My column today on Donald Trump’s sharia-like intolerance of even the mildest criticism also notes his penchant for the 180-degree turn.
On that note, having overwhelmed the lead-up coverage of the Fox News debate he is ducking tonight, Mr. Trump is endeavoring to upstage it with a competing event in support of wounded veterans that CNN will apparently cover.
Naturally, Trump’s resort to the plight of our troops to paper over his political calculation in skipping the debate calls attention to his record on the matter of support for the military. This may not be the kind of attention The Donald was hoping for.
Trump has set up a website that is soliciting donations for the veterans. Yet, the Federalist reports, donations to the site actually go directly to Trump’s personal non-profit foundation. Of course, this is a charitable foundation and maybe it will pass all donations on to vets’ charities. The Federalist report, however, cites a recent analysis by the Weekly Standard’s John McCormack in recounting that Trump’s foundation has given far more to the Clinton Foundation than to veterans’ causes.
Then there is the little matter of Trump demanding that New York City’s government boot disabled veterans off Fifth Avenue. At the Daily Beast, Michael Daly relates that Trump “spent years clamoring for New York City’s politicians to take action and ban even those street vendors with special disabled veteran’s licenses from the environs of Trump Tower.”
Citing a New York Daily News report, Mr. Daly elaborates:
Trump wrote in a letter to the New York State Assembly back in 1991, “While disabled veterans should be given every opportunity to earn a living, is it fair to do so to the detriment of the city as a whole or its tax paying citizens and businesses?” He went on, “Do we allow Fifth Avenue, one of the world’s finest and most luxurious shopping districts, to be turned into an outdoor flea market, clogging and seriously downgrading the area?”
He was still at it in 2004, when he wrote a letter to Mayor Mike Bloomberg. “Whether they are veterans or not, they [the vendors] should not be allowed to sell on this most important and prestigious shopping street,” Trump declared.
He warned, “The image of New York City will suffer… I hope you can stop this very deplorable situation before it is too late.”
Having grown up in the Bronx, I can assure you that these are New York values … of a certain kind.
When Trump Showed Vets His New York Values