Trump gets early start collecting 2020 money
You have to hand it to President Trump — only five months in office, and he’s already putting the arm on folks to fund his 2020 re-election campaign.
At $35,000 a plate, the price of Trump’s shindig last week at the Trump International Hotel (where else?) in Washington, the president raised $10 million in one sitting. A pretty good haul: No president, to my knowledge at least, has started raising money this early.
On the plus side, Trump can’t be accused of taking money for favors, because he hasn’t done anything. This has to be the least productive start of any administration, ever, anywhere.
OK, he did appoint a Supreme Court justice. But the GOP fix was in on that one. Otherwise, to bor-
row an infamous Trump quote, nobody in his administration knew that governing could be so complicated.
Government is a beast that is not easily tamed. Even when you announce a change, there is no guarantee that the people charged with carrying out the new policy will actually do it.
I was in New York last week and stopped by Trump Tower. Like its namesake, it’s starting to look a bit old and frayed at the edges.
First, there’s the entrance. The whole block along Fifth Avenue between West 56th and West 57th is a jumble of makeshift police barriers and disheveled police officers. The security looks as if it were thrown up in a hurry and that no one figured it would be there for very long.
Inside, the 34-year-old tower could pass for 50. The marble in the lobby has lost much of its luster, the fountain looked dusty, and the mezzanine shops were close to empty. There wasn’t even a line at the Starbucks.
Then I went over to the Bergdorf Goodman store a block up the street. I started talking with the guys who sell the Kiton and Brioni suits on the fourth floor, and it wasn’t hard to draw them out on the president’s fashion tastes.
“He is just terrible,” one salesman said. “Look at the size of the legs of his trousers! They look like a Zoot suit.”
“And those ties,” another said. “He’d better not get near a candle at a restaurant — those ties would explode.”
“And by the way,” a third chimed in, “the suits don’t fit, either. He must have been a lot larger when he had them made.”
Of course, his suits are the least of our concerns. The other day I was in a bar and overheard a guy say, “Donald Trump handles politics the way most people handle fireworks on the Fourth of July — light the fuse and run like hell.”
Summer air travel has gone from worse to worser. Every flight is filled to the max. If you have a connecting flight, you’d best build in an extra hour or two, because you can practically count on your plane being delayed.
But you know what? For all the people who gripe about baggage fees, the one thing that airlines be charging for is carry-on luggage.
Carry-ons are growing to sizes bigger than the overhead storage. And there is never enough room for everyone.
Plus, nobody obeys the one-bag rule. Coming back from New York, I saw a guy bring a hockey stick and a skateboard onto the plane.
All I could think was, how did that get by security?
I also noticed that some people suddenly develop a limp as they approach their boarding gate, to get to the front of the boarding line with the genuinely disabled people.
Why, I don’t know. Who wants to sit in these tin cans longer than is absolutely necessary?
A hearty goodbye to a real San Francisco native son, retired police Cmdr. Edward J. Nevin Jr., who passed away recently at 102.
He was the seventh of seven children of Irish immigrants. He continued the streak by having seven children of his own with his wife of 70 years, Mazie. They were born on the same date, Aug. 26, and were married on Aug. 26, 1939.
My friendship with him began when I started to practice law. He ran the vice squad, and my clients committed the vice. So I got to know him well. San Francisco is just a bit less sparkling with the absence of this quintessential Irishman.