Trump surrounds himself with the best and the brightest

'As an employer, Trump is both demanding and loyal,' according to Anthony P. 'Tony' Senecal, one time butler now Mar-a-Lago historian

'He'll fight you like a dog when he's negotiating, but when you make a deal, he'll find a way to make you his friend,' says one business associate

Trump bought the Palm Beach jewel when it had gone to seed and was costing millions after it was taken over by the federal government

Ronald Kessler, a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, is the author of The Season: Inside Palm Beach and America's Richest Society and The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents.

If you want to know how Donald Trump would operate as president, take a look at his Palm Beach jewel Mar-a-Lago.

The job of president is ultimately that of a CEO, and Trump did not amass a fortune of $10 billion and build a company that employs 22,450 people by being the fool that some portray.

Yet for all his bravado, Trump never details how he actually runs his businesses, nor have the media reported that story.

The inside story of how Trump operates Mar-a-Lago illustrates how he would operate as president, applying to the sprawling government the same management techniques that have made him so successful as a businessman: hiring the best and the brightest, holding department heads accountable, firing employees when necessary and insisting on quality and cost cutting.

When Trump bought Mar-a-Lago in 1985, it was a white elephant. Built in 1927 by cereal heir Marjorie Merriweather Post, the Mediterranean-style, 118-room estate was bequeathed by Post to the federal government as a possible outpost for diplomats.

But the government did not maintain it properly and decided it had no use for Mar-a-Lago.

The deteriorating property reverted to Post's foundation, which had trouble finding a buyer. No one wanted to assume the cost of maintaining the mansion - at least $3 million a year, including taxes.

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Family affair: When Trump , here with son Baron and wife Melania, bought Mar-a-Lago in 1985, it was a white elephant built in 1927 by cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post

Jewel by the sea: The Mediterranean-style, 118-room, 20-acre estate was bequeathed by Post to the federal government as a possible outpost for diplomats

Turning it around: For 10 years, Trump used Mar-a-Lago as a winter home. On the suggestion of his Florida lawyer, Paul Rampell, Trump decided to turn Mar-a-Lago into a club, which he opened in 1995

Trump bought the mansion and its 20 acres for $5 million plus $3 million for the furnishings. For 10 years, Trump used Mar-a-Lago as a winter home.

On the suggestion of his Florida lawyer, Paul Rampell, Trump decided to turn Mar-a-Lago into a club, which he opened in 1995.

Trump spent millions renovating Mar-a-Lago. He employed Richard Haynes, whose father originally gilded Mar-a-Lago, to do nothing but replicate and restore the estate's artistic touches.

Using $10,000 worth of gold leaf thinner than tissue paper, Haynes re-gilded 40 rams' heads that jut from the roof line.

'We kept it exactly as it was,' Trump told me when my wife Pamela Kessler and I stayed with him for a weekend at Mar-a-Lago as part of the research for my 1999 book 'The Season: Inside Palm Beach and America's Richest Society.'

To join the club, members pay a non-refundable $100,000 plus $14,000 a year in fees. The roughly 450 Mar-a-Lago Club members pay for dining and shows and $1,000 and up per night to stay in 10 suites or in additional cottages Trump has added to the property.

Almost every day, the thriving club hosts functions attended at one time or another by nearly every celebrity in the country.

Events now include the annual International Red Cross Ball, which Trump lured from Palm Beach's Breakers Hotel.

This past New Year's Eve, 700 club members, family members, and a few longtime friends - including Pam and me - paid $1,100 per couple for the party in the ballroom Donald built.

The evening began with hors d'oeuvres and champagne on the terrace overlooking the pool, always heated to 78 degrees like the second pool on the ocean.

Cocktail shrimp, stone crab claws, cold lobster, oysters on the half shell, sushi, and caviar dished onto blini were among the offerings.

To safeguard the billionaires who attend such events, Mar-a-Lago Managing Director and Executive Vice President Bernd Lembcke hires four town firefighters and emergency technicians to stand by. Polished and urbane, Bernd has a sophisticated understanding of How Things Work.

Celebration: This past New Year's Eve, 700 club members, family members, and a few longtime friends, including Pam (right) and Ron Kessler (left), paid $1,100 per couple for the party in the ballroom Donald built

Trump's gamble on Mar-a-Lago paid off. What was once a white elephant generates $15.6 million a year in revenue, according to Trump's financial disclosures released by federal election officials.

Based on sales of other Palm Beach property fronting on both sides of the 3.75-square-mile island, Mar-a-Lago is now estimated to be worth $300 million.

Unless he is campaigning, every weekend during the season, Trump flies down on his Boeing 757-200 with Melania, who speaks six languages, and his children who live in New York to spend the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, where he likes the prime dry aged strip steak and the meatloaf labeled as his mother's recipe.

Just before she retired in 2006, Norma Foerderer, Trump's vice president and top aide for 26 years, gave me her only in depth interview about Donald.

Foerderer said there are two Donald Trumps: the 'outrageous' one that utters brash comments on television and the real one that only she and other insiders know.

'I mean Donald can be totally outrageous, but outrageous in a wonderful way that gets him coverage,' Foerderer told me, presaging the caricature of himself Trump creates running for president.

'That persona sells his licensed products and his condominiums. You know Donald's never been shy, and justifiably so, in talking about how wonderful his buildings or his golf clubs are.'

The private Trump, on the other hand, is 'the dearest, most thoughtful, most loyal, most caring man,' Foerderer said. That caring side inspires loyalty and is one of his secrets to his success.

Poolside: 'Trump wants the best for his properties, he wants a competitive price. But he treats everyone with respect. Whenever he has to honor anything, he does. Even if he disagrees, he will compromise,' says one associate

Always improving: On many of his visits, Trump inspects the entire property with Mar-a-Lago executives or sometimes with his lawyer Rampell, looking for anything amiss or possible violations of local codes and ordering improvements like the American flag that now dominates the front lawn

'The guy is fairer than hell,' says Gary J. Giulietti, a Trump friend who handles a portion of his insurance as president of Lockton Cos., the largest privately held insurance brokerage company in the world.

'He wants the best for his properties, he wants a competitive price. But he treats everyone with respect. Whenever he has to honor anything, he does. Even if he disagrees, he will compromise.

'He'll fight you like a dog when he's negotiating, but when you make a deal, he'll find a way to make you his friend to work with you.'

Giulietti, who belongs to both Mar-a-Lago and the Trump International Golf Course in nearby West Palm Beach, has found that Trump surrounds himself with the best people.

'He gets their advice and comes to the best conclusion that he thinks is the right decision,' Giulietti says.

'He hires and promotes every ethnic group in the world. If you look at his clubs, Hispanics are the ones largely running them, and they love Donald Trump.'

As an example of Trump's attention to detail, when he was building the golf course, he drove Pam, a former Washington Post reporter who contributes vivid descriptions to my books, and me to the site in his black Durango SLT four-wheel drive vehicle.

Trump drove to a 35-foot waterfall being built for $2.5 million. On the ground were samples of rocks ranging in color from white to gray to red.

Attention to detail: One of the exquisitely decorated sitting rooms at Mar-a-Lago. Trump also used $10,000 worth of gold leaf to re-gild40 rams' heads that jut from the roof line

'I like the lighter color,' Trump said. 'I don't like the red. To me, a red rock is more like granite from New England.'

He asked the construction crew which color they liked, then he asked his staff, Pam, and me. He seemed genuinely interested in everyone's opinions, and when most said they preferred the reddish samples, he decided to go with them.

If Trump is intemperate, as his critics claim, his employees have seen none of it.

Rather, as an employer, Trump is both demanding and loyal, according to Anthony P. 'Tony' Senecal, who served as personal butler to Trump at Mar-a-Lago for 20 years and is now the Mar-a-Lago historian.

On many of his visits, Trump inspects the entire property with Mar-a-Lago executives or sometimes with his lawyer Rampell, looking for anything amiss or possible violations of local codes and ordering improvements like the American flag that now dominates the front lawn.

Trump will sometimes do his own research to fix problems, as when he decided that red clay was the best surface for his tennis courts.

'We were remodeling the bathrooms in the front hallway,' Senecal recalls. 'We were all lined up at the front door when he came in on Friday.

'He looked around, and everybody's kind of beaming, because the finished job looked nice. And then he goes over to the new fire alarm box and rubs his finger across it, and it was dusty. Everybody's heart sank.'

Seafood feast: The New Year's Eve celebration began with cocktail shrimp, stone crab claws, cold lobster, oysters on the half shell and sushi

Fine dining: Caviar dished onto blini were among the offerings at the New Year's Eve celebration

When Trump was building a ballroom addition to Mar-a-Lago, 'He would constantly go there on the weekends and check the exterior workmanship,' Senecal says. 'If he saw anything that was out of line, he would tell them you better fix it. If he wanted a change in the plans, he would say, 'You're not going to charge me for that, are you?'

Like a consummate maitre d', Trump loves to greet club members as they are dining, asking if everything was okay.

If a diner says the steak was too dry, Trump will take it up directly with Mar-a-Lago Managing Director Lembcke.

While Trump may blow up at an employee over an honest mistake, he doesn't hold a grudge, and five minutes later will act as though nothing had happened, says Senecal, who began working for Trump in 1985.

At the same time, Trump is generous with praise for employees at all levels when they are doing a good job. He will make it a point to compliment them in front of their bosses.

'He keeps a wad of $100 bills in his pants pocket and will distribute them widely to groundskeepers, plumbers, or other low-level employees when he likes the job they are doing,' Senecal says.

Senecal says there are three things none of Trump's employees should do. 'You don't steal from him; you don't lie to him; and you don't embarrass him,' Senecal says. Usually, if Trump decides to fire someone, he will go back to New York first and think about it.

'Then he'll call up whoever's in charge here and say, you know, 'Get rid of...' Then there are times when he's just said, 'Get out of here. You're fired.' That's when he's really, really been upset over something. Like cutting the bougainvillea down [by mistake] or something like that.'

Some years ago, when Senecal's home air conditioning system gave out, Trump had it replaced. When Senecal had to undergo surgery to implant a stent, Trump called him the day before.

'So when do you go under the knife?' Trump asked.

'Tomorrow,' said Senecal.