Trump’s vile New York values: How The Donald represents the worst of a great city

[Draggingtree]

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: Trump’s vile New York values: How The Donald represents the worst of a great city

BY GARRY KASPAROV SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Sunday, April 17, 2016, 5:00 AM

 

I got my first glimpse of Donald Trump during my very first visit to New York City in 1988. To a 25-year-old Soviet chess champion, the flashy tycoon with his glamorous wife Ivana walking through the Oak Room at the Plaza Hotel, which he had recently purchased, was the embodiment of my illusions about what was then to me a new and glamorous Western city. To someone like me, who had read a lot about America but experienced little, Trump seemed very impressive, a symbol of the wealth and opportunity, and of the capitalist West.

 

Trump owned the Plaza; the Plaza was a symbol of New York; New York was a symbol of America.

 

Looking back on that chance encounter in light of this year's presidential campaign, after nearly 30 years of visits and living in New York City, I realize that I was taken in by the same con game that Trump is still running today. Trump sells the myth of American success instead of the real thing.