I know a lot of this topic has been commented on over the 18 months but I felt it necessary to compile much of it in one place. One can get an even better sense of who Trump is by his callous remarks regarding this tragic event.
Sept 17, 2001 - Interview
“Once they get it cleared – and that is going to be a very long process – we will all have a better idea of what can be done on the site
The current mindset is to put up new towers, and I agree with that.
To be blunt, they were not great buildings. They only became great upon their demise last Tuesday.
What goes up there should be a form of memorial to the dead.
The buildings need to be a soul-soaring statement of our faith in the future”.
Source
Comment - Trump with his usual lack of sensitivity 6 days after. To talk of this so soon and refer to “the dead” in such a cold manner is indicitive of who he is as a person.
No mention of his witnessing thousands of people ‘celebrating’ 9/11 in this interview.
May 13, 2005 - Interview re Freedom Tower
Ah, but we know why Trump thought that the WTC were “not great buildings”. He was no doubt thinking about how he could captilise on the tradgey as soon as it occured!!!
Later, when he said the Freedom Tower was “disgusting” he already had plans in place to build over Ground Zero.
Source
Hmmmm the plans he present for a new WTC looked identical to the originals. Yet the originals were “not great”! NYC rejected his plans and you can read his childish and spiteful reaction above.
“Everybody loved the World Trade Center"
"There was some great coverage but nobody covered it like you (Larry King)”
Source
Comment - Now Larry, being a great journalist (Trump’s words), would surely have covered people celebrating 9/11 right? Again, no mention that Trump saw thousands of people celebrating. Everybody love the WTC - except for Trump!.
Nov 21, 2015 - Rally
Many people jumped and I witnessed it, I watched that. I have a view -- a view in my apartment that was specifically aimed at the World Trade Center
I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down, and I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.
Comment - He saw people jumping from 4 miles away in Midtown? More to the point, he mentioned that without a care about the familes and friends who have to live with the knowledge that their loved one took that course to score political points. What a cruel man!
That building? Er, there were two.
Thousands were cheering?
Nov 22, 2015 - Interview
STEPHANOPOULOS: “You know, the police say that didn’t happen and all those rumors have been on the Internet for some time. So did you misspeak yesterday?”
TRUMP: “It did happen. I saw it.”
STEPHANOPOULOS: “You saw that…”
TRUMP: It was on television. I saw it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: “…with your own eyes?”
TRUMP: “George, it did happen.”
STEPHANOPOULOS: “Police say it didn’t happen.”
TRUMP: “There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down. I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering as that building came down — as those buildings came down. And that tells you something. It was well covered at the time, George. Now, I know they don’t like to talk about it, but it was well covered at the time. There were people over in New Jersey that were watching it, a heavy Arab population, that were cheering as the buildings came down. Not good.”
STEPHANOPOULOS: “As I said, the police have said it didn’t happen.”
Comment - There was some footage of people overseas cheering. If it happened in the US it would have made headline news.
Nov 23, 2015 - Rally
“During a speech recently, I said that I saw in parts of New Jersey — Jersey City, but parts of New Jersey — I saw people getting together and in fairly large numbers celebrating as the World Trade Center was coming down, killing thousands of people, thousands and thousands of people”.
Comment - Backtracking - thousands celebrating was reduced to a “fairly large number”
He later cited on Twitter as proof a small paragraph in the NY Post (a newspaper he has slammed often) dated 9/14/01
Source
... and an MTV video of one person who thought she saw a small group of teenagers in Patterson, NJ. MTV has since released the video with an updated interview of the person who made the claim
Source
Comment - Of course, Trump’s statement is outrageous. Had it happened there would have been many eyewitnesses and massive coverage!
April 8, 2016 - Visit to 9/11 Memorial
For the first time Trump visits (curiously) just before the New York GOP primary. He’s a New Yorker yet never visited? And of course, he used the event to have a dig at his opponents (via Twitter), a photo op and donate to the memorial, which he had never done before (see Trump and charities page).
Source
April 19, 2016 - Rally
“Because I was down there and I watched our police and our firemen down at 7/11, down at the World Trade Center right after it came down. And I saw the greatest people I’ve ever seen in action. Everyone who helped clear the rubble, and I was there, and I watched, and I helped a little bit”.
Comment - How could he make such a horrid mistake considering he is a New Yorker?
He helped do what? Get down and dirty and pick up some debris? There is no evidence he helped.
And in typical Trump fashion he couldn’t be happy for the people of New York regarding the Freedom Tower. Trump tweets re 9/11.
The environment -
2007
Is Your Business Green?
by Josef Katz - Director of Marketing at Trump University
This past Sunday was Earth Day. All the major media covered some aspect of the day. Here in NY the Mayor outlined a major 127 point plan to help the environment. Big business and government are talking about the environment. That got me thinking about all the potential being green/ECO-friendly/conservationist offers to business owners, aspiring entrepreneurs, people buying business, selling products/services and real estate investors. Will a solar power upgrade add value over time? Will eco friendly construction make a difference in your project? Where will these products come from? Who is developing the next solution to our energy problem?
The answer could be you.
There is a huge potential to make money while still doing good things for our environment. We have a number of students who are in or have completed our Entrepreneurship Mastery Program with business ideas related to the environment. They are thinking big and taking some calculated risks. Some have big ideas that may change the way we heat our homes or fill our cars with gas and some have small ideas but with no less significant impacts in our daily lives. The point here is that your business can be a better, more profitable company by being green. If you run, own, or are starting a green business, please share your success stories, ideas, links to your sites and products by adding a comment so we can showcase successful green business ideas to the Trump University community.
Posted on April 25 2007 at 1:21 PM
Source
Comment - Trump’s marketing manager said being green was a sound investment. The blog wasn’t removed so Trump must have been happy to promote ‘green’
Energy Fix or Cancer Cure?
Posted by Donald J. Trump on 4/25/2008 at 7:28 AM
What do you think is more important: investing money in technology to solve the country’s energy problems or investing money in research to cure cancer and other diseases? That’s a tough one, isn’t it?
If you’re like the majority of Americans, you think it’s more important to raise energy efficiency than it is to cure cancer. I’m not sure I agree with them.
Of course, the results of this nationwide survey come as gas prices are well over $3 a gallon and continue to rocket to new highs, so it makes sense that breakthroughs in the development of alternative fuels would be high on people’s priority lists.
Men actually are more likely to choose fuel efficiency as their Number One concern whereas women are more likely to pick medical breakthroughs as most important. The environment is next as the most important area for greater investment, while defense spending had the fewest supporters.
So, energy, cancer or the environment? All good causes but if you have to pick one, which would it be?
Source
Comment - The environment is a good cause he said.
2008
Think Green and Make Green
Posted by Brett Carman on 6/10/2008 at 10:03 PM
I am always trying to think outside “the box” in an effort to distinguish myself and services from everyone else’s in this 2 million-horse town. It requires some serious disposable time in order to be able to accomplish this and with three kids under the age of six and it is not something I have a lot of. An area I think we should all be focusing on is how we can have progress in both our personal and professional lives while being mindful of the environment. It sounds cliché, but since going “green” is the “IN” thing, there has never been more financial incentive to create more eco-friendly ways of doing things.
Even if you are “AL-GORE-aphobic”, you can’t argue about the scientifically proven effects of global warming that he has been able to bring to the forefront. I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about developers who are transplanting “tear-down” houses and creating entire neighborhoods out of these “re-cycled” homes. Rather than “scraping” these lots and paying to do so, they can receive significant tax credits and have the lot’s cleared for free by the developer/builder in the new community.
It’s brilliant, really! I live in an area of significantly historical and charming homes which are being demolished every day. While I miss the cottages, I also understand about how difficult it is to sell a 2 bedroom, 1 bath home in a family-type community where the average family is over 4. Lots here can rarely be found for under $300k and it makes sense to build something more relevant.
So, with this in mind, think about what you can create in terms of value for an income producing property while keeping environmentally “green-minded”. Do this, and you may be the next real estate tycoon in your city or town.
What are some other ways you have heard of that people are capitalizing on the “Green-scene”?
Source
Comment - Again, not written by Trump but he must have endorsed this blog. Where is his denial that global warming exists? - see below.
Wind Farms -
Trump has a yet another obsession - with wind farms! Why? Likely it has something to do with the fact that he sued a Scottish wind farm claiming that it is “an act of terrorism”. You guessed it - the wind farm is near one of his golf courses. He lost the case by the way!
It seems to be a recurrent theme - when he doesn’t get his way then everybody and everything associated becomes a target with his malevolence.
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3
Tweets - Wind Farms (note these are just a few of the hundreds he has posted)
“It's a disgusting design.
... it's a terrible design. And not only the Freedom Tower, the buildings around it. It looks like a junkyard. And it shouldn't be built. And instead of not being built, they're pushing forward to get it built faster. And I mean, frankly, I'd rather see nothing than see that pile of junk.
It's really a shame. We have a great opportunity. And, you know the terrorists win. If we build this job the way it is, the terrorists win. If we rebuild the World Trade Center, but a story taller and stronger, then we win.
I mean, I don't want to have the terrorists win, Chris. And that's what's going to happen if we build this pile of junk”.
Source
Comment - One story higher means the terrorists wouldn’t win? What does that mean???
July 5, 2010 - Interview
Trump claimed he had hundred’s of friends who died on 9/11. He has never provided a single name as evidence to back his claim and nobody has come forward to say that he attended any of the funerals.
Trump told a German news reporter 2 days after the event, that he had hundred’s of his “men” and more to come to help in the relief effort. Yet there is no evidence that anybody from the Trump organisation assisted. He has been silent on whether any of these co-called workers ever suffered from 9/11 related illnesses from the toxins present at Ground Zero.
Perhaps, the most despicable act of all is that he claimed $150,000 grant intended for small businesses to get back on their feet. The grant was for rent loss, cleanup and repair of his office tower on Wall St. Hardly a small business! Yet he told that German reporter that “I have a lot of property down there, but it fortunately wasn’t affected by what happened at the World Trade Center”.
Source
Trump has also claimed that he donated to various 9/11 charities yet I can find no record of his having done so. See Trump Family and Charities page.
He made yet another outrageous and uninformed comment on Twitter in 2012 regarding asbestos in the towers. “If we didn't remove incredibly powerful fire retardant asbestos & replace it with junk that doesn't work, the World Trade Center would never have burned down”.
Comment - A. The towers didn’t “burn down”. B. Asbestos is deadly. Plus it wouldn't have helped - Source
Trump has made some alarming statements when it comes to the environment - from global warming, fracking, asbestos, to energy saving light bulbs.
He refuses to acknowledge the concept of global warming and the resultant climate change. He fails understand that global warming and rising ocean temperatures affects the weather. Warmer oceans creates more moisture in the air and when it meets the polar jet stream that in turn creates more snow and, therefore, colder temperatures. In warmer climes it has the opposite affect - more hurricanes at the seaboard and draught inland.
Some of his comment include -
Snowing in Texas and Louisiana, record setting freezing temperatures throughout the country and beyond. Global warming is an expensive hoax
The EPA is an impediment to both growth and jobs
I'm a huge believer in clean air
The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive
[Trump pledged his support for the coal industry but said he supports renewable energy] not to the exclusion of other forms of energy that right now are working much better
We're going to save the coal industry
Under my presidency we will accomplish complete energy independence ... imagine a world where our foes and the oil cartels can no longer use energy as a weapon
I'm in favor of nuclear energy, very strongly in favor of nuclear energy
Tweets - Global Warming (note these are just a few of the hundreds he has posted)
Trump is a supporter of fracking which is known to have serious health and environmental issues - Source
Tweets - Fracking (note these are just a few of the many he has posted)
Tweets - Oil (note these are just a few of the hundreds he has posted)
2008