My Trip to Trump Tower: New York Rejected Trump Decades Ago; Now It’s America’s Turn
Trump’s talent for salesmanship—and his craven willingness to put aside morality and ethics to get whatever he wants—has been an open secret in New York’s papers and magazines since the 1980’s as I discovered on a trip to Trump Tower in 1984
Early that year, 1984, my gawky, teenaged-self and my parents drove in our blue Buick LeSabre the 350 miles from our Upstate home in Rochester to visit friends in the New York City Burough of Staten Island.
From there, we took the Staten Island Ferry into Manhattan to see and do tourist things — like seeing the amazing art at the Met Museum and attending Franco Zeffirelli’s thrilling staging of Puccini’s “Tosca,” at the Met Opera. We even caught a showing of “A Chorus Line,” at the Shubert Theatre.
We also made a point to visit Trump Tower. It was soon after the building’s November 1983 opening, and it had been hyped all over the TV — so of course, we wanted to see it. The building was overwrought with Eighties glam — in all the best and worst ways.
My mom got a coffee in the lobby of the Tower where we sat and took in the sights. It made an impression. My parents griped about the eye-popping prices — even for just a plastic cup of coffee. At some point, we were brusquely asked to move on so my mother insisted on using the restrooms first, and then we left.
Earlier in the trip, we picked up a bunch of magazines and newspapers to see what there was to do in New York. I, being the voracious teenage reader, was happily assigned to studying them. I scoured the listings for activities and attractions, but there were also several in-depth articles and exposés about Trump. I read them too.
New York’s notoriously skeptical journalists were already on to him!
The articles contrasted the bright new building with Trump’s history of racist and ethically questionable business practices.
There were rumors about Russian oligarchs buying condos from The Trump Organization to launder their dirty money.
Real estate was — and still is — the world’s most popular asset category for criminal money laundering.
If 1984 was the start of Trump’s downfall in New York society, his eventual multiple business failures and bankruptcies sealed his reputation in the city and state.
In the mid-Eighties, New Yorkers caught on to his game, and he lost whatever cachet he had. Trump stunk like a loser. It took time, but enough New Yorkers had caught on to him and his antics.
Today in New York, he couldn’t get a proverbial taxi.
He’s just burned too many New Yorkers. Yes, of course he still has supporters. You can find them, but Trump himself calls his supporters dumb. (They’re not; many even have genuine grievances — in particular the economic ones.)
Keep in mind that this truly sad President couldn’t win his own home-state of New York in 2016. Trump became the second consecutive major party presidential nominee to lose his home-state by over 20 points. (The first was Republican Mitt Romney.)
He couldn’t even win his birth city of Queens, New York; he lost it 22% to 75%.
You have to ask yourself why.
The simple answer is because New Yorkers got to know him over time. And to know him is to dislike him.
He is fundamentally untrustworthy.
Losing New York’s votes long after losing New York’s affection is apparently why he moved his official residence to Florida in 2019 — so he can fleece the good people of that state after burning out the good will of New Yorkers.
Now, that Americans see President 45 & the Trumpublicans for who they are, we can do the same thing that New York did.
Today on Election Day 2020, it’s time to reject him — again, and his Trumpublican enablers deserve the same fate.
New York did it in 2016. America can do it in 2020. Both pro-democracy Republicans and Democrats together in a…. *UNITED* States of America for all the people….
Last Edited 3 November 2020
