LOS ANGELES _ On Jan. 13, 1990, Donald Trump arrived at the once-glamorous Ambassador Hotel for a major announcement: Here on Los Angeles' Wilshire Boulevard, Trump said, he would build the tallest building in the world.
It was the New York developer's first major deal on the West Coast and a potentially skyline-redefining project for the city. The 125-story, $1 billion-plus residential and commercial complex would overshadow everything else in the neighborhood, a towering testament to Trump's ambition.
At the time, long before his 2016 run for president, Trump seemed to be everywhere. He was already a household name with Trump Tower and the Plaza Hotel in New York, plus his casinos in Atlantic City and his lavish Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, which led then-City Council President John Ferraro to joke, "Why did it take you so long to get to Los Angeles?"
Twenty-six years later, Trump still hasn't really arrived in L.A. _ at least not as a builder of skyscrapers.
In the world of real estate, the Trump name is a symbol of opulence and daring, stamped on buildings in New York, Chicago and Las Vegas in the U.S. and in cities around the world, including Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul and Mumbai, where Trump has licensed his brand to other developers.
But there is no Trump Tower on the old Ambassador Hotel site or anywhere else in L.A., for that matter.
Trump's biggest land holding here is a shoreline Rancho Palos Verdes golf course, which bankrupted its previous owners when the 18th hole slid into the ocean in 1999.
Trump has said he spent nearly $300 million buying and fixing up the golf course, which reopened in 2005 and wowed visitors with its sweeping panoramas of the Pacific Ocean. But Trump's own tax attorney has claimed in recent years that the course is worth just $10 million, and a former general manager said the course was not much of a moneymaker.
Trump, now the Republican nominee for president, has touted his business experience as a major developer and his image as a deal maker as qualifications for the nation's highest office.
But when it comes to his lesser-known history in Southern California, Trump's record is peppered with setbacks, lawsuits and bold ideas that never came to pass.
