A journey into Trump heartland
John Lee on the trail of the president who put his mark on America
As this newspaper’s political editor I have travelled a fair portion of the globe, often as part of a taoiseach’s entourage, meeting world leaders and seeing places I never thought I would.
There have been many memorable trips. A two-week tour around Africa with former taoiseach Bertie Ahern – complete with hair raising landings on the Tanzanian savannah – stands out. But the journey I have done the most often, and with the greatest excitement, is following taoisigh to Washington DC and New York City during St Patrick’s week. I’ve been on it with four taoisigh as they visited three different presidents.
The excitement has gone up a few notches and the morbid fascination increased many times over since Donald Trump became president. It’s still America, just now it is Trump’s America.
Nowhere is this more evident than in his home town of New York where Trump Tower, the imposing monument to the president’s healthy ego, rises 200m into Manhattan’s skyline.
Moving around New York is like walking around in your own private movie (Washington is more like a huge museum). So even though a lot of your time is spent travelling from one political event to another, or waiting around for politicians, its usually done in the most spectacular of locations.
Once, many years ago, I attended an Ahern press conference beside the enormous chasm known as Ground Zero. Another time the press corps was invited to attend an event with former taoiseach Brian Cowen in the penthouse residence of the Irish consul in New York. There I spoke to Liam Neeson and his gorgeous late wife Natasha Richardson.
Last month, I was back in the city to cover St Patrick’s week, flying first into John F Kennedy airport. There are a number of options when it comes to getting about from there. Some like to get a taxi to Manhattan. This allows you to see the great skyscrapers as you come over the Queensboro Bridge – but it costs more than $70.
Instead, I take the AirTrain to Jamaica Station. After one simple change to the New York subway you’re in Midtown Manhattan in just over half an hour. It’s quicker than a cab and costs only $7.25. When you reach Jamaica Station it’s best to buy a Metro Card. For longer trips around Manhattan, the Metro is the only way to travel. Cabs are expensive and the traffic is always tortuous.
I usually stay in Fitzpatrick Manhattan Hotel on Lexington Avenue, between 56th & 57th Street. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was to stay there later in the week. Owned by the Irish hotelier John Fitzpatrick, the hotel is run with efficiency and charm by Irish general manager Shane Cookman. It’s Irish run but has a New York atmosphere and is fabulously located, five minutes from Central Park and a short walk to the Rockefeller Centre and Times Square.
My first interview was with dyedin-the-wool New Yorker Anthony Scaramucci, whose offices are on the 16th floor of a Madison Avenue skyscraper. Known fondly as ‘the Mooch’ the Italian American billionaire became Trump’s press secretary last summer. He was involved in a foul mouthed, exceedingly indiscreet conversation with a journalist and was sacked after just 11 days. Scaramucci told me about life inside the Trump White House and said he is a close friend of TV star Dr Phil. A couple of blocks from here is a more recognisable skyscraper – the aforementioned Trump Tower where the president
I GOT A UNIQUE INSIGHT INTO TRUMP BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
keeps his Manhattan residence. For me, walking around looking at these architectural behemoths is an experience in itself.
After a few days in New York, I join up with the Taoiseach’s party in Washington DC. The only way to make this journey, I have discovered, is by train. The freeways, with their 20 lanes of traffic, challenge even the bravest of drivers.
The Amtrak DC train leaves from Penn Station, beside Madison Square Garden. The more expensive express takes three and a half hours and brings you through the rusting industrial landscape of New Jersey, across the salt marshes of
Baltimore and into Washington Union Station. A more leisurely paced train can cost as little as $40 return.
I stayed at the Fairfax Hotel in Embassy Row, a short hop from The White House, my next port of call.
The Shamrock Ceremony at the White House rarely falls on St Patrick’s Day. It’s usually held on the Thursday of St Patrick’s week to accommodate the Houses of Congress. This year, the press corps, meeting outside the White House gates early that morning, faced the most rigorous of security vetting by the secret service and its sniffer dogs.
After that we walked through the grounds and explored the (strictly controlled) areas of the White House. Eventually the press were ushered out into the Rose Garden along a path and through glass doors to the Oval Office.
There sat President Donald Trump and Taoiseach Varadkar. Mr Trump is a huge (or, as he’d say, ‘bigly’) man and his charisma fills a room. Mr Varadkar, tall, but younger and slimmer, seemed dwarfed by him.
There we asked a few questions and I got to exchange pleasantries with Mr Trump about golf. I invited him to my club, the Island Golf Club in North Dublin, and he invited me to his in Doonbeg, Co. Clare.
Later we jumped on a bus, joined the president’s motorcade (he travels in an armour-plated Cadillac) and pulled up outside Capitol Hill. It was here, after the press conference in the Rayburn Room – where we ‘observed’ remarks by Mr Trump, Mr Varadkar and Speaker Paul Ryan – that I was presented with the scoop of a lifetime.
Noticing that security was a bit looser than usual, I slipped under a guard rope and, putting my finger to my ear in my best secret service agent impression, I evaded detection and stayed for the private lunch. There I got a unique insight into how Mr Trump socialises behind closed doors – he’s demonstrative, talkative and smiles a lot.
Of course, if you’d rather a more conventional tour of the Capitol, you can always book at visitthecapitol.gov
I’ve had holidays in Washington and it’s like an enormous, living monument. Even if you only have a couple of days I recommend a long walk from Capitol Hill to the Washington Monument, up around the White House and onto Arlington Cemetery. From there head towards a small house at the top of a distant hill. This is the former home of Confederate general Robert E Lee (no relation).
The Union seized his land after the civil war and made it a cemetery. John F Kennedy and Robert Kennedy are buried here. The day before St Patrick’s Day we were back in New York. The Taoiseach led us to the uber hip area of West Greenwich Village. There we visited a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn and dined at a lovely French restaurant.
On St Patrick’s Day itself, I joined a group that had peeled away from the pint-filled revelry (yes, they do that here too) of Midtown for an Italian restaurant in Soho called Cipriani. While in New York, the most spectacular city on earth, I definitely wasn’t spending St Patrick’s Day in an Irish bar.