Small loan

Trump: My dad gave me a 'small loan' of a million dollars

By Nick Gass

As Donald Trump tells it, he has been told no his entire life. For example, he said Monday, his father gave him a "small loan of a million dollars" that he had to repay with interest at the start of his career.

“Oh many times. I’ve been told no by him. My whole life, really has been a no," the Republican presidential candidate said during a town hall event in Atkinson, New Hampshire, on NBC's "Today."
“It has not been easy for me. It has not been easy for me. I started off in Brooklyn. My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars," Trump remarked. "I came into Manhattan, and I had to pay him back, and I had to pay him back with interest. But I came into Manhattan and I started buying properties, and I did great."

Trump said his father had told him that going to Manhattan would not work, and later in his life, other people told him that a presidential campaign would not pan out.

NBC's Matt Lauer followed up on Trump's "small loan" remark: "By the way, let's just put this in perspective, you said it hasn't been easy for you, but my dad gave me a million-dollar loan. That probably is going to seem pretty easy to a lot of people."

"You're right, but a million dollars isn't very much compared to what I've built," Trump countered. "I mean, I've built one of the great companies, but it's always been, you know, you can't do this, you can't do that."