Working the angles at 51 Astor Place.
BY TIM GAY | Could one of New York City’s leading property developers be harboring terrorists?
Are multimillionaire jihadists lurking in high-rise marble glamour with full-time concierge and maid services, while benefitting from 15-year tax abatements?
Up there, 30, 40, even 80 stories in the sky, anarchists with shoulder-mounted missile launchers enjoy unobstructed views of the new Freedom Tower, Midtown Manhattan, Central Park, the East River, the Hudson waterfront and New Jersey — along with flight routes to and from LaGuardia, J.F.K. and Newark Liberty airports, thanks to a developer willing to sell to anyone with a mailbag of unmarked bills?
And, if so, how much did this developer profit by knowingly or ignorantly selling condos to foreign infidels who may be — well, certainly not Presbyterians.
Donald Trump proposes identifying and registering all Muslims entering the United States. However, as anyone who actually reads a complete news story knows, most terrorists — regardless of religion or lack thereof — are homegrown right here in the U.S.
Muslims include refugees, students, software designers, department store buyers, chemical engineers, dentists and some of the world’s richest people. And a lot of them own real estate.
Trump has developed, owned and bankrupted multitudes of apartments, condos, casinos and hotels on U.S. soil. America has no idea who lives in them.
Some Trump tenants may be responsible for depleting major trust funds. Many may be hedge-fund managers creating the next economic bubble. A few could be notorious plastic surgeons responsible for botched buttock implants.
All have the flash of cash, a credit line, and probably couldn’t pass the scrutiny of an old-money Park Ave. co-op board. But, were any Trump tenants screened for being Muslim?
Some 17 buildings in New York City bear the brassy plexiglas Trump name.
A cursory check of Trump’s more plebian Manhattan residential properties — the buildings on Riverside Boulevard, Trump Parc (sic) — finds a number of registered voters (and therefore U.S. citizens) with Middle Eastern-sounding first names that could be Muslim — Abdul, Mariya, Yasir, Alfarisi, Fadil, Aisha, Kareem, Yasmin, Yelnea and Omar, to name a few.
A number of Trump residences are undoubtedly owned by LLC’s and LLP’s (limited liability corporations or partnerships), real estate trusts, venture groups, estates and holding companies. These could be based in the U.S. or anywhere in the world, the United Arab Emmirates, Bermuda, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Beijing or Delaware.
Who knows how many of those owners are known Muslims?
If Trump is really going to stereotype and stamp Muslims, he should look within his own marble foyers.
As a case in point, Osama bin Laden had more than 30 brothers and sisters, and hundreds of cousins, many of whom lived in the U.S. Maybe some still do.
The bin Ladens weren’t in the U.S. on work visas to run a newsstand on Eighth Ave. They were and are rich. The family business, Saudi Binladen Group, is one of the largest construction companies and developers of real estate in the Mideast and Malaysia. Major terrorism requires major money connections.
Come to think of it, maybe Trump is working with the Saudi Binladen Group on the soon-to-be completed Trump International Golf Club in Dubai (www.trump.com/golf/trump-intl-golf-club-dubai/).
This is not a family-oriented vacation and golf spot.
To be completed in 2016, Trump’s venture will feature a 30,000-square-foot clubhouse overlooking a par-71 golf course designed by world-renowned architect Gill Hanse. It will feature three “high end” restaurants and “luxury villas and mansions” overlooking the course.
Halfway around the world in the United Arab Emmirates, Trump is developing a playground for the uber-wealthy, including the Muslims whom he loathes in the U.S.
Back here in the States are hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens who don’t know what a condo is, and have never met a Muslim. They were deceived into believing that Saddam Hussein bombed the World Trade Center, that President Obama was born a Muslim in Kenya, and that mass murderers with assault rifles have a God-given constitutionally protected right to bear concealed arms.
These Americans want Trump to deliver them from their long-held fears instilled by Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Bush. Foreigners are the problems. And Trump, always looking for a quick sale, is eager to please.
It’s now Trump’s responsibility to assure those masses by putting his mouth where his money is.
Trump must immediately identify each and every suspected Muslim who lives or invests in properties bearing the Trump name. And every woman, man and child who stays at a Trump hotel, drops a quarter into a Trump slot machine, or divots a Trump golf course must declare allegiance to either Allah or to America.
Mr. Trump, tell America now if you are or ever have had business dealings with known Muslims, or if you ever fleeced a Muslim by pulling out on a joint venture on the verge of bankruptcy.
Republicans need to know now, before the Iowa caucuses.
Once the Muslim problem is solved, Mr. Trump, you can focus on your defense plan and major economic stimulus program for the United States — The Great Texas-to-Tijuana Wall.
