'He don't keep his word': Former mob boss tells why he wouldn't do business with Trump

A new book out this weekend on a top former mob boss claims that the mob did business with casino owner Donald Trump in the 1980s – but that things didn’t go far because Trump couldn’t be trusted, Fox News reported today.

The book – entitled “The Life We Chose: William 'Big Billy' D’Elia and the Last Secrets of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Family” – is promoted as containing new information about Jimmy Hoffa, the Godfather Movie, and at least one Trump dealing with mobsters.

The Fox News interview with the raspy-voiced D’Elia included this exchange about Trump:

Q: You met him.

A: A couple of times.

Q: What was he like?

A. Just like he is on TV now. Arrogant and he don’t keep his word.

Q. He does not keep his word?

A. No.

The Fox News report cited negotiations between Trump and mobsters in which the then-casino owner reneged on a promise with D’Elia’s associates to pay $7 million for a parking lot near his Trump Plaza Casino. Strangely enough, it ended up in a coin toss, according to the report.

Here's more of the interview:

Q. So when he has the meeting, Trump says I’m not going to give you seven million dollars. I don’t want to pay that much.

A. He says I’ll give you six.

Q. And what did they say to that?

A. What could they say? So, they flipped a coin and my friends lost. And what could they do? Sue him? They’d still be waiting.

Q. So Trump isn’t a man of his word?

A. I just told you a story. If he promises you seven and he gives you six, is that a man of his word?

Fox News also interviewed Matt Birkbeck, the book’s author, who had this to say about Trump’s negotiating style:

“Now Trump, when he did deals, he didn’t want his lawyers doing it. He didn’t want anyone else doing it. He did it himself. And he did them with gangsters.”