This guy? Exaggerate?
What's less of a surprise: that Donald Trump has exaggerated his relationship with Ronald Reagan, or that Rupert Murdoch's
Wall Street Journal is
using those exaggerations to attack Trump's credentials as a Republican?
“I have great respect for him,” Mr. Trump said on NBC. “I helped him. I knew him. He liked me and I liked him.” [...]
In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Trump said, “I didn’t know him well,” but added that friends close to the president told him Mr. Reagan admired Mr. Trump. “He felt very good about me,” Mr. Trump said. “Frankly, he liked my attitude.”
But, the
Wall Street Journal wants to be sure we know, in detail, records show that:
Aides in the Reagan White House, peppered with invitations to Trump events, mostly kept the real-estate mogul at arm’s length, except when they were trying to stop his donations to Democrats or soothe his “large ego,” as one memo put it.
And:
One month after Mr. Reagan announced his candidacy on Nov. 13, 1979, Mr. Trump, his parents, sister and brother each made the maximum federal campaign contribution allowed—but not to Mr. Reagan. The Trumps all gave to the re-election campaign of Democratic President Jimmy Carter, according to Federal Election Commission records.
FEC records show no donation from Mr. Trump to Mr. Reagan for four more years. In fact, 10 months after Mr. Reagan’s 1981 inauguration, Mr. Trump made an early contribution to the political-action committee for the presidential bid of former Vice President Walter Mondale, a Democrat.
Trump was invited to a state dinner and to be on the President’s Council for International Youth Exchange. But it's crystal clear that he's been exaggerating his relationship with and spiritual connection to Reagan. The question is, who exactly does this surprise,
beyond the geniuses who "know his goal is to make America great again" because "it's on his hat"?