How Trump’s phone book was a who’s who of the rich, glamorous and very useful: the complete list of contacts he could use at any time… from sports stars Serena Williams, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Brady to Rupert Murdoch
Sports stars, news channels MSNBC and Fox News, media moguls and casino owners.
A list of Trump Organization phone numbers introduced in court last week offers unprecedented insight into the way Donald Trump moves through the world, rubbing shoulders with the wealthy, the glamorous and the merely useful.
There’s slick football quarterback Tom Brady and the gruff coach who brought him to Super Bowl glory Bill Belichick.
And the Fox News hosts like Brett Baier and Sean Hannity, whose evening shows are where the former president likes to make news by talking live on the phone.
Their boss, Rupert Murdoch, is also there, alongside sports icons such as tennis champion Serena Williams and golf great Jack Nicklaus.
There are also more surprising reminders of Trump’s past as a liberal in New York.
Donald Trump pictured with Serena Williams in 2015 as she hit the first serve at the grand opening of the Tennis Performance Center at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia
People exhibit 69b offered a glimpse into the Trump Rolodex, featuring everyone from media mogul Rupert Murdoch to sports stars like Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and Jack Nicklaus
MSNBC Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are both on the list, believed to predate the time Trump derided the female half of the couple as “low IQ Crazy Mika” and claimed she had “bled profusely from a facelift’. during a party at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The extraordinary Rolodex-like list was published Friday in Manhattan Criminal Court as prosecutors try to build their case that Trump falsified business documents to conceal a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
He denies 34 offenses of corporate fraud.
Like all things Trump, the case may revolve around invoices, ledgers and checks, but the surrounding details shed light on his life in a tabloid haze.
Last week, the court heard from David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, how he offered to look out for kiss-and-tell stories from women who acted as the “eyes and ears” of the 2016 Trump campaign .
His evidence provided a wild ride through the golden age of tabloids and checkbook journalism.
On Friday, Trump’s longtime aide Rhona Graff gave testimony. The big headline was that she once saw Daniels in a Trump Tower office reception.
She also offered insight into Trump’s black book and the names of celebrities who fueled his rise to power.
Adult film actress Stephanie Clifford appears in the contacts file only under the first name of her pseudonym: Stormy. Her number, like others, was redacted when it was published in court
Karen McDougal’s contact details were published in court on Friday as People’s Evidence 82
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch with Trump at the Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 2016. Murdoch’s contact information was listed in a New York court filing on Friday
Tom Brady has played down his relationship with Trump, saying he was excited to play golf at his private club but had not spoken to him in years.
Last month, golfing great Jack Nicklaus presented Trump with the 2024 Most Improved Player Award at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida
Other names on the list are less surprising: Fox News stalwarts Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro
“Have you entered Mr. Trump’s contacts into a Trump Organization computer program known as Outlook?” she was asked by Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger.
“Yes, I did,” she replied.
“Do Mr. Trump’s contacts include information such as phone numbers and addresses of people in his life he wanted to contact?”
“That’s right,” she said.
That was a necessary legal nicety as the prosecutor established her credentials and then submitted a series of exhibits into evidence. The prosaic titles of People’s Documents 69b, 82 and 83 offered no clue to the content of their celebrities.
Exhibit 69b was a carefully redacted list of numbers for political contacts, including then-Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and billionaire investor Carl Icahn, to casino owner Steve Wynn, sports stars and TV celebrities like Judge Jeanine Pirro.
Graff explained Exhibit 83 in her own words.
“It’s an entry in our contact system for Stormy, Stormy Daniels,” she said. “I believe it has her cell phone number in there.”
The court heard from Trump’s longtime aide Rhona Graff on Friday. Judges were shown details of the contact file she kept, including entries from McDougal and Stormy
Stormy Daniels appears at an event on May 23, 2018 in West Hollywood, California. Her contact was just kept under the name ‘Stormy’ by Trump’s assistant
Exhibit 82 was a submission from Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who signed a $150,000 deal with the National Enquirer and claimed she had a long-standing relationship with Trump.
Other directory entries reflect a time before politics, when superstars loved to please New York’s most famous real estate mogul.
Take pioneering tennis icon Serena Williams.
Whether the two exchanged instant messages remains to be seen, but her presence in his contacts is a reminder of the time in 2015 when they exchanged forehands at the opening of a tennis center at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.
He had asked the then world number one to hit the first serve in the new facility.
Years later, John McEnroe revealed that Trump, ever the showman and promoter, had offered him $1 million to play Williams or her sister Venus in a battle of the sexes. He turned down the offer, he says.
Trump with TV producer Mark Burnett as they unveiled a new show, The Apprentice, in 2003
Trump made a brief statement after leaving court Friday after listening to Graff’s testimony
Other sports greats include Jack Nicklaus. He endorsed Trump in 2020 and attended the former president’s golf club in West Palm Beach last month to present him with the Most Improved Player award.
And there was the name that perhaps did more than anyone else to get Trump to the White House: Mark Burnett, the British-born TV producer who created The Apprentice and the vehicle that drove a smart-aleck real estate mogul from the suburbs of New York. York to prime time and superstardom.
Along the way, some of the entertainment media players who have helped him stay in the spotlight are: Harvey Levin, founder of TMZ, and Lorne Michaels, the creator of Saturday Night Live, who Trump invited to cohost the show in November 2015 (way too much of a of the cast’s concerns.)
It meant an unpredictable workday for staff in Trump’s orbit, Graff said in her testimony.
“Again, every day was different,” she said.
‘That was one of the reasons it was such an unusual place. There wasn’t a typical day, but I was usually there early in the morning before he came in. You know, I’m kind of getting his office ready for the day.”
The trial will resume Tuesday morning.