in those days he was mad at many people who did not give him permission (and money) to build the highest tower in manhattan. “bad people”. his third attempt, the financial times wrote back in 1985.

trump then tried something smaller, bringing the disfunctional skating rink in central park back to work. he encountered rejection from the city’s administration and from the public, mainly because he be then was known as the bragging man who loved to name his constructions after himself (or his father).

here’s his reaction from 1986, the motion we’ve seen so many times since he became (i still can’t quite grasp it) president of the US.

nice catch-phrase, nice hook-line in → today’s new york times. and quite a change in tone. i agree with thomas friedman, but who cares who i agree with ;-)

two things i’d like to add:

trump’s motive is to strengthen is financial power (which he tags as americas financial power). if his motive was a more transparent view on spying software and hardware, the action would not have had to be different.

secondly: chinese loans to US banks are so immense that china could run the US into bancrupcy any time soon. the last financial crisis was only possible because greedy wall street could get as much money from chinese banks as they wanted.