[6] In August 2023, The New York Times wrote that the clock had been installed illegally, as the building's owner, the Trump Organization, had neither applied for nor received a permit.

[19] Above the main entrance is a logo with 34-inch-high (86 cm) brass capital letters in Stymie Extra Bold font,[21] which reads "Trump Tower".

[36][37] The public spaces in Trump Tower include the main lobby, the lower-level concourse and restrooms, and two outdoor terraces on the fourth and fifth floor.

Vanity Fair called it a contender for "the worst restaurant in America," with different menus for different customers and "steakhouse classics doused with unnecessarily high-end ingredients.

The ice cream was described as "almost too soft to be scooped," and the cafe contained food such as a "rubbery and overcooked" hamburger patty and some "inedible" steak fries.

"[53] Vice magazine also reviewed the bar and found it to be overpriced, with "a strong pour of watered-down vodka and a few Manzanilla olives" costing twenty dollars.

[67] Donald Trump had envisioned building a tower at 56th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan since childhood, but formulated plans to develop the site only in the mid-1970s, when he was in his thirties.

[83] In 1979, the New York Committee for a Balanced Building Boom had opposed the planned rezoning over fears Fifth Avenue's character would be changed by the construction of skyscrapers.

[84] Trump later said a positive review of the building by Ada Louise Huxtable, The New York Times' architectural critic, had helped secure the support of some of the more skeptical members on each committee.

[104] Several prospective commercial and residential tenants requested custom-made features, including the installation of a swimming pool for one unit, and the removal of a wall with utilities inside it for another.

[84] The controversy over the destruction of the Bonwit Teller decorations had largely passed: in August 1983, one New York Times reporter wrote that "the only negative comments about Donald Trump these days are given off the record.

[120] One writer for Vanity Fair magazine noted that as tenants were evicted from the tower's atrium due to high rents, several of them sued the Trump Organization for issues such as overbilling and illegal lease termination.

[119] By 1991, Trump was involved in lawsuits against residents: in October of that year, he successfully sued actor Pia Zadora and her husband, businessman Meshulam Riklis, to collect $1 million in unpaid rent.

[132] Galeries Lafayette announced that it would be closing the Trump Tower location in August 1994, less than three years after it opened, due to its inability to pay the $8 million annual rent and taxes.

[144] Wells Fargo & Co., the master servicer of the $100 million mortgage loan Trump took out in 2012,[145] placed the tower on a debt watch list in September 2021 because its average occupancy had fallen to 78.9% from 85.9% at the end of 2020.

[14][154][189] The apartments and office space were described as part of an "extravagant" lifestyle that ultimately resulted in Blazer being apprehended and becoming an FBI informant in a corruption investigation into several soccer organizations.

In December 1979, Stiebel and Trump agreed that the Art Deco limestone bas-relief sculptures of semi-nude goddesses on the Bonwit Teller Building's facade, as well as the massive ornate 15 by 25 feet (4.6 by 7.6 m) grille above the store's entrance, would be removed and donated to the Metropolitan Museum.

[200][199] In February 1980, Trump wrote a letter to an official at the museum, in which he stated, "Our contractor plans to begin demolition on the exterior of the building in approximately three to four weeks.

[205][204] Stiebel had received notice of the sculptures' pending demolition, but by the time she reached the Trump Tower site, the workmen told her they had been ordered to "destroy it all.

"[201] Scutt was outraged by the destruction, having initially hoped to incorporate the goddess sculptures into the new building's lobby design; Trump had rejected the plan, preferring something "more contemporary.

[207][206] In 1983, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the Trump Organization concerning unpaid pension and medical obligations to labor unions whose members helped build the towers.

"[224] Mafia-connected union boss John Cody supplied Trump with concrete in exchange for giving his mistress a high-level apartment with a pool, which required extra structural reinforcement.

[243] Customers of the Gucci and Tiffany stores in Trump Tower's lobby were allowed to proceed, while other pedestrians were redirected to the opposite side of the street.

[253][254] The day afterward, NYPD detained another man who wanted to meet Trump, reportedly got angry, and threw a wine glass on the lobby floor.

[267] In July 2020, activists including New York City mayor Bill de Blasio painted the words "Black Lives Matter" in giant letters on Fifth Avenue directly in front of the building.

According to Goldberger, the indoor atrium might become "the most pleasant interior public space to be completed in New York in some years" because the marble and brass made it "warm, luxurious and even exhilarating", although it was "a bit too high and narrow" and with little room for crowds.

[272] However, he criticized the "hyperactive" exterior of the tower, contrasting it with Tiffany's "serene," solid facade next door, as well as the narrowness of passageways within the atrium, saying it created "little room for milling or casual strolling.

She also wrote that the atrium was "an uncomfortable place, awkwardly proportioned in its narrow verticality", calling it a "pink marble maelstrom" and asking Trump to remove the quote from its wall.

"[276] Fodor's New York City 2010 described Trump Tower's "ostentatious atrium" as an example of the "unbridled luxury" of the 1980s, characterized by "expensive boutiques and gaudy brass everywhere.

'"[279] Meanwhile, Insight Guides' 2016 edition mentioned Trump Tower as "worth stopping by for a glimpse of the opulence synonymous with Manhattan in the 1980s" and that viewers of The Apprentice would recognize the atrium and the waterfall.