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Ronald McDonald Trump Calls LaGuardia "Third World Airport"
By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 17, 2011
Modified Apr 17, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 17, 2011
Modified Apr 17, 2011
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If it wasn't for the billions of dollars and, oh, everything about him, we might begin to feel kind of bad about how easy it is to make fun of Donald Trump. We've even petitioned to have the idiom changed to, "like shooting Donald Trump's in a barrel." But as long as Trump does things like pretend to run for president in order to increase the ratings of his dumb reality show, Celebrity Combover, it's hard to feel anything but annoyance. Especially when he starts saying arrogant things such as: "You land your plane at LaGuardia Airport, you go to LaGuardia Airport, it's like a Third World airport," Trump said on CNN.
City Councilman James Vacca, chairman of the council's transportation committee, was not amused by the comment: "Is he referring to the diversity that represents New York City? This is not constructive and could certainly be interpreted that way." Trump went on to criticize American infrastructure and industry, which he said was being blown away by the Chinese, one of his major talking points: "This country is a laughingstock throughout the world. It's being ripped-off by every country. If you look at what China is doing, they're stealing our jobs, they're taking our money. They're building bridges. They're building airports. They're building cities, brand new cities. When was the last time you saw a bridge being built in the United States?"
Of course, NYC completed a $614 million project to replace the Willis Avenue Bridge over the Harlem River last summer. So the answer to that rhetorical question would at worst be...last summer. Vacca added that Trump shouldn't bite the hand that's put up with him all these years: "I can't believe he said that...I know it's popular in other parts of the country to pick on New York for political gain, but he has been a New Yorker his whole life. I would hope he wouldn't try to benefit by slamming New York."
Trump didn't save his disdain for NYC, its inhabitants, and its business projects though; he also got some jabs in at potential presidential opponent Mitt Romney. "I'm much bigger than this man and have a much, much bigger net worth. I mean my net worth is many, many, many times Mitt Romney," he bragged. Just like Vacca, Washington Post columnist George Will is also not amused by Trump's rhetoric: “Just by being there, he can hurt the Republican Party. He is what is called a ‘blatherskite.’ That is a word my grandmother was fond of as someone who blathers promiscuously.”
But at least Trump has some real forward-thinking ideas about how to deal with surging gas prices: all we have to do is use our "brain power!" It's wonderful, and wholly appropriate, to see that Trump is now outsourcing his ideas to Zack Galifianakis' character from Dinner For Schmucks.
Tagged
donald trump
election 2012
laguardia
laguardia airport
mitt romney
professional clowns
ronald mcdonald trump
Third World
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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