Trump Gets Away with Small-Business Money Post 9/11

Post 9/11, as Donald Trump’s fictional Muslims were “celebrating” and “cheering as the building was coming down,” Trump himself was cashing in.

As Congress prepared to help rebuild small businesses left shattered in the wake of the catastrophe with recovery grants, Trump found a way to slip through the cracks. The 28 person, $26.2 million a year 40 Wall Street, L.L.C, received a $150,000 payout: all comprised of taxpayer money designated by Congress for “mom-and-pop” type companies with less than $6 million in annual revenue.

Despite callouts from the New York Daily News, and the New York Times, a New York Representative whose district includes Ground Zero and Lower Manhattan personally challenged Trump to return the funds or donate them to charity, claiming that by “grabbing the money with both fists,” Trump had “[taken] it out of the pockets of small business owners…who were truly hurting” and taken advantage of the generosity of “fellow citizens,” as reported by The New York Times. Representative Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y) wrote an open letter to Trump angrily accusing the billionaire of bleeding the wounded city dry of support intended for small-business owners, and referenced an interview in which Trump stated that none of his properties had been damaged in the attacks.

Trump’s compassionate, thoughtful, and deeply self-aware response was obviously scrapped in favor of the one he gave: that, after allowing people to stay in the building for several months, he is “still being thanked for the many people I helped…the value of what I did was far greater than the money talked about.”  His apparently upward of $150,000 act of kindness seems to relieve Trump’s conscience; it looks like the money won’t be paid back any time soon.

Featured Image via Flickr/Brad_T