When Sammy the Bull Tried to Shake Down Donald Trump

During NYC’s 1980’s construction boom. Gravano Tried but Trump wouldn’t give in according to the Bull’s latest podcast.

By Dan Murphy

In his latest video podcast on YouTube, Sammy the Bull Gravano spoke about how he tried to shake down former President Donald Trump during the 1980’s when Trump was building skyscrapers in Manhattan and Gravano controlled many parts of the contstruction industry in the Big Apple.

“It’s very hard to F*** with Trump,” said Gravano. “His jobs are hundreds of million dollar high rise construction and they are all union. He has around him, ex FBI agents as security. He came from a wealthy family. He was not self-made. His father was a heavyweight constrution guy with a ton of money and a ton of connections, with the government, politicians, the FBI. When you start getting people that connected, F*** with them is not a smart move. Trying to shake them down is not a smart move.”

According to Gravano, instead of a shake down, “I gave them union problems a bunch of times. I wanted his people to bribe me to get me to stop. But I never got into that with him.”

At that point, Gravano’s colleagues in the mob wanted to push Trump a little more to see if he would give in. “Sammy we could push at him a little harder.” “We could, and we could all go to jail. We are working with a ton of different people, F** him. We tried a little bit, no response. If we really pushed now, all of those ex-FBI agents up there are going to know. I don’t know what they are going to do but it ain’t going to be good. I’m not that interested, let’s go to somebody else,” said Gravano.

Many have questioned whether Donald Trump was invovled with the mafia during his years of building in Manhattan. According to Gravano, he couldn’t get to Trump, and Sammy the Bull had his hand in just about every construction project in the City, based on the different construction companies he owned, and the unions he controlled. Perhaps Trump paid the regular “mob tax” of a few dollars for each window, or the concrete payment that automatically went to the mob, who rigged the bidding.

But Trump had a good enough security detail around him, made up of former FBI agents, to scare Sammy the Bull away.

I have enjoyed every Sammy the Bull podcast. Yes, I understand that he has a troubling past but his recollection of events that he was involved in, and his ability to tell those stories, are among the best on YouTube. Sammy was at Sparks Steakhouse the night when Paul Castellano got killed. He was John Gotti’s underboss. He knows all of the old bosses and all of the old mob players. He has his enemies, John Gotti Jr. among them.

But no offense to John Jr., but nodody can tell a mob story like Sammy the Bull. I would highly recommend anyone interested in the NYC Mafia of the 1980’s to watch Our Thing Podcast with Sammy the Bull Gravano. There are more tales with Trump that you will find.