NEW YORK -- So what's it really like to work for Donald Trump? Never mind the hit show "The Apprentice" and the infamous boardroom where losing contestants get summarily fired after a grilling.
Up there, in a warren of unpretentious, messy offices -- including Trump's own -- is where the real action is, where the mogul and a small coterie of trusted lieutenants and assistants run an empire of real estate, hotels, casinos and golf courses with more than $10.2 billion in annual revenues.
"It is a dictatorship, not a democracy," says George Ross, 76, one of Trump's two advisers on the show and in actuality his general counsel and executive vice president.
For the uninitiated, "The Apprentice," a reality series, features two teams of eight aspiring entrepreneurs who are given tasks by Trump. Each week one of them is fired, and at the show's first-season conclusion Thursday night, the sole survivor, Bill Rancic, was rewarded with a $250,000 job running a Trump hotel and tower in Chicago.
Life on the 26th floor does bear some resemblance to the spirit of "The Apprentice," but also significant differences.
The action is fast, but there is no sign of competition because everyone is on the same team.
"Call Paul Walker," Trump's voice abruptly booms out into the hall where three assistants work. There is no intercom.
Then, "Call John."
Jay Leno calls in, wants to know whether Trump saw an episode of "The Tonight Show," but he talks to Norma Foerderer, a Trump vice president and his chief assistant for 23 years.
"He didn't ask for Donald," Foerderer says. "He knows how busy he is."
Trump is more present here than the Trump of the show. He's faster, more impatient and more dominant. Suddenly he appears at the doorway of Ross's office.
"How's it going?" he asks Ross about a particular deal.
"Donald, I think you left too much on the table," ventures Ross, suggesting that Trump had been too generous.
"I always leave too much on the table," says Trump with a laugh as he whirls away back to his office down the hall.
"It's his money, and I can suggest, I can argue, but it's his final say," says Ross during a series of interviews with several of Trump's key employees.
And saying "You're fired" is mild compared with what really happens when an employee is dishonest or disloyal, Ross says.
"Donald goes absolutely ballistic, screaming, yelling, cursing, and you could not print the words he says. You wouldn't want to be there," he says.
Ross and Carolyn Kepcher, Trump's other adviser on "The Apprentice," described their boss as demanding but loyal.
"I had a cesarean section with my first child, Connor, and he was the first person who telephoned to see how I was," says Kepcher, chief operating officer for Trump National Golf Clubs.
Kepcher, 35, says she works 60- to 70-hour weeks, seldom getting home before 8 p.m. "I try to get home before the children get to sleep," she says.
Golf, says Kepcher, is Trump's passion. "He's always looking for ways to improve things, including his golf game."
Ross and Kepcher say Trump often fusses over details, right down to the color and type of doorknobs.
But on other matters, infinitely more important than doorknobs, Trump delegates freely.
"He doesn't read contracts, no matter how big," says Ross. "I negotiate them, I write them, I read them, and he signs them."
Trump, 57, is also a man of idiosyncrasies not readily apparent on the show.
"You will never see him in his shirt sleeves, even at his desk," says Ross. "He always wears a jacket."
Yes, it's true he doesn't drink or smoke, but it's not true that Trump is overwhelmingly phobic about germs and refuses to shake hands.
"He shakes my hand, he shakes his friends' hands, he just doesn't like to shake strangers' hands, and in restaurants or wherever he goes, he's always mobbed," says Kepcher.
Trump also prizes punctuality, and Kepcher says she always arrives early for meetings.
Time, on the 26th floor, seems to be Trump's enemy. On this day, he is way behind schedule. There is a line of four people with appointments in the reception area. One of them has waited for three hours.
Trump's desk is covered with piles of papers. There's a computer on a table 15 feet away, but Trump doesn't use it.
Paper is the medium here: memos and notes. When he approves, Trump customarily jots "OK -- DT."
Under consideration at the moment is furniture for one of his country clubs.
"I want it mahogany. I like mahogany, the rich look," Trump says.
Foerderer said for all Trump's toughness and impatience, he likes to promote people from within his organization.
"He likes to see what you can do and let you run with it," she says. "That is sort of like the show."
For example, she said, two former security guards hired more than 15 years ago are now in charge of various operations in New York and Florida.
Ten years ago, Kepcher was running a bankrupt golf course for a management company hired to sell it.
"Donald was interested in the property, he saw how I was operating it, and he was impressed that we were making money out of the bankruptcy," she says. "He bought the property and said, 'Come work for me.' "
Ross has known Trump since the '70s. "I represented him in his first big deal, the purchase of the Commodore Hotel, which is now the Hyatt on 42nd Street," Ross says.
Eight years ago, he was ready to retire but made a deal with Trump.
"I told Donald I'd work four days a week, I'll take as many vacation days as I want, when I want, and I told him if you're unhappy with me at any time, tell me to leave and I'll leave and we're friends, and if I'm unhappy, I'll leave and we'll still be friends.
"Of course, I'm in a unique position with him because I don't care if I get fired. I don't need to work."
The Donald in his 26th-floor office, where he presides over a multi-billion-dollar empire. As for delegating, "He likes to see what you can do and let you run with it," says one of his assistants. Trump with "Apprentice" winner Bill Rancic, whose reward for outlasting other contestants on the reality show is a $250,000 job running a Trump hotel and tower in Chicago.
