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Welfare Queen Trump Cried Poor To Swindle $150,000 in 9/11 Victims Funds For His Wall Street Offices

Welfare Queen Trump Cried Poor To Swindle $150,000 in 9/11 Victims Funds For His Wall Street Offices

Just last week we wrote about the “scam” Trump University, which is going to trial for fraud by the New York State Attorney. But if you thought a high-pressure shakedown was as low as the narcissistic, developer’s skills as a cunning linguist could sink, now we’ve found a new moral-low by Trump, who claimed victimhood and poverty to benefit from 9/11 while simultaneously stiffing the numerous 9/11 charities supporting victims, their families and first responders in NYPD or FDNY.

Trump’s Wall Street building’s holding company received $150,000 in state cash earmarked for 9/11 small business disaster recovery by the Empire State Development Corporation. The Trump Offices at 40 Wall Street were the headquarters of the infamous sham Trump University. The Realty TV politician who claimed muslim people celebrated 9/11 on rooftops, didn’t even bother to contribute to 9/11 charitable funds while holding his hand up high for a little relief. Now you know why Donald Trump didn’t get rich by hard work, or by the foolishness of Trump’s lenders who lost big-time in his multiple business bankruptcies, or by the $1 million loan in 1970 – worth $6 million today – from his rich daddy. None of that enough to turn the orange-faced hatemonger into a billionaire, so he needed more. Trump used the taxpayer money to dress up 40 Wall Street for his TV Show, “The Apprentice”, and presumably from where he produced other awful programming like the “Girls of Hedsor Hall” for MTV.

A new report confirms that the Trump company took 9/11 cash assistance from the state, but meanwhile the toxic Republican candidate for President’s Trump Foundation and the Trump Organization only made one 9/11 donation, for $1,000 and only to a bizarre Scientologist charity claiming to help “detoxify first responders” who inhaled toxic fumes.

The Empire State Development Corp. is the New York state agency responsible for distributing the cash to help small business recover from our nation’s worst disaster in decades, but strangely it didn’t follow SBA rules for determining who exactly is a small business. According to the New York Daily News, Trump never should’ve qualified.

But the ESDC’s rules transformed Trump into a small-business man. His company collected a $150,000 grant for losses at 40 Wall St. The grant application describes the corporation through which Trump owns that building as having 28 employees and $26.

[and] $8 million in annual revenues. That passed the ESDC’s small business test of less than 500 employees. But the revenue amount would put the single Trump property over the federal definition of a small business – which is $6 million annually for lessors of nonresidential buildings.

The Smoking Gun has followed Trump over the years, and concluded that he hasn’t donated to any of the 9/11 victims funds. Oh sure, he tries to make it seem like he’s done so by spending a few dollars here and there, mostly to take advantage of the Bush tax cuts in 2003 and 2005 which allowed numerous 1%ers to make unlimited tax deductible donations when typically the income tax benefits of the donations are capped at a certain point.

The reality is that Donald Trump made a single 9/11 related donation in the last 15 years and it was to a charity setup by Tom Cruise. In 2006, Trump gave $1000 to a controversial Scientology program that administered treatment to firemen who inhaled toxins while working on the World Trade Center pile. The New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Fund, relied on a “Purification Rundown” invented by L. Ron Hubbard, the crackpot founder of Scientology.

Wise people judge a man by his actions, not his words. Is this the man anyone should vote into public office? The maniac who claimed with a straight face that his 40 Wall Street tower only had $26 bucks so he could beg $150,000 of your tax money. The swindler who cares so much about police, that he thinks that they need even more deference, but wouldn’t donate to a legitimate fund to help 9/11 victims, first responders and the city in which he stole his fortune. The crackpot L. Ron Hubbard supporter who thinks $1000 worth of Scientology (which charges top dollar for its “religion”) is good enough to help the brave men and women of NYPD and NYFD who sacrificed everything to run towards the smoke, fire and twisted steel of the World Trade Centers.

Perhaps Hubbard and Cruise are the “Two Corinthians” which Trump kept pandering to South Carolina voters about last month.

Why does any man or woman think that Donald Trump is qualified to be president? The highest office in the United States of America has no room for a grifter whose callous acts of greed and falsity litter his entire business record, like so many notches on the belt of a flim flam artist, a dyed-in-the-wool narcissist bent on lying his way to the top.

It’s hard to become a 1%er by giving, but much easier to hoard great wealth by taking, and The Donald is a shining example of people who suck a the teat of government, but decry welfare, Obamacare or anything else which might benefit anyone besides themselves or those of great wealth. Just check his tax plan. Trump loves eminent domain, which is the process of taking of property by the state. But this latest taking is indecent for any American, for any New Yorker, for anyone who thinks that a con-artist reality TV actor is fit to occupy the most powerful office in the land.

Grant Stern
is the Executive Editor of Occupy Democrats and published author. His new Meet the Candidates 2020 book series is distributed by Simon and Schuster. He's also mortgage broker, community activist and radio personality in Miami, Florida., as well as the producer of the Dworkin Report podcast. Grant is also an occasional contributor to Raw Story, Alternet, and the DC Report, and an unpaid senior advisor to the Democratic Coalition and a Director of Sunshine Agenda Inc. a government transparency nonprofit organization. Get all of his stories sent directly to your inbox here:

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