By: Zenovia Marcais

President Donald Trump has a lot on his mind this week as he pays a visit the United Nations building – and one of them is real estate.

Trump once wanted to buy the famed UN building.

“More than a decade later, Trump vividly recalls the overtures he made to rebuild the 39-story tower in the early 2000s and posits that he could have done a better job with the $2.3 billion project, which took about three years longer than anticipated and came in more than $400 million over budget,” reported Crain’s New York.

As his visit to the General Assembly loomed, the news pub continued, Trump reminisced with reporters on Air Force One this past week about his efforts to win the project. “I offered to rebuild it at a tiny fraction of what they were going to build it for,” he said. In 2005, then-developer Trump went before a U.S. Senate committee to complain that the U.N. was bungling the project. “They don’t know what they want, they don’t know what they have, they don’t know what they’re doing,” Trump said. He appealed to the panel to let him manage the project. He would even waive his fee, he said. In the end, he didn’t get the project, but his words were music to senators concerned about costs.”

The United Nations complex was designed by a board of architects led by Wallace Harrison, and built by the architectural firm Harrison & Abramovitz. The complex has served as the official headquarters of the United Nations since its completion in 1952. It is located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, on 17 to 18 acres of grounds overlooking the East River. Its borders are First Avenue on the west, East 42nd Street to the south, East 48th Street on the north and the East River to the east.

While at the UN, the president urged every member country to increase the prosecution and punishment of crimes against religious communities. “There can be no greater crime than that,” Trump said. “Today I ask all nations to join us in this urgent, moral duty.”

“He announced that the United States is committing an additional $25 million to protect religious freedoms and protect religious sites and relics from attacks,” said USA Today. “His call to action, which the White House described as the president’s key event at the international gathering, comes after the United States has convened two conventions of foreign leaders to discuss religious freedom issues in the past two years.”