AISLE BE DAMNED!
Now, Don nups gal not a HUD hire
FEDERAL HOUSING officials appear to be backing away from the appointment of a Trump family wedding planner to run the office that oversees federal housing in New York.
On Thursday two federal officials had confirmed to the Daily News a start date of July 5 for Lynne Patton as the new administrator of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development’s Region II office.
Late Thursday Patton did not dispute the appointment when she tweeted what appears to be a clarification of her resume.
But on Friday HUD spokesman Jereon Brown said, “The position is vacant. There’s been no official announcement.”
The about-face came following a wave of outrage that emerged about the appointment of Patton, who has zero housing experience, to run an office that distributes billions of taxpayer dollars to public housing authorities in New York and New Jersey, including the nation’s biggest, NYCHA.
Early Friday Rep. Grace Meng ( D-Queens) fired off a letter to President Trump demanding he withdraw the appointment.
“This is not ‘The Apprentice,’” Meng wrote. “The federal government is not your personal patronage system. On behalf of every New Yorker who relies on NYCHA to survive, I ask you to start acting as such.”
Rep. Nydia Velazquez (DBrooklyn) called the appointment a “slap in the face to New Yorkers, NYCHA residents and all Americans who rely on well-administered HUD programs to have livable housing and safe communities.”
And on WNYC, Mayor de Blasio (top) seemed taken aback by the situation when asked about Patton’s appointment by host Brian Lehrer.
“We’re through the looking glass here with so many things we’re seeing in the Trump administration,” the mayor said. “I think it’s great to strive for normalcy but I think it’s foolish to expect it.”
Patton is a longtime Trump loyalist who has arranged golf tournaments and handled what she called “celebrity acquisition” for Trump events. She also helped plan Eric Trump’s wedding.
She was named a White House liaison to HUD in February, and quietly appointed to the New York/New Jersey job this past week, sources said.
On her LinkedIn bio, she claimed to have a law degree from the Quinnipiac University School of Law in Connecticut, although school officials said she merely attended for two semesters and did not obtain a degree.
She tweeted late Thursday after The News inquired about the letters N/A appearing next to the entry about a degree from Quinnipiac.
She said the N/A meant “not applicable,” and wrote, “When did you finish law school but you know you never did, you could answer N/A because it doesn’t apply to you.”
She added a confused face emoji and the hashtag #neverlied.
Patton also served as vice president of the Eric Trump Foundation, which is under investigation by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman over allegations of self dealing. She stepped down in January.