August 29, 2015

Donald Trump, Eminent-Domain Abuser

Supporters of Donald Trump relish the prospect of a president who knows how to “get things done,” and won’t bore them with details or principles. They like hearing Trump tout the stop-at-nothing aggressiveness of his business dealings, as in this description, in a CNN interview, of how he acquired the Doral golf resort in Miami: “I didn’t sit down and say ‘let’s do a 14-point plan.’ I went in and got it. I took it away from so many people.” Trump boasted of his prowess at a rally in Michigan on Aug. 11. “You have to be able to do certain things” if you want to be successful, he crowed. I “beat the hell out of people.... I know how to get things.”

Supporters of Donald Trump relish the prospect of a president who knows how to “get things done,” and won’t bore them with details or principles. They like hearing Trump tout the stop-at-nothing aggressiveness of his business dealings, as in this description, in a CNN interview, of how he acquired the Doral golf resort in Miami:

“I didn’t sit down and say ‘let’s do a 14-point plan.’ I went in and got it. I took it away from so many people.”

Trump boasted of his prowess at a rally in Michigan on Aug. 11. “You have to be able to do certain things” if you want to be successful, he crowed. I “beat the hell out of people…. I know how to get things.”

Republican voters might wish to ponder what Trump doesn’t say — that the people he has been willing to “beat the hell out of” in order to get what he craves include small property owners and mom-and-pop businesses. And that one of his tactics for going after other people’s land is to get the government to do it through eminent domain. Trump has sought to build some of his gaudiest developments on the modest holdings of private citizens who didn’t want to relinquish their property.

The Cato Institute’s David Boaz recently recalled the story of Vera Coking, an elderly widow who had lived in Atlantic City for more than three decades. Coking owned a three-story boarding house near the ocean, in which she had raised her kids and where she looked forward to spending her golden years.

But with the arrival of legalized gambling and casinos, Coking’s land drew the interest of developers. In the 1980s, she turned down a $1 million offer from one builder, who accepted her refusal and proceeded to build around the house. When that project ran out of money, it was acquired by Trump, who was determined to get Coking’s house by any means necessary.

Those means didn’t include offering Coking better terms. Instead Trump turned to a New Jersey government agency — the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority — which condemned the widow’s home, agreed to acquire it on Trump’s behalf for $251,000, and ordered Coking to move out within 90 days. Under the Constitution, governments may take private property only for “public use.” Trump wished to use the Coking land as a waiting area for limousines at the Trump Plaza Hotel.

Coking went to court, along with the owners of two other small parcels on the same block. Their case was taken up, pro bono, by the Institute for Justice, a Washington-based legal group that defends private-property rights. After years of litigation, Coking was eventually allowed to keep her home. But Trump was unabashed in rationalizing the right of billionaire developers to deploy eminent domain as a weapon to confiscate land from unwilling sellers.

“Do you want to live in a city where you can’t build roads or highways or have access to hospitals?” he demanded in an interview with ABC’s John Stossel. “Condemnation is a necessary evil.”

When Stossel raised the obvious objection — “We’re not talking about a hospital. This is [about] a building a rich guy finds ugly” — Trump resorted to insults. “You’re talking about … a little group of terrible, terrible tenements; just terrible stuff, tenement housing.”

Trump lost that round. But seven years later the Supreme Court issued its notorious Kelo decision, upholding precisely the kind of state-assisted thievery he had attempted against Vera Coking. Trump gloated: “I happen to agree with it 100 percent.”

He agrees, that is, that government exists to help avaricious moguls prey on poorer citizens. “I know how to get things,” Trump says. And good luck to any widows who get in his way.


Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.