RETRO – Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto has never been subtle when skewering American culture, but perhaps no jab has landed harder than Donald Love—a shameless caricature of Donald Trump, real estate mogul and former U.S. President. First appearing in GTA III, Love is brilliantly voiced by Kyle MacLachlan (Dune, Twin Peaks, Fallout). You’d think a character mocking the controversial billionaire would be ripe for revival, but since 2005’s Liberty City Stories, Love has strangely vanished. His ambiguous exit leaves Rockstar free to resurrect him at any moment—perhaps in the highly anticipated GTA 6.

So who exactly is this twisted tycoon, Donald Love? He’s the ultra-rich owner of Love Media, a sprawling multimedia empire with deep roots in real estate. While initially glimpsed briefly in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Love’s true rise to power unfolds in Liberty City, where he reigns as a ruthless property developer and media magnate. His vast holdings include TV stations, newspapers, and a dizzying number of radio channels—some of which players can tune into in GTA III. Love even enters Liberty City’s mayoral race, deploying mobsters to rig votes and indulging his gruesome cannibalistic tastes along the way. Though he loses the election and briefly hits rock bottom financially, Love quickly rebounds, building casinos and reasserting dominance. However, the seeds of his eventual disappearance are sown when he partners with the Colombian Cartel to redevelop Fort Staunton.

In GTA III, one of Love’s mysterious allies—a figure known only as the “Old Oriental Gentleman”—is kidnapped by the Cartel. Players step into action, tasked with rescuing him while simultaneously sabotaging Cartel operations. Eventually, the protagonist retrieves a mysterious package critical to Love’s plans, only for both Love and his elderly associate to vanish without a trace. Subsequent GTA titles, like GTA IV and GTA V, only reference Love indirectly through news articles. In GTA V, he’s ironically awarded a star on the Vinewood Walk of Fame as a “TV personality.” Of course, the real-life Donald Trump—former U.S. president, infamous reality-show host of The Apprentice, and tax-scandal magnet—clearly inspired Love’s questionable persona. Before diving deeper into his GTA III adventures, let’s trace Donald Love’s twisted history through the GTA timeline.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – Early Days

Before 1986, Donald Love was little more than a note-scribbling apprentice, shadowing the ruthless property mogul Avery Carrington around Vice City—even tagging along to Colonel Cortez’s extravagant yacht party. Here he crossed paths with Tommy Vercetti, whom Avery hired to spark a gang war between the Cubans and Haitians. Avery Carrington’s ruthless approach to driving down property prices—often through bloodshed—left a profound and troubling impression on the young Love.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (2005) – Prelude to Infamy

Between 1986 and 1998, Love moves to Liberty City, quickly cementing his status as a major power player. He launches the Love Media empire, erects a towering headquarters in Bedford Point, and opens an import-export garage.

After the murder of Mayor Roger C. Hole, Love seizes the opportunity to run for mayor against Miles O’Donovan. He aligns himself with Salvatore Leone, head of the Leone crime family, and enlists Toni Cipriani (Hole’s assassin) for his dirty campaign tactics. Cipriani steals corpses for Love to consume and eliminates rival campaigners. Upon discovering the Forelli crime family’s control over the ballot-printing company, Love sends Cipriani to destroy their facility. When the voting slips out of reach, Love campaigns personally but is nearly assassinated by the Forellis, narrowly rescued by Cipriani, who then attempts electoral fraud on Love’s behalf.

Love later learns O’Donovan possesses evidence linking him to the Leone crime syndicate, prompting him to dispatch Cipriani to erase all traces. However, their attempt fails spectacularly, Love’s ties to organized crime are publicly exposed, and O’Donovan wins decisively. Financially ruined, Love retreats to a run-down flop house in Pike Creek—but he isn’t finished yet. He soon instructs Cipriani to murder his former mentor, Avery Carrington, stealing his redevelopment plans for Fort Staunton and silencing journalist Ned Burner, who witnessed the murder. In a grisly finale, Love consumes both victims’ bodies.

Next, Love orders Cipriani to level Fort Staunton, headquarters of the Forelli family, in an act of brutal revenge against Franco Forelli. Cipriani carries out the mission using explosives supplied by 8-Ball. The obliteration proves lucrative, as Love cashes in through a reconstruction deal with Panlantic. Newly wealthy again, Love purchases a lavish mansion in Cedar Grove—only for the Colombian Cartel to violently seize it. Love narrowly escapes aboard a private jet arranged by Cipriani, carrying the remains of Carrington and Burner onboard. By 2001, his mansion is firmly in Cartel hands, and Love is hiding out in the Love Media headquarters on Staunton Island—for “tax reasons,” naturally.

The Detailed Events of Grand Theft Auto III (2001)

Donald Love isn’t just staying in the game—he’s thriving. From the comfort of his luxury yacht somewhere in the Caribbean, he continues expanding his empire, making backroom deals, bulldozing slums, and opening casinos all across the United States. The *Liberty Tree* newspaper even hails him as a “legend”—though whether that’s admiration or a thinly veiled insult is up for debate. In March 2001, Love returns to Liberty City, hot on the heels of his rival Barry Harcross, ready to cement his status as the city’s ultimate media and real estate mogul. He wastes no time reestablishing Love Media, acquiring over 900 radio stations (including fan favorites like *Chatterbox FM, Double Clef FM, Flashback 95.6,* and *Head Radio*), 300 TV stations, four broadcast networks, three satellites, ten senators (yes, really), the *Liberty Tree* newspaper, the Bitch’n’ Dog Food company, and a towering 30-story Love Media headquarters in Bedford Point. He also enlists the services of a mysterious “Old Oriental Gentleman” to teach him Tai Chi, personally flying him into the city—only for the poor guy to be immediately detained by immigration chief Ray Mathers. Between 1998 and 2001, Love partners with the Colombian Cartel and their front company, Panlantic Construction, to push forward his grand plan: the redevelopment of Fort Staunton. The price? Likely a fortune in bribes to the Cartel.

As Love continues his work from the safety of his Bedford Point headquarters, disaster strikes. His “Old Oriental Gentleman” is kidnapped by the Cartel while being transferred to a Portland police station. Desperate to maintain control, Love hires Claude—fresh off his own close call with death—to rescue his mentor from a heavily guarded Cartel hideout in Aspatria. Later, Claude disguises himself as a Cartel enforcer and assassinates Kenji Kasen, one of the Yakuza’s top dogs, sparking a gang war designed to drive down real estate prices. With the groundwork set, Love sends Claude to collect decoy packages before finally retrieving the real one from a Fort Staunton construction site, where Catalina, Miguel, and the Cartel are already waiting. Claude manages to secure the package, delivering it to Love, who has one final task—providing a distraction so that the Old Oriental Gentleman can flee with the goods. After that? Both Love and his mysterious associate vanish without a trace.

Rockstar Games addressed Love’s fate in a 2009 Q&A, stating, *“Nobody really knows what happened to Donald Love. He certainly pushed some boundaries and was trying to find his way back to normalcy. Whether he succeeded, or what became of the elderly Asian gentleman, we can’t speculate.”*

Donald Love – The Man, The Myth, The Cannibal

Donald Love’s horrifying dietary habits are best showcased in the “Cam-Pain” mission, where he casually gnaws on human ribs and remarks that human flesh is *“like chicken, only more sentient.”* His appetite for the macabre doesn’t stop there—Love is infamous for throwing morgue parties, as referenced in both *GTA III* and *Liberty City Stories*. He even tasks Toni Cipriani with procuring the corpses of Avery Carrington and Ned Burner for his own… consumption.

Love is the embodiment of hedonism—he genuinely believes the world exists for his personal enjoyment. Arrogant, self-obsessed, and utterly devoid of empathy, he has no qualms about eating people or reducing an entire district to rubble if it suits his interests. The only thing that matters is his own pleasure and success.

His personality in *Liberty City Stories* is flamboyant, youthful, and larger-than-life. By the time *GTA III* rolls around, however, Love has changed. His voice has deepened, his energy has waned, and he’s packed on a few extra pounds—making him seem far older than he actually is.

Will Donald Love Return in GTA 6?

Rockstar’s 2009 Q&A left the door open for Love’s return, stating, *“Nobody really knows what happened to Donald Love.”* He clearly crossed lines that few could ever come back from, but whether he found his way back to normal life is anyone’s guess. Given the ambiguity surrounding his fate, it’s entirely possible that Rockstar could bring him back for *GTA 6*—though keeping him as a Trump parallel would require some creative narrative gymnastics.

One thing is certain: *GTA 6* will not shy away from referencing Love or even Trump himself. The series has always thrived on satirizing American culture, and Trump’s imprint on politics and society is undeniable. Whether Love will appear as a fully realized character or merely as background lore remains to be seen. At this point, not even Rockstar seems sure of where his story ends.

-Gergely Herpai “BadSector”-