National Review: Trump the elitist stomping on the little guy in Scotland
A kind reader alerted me to the fact that National Review has come out with a lengthy piece titled “The Playboy Bully of the Western World”* about Trump the elitist and the shenanigans he engaged in around the construction of his Scottish gold course.
It’s the same story I tried to push here and in a similar post at Legal Insurrection. The point of all the stories is the same. This is how Ian Tuttle, the National Review writer, puts it:
Two properties provoked Trump’s particular ire. David Milne’s home, in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, was built in 1954. It was then a Coast Guard station, occupying the same spot on which another Coast Guard station had stood, going back to the 1860s. Trump thought it was an eyesore. Likewise a house and several outbuildings owned by Michael Forbes, a salmon fisherman who had left school at 14 to learn his trade, and whose family had lived in the area for several generations. “His property is terribly maintained,” Trump told reporters. “It’s slum-like, it’s disgusting. He’s got stuff thrown all over the place. He lives like a pig.”
…It would be an extraordinary irony if Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination riding a groundswell of working-class anger toward “elites.” In Scotland, Trump teamed up with “elites” in the local and national government in an attempt to railroad working-class residents out of their homes. In Scotland, Donald Trump was not against “special interests.” He was special interests.
The article is long, and I wish it had emphasized Trump’s elitist statements more, and included the video. Also, I’d like to have seen it drive home the point that Michael Forbes’ property was wanted by Trump not to build anything, but because Trump felt it ruined the view for the rich people who would be using the golf course.
However, I’m happy to see it, and I wish some candidates would pick up on it. The visuals involved in the video are awful for Trump, just awful. I think they would make an incredibly hard-hitting campaign ad. It’s not just his attempt to force the sale of the land, it’s the elitist nature of the vicious personal attacks on Forbes that would hurt Trump’s populist image with at least some of his supporters.
As I said, I’ve tried to get someone to pay attention to it. Maybe National Review will succeed where I failed. Or maybe a reader has a way to reach someone involved with the candidates. If there’s not enough time left to make an ad, there’s always social media.
The videos can be found here, towards the end of my post.
Time’s a wasting.
[* NOTE: The National Review’s title is a reference to this play set in Ireland.]
Let’s hope the candidates do pick up on Trump’s business dealings. I was reading George Will’s piece today and he reminded people Trump has yet to release his tax filings so we may examine his business dealings more closely.
This is where Ted Cruz’s skills as a lawyer may come in handy. It’s time to start prosecuting the record of Donald J. Trump.
We may find he is not the great business man he proclaims, but is a bully who cares only for his own “special interests.”
Beth:
Having now read a ton about Trump I have to say that I’ve come to believe that much of his reputation as a nearly-invariable winner, and much of the estimate of his wealth, is a self-built exaggeration.
I recommend printing out the NRO article and distributing it as widely as possible, especially tochurch groups and women’s group where they are likely to be turned off by his immorality.
expat:
Facebook and Twitter is another way.
neo,
I don’t do Facebook or Twiiter, so i didn’t think of that. Just call me an old fogie.
expat:
I would imagine I’m even older and fogey-er than you. I don’t do either, either.
I too hope that somehow these stories get the attention that they deserve soon.
If they don’t, and Trump is the nominee, you can bet the whole country will hear about them this fall.
David Y:
Oh yes, the MSM is saving them up, all dusted off, polished, and ready to go for the general, if needed.
neo…
I fulsomely ditto that.
But it’s worse.
My brother thinks he’s wonderful.
My brother’s life arc is that of the counter-informed soul.
He’s the Colonel Klink of political analysis.
He never even makes it up to “wrong.”
If he’s a fine sample of the LIV — and I’d swear he is — no wonder we’re seeing these zany poll numbers.
Oh, I guarantee that the DNC is paying attention.
The democrats and late night comedians are salivating over the thought of Trump as our nominee.
It won’t affect his support at all. Nothing short of Trump being secretly taped, cynically participating in smoke filled rooms, plotting a future betrayal of the public… can do so.
But adulation of Trump isn’t why he’s become the standard bearer for those who support him, who are so enraged at the elite’s betrayal of the country, that they simplistically declare there to be no difference between either party’s elite. Thus, “let it all burn down”.
They accept Trump’s assumption as the standard bearer because Trump also makes no distinction between the left and right’s establishment and thus, in their minds, confirms their world view.
The longer this campaign goes on, the more I begin to believe that a Trump nomination means that the choice will revolve around whether we speed toward the cliff at 100mph, or 25mph. Sure, the latter is slightly better than the former. But both are still very bad.
The Democrats [sic] will pick it up, never fear, if he’s nominated. And use it to get the even-worse Hildabeast into the White House.
/gag