Trends Reporter, HuffPost
The Chicago Tribune, once a defender of Donald Trump’s rights, declared in an editorial Thursday that it now wants the former president’s name “jackhammered” off his hotel and condo tower in downtown Chicago.
Trump battled in 2014 to plaster his name on the Trump International Hotel and Tower, despite opposition by Chicagoans who thought it spoiled a skyline with no other giant names on buildings.
Trump got his way after a $50,000 campaign contribution to soon-to-be Mayor Emmanuel Rahm and a $5,000 donation to the city alderman whose district included the Chicago Trump Tower, the Tribune noted. He also hired the tax attorney of another alderman (since indicted), and shaved his tax bill by $12 million over six years, according to the Tribune.
Last year, Alderman Gilbert Villegas sponsored an ordinance that would ban “any person convicted of treason, sedition or subversive actions from doing business with the city, including having a sign permit.” The Tribune at the time defended Trump’s right to have the sign.
But now, enough is enough, the newspaper declared.
The Tribune’s editorial board’s reversal came after Trump called for terminating the Constitution last week.
But even more significantly to the newspaper, Trump’s company was convicted Tuesday on 17 counts of criminal tax fraud, falsifying records and other crimes in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
The “jury found that the Trump Organization was corrupt at the core, we are less than shocked to learn, helping executives dodge required taxes on a punch bowl of perks from luxury apartments to Mercedes-Benzes to cold, hard, cash,” the editorial noted.
“Let’s review,” it continued. “In a matter of days, if not hours, Trump failed to do his duty to support the Constitution, an act that should preclude a further run for president, and the Trump Organization was exposed as a criminal enterprise.”
“And Chicagoans still have to look at that sign?”
The newspaper urged: “Reintroduce an ordinance. Evoke moral turpitude. Try to get it taken down. This time with our support and, we’ll wager, most everyone who lives there.”
Check out the Chicago Tribune editorial here.
Trends Reporter, HuffPost
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