A friend who spent years in the USAF Reserves tells a story of meeting Donald Trump, during his mogul days, long before the presidential run and subsequent term. I thought you might enjoy it.
On a rainy night just before Christmas, a Trump Airlines plane chartered to the Air Force was bringing aircrews back home after they finished flying military cargo to the Middle East. Taxiing on an unfamiliar airstrip somewhere in the Southeast it strayed off the taxiway and sunk a landing gear in gooey clay mud.
The civilian pilots figured they’d never get someone to move the plane in time to get home for Christmas. The AF crew guys on board said they could get the plane unstuck, if given a free hand, and the pilots agreed. Long story short, they succeeded, and everybody got home for Christmas.
Some while later, after the holidays my friend (and I presume the other AF reservists involved) got a beautiful engraved invitation to brunch at the Trump Tower, call for reservation when in the NYC area. The only requirement, wear a Class A uniform.
Some weeks or months later, my friend found himself near NYC, called the number, donned his class As, and was picked up by a limo which brought him to Trump Tower. He got a thank you and handshake by DJT and a nice meal in a ballroom-type setting. There were other guys in uniform there, and many civilians as well.
What really impressed my friend was Trump’s apprentices, a dozen or more well-dressed young people who hovered behind as Trump ate. These approached him one at a time at some invisible signal and were whispered to by Trump before scuttling off on some errand DJT had decreed.
If that sounds like DJT playing Don Corleone minus the ring-kissing, I suppose he was. Very much “if you do me a favor, I owe you a favor.” In those years, NYC was a sea in which Trump was one of the big sharks.
