Day 853

Day 853 Thursday May 9, 2019

543 Days to the 2020 election and 621 Days to Inauguration Day

I became aware of Donald Trump about the time his book “The Art of the Deal” came out. I read it. I took away from it that he had gotten cement poured on the Wohlman Skating Rink in New York’s Central Park, when it was delayed in bureaucratic snafus. 

I was quite familiar with the skating rink. In the summertime Schaeffer Beer held concerts there. Almost, every night in the summer someone was performing. They were big names too! The tickets were $2 general admission and $4 to sit in the bleachers at the back end of the rink, opposite the stage. The stage was arranged in such a way that if you got too close you couldn’t see the act. It was raised about twenty feet. I saw Sly and the Family Stone there, and Led Zeppelin ( They weren’t very good. I think it was one of their first shows. Maybe, we just weren’t used to the music? ) People would sit out on the hills around the park and listen for free. It’s where Simon and Garfunkel recorded their well known album.

Trump had a reputation as a big deal maker. He was called “The Donald.” My impression was he was the biggest name in New York City real estate. It was all kind of tangential information. Then he opened his casino.

It was about that time I went out to Long Island to visit some in-laws. I was talking to the wife of a son of a … it’s a long story, but she said she worked for a collection agency. 

“Oh yeah? So what does that mean?”

“Donald Trump is our main client.”

“Really? How so?”

“He has a casino in New Jersey. He extends credit to folks who want to keep gambling by letting them sign over their homes.”

“What?”

“Yeah, you can sign over your house. If you lose we are the ones that collect.”

“You kick people out of their homes?”

“Yes. Every week Mr. Trump rides out in a limo to see how many homes we have collected on.”

“Every week?”

“Every week.”

And that’s when I started to pay attention. That’s when I saw the first shred of the real Donald Trump.

It seemed odd to me. Why would a multi-millionaire go out every week to see how many homes he had acquired? Why would he let people put their homes up for collateral to continue gambling? It didn’t make sense, and it seemed really low.

Then came The Apprentice. This continued the Trump as a business mogul motif. I can’t watch those kind of shows. It’s like watching “Let’s Make a Deal” or “Queen for a Day.” The question in all of them is “How far are you willing to go? How deep are you willing to debase yourself? How pathetic are you willing to appear?” I remember watching “Queen for a Day.” Once. The woman who won that day lived in a double wide. Her dryer had caught fire and burned the laundry area. She wanted money to get a new dryer, linoleum, and some paint. They put the Applause-o-meter over her and the decibel meter gave her the highest number. They slapped what looked like to me the Imperial Margarine Crown on her head, hung the robe that looked like it was a second for The Miss America Pageant around her shoulders, and the guy who was the MC, who looked liked the slimy owner of Frederick’s of Hollywood, would sing in a slightly flat off key way, “There she is she’s Queen for a Day.” Even as a kid I remember distinctly thinking that something was wrong about all this. That it was weird, but when you’re young; satire, and odd behavior isn’t something you necessarily understand or grasp.

Then when Trump ran for president more stories came out. He didn’t pay contractors. He used foreign scab labor and didn’t pay them. When they complained he threatened to deport them. His casino in New Jersey went bankrupt. Many of the slot machines weren’t working when the first opened. He said they were used so much they broke down. It wasn’t true. He was sued by many people including people who had invested thousands to learn the secrets of real estate from Trump University, which he said had “the best people.” That he had selected those teachers. None of that was true. His airline went under. There were murmurings of his holding the Miss Universe Pageant in Russia and that there was some shady stuff  that went on. There were rumors that he decided to run for President when Barrack Obama made fun of him at the Correspondence’s Dinner. He had been touting conspiracy theories about Obama, not being born in Hawaii. He said he had people out in Hawaii investigating and “You’d be surprised what they are finding.” We never heard what they found. 

There was a pattern to his talk. He seemed to use the same phrases in every situation. He repeated things like: he’s very smart; he went to the best schools; he knows the best people. There were stories that yes he went to Wharton, but was a lackadaisical student. The people he knew were kind of sleazy. He said things during his campaign that were stupid, racist, and seemed to lack any real knowledge of what he was talking about. There were rumors that women were groped by him, that the models in his modeling agency were underage, that he walked in on the Miss Universe contestants when they were changing clothes. Yet, he painted Hillary with her husband’s past indiscretions. 

It turned out that everything he accused Hillary or Bill about he had done and worse. In fact, some of it he was doing as he accused them. 

Now it’s been revealed that for ten years he paid no taxes and in fact lost more money than perhaps any person in the U.S. The only thing that kept him afloat was his daddy’s money, all of which he squandered. When you look at the money he lost and the loans he couldn’t pay it came to over $3.7 billion dollars. Yet, he was thought to be a great business man. Some of the commentators at Fox still think so. (“He had his name on the side of a plane!” “It’s more money than we can think of.”) 

Hopefully, those who have been conned for so long are waking up from their deep sleep.

543 Days to the 2020 election and 621 Days to Inauguration Day

PS The White Mandala