President Trump Talks Levittown Before Boy Scouts

Trump told the young people about famed real estate developer William Levitt, the man behind Bucks County’s Levittown and several similar developments.

During a speech that meandered across several topics, including his election victory, calling out former President Barack Obama, opinion polls and “fakes news,” the Republican president pumped up the crowd of Boy Scouts from across the nation.

The portion of the speech devoted to Levitt came after Trump spoke about following goals and asked: “Did President Obama ever come to a Jamboree? And we’ll be back. We’ll be back. The answer’s no, but we’ll be back.”

“I’ll tell you a story that’s very interesting for me. When I was young, there was a man named William Levitt – Levittown. You have some here, you have some in different states. Anyone ever hear of Levittown?”

Trump spoke of Levitt’s dedication for his Levittown communities and care for his job sites.

“He did it properly,” he said.

“He sold his company for a tremendous amount of money and he went out and bought a big yacht and he had a very interesting life. I won’t go any more than that because you’re Boy Scouts. I’m not going to tell you what he did – should I tell you? Should I tell you? Oh, you’re Boy Scouts, but you know life, you know life. So look at you. Who would have thought this was the Boy Scouts.”

Trump explained the story of how Levitt, who was then among the richest men in the country, sold his company in the 1960s to International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation for $92 million in stock. He enjoyed the benefits of the sale and lived a lavish lifestyle, including sailing on his 237-foot yacht, La Belle Simone.

65 Years Later, Life Goes On In Levittown

“He got bored with this life of yachts and sailing and all these other things he did … what happened is he bought back his company and he bought back a lot of empty land. And he worked hard on getting his zoning and starting to develop … and in the end he failed and he failed badly. Lost all of his money, he went personally bankrupt, and he was now much older. And I saw him at a cocktail party. And it was very sad, because the hottest people in New York were at this party. It was the party of Steve Ross. Steve Ross, who was one of the great people. He came up and discovered, really founded, Time Warner. And he was a great guy, had a lot of successful people at the party.

“I see, sitting in the corner, was a little old man who was all by himself. No one was talking to him … I immediately recognize that that man was the once-great William Levitt of Levittown.

“I went up to him and said, ‘Mr. Levitt, I’m Donald Trump.’ And he said,  ‘I know.’”

The president went on to explain that Levitt told him he was “not well at all.”

Trump said he asked “how did this happen to you?”

“And he said, ‘Donald, I lost my momentum. I lost my momentum.’ A word you never hear when you’re talking about success. He lost his momentum, meaning he took this period of time off long, years, and then when he got back, he didn’t have the same momentum.”

“In life, I always tell this to people. You have to know whether or not you continue to have the momentum. And if you don’t have it that’s okay. Because you’re going to go on and do things that are great.”

“Work hard and never, ever give up, and you’re going to be tremendously successful,” he told the crowd of 30,000.

Trump’s speech to the Boy Scouts drew some criticism for mentioning Levitt, who barred blacks from his communities in the early years. In Bucks County, Daisey Myers and her family moved in to Deepgreen Lane in Bristol Township five years after the first Levitt-built homes were constructed. The family was welcomed with cross burnings and violence.

While Trump got most of the details on Levitt correct, the developer did not buy back his company from International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, but did run through all his money by the 1980s. Failed developments around the world and a lavish lifestyle caused him to die penniless at age 86 in 1994.

Trump, who made his fortune through urban real estate and branding, differs from Levitt, who ushered in a new era with the construction of his suburban Levittown communities post-World War II.

Monday was not the first time Trump mentioned Levitt. In a 2016 stump speech, Trump recalled the man who innovated large-scale home construction projects and allowed young families to own their home and plot of land on a middle-class wage.

In the election, Trump lost Bucks County by about 2,000 votes. Democrat Hillary Clinton won the majority of votes in Bristol Township, Falls Township, Middletown and Tullytown, which are the four towns that make up Levittown. However, Trump signs were highly visible throughout Levittown leading up to election day and some of the area’s moderate Democrats were compelled to vote for Trump.