Nobody knows elaborate skyscrapers quite like Donald Trump so it was only a matter of time before the flame-haired property magnate offered his views on the financial crisis afflicting the once booming emirate of Dubai.
Speaking on the CNBC show Squawk Box this morning, The Donald declared that many people had wondered about the point of the once cash-rich city.
"A lot of people were saying," he recalled, "what is the purpose of Dubai, what's the purpose of building so much?"
Trump continued: "You walked through those streets and it was like New York City times 10 in its heyday. I've never seen anything like it in my life and you said 'where did these people come from?' Well, it turns out that they didn't come."
Funny. He wasn't always so sceptical. In fact, only two years ago, Trump thought it worth doing business in Dubai. He struck a deal with Dubai's Nakheel property firm to lend his name to a 62-storey Trump Tower hotel on the luxury Palm Jumeirah development just off the coast of Dubai.
I remember it well, because I was at a June 2008 press conference in New York where he waxed lyrical to journalists about the $1.1bn rocket-shaped project's "sensational" architecture. Penthouse suites were supposed to sell for $3,000 per square foot. Heidi Klum and Demi Moore were among the celebs at a Manhattan party to launch the project, which was to have interiors designed by Kelly Hoppen.
Work abruptly stopped on the hotel at the end of last year and The Donald did allude to it during his CNBC appearance: "I was going to do a deal there with Nakheel and they paid me a lot of money to go into a partnership and they were getting ready to start the building about a year ago and they were all excited and then the market collapsed on them."
Wonderful thing, hindsight, isn't it, Donald?
