Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump star in NY-based soap opera
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Credit: Wires
This national election morphs each day into a tabloid soap opera, New York-style.
Only recently, Clintons and Trumps made for more-than-cordial neighbors on the gossip pages. In 2005, ex-president Bill and then-Sen. Hillary Clinton topped the list of boldfaced names at the real estate heir’s third wedding. It was reported that she sat in the front pews in the church in Palm Beach for the nuptials of one of her then-donors.
Nobody was surprised in April 2007 when Trump, ex-wife Marla Maples, and latest wife Melania Knauss all donated to Hillary Clinton as GOP efforts against her were well underway. Later it emerged that Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton cohort and ex-chairman of the Democratic National Committee, got $25,000 from Trump in his successful 2009 bid for Virginia governor.
Last May, after the former Secretary of State announced her candidacy for the presidency, Bill Clinton chatted on the phone with Trump, both sides confirmed to The Washington Post. Sources gave vague and conflicting details of the conversation. Weeks later, Trump jumped into the fray.
Bill Clinton months ago told TV comedian Jon Stewart that Trump “has been, believe it or not, uncommonly nice to Hillary and me.” In turn, Trump told Fox News: “Hillary Clinton I think is a terrific woman. I am biased because I have known her for years ... I think she does a good job,” as Secretary of State.
Now the Trump-Clinton relationship resembles a celebrity divorce battle. It makes you wonder: Did Trump and the Clintons mean it when they all proclaimed their fondness — or do they mean what they say about each other now?
This drama also has its host of regional side characters.
S & A Concrete, which helped build Trump condos, was headed by mob boss “Fat Tony” Salerno, who died while imprisoned in 1992. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Trump rival struggling for traction, recently began tossing out Salerno’s name to slam Trump.
Federal prosecutor Rudy Giuliani, later New York City mayor, led the effort to put away Salerno. But Giuliani won’t be helping Cruz; he calls Trump a “close personal friend” and defends him in TV appearances.
Back in his days as U.S. attorney in New Jersey, now-Gov. Chris Christie won the conviction of Democratic donor and real estate man Charles Kushner on charges of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering.
As it happens, there are connections between the boldface names here too.
Kushner’s son Jared married Trump daughter Ivanka in 2009. Jared Kushner is the publisher of the weekly New York Observer, geared toward an elite readership. On Jan. 18, the paper ran a piece calling Sen. Marco Rubio, the struggling Trump rival, the candidate most embodying “sheer brazen corruption, chicanery and dishonesty.”
The paper’s editors also have sided with Trump in his fight with state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is suing the former Trump University for defrauding students.
Voting comes later. First, follow the tabloid theater.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
