Trump gets Flak for 9/11 funds loophole. [krakatoa]

Trump used a loophole in the classification of small businesses to get 150k of 9/11 recovery funds after saying "I have a lot of property down there, but it wasn't, fortunately, affected by what happened to the World Trade Center."

"Donald Trump owes New Yorkers an explanation for taking funds meant for small business owners recovering from 9/11. In his own words, Trump has said his businesses were unharmed and surely we are not to believe he is a small businessman," #NeverTrump PAC senior adviser Rory Cooper said. "Over the years, Trump has flirted with 9/11 trutherism and has lied about events surrounding the terror attack. Trump should own up to what he did with this money."

Anti-Trumpers are trying to use this as a wedge in NY, but I think that ship has sailed. Trump is easily eclipsing 50% in his home state, which shouldn't be surprising or even disappointing.

Pro-Trumpers might use this as an example of Trump being able to work within the rules of a system to game the most advantage, and posit it is how he would govern. I think that idea ran into a brick wall in Colorado and the various other state delegate battles, but YMMV. He acknowledged months ago that he didn't understand the need to have a ground game, but has apparently not taken this information and used it in any meaningful way.

I'm a little torn on the subject. While I find working the system to get taxpayer dollars to be personally distasteful, Trump's first responsibility as a business owner is to legally maximize the bottom line of his businesses.

If the government didn't see fit to explicitly forbid a company that had annual revenues of 26 million dollars from the realm of "small business", then that's on the government.

Trump is a fine avatar of NY values, and I mean that expansively, rather in the way Cruz did when speaking of the values on NY's far left political elites.

Bigger than life. Arrogant. Loud. In-your-face. And regardless of what you think of his methods, he has achieved, by my eyes anyway, no small measure of success with (or in spite of) those attributes.

These attributes are emblematic of what you could call the mythology of NYC, and one that the greater state doesn't fall that far from when push comes to shove at the ballot box.

So I think it's likely that using this to try to peel any meaningful votes from Trump is probably a waste of time.

That said, it certainly could have some effect on voters in other states. Or maybe not.

posted by Open Blogger at 12:00 PM

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