On Monday night, the Trump Organization threw a lavish party in Midtown to celebrate the launch of its new Trump International Hotel & Tower in Dubai.

I wanted to know: How does the booming hotel market in Dubai compare to that of New York?

The dapper Donald Trump Jr. replied, "The high-end suites over there would be very comparable to the best you have in New York, and vice versa."

Fair enough. But what about bedbugs? Is the high-end Arab lodging scene just as prone to the nasty blood-sucking insects as the inns of Manhattan?

"Not that I’m aware of," the younger Trump said.  read more »

A trio of mimes, dressed up like tall, white palm trees, were moving around quite admirably on stilts. Yet slinky model Heidi Klum was the one complaining about blisters during a lavish party at Seagram’s Plaza along Park Avenue on Monday, June 23, celebrating the erection of the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Dubai.

“I need to sit down—my feet hurt,” said Ms. Klum, clomping away from a scaled-down model of the structure (complete with mini-monorail) in four-inch platform heels. When the Transom respectfully requested more sound bites, she blushingly demurred, saying, “You vil have a lot of commas in there, and a lot of dots.  read more »

In the next few weeks, when the Russian fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev buys Donald Trump’s gargantuan Palm Beach estate Maison de L’Amitie for a reported $100 million, it will be the biggest sale ever of a single-family home in America.

“You don’t have to worry about me at all,” Mr. Trump told The Observer, when asked about the country’s real estate woes. “We’re doing well.”

Besides the bizarreness of a record-breaking sale during a mostly cruel year for real estate, there’s the astounding fact that the listing broker, Lawrence Moens—Mr. Trump calls him Larry—had only been showing the property since March.  read more »

It all started so promisingly for Donald Trump. He arrived in Scotland in 2006, trumpeting plans for the "world's greatest golf course" in the birthplace of golf--and the birthplace of his late mother, Mary MacLeod. He was feted for his efforts to pump over $2 billion into the local Aberdeen area economy and to create more than 6,000 jobs.

Now, the plans for the Trump International Golf Links (and assorted luxury housnig) seem in jeopardy. As the Wall Street Journal reports today, it's not just the farmer refusing to sell his land in what would be the middle of Mr. Trump's course or the government inquiry that's under way right now. No, it's Mr. Trump:  read more »

A Gossip Girl spin-off show set at an all girls boarding school and headlined by Taylor Momsen's character, Jenny Humphrey, possibly in the works. [Hollywood Reporter]

While speaking at a public hearing in Scotland to push his $2 billion golf resort, Donald Trump said, "We have a President in the United States who's terrible. He stinks." [NY Daily News]

Tatum O'Neal sang karaoke last night with Radar's Neel Shah at Broadway East on the Lower East Side. They performed a duet of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together." [Radar]  read more »

Donald Trump plans to build what according to him will be "the greatest golf course in the world" at the Menie Estate in Scotland.

This morning, he made a case for the $2 billion golf resort to local residents and concerned environmental planners during a public inquiry in the nearby city of Aberdeen.  read more »

“Tonight is what I call menu night: You get a little taste of what the company does throughout the season,” said socialite and American Ballet Theater board member Blaine Trump during intermission at the company’s opening night and spring gala at the Metropolitan Opera House on Monday, May 19. “To be honest, I always thought I was going to be a ballerina when I grew up,” she added.  read more »

Leighton Meester goes on Conan O'Brian and totally doesn't act like Blair. [Daily Intel]

The newest pseudo-intern at the Vogue mothership is New York Ranger, Sean Avery, who like most Conde interns might travel to the European couture shows with Anna. [WWD]  read more »

Gristedes grocery store billionaire John Catsimatidis apparently has the support of Donald Trump in his race for mayor.

The New Yorker’s Ben McGrath reports that Mr. Catsimatidis has signed up pledges of support from not only Mr. Trump but also from most of the “at least thirty-five to forty percent of the Congress, and most of the major governors” who, according to Mr. Catsimatidis, “know I’m doing what I have to do.”  read more »

There's an excellent profile of Trump SoHo in this week's New York magazine--which happens to come awfully close to suggesting that the building is seriously tied to mob money. But its most swaggering and cold-hearted quote doesn't come from Mr. Trump himself! "We don’t want airline hostesses here," says neighborhood activist Sean Sweeney, the director of SoHo Alliance, explaining his opposition to the building, "or people coming from Europe or Asia for a couple of weeks."

Then there's this mean zinger: "Who was the first buyer in that building—a Croatian-Swedish soccer player?" (It's Inter Milan star Zlatan Ibrahimović, a Swede born to Bosnian parents). "Trump represents everything we hate. Bad taste. Déclassé. He’s uptown, we’re downtown, and never the two shall meet," Mr. Sweeney says.  read more »