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Studio 54 Founder Says He Never Saw Donald Trump Dance

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 7: (AFP OUT) U.S. President Donald Trump returns to the White House following a weekend trip with Republican leadership and members of his cabinet at Camp David, on January 7, 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images)

Ian Schrager, founder of the late Manhattan nightclub Studio 54, reminisced about the club’s legacy to The Guardian this week. During the conversation, Schrager confirmed rumors about club regular Donald Trump, namely that in all the times Trump visited—which, by the president’s own account, was “a lot”—he never danced:

Over the next few years, every celebrity or big shot came to Studio 54. But nobody pestered anyone for an autograph, so they could be themselves. Andy Warhol was shy and just liked to watch. Mick Jagger was the same as he was on stage and Diana Ross was an amazing dancer. I never saw Donald Trump dance, though. He was a serious guy.

According to The Last Party, Michael Haden-Guest’s book about New York nightlife during the ’70s and ’80s, Trump first attended Studio 54 on opening night in 1977, shortly after marrying his first wife Ivana. He reportedly visited frequently during the club’s heyday as an inclusive, cocaine-friendly disco mecca for artists and socialites. Trump loved, or loved being seen at, the place so much that he attended Studio 54’s one-off reunion party in 2011 with his current wife Melania.

That’s a lot of nights to avoid dancing at a dance venue. And yet, Mark Fleischman, who bought Studio 54 in 1980 and ran the club until 1984, told Page Six last summer that Trump was a buzzkill, albeit a promiscuous one, in the club’s later years too:

He never touched drink or drugs. He liked looking at beautiful women, even though he was married to Ivana. Trump wasn’t a lot of fun — when you’re in a crowd drinking and drugging and one person isn’t, that person seems boring.

Years later, it’s obvious Trump could’ve used the exercise.