worth to him in trust , because they trusted him , they trusted his family , they trusted everybody , and now they literally are selling their houses in order to live . And some of them mortgaged their houses in order to give that money to this Madoff . And it 's really a terrible thing . I 'd see him around Mar-a-Lago , I 'd see him around Palm Beach -- and he 's a disgrace . Watch the possible ramifications of the Madoff case '' CNN : ... How did he get away with this ? How did so many smart people entrust somebody -- and we keep hearing over and over again , 100 percent of their money going to this guy . Would you ever let 100 percent of your money go to something , even if you trusted the person ? Trump : I would not , and a lot of my friends would not , but obviously a lot of my friends did . The word is very simple . It 's a word called `` greed . '' Greed . That 's all it is . People were greedy . They thought
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Voluble real estate mogul Donald Trump called alleged Wall Street scam artist Bernard Madoff a `` sleazebag '' and `` a total crook '' Thursday in an interview on CNN . Donald Trump said investors who lost money in a Ponzi scheme were victims of their own greed . Trump recently hosted a party at his Palm Beach , Florida , estate , Mar-a-Lago , that was attended by several people who say they were victims of an alleged $ 50 billion Ponzi scheme run by Madoff . Madoff , 70 , is a former chairman of Nasdaq . He was charged last week with fraud . Trump , chairman and president of the Trump Organization , a New York-based real estate development empire , spoke with Kiran Chetry on CNN 's `` American Morning . '' CNN : How angry are people at this situation with Madoff ? Donald Trump : ... The people in Palm Beach , many of those people have been just ripped off by this sleazebag , and they 'll never see the kind of money that they 've seen . You have some people gave 100 percent of their net