I’ve been counting down the days for Trump’s Big Fall, ever since I portrayed him tumbling from great heights in a collage I created about New York City decades ago.

New Yorkers have been waiting nearly half a century for Trump the businessman to be exposed as the sham he is.

The pathology and cons of the vainglorious Donald Trump are not new to those who have lived in New York City especially during his so called go-go years of power, vulgarity and greed.

If he was the self-proclaimed king of the Big Apple, he was rotten to the core, and no real New Yorker wanted a bite.

Hand-cut Collage by Sally Edelstein1994 “NYC On The Brink”

I had nearly forgotten about this collage I made in 1994 the year I began transitioning from painting to working in collage. As a New Yorker, living in the city could be bleak.

Despite the great wealth and greed from the go-go 80s, the city felt at times as though it were on the brink.

It was suffering from a spike in unemployment, crime, and racial tensions were high, homelessness was rampant and the AIDs crisis was a reality. The decline of the city in the 1970s was not that far a distant memory.

Rudy Guiliani promised to clean all that up. Though Mayor David Dinkins ran for re-election he lost to Guiliani.

And in the background of all this was the golden boy who had always been a joke, Donald Trump whose Mida’s touch started to publicly crumble that year.

Donald Trump relaxes in his living room at the Trump Tower. (Photo by Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

This self-described- self-made golden boy was a flashy go-getter with an outsized ego from an outer borough eager to make his name in Manhattan real estate, eager to surpass his ruthless but rich daddy who funded him.

Which Donnie did the only way he knew how- by plastering his name in garish oversize type on each thing he touched. With Trump’s name emblazoned on everything from hotels, and casinos, to airlines, steaks even urine tests, he loved boasting that everything he had was the best…. the greatest ever.

But the Big Apple didn’t bite.

Short Fingered Vulgarian

Spy Magazine 1988

He was mercilessly mocked by Spy Magazine, who famously dubbed him the short-fingered vulgarian, a moniker that stuck in his craw for nearly three decades later .

Spy Magazine spook of The Art Of The Deal

Soon after its launch by Kurt Anderson and Graydon Carterin 1986 Spy Magazine chronicled New York’s obsession with wealth and social status zeroing in on Trump’s questionable business dealings and his outlandish traits.

A pathological publicity hound who planted his own inflated stories in the media thanks to his inflated ego, we knew it was just a matter of time for the emperor’s new clothes to be revealed in all its phony nakedness.

In the early 1990s Donald Trump and his terminally tacky behavior touched off a frenzy of tabloid headlines, as the boastful billionaire cheated on his Czech-born wife Ivana. Trump’s divorce like his marriage, was the epitome of greed, vulgarity, and self-promotion.

Trump in a Slump

Headlines from the early 1990s

By 1994 Trump was on the brink of ruin. Rumors of the real estate developer filing for personal bankruptcy abounded but his oversized ego adamantly declared that he hadn’t.

Recent records have shown that from 1985 to 1994 Trump’s business was in far bleaker condition than he let on and he lost more than $1 billion during that period.

Trump’s recently released taxes revealed what we knew all along. His boasts of being a multi-billionaire were totally bogus. The only great wealth creation this failed businessman has created was in his imagination.

His only success was getting as many to believe his image as a successful entrepreneur for as long as he did.