Trump's Beacon Hill run-ins
Donald Trump will take the oath of office and become the 45th president of the United State of America around noon Friday after a lengthy and personal campaign that left many voters feeling like they knew the man.
A real estate developer and showman by trade, Trump has been in the pop culture spotlight for decades. Tabloids, magazines and entertainment publications extensively archived Trump's ups and downs -- from building Trump Tower in Manhattan through his divorces and bankruptcies to his transition to reality television.
He was a relative newcomer to the political scene when he announced his candidacy in the summer of 2015. And despite weighing presidential runs in 1988, 2000 and 2012, the incoming president had only topically intersected with Massachusetts politics until his run pitted him against much of the Bay State.
The State House News Services's digital archives, which stretch back to 1986, include no coverage of the sometimes-scandalous issues that landed Trump on magazine covers, but detail some of the touchstones in his unorthodox and circuitous path to the White House.
The first reference to the phrase "Donald Trump" in State House News Service archives came July 18, 1989 in a story about the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. MCCA officials were trying to lure a convention-planning group from the American Society of Association Executives and Trump was brought in to talk about his book "The Art of the Deal," which had been published about a year and a half before, the News Service reported.
It was almost a decade until Trump graced News Service copy again, this time his name was invoked as a metaphor by Rep. Eric Turkington during a May 5, 1997 debate over the idea of an Aquinnah Wampanoag Indian tribe casino in Southeastern Massachusetts.
Turkington, a Falmouth Democrat whose district included Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, said he wanted to speak for the Wampanoags, who he said have been economically disadvantaged by centuries-old agreements but remain a proud culture, according to News Service session coverage.
"They possess a wealth Donald Trump will never have. Imagine living in a community where everyone is a member of your family and has been for 900 years. They are rich in costumes, culture, pride," the News Service session copy reads. "Long after the Donald is gone, they will remain wealthy in other ways."
Trump's name was invoked in connection to presidential politics the next time it appeared in News Service copy, in 2004.
While waiting to be summoned to the Senate Chamber for the swearing-in of then-newly elected state Sen. Scott Brown of Wrentham on March 25, 2004, then-Gov. Mitt Romney chatted with the Governor's Council about his plan to greet then-President George Bush and Air Force One at Logan Airport later that day.
Romney, who would soon act on his own presidential ambitions, told the council he had never been aboard the presidential aircraft but "said he has been on the one owned by Donald Trump," the News Service reported.
In 2006, Trump was the keynote speaker at the Real Estate Wealth Expo, which attracted some 50,000 potential real estate investors to hear from Trump, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, and former heavyweight boxer George Foreman at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
Trump's name was invoked in 2007 when a Massachusetts politician ascended to a different presidency. On March 21, 2007 -- the day Sen. Therese Murray became Senate president -- Sen. Michael Knapik rose to second the nomination of Sen. Richard Tisei for minority leader and commented on Murray's ascension to lead the Senate.
"I witnessed firsthand the tough-as-nails Terry Murray. I witnessed the compassionate Terry Murray. I witnessed the responsible Terry Murray, who decided to balance budgets with every dollar precious. I witnessed the Donald Trump-like Terry Murray, I'm not talking about her hair, who knew how to make a deal."
Later in 2007, as the expanded gaming debate heated up on Beacon Hill, Trump's name began to appear in News Service copy more often as lawmakers and casino proponents began to float him as a possible Massachusetts casino developer.
The first indication of the possibility of a President Trump came May 5, 2011, when the News Service reported on a Suffolk University/WHDH-TV poll of Republican candidates in the New Hampshire presidential primary that would take place about nine months later.
Romney easily outdistanced the field of potential Republican presidential candidates in the poll, but Trump polled at 8 percent -- surpassing Rudolph Giuliani, Ron Paul, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, and Newt Gingrich.
Trump did not ultimately run for president in 2012, but he won the Granite State's primary in 2016 with more than 35 percent of the vote.
The last substantive reference to Trump in the News Service archive before he made official his plan to run for president came in 2014 and again involved New Hampshire.
Trump, who was still more than a year away from announcing his candidacy, spoke at the "Politics and Eggs" series of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics and the New England Council on Jan. 21, 2014.
The conference had served as a platform for political announcements, policy speeches, and debates in the past but Trump's topic of conversation was not detailed in the announcement.
"The title" of his speech, the News Service wrote at the time, "asked 'Is he running for something? President? New York Governor?'"
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