顯反對。他吩咐弟弟招攬私下的出價，說他希望迅速且悄無聲息地完成這筆買賣。唐納德·川普的招牌技能——為川普品牌大造聲勢——在這件事上就不用了。

Three potential bidders were given access to the finances of Fred Trump’s empire — 37 apartment complexes and several shopping centers. Ruby Schron, a major New York City landlord, quickly emerged as the favorite. In December 2003, Mr. Schron called Donald Trump and they came to an agreement; Mr. Schron paid $705.6 million for most of the empire, which included paying off the Trumps’ mortgages. A few remaining properties were sold to other buyers, bringing the total sales price to $737.9 million.

三名可能出價競購的人得以看到了弗雷德·川普商業帝國的財務情況，帝國包括37片公寓樓盤和幾處購物中心。紐約市的大地產商魯比·施隆(Ruby Schron)很快成為最可能的買家。2003年12月，施隆給唐納德·川普打了電話，他們達成了協議；施隆以7.056億美元買下這個商業帝國的大部分資產，買價中包括償還川普家族的抵押貸款。剩下的少量房產出售給了其他買家，帝國的總售價達到7.379億美元。

On May 4, 2004, the Trump children spent most of the day signing away ownership of what their father had doggedly built over 70 years. The sale received little news coverage, and an article in The Staten Island Advance included the rarest of phrases: “Trump did not return a phone call seeking comment.”

2004年5月4日，川普家子女這天的大部分時間都花在了簽字上，他們賣掉了父親70多年鍥而不捨地營造出來的帝國的所有權。這筆交易幾乎沒有新聞報導，《斯塔頓島先鋒報》(The Staten Island Advance)上的一篇文章裡有句最少見的話：「川普沒有回覆要求置評的電話。」

Even more extraordinary was this unreported fact: The banks financing Mr. Schron’s purchase valued Fred Trump’s empire at nearly $1 billion. In other words, Donald Trump, master dealmaker, sold his father’s empire for hundreds of millions less than it was worth.

更不尋常的是一個未曾報導過的事實：為施隆的收購提供融資的銀行對弗雷德·川普的商業帝國估價接近10億美元。換言之，唐納德·川普這個做交易的高手，賣父親的資產得到的錢比資產的所值少了好幾個億。

Within a year of the sale, Mr. Trump spent $149 million in cash on a rapid series of transactions that bolstered his billionaire bona fides. In June 2004 he agreed to pay $73 million to buy out his partner in the planned Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago. (“I’m just buying it with my own cash,” he told reporters.) He paid $55 million in cash to make peace with his casino creditors. Then he put up $21 million more in cash to help finance his purchase of Maison de l’Amitié, a waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, Fla., that he later sold to a Russian oligarch.

在這筆交易完成後的一年內，川普就花掉了1.49億美元的現金，快速地進行了一連串的交易，增強了他的億萬富翁名聲。2004年6月，他同意以7300萬美元買斷計劃在芝加哥建設的川普國際酒店大廈(Trump International Hotel & Tower)的合伙人股份。（「我只是在用自己的現金來買，」他告訴記者。）他付了5500萬美元的現金與他賭場的債權人言歸於好。然後他又拿出2100萬美元的更多現金，為自己購買佛羅里達棕櫚灘的海濱豪宅友誼宅邸(Maison de l’Amitié)助一臂之力，他後來把這個豪宅賣給了一位俄羅斯寡頭。

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The first season of “The Apprentice” was broadcast in 2004, just as Donald Trump was wrapping up the sale of his father’s empire. The show’s opening montage — quick cuts of a glittering Trump casino, then Trump Tower, then a Trump helicopter mid-flight, then a limousine depositing the man himself at the steps of his jet, all set to the song “For the Love of Money” — is a reminder that the story of Donald Trump is fundamentally a story of money.

電視真人秀《學徒》的第一季在2004年開播，那正是唐納德·川普在完成父親資產出售的時候。節目的開場是一連串鏡頭快速剪切——金碧輝煌的川普賭場、川普大廈、一架飛行中的川普直升機、一輛豪華轎車把他本人送到他的噴氣機舷梯前，這段剪切配的曲子「因為愛錢」(For the Love of Money)提醒著人們，唐納德·川普的故事本質上就是個金錢的故事。

Money is at the core of the brand Mr. Trump has so successfully sold to the world. Yet essential to that mythmaking has been keeping the truth of his money — how much of it he actually has, where and whom it came from — hidden or obscured. Across the decades, aided and abetted by less-than-aggressive journalism, Mr. Trump has made sure his financial history would be sensationalized far more than seen.

錢是川普如此成功地推銷給全世界的品牌的核心。然而，對製造這個神話至關重要的一直都是隱瞞或模糊他的錢的真相——他實際擁有多少錢，錢是從哪裡、從什麼人那裡來的。幾十年來，在對追求真相不夠積極的新聞媒體的幫助和縱容下，川普確保了他的財務歷史被吹得遠比實際情況更神乎其神。

Just this year, in a confessional essay for The Washington Post, Jonathan Greenberg, a former reporter for Forbes, described how Mr. Trump, identifying himself as John Barron, a spokesman for Donald Trump, repeatedly and flagrantly lied to get himself on the magazine’s first-ever list of wealthiest Americans in 1982. Because of Mr. Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns, the public has been left to interpret contradictory glimpses of his income offered up by anonymous leaks. A few pages from one tax return, mailed to The Times in September 2016, showed that he declared a staggering loss of $916 million in 1995. A couple of pages from another return, disclosed on Rachel Maddow’s program, showed that he earned an impressive $150 million in 2005.

就在今年，《華盛頓郵報》發表的一篇滿是悔意的文章裡，前《富比士》雜誌記者喬納森·格林伯格(Jonathan Greenberg)講述了唐納德·川普當年是怎樣冒充他自己的發言人約翰·巴倫(John Barron)，一次次地公然說謊，最終讓自己上了該雜誌1982年首次發布的美國富豪榜。由於川普拒絕公開他的報稅表，公眾只能自己去解釋匿名爆料提供的川普個人收入的自相矛盾的點滴。2016年9月寄到時報的一份報稅表中的幾頁顯示，川普在1995年申報了高達9.16億美元的虧損。在主持人雷切爾·瑪多(Rachel Maddow)節目中披露的另一份報稅表中的幾頁顯示，他在2005年賺了令人讚歎的1.5億美元。

In a statement to The Times, the president’s spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, reiterated what Mr. Trump has always claimed about the evolution of his fortune: “The president’s father gave him an initial $1 million loan, which he paid back. President Trump used this money to build an incredibly successful company as well as net worth of over $10 billion, including owning some of the world’s greatest real estate.”

總統的發言人薩拉·赫卡比·桑德斯(Sarah Huckabee Sanders)在致時報的一份聲明中重申了川普對其個人財富發展始終堅持的說法：「總統的父親給了他最初的100萬美元借款，他早已還清了。川普總統用這筆錢建立起一家無比成功的公司、以及超過100億美元的凈資產，其中包括持有若干處全世界最好的房產。」

Today, the chasm between that claim of being worth more than $10 billion and a Bloomberg estimate of $2.8 billion reflects the depth of uncertainty that remains about one of the most chronicled public figures in American history. Questions about newer money sources are rapidly accumulating because of the Russia investigation and lawsuits alleging that Mr. Trump is violating the Constitution by continuing to do business with foreign governments.

如今，自稱的100億美元身價與彭博社估計的28��美元的身價之間的巨大落差，反映了在對這位美國歷史上被報導最多的公眾人物之一的了解上，仍存在著深深的不確定。由於「通俄門」調查、以及指控川普仍在與外國政府做生意有違憲法的訴訟，有關他的錢的更近期來源的疑問在迅速累積。

But the more than 100,000 pages of records obtained during this investigation make it possible to sweep away decades of misinformation and arrive at a clear understanding about the original source of Mr. Trump’s wealth — his father.

但此次調查得到的超過10萬頁的文件使我們得以澄清幾十年來的誤導，讓人們清楚地了解了川普財富最初的來源——他的父親。

Here is what can be said with certainty: Had Mr. Trump done nothing but invest the money his father gave him in an index fund that tracks the Standard & Poor’s 500, he would be worth $1.96 billion today. As for that $1 million loan, Fred Trump actually lent him at least $60.7 million, or $140 million in today’s dollars, The Times found.

下面是可以確定的事實：如果川普什麼都不做，只是把父親給他的錢投到一個追蹤標普500指數的指數基金的話，他今天的身價將會是19.6億美元。至於那100萬美元的借款，時報發現，弗雷德·川普實際上至少借給了唐納德6070萬，以今天的美元計算是1.4億。

And there is one more Fred Trump windfall coming Donald Trump’s way. Starrett City, the Brooklyn housing complex that the Trumps invested in back in the 1970s, sold this year for $905 million. Donald Trump’s share of the proceeds is expected to exceed $16 million, records show.

唐納德·川普還得到了一筆來自弗雷德·川普的意外之財。川普家族在1970年代投資在布魯克林修建的住宅項目斯塔雷特城，今年以9.05億美元售出。記錄顯示，唐納德·川普可從收益中分得的份額預計超過1600萬美元。

It was an investment made with Fred Trump’s money and connections. But in Donald Trump’s version of his life, Starrett City is always and forever “one of the best investments I ever made.”

這是一筆用弗雷德·川普的錢和人脈做的投資。但是在唐納德·川普講述的他的人生故事裡，斯塔雷特城一直、永遠是「我做過的最好的投資之一」。