The Trump Files: Donald Filmed a Music Video. It Didn't Go Well.
Shocker: He got into a fight with the band about money.
Until the election, we're bringing you "The Trump Files," a daily dose of telling episodes, strange but true stories, or curious scenes from the life of GOP nominee Donald Trump.
National media buzzed in November 1990 when it was revealed that Donald Trump would be starring in the music video for a cover of the 1971 Jean Knight single "Mr. Big Stuff" by Precious Metal, an all-female glam metal band. The label's press release noted that it was a "featured role" that would net Trump a $25,000 donation by the band to the charity of his choice. Trump's appearance, it crowed, was a "giant act of generosity," and it quoted Precious Metal's lead vocalist, Leslie Knauer, calling Trump "a real gentleman to work with."
"When we were done, he said, 'This is great! Let's take this [song] to number one!'" Knauer told Entertainment Week. The enthusiasm may have been linked to the reported bonuses, purportedly also for charity, that Trump would get if the record went gold or platinum. "I think he wanted to keep the money for himself," Knauer guessed.
Still, all was well for a few months. Then things got Trumpy.
Once the video was done, Trump decided he'd been lowballed. His claim, according to the band, was that he'd been told his appearance was a cameo. But since he appeared throughout the video, Trump allegedly wanted the band to fork over $250,000 instead. Knauer, speaking to Billboard earlier this year, said the mix-up was a lie. "Trump had the script, he played all the parts, shot them," she said. "So later to say, 'I thought I was only going to be in one part'—then why did you shoot all those parts? We were just a struggling band, wondering why he would do that to us. He full-on just lied."
He also creeped out the band's lead guitarist, Janet Robin. "I had a moment with him where he put his hands around me, his arms around me," Robin told the Huffington Post, "not around my shoulder but around, you know, my stomach area or whatever you want to call it. I thought that was a little strange."
"Oh my god, Janet, you have a tight body," she recalled Trump saying. Knauer remembered the same thing. "He was kinda hot for Janet," she told Billboard, "saying, 'Oh my god, Janet, you have a tight body.' Janet is gay and was like, 'Yuck, whatever, gross.'"
Precious Metal couldn't fork over a quarter of a million bucks, so it found a Trump look-alike and reshot the video in a way that didn't show his face. But Trump's nonappearance meant the video, and the band, went nowhere. "It didn't end our band, but it didn't help," Knauer told Billboard. "It hurt our label's support for us." The band never recorded another album.
Read the rest of "The Trump Files":
- Trump Files #1: The Time Andrew Dice Clay Thanked Donald for the Hookers
- Trump Files #2: When Donald Tried to Stop Charlie Sheen's Marriage to Brooke Mueller
- Trump Files #3: The Brief Life of the "Trump Chateau for the Indigent"
- Trump Files #4: Donald Thinks Asbestos Fears Are a Mob Conspiracy
- Trump Files #5: Donald's Nuclear Negotiating Fantasy
- Trump Files #6: Donald Wants a Powerball for Spies
- Trump Files #7: Donald Gets An Allowance
- Trump Files #8: The Time He Went Bananas on a Water Cooler
- Trump Files #9: The Great Geico Boycott
- Trump Files #10: Donald Trump, Tax-Hike Crusader
- Trump Files #11: Watch Donald Trump Say He Would Have Done Better as a Black Man
- Trump Files #12: Donald Can't Multiply 17 and 6
- Trump Files #13: Watch Donald Sing the "Green Acres" Theme Song in Overalls
- Trump Files #14: The Time Donald Trump Pulled Over His Limo to Stop a Beating
- Trump Files #15: When Donald Wanted to Help the Clintons Buy Their House
- Trump Files #16: He Once Forced a Small Business to Pay Him Royalties for Using the Word "Trump"
- Trump Files #17: He Dumped Wine on an "Unattractive Reporter"
- Trump Files #18: Behold the Hideous Statue He Wanted to Erect In Manhattan
- Trump Files #19: When Donald Was "Principal for a Day" and Confronted by a Fifth-Grader
- Trump Files #20: In 2012, Trump Begged GOP Presidential Candidates to Be Civil
- Trump Files #21: When Donald Couldn't Tell the Difference Between Gorbachev and an Impersonator
- Trump Files #22: His Football Team Treated Its Cheerleaders "Like Hookers"
- Trump Files #23: The Trump Files: Donald Tried to Shut Down a Bike Race Named "Rump"
- Trump Files #24: When Donald Called Out Pat Buchanan for Bigotry
- Trump Files #25: Donald's Most Ridiculous Appearance on Howard Stern's Show
- Trump Files #26: How Donald Tricked New York Into Giving Him His First Huge Deal
- Trump Files #27: Donald Told Congress the Reagan Tax Cuts Were Terrible
- Trump Files #28: When Donald Destroyed Historic Art to Build Trump Tower
- Trump Files #29: Donald Wanted to Build an Insane Castle on Madison Avenue
- Trump Files #30: Donald's Near-Death Experience (That He Invented)
- Trump Files #31: When Donald Struck Oil on the Upper West Side
- Trump Files #32: When Donald Massacred Trees in the Trump Tower Lobby
- Trump Files #33: When Donald Demanded Other People Pay for His Overpriced Quarterback
- Trump Files #34: The Time Donald Sued Someone Who Made Fun of Him for $500 Million
- Trump Files #35: Donald Tried to Make His Ghostwriter Pay for His Book Party
- Trump Files #36: Watch Donald Shave a Man's Head on Television
- Trump Files #37: How Donald Helped Make It Harder to Get Football Tickets
- Trump Files #38: Donald Was Curious About His Baby Daughter's Breasts
- Trump Files #39: When Democrats Courted Donald
- Trump Files #40: Watch the Trump Vodka Ad Designed for a Russian Audience
- Trump Files #41: Donald's Cologne Smelled of Jamba Juice and Strip Clubs
- Trump Files #42: Donald Sued Other People Named Trump for Using Their Own Name
- Trump Files #43: Donald Thinks Asbestos Would Have Saved the Twin Towers
- Trump Files #44: Why Donald Threw a Fit Over His "Trump Tree" in Central Park
- Trump Files #45: Watch Trump Endorse Slim Shady for President
- Trump Files #46: The Easiest 13 Cents He Ever Made
- Trump Files #47: The Time Donald Burned a Widow's Mortgage
- Trump Files #48: Donald's Recurring Sex Dreams
- Trump Files #49: Trump's Epic Insult Fight With Ed Koch
- Trump Files #50: Donald Has Some Advice for Citizen Kane
- Trump Files #51: Donald Once Turned Down a Million-Dollar Bet on "Trump: The Game"
- Trump Files #52: When Donald Tried to Shake Down Mike Tyson for $2 Million
- Trump Files #53: Donald and Melania's Creepy, Sex-Filled Interview With Howard Stern
- Trump Files #54: Donald's Mega-Yacht Wasn't Big Enough For Him
- Trump Files #55: When Donald Got in a Fight With Martha Stewart
- Trump Files #56: Donald Reenacts an Iconic Scene From Top Gun
- Trump Files #57: How Donald Tried to Hide His Legal Troubles to Get His Casino Approved
- Trump Files #58: Donald's Wall Street Tower Is Filled With Crooks
- Trump Files #59: When Donald Took Revenge by Cutting Off Health Coverage for a Sick Infant
- Trump Files #60: Donald Couldn't Name Any of His "Handpicked" Trump U Professors
- Trump Files #61: Watch a Clip of the Awful TV Show Trump Wanted to Make About Himself
- Trump Files #62: Donald Perfectly Explains Why He Doesn't Have a Presidential Temperament
- Trump Files #63: Donald's Petty Revenge on Connie Chung
- Trump Files #64: Why Donald Called His 4-Year-Old Son a "Loser"
- Trump Files #65: The Time Donald Called Some of His Golf Club Members "Spoiled Rich Jewish Guys"
- Trump Files #66: "Always Be Around Unsuccessful People," Donald Recommends
- Trump Files #67: Donald Said His Life Was "Shit." Here's Why.