--- title: Republican Convention: Casino Owner Phil Ruffin to Speak description: Longtime Donald Trump business partner Phil Ruffin will speak at the Republican National Convention. canonical: https://time.com/4415131/republican-convention-phil-ruffin/ author: Will Drabold article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-21T00:22:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:24:11.954Z article:section: Politics og:title: Meet the Casino Owner Speaking at the Republican Convention og:description: "I told him don’t run … I said you are king of the world for God’s sake." og:url: https://time.com/4415131/republican-convention-phil-ruffin/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ddd6f1056e16649/69889cebe20a87a252a91ae6/donald-trump-phil-ruffin-rnc.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet the Casino Owner Speaking at the Republican Convention twitter:description: "I told him don’t run … I said you are king of the world for God’s sake." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ddd6f1056e16649/69889cebe20a87a252a91ae6/donald-trump-phil-ruffin-rnc.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Meet the Casino Owner Speaking at the Republican Convention by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 21, 2016 12:22 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump applauds as Treasure Island Casino owner Phil Ruffin speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa on Jan. 28, 2016. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump applauds as Treasure Island Casino owner Phil Ruffin speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa on Jan. 28, 2016.Andrew Harnik—AP by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 21, 2016 12:22 AM UTC Recent Republican National Conventions have not had a speaker like Phil Ruffin. A casino tycoon Donald Trump recently joked would [manage America’s China policy](http://www.kansas.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/carrie-rengers/article27157705.html) in his administration, Ruffin is Trump’s longtime business partner and an early donor to his campaign. The two men have split ownership of the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Las Vegas. Trump was the best man at Ruffin’s wedding. The real estate mogul was so moved by the event, he[ picked up the $300,000 tab.](https://next.ft.com/content/2af17b9c-f71a-11e5-803c-d27c7117d132) Ruffin and Trump share similar business focuses. Trump has built himself by buying or building real estate and selling it for profit. Ruffin [bought a Las Vegas hotel](http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1868932,00.html) at the height of the recession, an investment that has paid off. He starts work from the [top floor of his casino](http://hauteliving.com/2015/07/phil-ruffin-reveals-the-secrets-of-running-a-billion-dollar-empire/577539/) at 5 a.m. each morning by reading customer complaints. The billionaires have been intertwined on the campaign trail. Before a super PAC closed because it was too close to Trump’s campaign, Ruffin was its largest donor. [He gave $1 million](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/02/04/longtime-trump-friend-seeded-pro-trump-super-pac-with-1-million/), money that was ultimately refunded. Ruffin hosted Trump’s victory party at his casino when the Republican presidential nominee won the Nevada caucuses. Ruffin [told the Wichita _Eagle_](http://www.kansas.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/carrie-rengers/article90592462.html)he wrote his speech for the convention from scratch and will speak for four minutes. He was an early Trump supporter, telling FOX Business in 2015 that Trump’s rising poll numbers were attributable to “a movement (Trump) has walked into.” In a May profile of Ruffin and his relationship with Trump, the [Financial Times quoted](https://next.ft.com/content/2af17b9c-f71a-11e5-803c-d27c7117d132) Ruffin about what he told Trump before the nominee jumped into the presidential race. “I told him don’t run. … I said you are king of the world for God’s sake,” Ruffin said. “You are making a couple hundred million a year. You’ve got all this stuff. He said, ‘It’s broken and I can fix it.'” Republican Convention: Casino Owner Phil Ruffin to Speak ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4415131/republican-convention-phil-ruffin/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4415131/republican-convention-phil-ruffin/"},"headline":"Meet the Casino Owner Speaking at the Republican Convention","datePublished":"2016-07-21T00:22:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:24:11.954Z","description":"\"I told him don’t run … I said you are king of the world for God’s sake\"","url":"https://time.com/4415131/republican-convention-phil-ruffin/","keywords":["Republican National Convention","2016 Election topic","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ddd6f1056e16649/69889cebe20a87a252a91ae6/donald-trump-phil-ruffin-rnc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Will Drabold","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/will-drabold/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ddd6f1056e16649/69889cebe20a87a252a91ae6/donald-trump-phil-ruffin-rnc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump","caption":"Donald Trump","creditText":"Andrew Harnik—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/republican-national-convention/","name":"Republican National Convention"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4415131/republican-convention-phil-ruffin/","name":"Meet the Casino Owner Speaking at the Republican Convention"}}]}] ```