TRUMPING THE DONALD
He is Scottish on his mother’s side (she’s from the bonny Isle of Lewis) and Big Bad German on his father’s side. Grandpa, born Friedrich Drumpf, immigrated to the U.S. in 1885 at age 16 and became an American citizen by 1892. After living in New York he moved to Seattle, changed his name to Fred Trump and started “a late-night restaurant in the sleazy end of town. Here he learned to navigate the district’s saloons, opium parlours, pawn shops and brothels.” Donald’s German-speaking grandfather apparently made a stack of money during the Alaska Gold Rush by running a boarding house of questionable morals, politely phrased.
As the Daily Mail titled an article: “How the Trumps struck Klondike gold: Donald’s grandfather gave birth to family’s glittering empire with seedy restaurant catering to loose-moralled men and women seeking their fortune.” He made an “opportunistic fortune” for himself during the Klondike Gold Rush by opening another restaurant: right place, right time. He then traveled to Germany, found a wife, and returned to New York City, where Fred Jr.” [Donald’s father] was born. The son “went on to earn hundreds of millions as a New York City real-estate magnate”.
One generation back, Donald’s father was a real estate developer who started in the construction business. He helped finance single family homes in Queens and pioneered Trump Market, an early supermarket. “During World War II Trump built barracks and garden apartments for the U.S. Navy” (Wikipedia). After the war, he built and operated large apartment complexes. He lent money [$500,000] to his son Donald in the 1970s, which allowed The Donald to go into the real estate business for himself. “By the time of his death, Trump was estimated to have amassed a fortune worth $250 to $300 million.” Daddy was rich but The Donald had to keep on working to protect his inherited wealth and to expand the family fortune.
The Donald worked for his father’s company and was given control of it in 1971. From the perspective of the rich, he worked himself up from the top to the top. His behavior at times might remind a psychiatrist of a bipolar person in the midst of a manic attack but when you’re that rich no one notices anything out of the ordinary or dismisses it with the appropriate obfuscating term such as “eccentric, flamboyant, dashing, unpredictable, rambunctious”. He can be narcissistic to a nauseating extreme but feels he is entitled to egomania because he is rich—with an ego as large as his fortune. We’ve come a long way from the virtues of a Washington or the humility of a Lincoln as apt qualities for leadership with widespread popular appeal, understandably so.
Donald himself, besides an occasional brush with a bankruptcy or two, knew enough to keep the silver spoon in his mouth right side up and how to go on making a handsome fortune. He was born June 14, 1946 in Queens and is a Baby Boomer, with a “booming” voice and a personality which can be described as ambitious or abrasive, depending on how much one likes or dislikes the billionaire. During the Vietnam War, Trump received “a very high draft number.” Records show that, while this is true, “he was not drafted earlier because of his student deferments (2-S) while attending college, and after receiving a medical deferment (1-Y, later converted to 4-F) prior to the lottery being initiated.” (Wikipedia: emphasis added). Staying out of unhealthy wars puts him in good company with the likes of George Bush II and, in this sense at least, might make him just as good presidential material.
Currently, estimates of his total fortune range between 4 billion (Forbes) and 10 billion (Donald). Why anyone would be favoring a candidate for president who is involved in a statistical dispute over a missing $6 billion before the election is a complete mystery to me but polls indicate plenty of Republicans in New Hampshire seem to think he is peaches. If that’s a token of things to come should he be elected, then the entire GDP of the U.S. is in jeopardy and could go missing. How he does when he gets to a state more typical of American diversity than New Hampshire remains to be seen: states like New York, Florida, Texas, California, Massachusetts. Will his reputation still carry him upwards of his showing in New Hampshire or will his balloon be popped?
Which brings me to my main point: allowing a billionaire like Trump in the White House will inevitably lead to one catastrophe after another. There is only one logical conclusion that can be reached: it’s time for the American people to start impeachment proceedings against Trump. I cite for historical precedent this incredible moment in American history: Pres. Ford pardoned Richard Nixon before Nixon was even charged with any crime. It seems to me if the president of the United States can pardon someone before an arrest, trial, and guilty verdict occur, then the American people certainly can impeach someone not yet elected president. All those in favor of the motion to impeach The Donald raise your hand and signify by saying “Aye”.
Aye!
