In late 1990, the all-female band Precious Metal was going to shoot a video for their remake of “Mr. Big Stuff.” Trump made headlines by agreeing to star as the title character, in return for a charitable donation.
“I want to give it to my favorite charity, and it’s just 10 grand,” Leslie Knauer, the lead singer for the band, recalled Trump saying.
They shot the video, Knauer said.
Then, a few days later, the band got a call.
“You know, $10,000 really isn’t a Trump kind of donation,” Trump said, according to interviews Knauer gave at the time. He wanted $250,000.
The move backfired. The band re-shot the video with a look-alike. Knauer said they gave Trump nothing.
“Then he said [publicly] he hated the song,” Knauer recalled. “It was horrible.