... The photographer says he attended Trump’s parties with one of the owners of the hair salon, Pierre Michel, that operated in both the Plaza and Trump Tower. The salon owner, Pierre Ouaknine, says his memories of those Plaza parties vanished after a recent surgery. But the photographer’s memories are crystal clear. Trump would take over “suites on the corners” of his hotel with views of Central Park and Grand Army Plaza, not to mention lots to look at inside, and wow his guests.
The attraction for the men “was young girls assuming they’d get somewhere” by joining the party, the photographer says, “Of course, it never happens.”
Young models were attracted to the fêtes with a simple, time-tested pitch. “You’ll meet rich guys who will help you,” says the photographer. “It was networking, but on a weird, bizarre scale.”
The girls were as young as 15, he says, and “over their heads, they had no idea, and they ended up in situations. There were always dramas because the men threw money and drugs at them to keep them enticed. It’s based on power and dominating girls who can’t push back and can be discarded. There’s always someone to pick them back up. Nobody wants to call home and say ‘Help me.’”
Trump would “go from room to room,” said the photographer, who added that “I was there to party myself. It was guys with younger girls, sex, a lot of sex, a lot of cocaine, top-shelf liquor” but no smoking. Trump didn’t approve of cigarettes.
Those men at these parties often knew each other. “It’s a small community,” the photographer says. “They exchanged information, facilitated each other. Trump was in and out. He’d wander off with a couple girls. I saw him. He was getting laid like crazy. Trump was at the heart of it. He loved the attention and in private, he was a total ****ing beast.”
Trump himself nodded to the life when his own daughter began modeling, saying “I am only modestly in favor of this because I understand that that life is a very fast life, and at that age it is always a risky proposition.” He would know about that life.
Andy Lucchesi, the second man I spoke to, was and remains a male model. He was identified to me by a modeling executive as a frequent visitor to the Trump model salons. “I don’t want to get him in trouble,” Lucchesi says of Trump. “I like Donald. I respect the guy. People should want to know about Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Clinton,” referring to the billionaire pedophile who in fact palled around with both Clinton and Trump. I ask if he’s equating Trump’s parties with Epstein’s debauches. “Hell no,” Lucchesi says.
Lucchesi had been described to me by the modeling executive as an organizer of Trump’s parties, one of several who wrangled models to them. Asked about that description, Lucchesi says that “the parties weren’t like an organized once a week thing.”
But was he wrangling models for Trump? “A lot of people would say that,” Lucchesi allows, adding that he thought Trump’s motive was a desire to open a model agency of his own, which he eventually did.
Lucchesi’s recollection of the parties dovetails with the photographer’s account. “There was cocaine around. I never saw him do that. Donald Trump does not do cocaine. He’s in control of himself.”
Girls? “Well. Of course,” Lucchesi says. “But I never knew him as one of those guys buying apartments for girls from Estonia.” (Though he did marry a model from Slovenia.)
But did he have sex with his female party guests? “So, he’s a man with a woman,” Lucchesi says vaguely. How old were they? “A lot of girls, 14, look 24. That’s as juicy as I can get. I never asked how old they were; I just partook. I did partake in activities that would be controversial, too.”
Lucchesi adds that he’s glad nobody cares about what he did back then. “I had so much fun, my body is paying for it now.”
