Before I start, I think it’s important to mention that this is written by someone who, when she first read about Donald Trump in the 1980s, found him to be impressive. I know that statement will appall many of those who read my work regularly, but please let me explain myself: It was because of the skating rink.
The Wollman Rink in Central Park was one of New York City’s treasures, created with monies donated by philanthropist Kate Wollman. It’s a magnificent rink, and as a native New Yorker living there at the time, I was dismayed by the city’s mismanagement of it. The rink was closed in 1980 for what was supposed to be two years of renovations, but six years later, the work was still incomplete. That’s when Donald Trump stepped in, “persuading” Mayor Koch to let him finish the work. (And more about that in a moment.) Mr. Trump completed the work in three months and had the rink open by the end of the year.
As an aspiring entrepreneur, I admired that, and dived head first into the folklore surrounding Mr. Trump –that he was a man who’d worked hard for every penny he had, whose investments turned to gold, etcetera. I bought it all wholesale, because to me, that’s the very definition of success: work hard and long, choose your investments wisely, and you too can get your chunk of The American Dream. From the information I had then, Donald Trump embodied those ideals. Apart from all of that, he was a philanthropist too, I thought. He’d fixed the rink with his own money!
But there were several details of which I was unaware, the first being that renovating a skating rink in three months was not such a phenomenal feat. It only seemed so because the politicians running New York City then were painfully inept and as crooked as a dog’s hind leg. The rink was only a smidgen of the filthy smear that was their legacy, and Donald Trump took advantage of that. His stipulation for completing the work “with his own funds” I later learned, was that he be allowed to operate the rink and an adjacent restaurant, using the profits to recoup the costs. Now, almost thirty years later, Donald still runs the rink, even though one would imagine that his costs should have been more than paid back by now. So how he “persuaded” Ed Koch to basically hand over something that belonged to the people of New York City for the cost of repairing it is quite the puzzle, isn’t it?
Fortunately, it didn’t take thirty years for me to suss this out. Or the fact that many of Mr. Trump’s other investments were not all that golden. For years, he lost more money than he made and was continually bailed out by his dad. In fact, everything one reads about Mr. Trump and his miracle businesses are pieces written by his own PR Department. Even in Las Vegas, a city built on shady characters, he’s considered a bad risk. His Trump Tower there is one of his more grandiose failures, and in Atlantic City, he sold his Trump Plaza for a mere 20 million — the lowest price ever paid for an Atlantic City casino. A simple Google check reveals all of this. Donald got stock in the company in exchange for the new company to use his name. In other words, he didn’t make the money, he lost it, and like so many other sleazy business people, his name and reputation let him get away with it.
So, what has Mr. Trump contributed to our society that makes him feel qualified to run for the highest office in the land? With his track record of ruinous, egomaniacal investments, could he get the country out of debt? He thinks that’s not relevant. He thinks that the two major problems we have in the United States are the menstrual cycles of female reporters and our immigrant population. The first assumption is ill-bred and ignorant, and the second is ironic, because—guess what? Mr. Trump is an immigrant’s kid.
That’s right — though Donald may have us think differently, he didn’t come over on The Mayflower. Unlike the rink, he didn’t even repair its leaks. Donald, like so many, many, many of us born in the USA, had a parent who came from elsewhere. His mother was a Scottish immigrant and his paternal grandparents were from Germany.
And yet, he’d have us believe that it’s the immigrant population that’s destroying The United States, when it’s our immigrants who’ve made the country as great as it is. Let’s look at some of the American institutions, innovations and landmarks that came into existence thanks to immigrants:
There’s Google, co-founded by Russian immigrant Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin, alongside Larry Page. Google isn’t the only tech company started by immigrants. There’s also eBay, Yahoo!, Sun Microsystems, and Intel. And what could be more “American” than Levi’s jeans. Except that they were designed by Jacob Youphes from Latvia, who partnered with Levi Strauss. The White House was designed by an Irish immigrant, the Brooklyn Bridge by a German immigrant, and the first indoor shopping mall by an Australian. The Coney Island hot dog, another American staple, was originally German, and Santa Claus was originally Dutch. American football? Derived from rugby, brought over by English immigrants, and the patriotic song, “God Bless America” was written by Irving Berlin, a Jewish immigrant from Belarus. Even Superman, who fights for “Truth, Justice, and the ‘American’ Way” needed a green card, being from Krypton, but also co-created by an immigrant from Canada.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my father and my uncles, all of whom were immigrants, and I think this is what’s at the root of my fury with Mr. Trump and his followers. All five brothers came over from Sicily, loved the United States, were thankful to be here, and in that gratitude, worked their backsides to the bone. Welfare? Free health care? No, mostly self-employed, eighty hour work weeks were more the norm. One of my uncles founded Little Italy down in San Diego, a district which now, more than fifty years later, is bringing in buckets of money for the city. His Italian bakery was one of the first businesses down there. You never tasted pizza (another “American” staple) like my uncle made it. He only charged one dollar and fifty cents a slice when others were charging much more, yet he still made enough to pursue a number of philanthropic endeavors. My uncle was such an asset to his community that when he passed, a parade was held in his honor.
My uncles and father were not atypical. Immigrants are thirty percent more likely to start a business in the USA than non-immigrants. Small businesses owned by immigrants here employed an estimated 4.7 million people by the year 2007. These small businesses generate more than 776 billion annually. Additionally, immigrants represent 33 percent of engineers, 27 percent of mathematicians, computer scientists, and physical scientists.
As the children of immigrants, my cousins and I were taught to work hard for what we wanted. Included among us the United States now has several teachers, a few more bakers, two tech geniuses and a writer. And yet, the first English words my father learned were “dego” and “wop.”
That’s why when I now see some of my Facebook friends with Italian last names getting on the Donald Trump bandwagon, deriding immigrants, illegal or otherwise, I’m ashamed and angry. One recently posted, “So let me get this straight: if you cross the border into North Korea illegally, you get twelve years hard labor. If you cross the Afghanistan border illegally, you get shot. But if you cross the US border illegally, you get a job, a driver’s license, food stamps, health care, and child education.”
My response to that is, hell, yes. That’s why we are the USA and North Korea and Afghanistan are North Korea and Afghanistan. Immigrants in other countries suffer unspeakable fates – destitution, forced prostitution, and more. Our immigrants have given us so much in return for what we’ve given them, whilst other countries that are not so welcoming have suffered massive economic crisis and internal conflict the likes of which we’ve not yet seen here.
But we’ve seen inklings of it in our ghettos. Deny people basic human rights while the Donald Trumps of the world suck up the good and the glory like vampires sucking up blood, and eventually we pay for it. In some parts of this country, it’s easier to get a gun than it is to get an education or a decent job. That’s trouble brewing. That’s why if I see an ‘illegal’ Mexican immigrant (and there are many where I now live) and he’s working in the 100 degree summer sun on a farm, or doing the gardening, or the cleaning, or any number of other grueling jobs that I’m so lucky not to have to do, not only do I treat him with courtesy and respect, I will pay him a decent wage, I will teach him how to speak English, and offer his children a place in public school.
Unlike those who follow Donald Trump’s example. Donald Trump, who is nothing more than white trash with money in his pocket.
But then again, I’m feeling bloated and crampy. So, maybe I’m just in a mood.
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(Photo is from the film, “A Day Without a Mexican” by Sergio Arau and Yareli Arismendi)
Thank you, Patricia. An interesting read, as all your posts are.
I appreciate that very much, Simona!