In August 1993, Donald Trump visited Hong Kong with the intention of building a Trump Tower in Central. “I’m a New York boy, born and bred, and there’s only one other city in the world that impresses me – Hong Kong,” Trump enthused in an interview with this paper, accompanied by his then-girlfriend Marla Maples, who was seven months pregnant with their daughter Tiffany Trump at the time.
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Trump was reportedly in discussions with several of the city’s leading property developers. However, the plan fell through due to financial and other reasons. Now, 32 years later, it is a good time for Hong Kong to revisit this idea and help Trump realise his unfulfilled dream of building a Trump Tower in the city.
A young academic floated this idea at a recent dinner event, which elicited some snickers from those at the table. However, the suggestion struck a chord with me.
I can imagine many readers rolling their eyes and sniggering at this notion as well. But if we think deeply about it, the suggestion exemplifies the kind of out-of-the-box thinking our city desperately needs to survive and thrive in this age of uncertainty, squeezed by the rising rivalry between the United States and China.
Conventional wisdom will be against the idea. The circumstances have changed significantly since 1993. Trump, who launched a trade war against China during his first term, has returned to the White House and packed his cabinet with China hawks. Many analysts now expect the confrontation between the world’s two largest economies to intensify in the coming years.
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Hong Kong has also undergone significant changes since Trump’s visit. Its status as Asia’s premier financial centre is under siege amid rising concerns about the city’s direction following the 2019 protests and the subsequent imposition of the national security law in 2020.