Donald Trump Personally Handled Sale Of Trump Tower Condo To Haitian Dictator Baby Doc

Scatological comment projected on wall of Trump Hotel Saturday night, apparently by Robin Bell, who has been credited with similar acts previously. (Sorane Yamahira / Bellvisuals.com)

Robin Bell, who has previously projected messages critical of President Trump onto DC's Trump Hotel is credited with turning the presidential word choice of "shithole" into an editorial art installation on Saturday night. The word references countries from which immigration to America is undesirable in the view of the president and other immigration hardliners. The light show by the "projectionist provocateur" including other slogans about the Trump presidency. 

The word was used to describe countries like Haiti, El Salvador and countries in Africa. Trump expressed his preference for people from countries like Norway. 

Most Republicans have been mum about Trump's racist remarks but Utah Rep. Congresswoman Mia Love has joined Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake in condemning the conversation articulated by Dem. Sen. Dick Durbin and backed up by S.C. Sen. Lindsey Graham, both senators in the meeting where Trump ambushed them by inviting immigration hardliners to hear the proposal worked out by a bipartisan group of three Democrat and three Republican senators. Graham said he would not comment further and had expressed his thoughts on Trump's comments directly to him in front of others. Graham's SC colleague Rep. Sen. Tim Scott said he was told the word "shithole" was used, presumably by Graham. 

Rep. Mia Love, the first Haitian-American elected to Congress, said on CNN's 'State of the Union' Sunday, "I can't defend the indefensible. You have to understand that there are countries that struggle out there. But their people, their people are good people and they're part of us. We're Americans."

"The (President's) comments are unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values," Love said in a statement Thursday night. "The President must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned."

Nana Akufo-Addo, who assumed the presidency of Ghana last January, took to Twitter to denounce Trump's use of "shithole" to describe countries like his own. The shocked reverberations to Trump's comments have rocked the world of diplomats and ordinary citizens, many of who love America if not our president. 

There's a note of irony in Trump's haughty views about places like Haiti. While Trump's all cash sales of his condos to Russians is well-established amid accusations of money laundering, even I didn't know that America's president personally handled the sale of a Trump Tower condo to the despised Haitian dictator Baby Doc. 

Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier lead a reign of terror in Haiti, accused by Human Rights Watch in 2011 of selling dead Haitians' body parts to finance his high-flying lifestyle. The Daily Beast wrote about Trump personally handling the condo sale, noting that "the Stroock & Stroock & Lavan law firm—hired by the Haitian government to search out assets Duvalier had stolen from the Caribbean island-nation—only found out Duvalier owned Apartment 54-K because the dictator hadn’t paid his phone bill. The Haitian government put a lien on the property after he fled."

Waiting For A Perfect Protest? Op-Ed Argues I Am The Problem, Not Antifa

Clergy facing white nationalists in Charlottesville.

Waiting for a Perfect Protest? New York Times

Anne's comment: "Your op-ed sanitizes the reality of the antifa protest in Berkeley, claiming that my white woman 'perfect march' moderation (I see myself as very progressive) is a greater problem for you than antifa's right to promote anarchy -- breaking windows, shutting down businesses, creating chaos and hurting people -- because a white nationalist wants to speak on campus.

Many antifa members are as committed to overturning our govt and creating anarchy to support their vision of justice as are the white nationalists, from all I've read. Your op-ed says clearly that I -- who sued the NYPD over events in Harlem and won -- am a greater problem for social justice -- than antifa.

Those claims are 1) absurd and 2) counter-productive to the cause of social justice. I am happy to stand (and have stood ALWAYS) for BLM, as an example.

But if you also demand that I agree to no free speech for the dreadful Ann Coulter, that Condoleezza Rice is not permitted to speak on any university campus, and that I speak proudly on behalf of black-shirt violence that breaks windows and clubs people for NO obvious reason but creating chaos and overturning our economic system, then you must explain to me 1) why this is necessary; 2) how it will succeed and 3) exactly what kind of America you imagine creating in your so-called just country. " {End comment}

On AOC yesterday, I did discuss this issue and also posted the polls referenced in this op-ed. I posted a link to the clergy group that organized the counter-protests in Charlottesville and have absolutely no issue with them. But if they are arguing -- as they seem to be -- that I must support a host of other actions, like antifa in Berkeley, I cannot support that violence. I do not support anarchy and the total overturning of capitalism in America, as antifa seeks (not that I think it's even possible). ~ Anne

 {Op-Ed}: "Our complaint here is not about the right-wing media outlets that we know will continue to delegitimize anti-racist protest in any form — whether it’s peacefully sitting during the national anthem, marching in the streets, staging boycotts or simply making the apparently radical claim that “black lives matter.” Rather, our concern at this moment is with our moderate brothers and sisters who voice support for the cause of racial justice but simultaneously cling to paralyzingly unrealistic standards when it comes to what protest should look like.

As Christian clergy members, we place a high value on nonviolence. We are part of a national campaign that promotes proven solutions to reducing gun violence in our cities, and each of us has worked to achieve peace in our neighborhoods. But we know there has never been a time in American history in which movements for justice have been devoid of violent outbreaks."

{. . . }

The civil rights movement was messy, disorderly, confrontational and yes, sometimes violent. Those standing on the sidelines of the current racial-justice movement, waiting for a pristine or flawless exercise of righteous protest, will have a long wait. They, we suspect, will be this generation’s version of the millions who claim that they were one of the thousands who marched with Dr. King. Each of us should realize that what we do now is most likely what we would have done during those celebrated protests 50 years ago. Rather than critique from afar, come out of your homes, follow those who are closest to the pain, and help us to redeem this country, and yourselves, in the process."

Michael McBride is a pastor and the director of PICO National Network’s “Live Free” campaign. Traci Blackmon is the United Church of Christ’s executive minister of justice and witness.
Frank Reid is the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s bishop of ecumenical affairs and social action. Barbara Williams Skinner is a co-convener of the National African American Clergy Network.