By Dick Miller
WE.CONNECT.DOTS: – By 1972 Donald Trump and his father, Fred, controlled 14,000 apartments in New York City, mostly in Queens and Brooklyn. Their company was the target of a serious discrimination suit, purporting their agents routinely attempted to steer minorities to complexes that were exclusively for people of their color or background.
The Trumps retained Roy Cohn, a famous defense attorney. Cohn cut his teeth as a top aide to infamous Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisc) 20 years earlier, according to the Washington Post. One week after the assignation of Martin Luther King, the same year Donald graduated from business school and joined his father, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act.
Cohn helped devise the strategy, which folded into an oft-used business practice that exists with Donald Trump to this day. They counter sued the Federal Government for $100 million, claiming the overzealous Feds were trying to force them to rent to welfare clients which would lead to mass migration from New York by everyone else.
More steps in the Trump off-used business strategy followed. When they exhausted their push back, beating up on less experienced government lawyers, they negotiated a settlement. They promised to racially discriminate no more, without admitting any guilt in prior actions.
According to journalist David Cay Johnston, the Trumps’ connection to Cohn helped in other areas. Cohn was a consigliere to mafia chieftains Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Paul Castellano. Their control of the cement redi-mixing business became important when Trump broke off with his father and began building new apartment buildings and hotels.
Ready-mix application of concrete was always least expensive, but in mobbed-up New York, most builders chose pre-cast applications. Trump could only successfully use ready-mix if all the unions at the site took no actions to delay construction.
Allegations were made that Trump responded with “no show” jobs for mobsters.
Later, Trump made ready to move into the casino business in Atlantic City… Murder, Inc. was pulling back, making way for Corporate America.
Using the courts was another Trump tactic. USA Today claims Trump has been involved in about 3,500 lawsuits, 1,900 where he or his companies were plaintiffs and 1,300 in which he was the defendant.
Trump does not hold a patent on that approach to resolving business disputes. Around here, it is known as “paying on the scream.” Only a fraction of the final bill from subcontractors – or nothing at all – is what is offered…
Writers at USA Today attempted to get their arms around the magnitude of Trump’s court actions. “For comparison, USA Today analyzed the legal involvement for five top real-estate companies. One of the five was Edward DeBartolo, Sr., of Youngstown, whose family still owns the San Francisco 49ers NFL franchise.
DeBartolo had a reputation for dealing harshly with subs. The analysis found, however, Trump had been involved in more court actions than all five comparables combined.
The website “Fusion” and the NY Times took a stab at accounting for the number of times Trump has been accused of statutory raping underage women. They seem to agree on three girls..
Details of these allegations came to light many years later in various court filings…
Most of these incidents are linked to when Trump owned a beauty pageant.
Also, around 1980, Trump needed a quick (and cheap) demolition of an old structure to make way for a new Trump project in New York. He was accused of accomplishing his goal by using undocumented Polish aliens, working them in 12 hour shifts and paying them only half of the prevailing rate. Sued by the City of New York, Federal and state governments and non-profit advocates of fair wages and safe working conditions, he settle what cases he could without admitting liability. Time Magazine ran a feature story on this episode last week.
Finally, Trump criticizes Clinton for failing to remember details about the emails. He didn’t hesitate to embrace selective memory when it suited. In depositions about Trump University, which advertised that Donald personally picked the instructors, he could not recall the name of a single teacher.
Bottom Line: How did someone so despicable become a candidate of a major political party for President of the United States? Ask your local Republicans. They spent eight years knocking President Obama, often in couched terms that smacked of racism. The GOP should have been a “lock” in recapturing the White House.
Republicans excel at “staying on message.” They thought Trump wonderful when he advanced the birthing issue to a higher level than everyone else combined.
Trump won the nomination on Republican establishment greed. His showmanship buried a crowded field, 17 candidates at one point. Against many of the other candidates, Hillary could have been a certain loser in November. It is doubtful Trump could have beaten several of the 16 opponents in head-to-head battles like Hillary against Bernie Sanders.
The Republicans could not get their act together on what should have been a sure victory. If you consider yourself a Republican leader of any significance and failed to commit to a responsible candidate early, you deserve what you got.
