We all know by now the sad story of the White House Squatter’s bones spurs, and how this terrible disability led to exemptions from military service. What we didn’t know, until the New York Times revealed today, that Fred “Old Man” Trump bought these bone spurs from a Podiatrist tenant in Queens.
For 50 years, the details of how the exemption came about, and who made the diagnosis, have remained a mystery, with Mr. Trump himself saying during the presidential campaign that he could not recall who had signed off on the medical documentation.
Now a possible explanation has emerged about the documentation. It involves a foot doctor in Queens who rented his office from Mr. Trump’s father, Fred C. Trump, and a suggestion that the diagnosis was granted as a courtesy to the elder Mr. Trump.
As Woody Guthrie sang, Old Man Trump was a horrible, overcharging, racist landlord. But, for this podiatrist, Dr. Larry Braunstein, who rented a small store front office from him, was able to get services other tenants were unable to receive.
“I know it was a favor,” said one daughter, Dr. Elysa Braunstein, 56, who along with her sister, Sharon Kessel, 53, shared the family’s account for the first time publicly when contacted by The New York Times.
Elysa Braunstein said the implication from her father was that Mr. Trump did not have a disqualifying foot ailment. “But did he examine him? I don’t know,” she said...
“What he got was access to Fred Trump,” Elysa Braunstein said. “If there was anything wrong in the building, my dad would call and Trump would take care of it immediately. That was the small favor that he got.”
Well, who needs examinations? Just ask Dr. Harold Bornstein. There was another “diagnosis” from a different doctor who was — surprise! — another tenant.
There was some involvement by a second podiatrist, Dr. Manny Weinstein. Dr. Weinstein, who died in 1995, lived in two apartments in Brooklyn owned by Fred Trump; city directories show he moved into the first during the year Donald Trump received his exemption.
Does this surprise anyone? Daddy Trump took care of his boy.
An investigation by The Times in October showed the extent to which Fred Trump had assisted his son over the years, despite Donald Trump’s insistence to the contrary. The investigation revealed that Mr. Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate empire, including the equivalent of $200,000 a year by age 3.
Is there nothing about this man that isn’t a total fraud? No there is not.