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If it really is true that nature abhors a vacuum, then Donald Trump must, despite appearances to the contrary, be a natural phenomenon. How else can you explain Trump's press conference last week to announce that he--and only he--had the proper vision for rebuilding Ground Zero?
There is, indeed, a vacuum: of leadership, ideology, design and public relations. Earlier this month, all of we New Yorkers who are aching for something to be built on the World Trade Center site learned that the design of the so-called "Freedom Tower" was being shelved because of security concerns that people have been pointing out since Sept. 12, 2001. New York Gov. George Pataki--who ran for re-election in 2002 pledging to focus like a laser beam on rebuilding Lower Manhattan--has been battered in the press and public for the fact that nearly four years after the terror attacks, New York has nothing to show but a cleaned-out hole. Combine that with a poor design--any idiot can see that the Freedom Tower is an oxymoron (but more on that later)--and a public relations campaign that basically consisted of a two-word press release ("Trust us") while deals were cut in private. And, finally, add in the fact that the publicity-ravenous Trump is clearly galled that he hasn't been involved with Ground Zero's restoration, and you have the vacuum that Trump is so desperate to fill with himself.
So not content with the wall-to-wall coverage of his "Apprentice" finale last Thursday, the master builder himself held a press conference a day earlier to unveil his proposal for what should be built at Ground Zero.
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Before you are able to judge Trump on the merits, there are a few things you need to know about Donald Trump:
1. He does not control the site of the proposed Freedom Tower and adjacent buildings.
2. Even if he did, Trump does not have the money to build his "Trump Trade Center." He barely has enough cash on hand to be anything more than a reality-show star.
3. He is a windbag.
Let's begin there. "In a nutshell, the Freedom Tower should not be allowed to be built," he said at his press conference. "It's not appropriate for Lower Manhattan, it's not appropriate for Manhattan, it's not appropriate for the United States, it's not appropriate for freedom." And in a slap at designers Daniel Libeskind and David Childs, Trump diplomatically called the Freedom Tower design the "worst pile-of-crap architecture I've ever seen in my life." (Has he looked at his own Trump Palace recently?!)
But where Trump fails in diplomacy, he more than compensates for in political savvy. He knows in his gut what most of the politicians seem to need a focus group or a Gallup poll to tell them: The design for the Freedom Tower--with about 60 stories of occupiable space topped by 40 stories of skeletal girders--is an increasingly unpopular abomination that, if built, would more remind New York of what it lost than point the way to the future. The restaurant on the top floor, for example, could not be called "Windows on the World," but "Windows on the 59-Story Building Next to Us." The unfinished-looking section on top would, indeed, end the debate forever on whether the terrorists won. They did: We're too afraid of them to build anything tall enough for them to hit.
Windbag or not, Trump knows that a large portion of New Yorkers believe that the only way to restore the World Trade Center is to rebuild the World Trade Center, including its 110-story twin towers (Trump's would be 111 stories, which some critics immediately ridiculed as being necessary to support the weight of the bull's eyes he'd be hanging on all sides of the towers).
Trump is not the first to offer this "solution" to our physical and psychic loss. He's just the only one who would actually have the audacity (feel free to choose less-polite words) to haul out a huge model, complete with the iconic Twin Towers, looking more or less like they always did (even back when we New Yorkers couldn't stand them) and celebrate his "vision."
You may wonder how a casino operator who's been in bankruptcy more than once, reality show star, fragrance designer, ghostwritten best-selling author, comb-over victim, two-time divorce and annoying gadfly ever manages to be taken seriously by the New York press corps. Here's why: In 1980, the cash-strapped, sclerotically governed city of New York closed Central Park's famed Wollman Rink for what was supposed to be a $4.9-million, two-and-a-half year renovation. Repeated errors in design and construction (hey, it's tough to pour concrete in one flat surface and install pipes without holes in them!) caused years of delay. Six years and $12 million later--and with still no rink to show for it--Trump took matters into his own ego and offered to rebuild the rink out of his own pocket. He told then-Mayor Ed Koch that he could do it in "no more than four months time." He finished it in three-and-a-half and spent $750,000 below his $3-million budget. The only black mark on his project was the day when he put up a sign reading, "Owner: Trump Ice, Inc." only to be ordered by the city Parks Department to pull it down, a rare occasion when Trump has had to pull his name off of anything without a bankruptcy proceeding.
That one-day incident was long forgotten by the time of the ribbon cutting. Given the state of the city back then--crime-ridden, dirty, losing population and, in general, fading like a terminal patient whose family has just pulled the plug--Trump earned the kind of press coverage that might have accompanied Jesus Christ after turning five loaves of bread and two small fish into a meal for 5,000 people.
"It's a great rink and he is a great man," a skater named George Rinaldi said of Trump after taking an inaugural spin on the restored rink back then. A great man? For pouring some concrete? For freezing some water? "Anybody who can get anything done right and done on time in New York is a bona fide hero," Rinaldi persisted.
Times change, terrorists attack, agendas evolve. But it's safe to say that there are plenty of George Rinaldis still living in New York City wondering why there's a huge hole between Vesey and Liberty Streets--and why Donald Trump hasn't been invited to fill it.
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