ALMA MATTERS

What’s up with the tin soldiers, anyway? 

Mr. Trump has a jones for generals:  General James Mattis, General John Kelly, Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster, and who could forget—Lieutenant General Michael J. Flynn. 

Mr. Trump has a penchant for parades.  So enamored was he of Emmanuel Macron’s Bastille Day parade, that he organized a military parade of his own, then canceled it allegedly because of “ridiculously high” costs, next went to Paris (again) for the Armistice Day parade, and-- refusing to allow anyone to rain on his parade for a second time-- announced his “Salute to America” parade to be held in Washington on the Fourth of July.  Such a tradition already exists, but biologists say there are benefits in redundancy.

But what actually explains this fascination with the military?  Is it the gold braid?  The rat-a-tat-tat of the drum?  The joy of bouncing a quarter off a well-made bed?  An anonymous friend and a Washington Post journalist shed some light:  New York Military Academy.  Mr. Trump has confirmed as much himself.  Despite his Vietnam War bone spurs deferments, Mr. Trump says that his experiences at NYMA provided “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.” [sic.]

My friend’s insight comes from her days back in New York, where her father worked for Fred Trump, Donald’s father, selling real estate in the late 1950s.   Fred was also a big fan of the military, and he was very impressed that my friend’s father had made 1^st Lieutenant.  Her brother remembers their father coming home from work in Brooklyn one evening saying, “Fred’s kid is bouncing off the walls, and we couldn't work.”

Marc Fisher, who has interviewed Mr. Trump, offers in a March 5, 2019, Washington Post article:

“Trump spent five years at the military academy, starting in the fall of 1959, after his father—having concluded that his son, then in the seventh grade, needed a more discipline-focused setting—removed him from his Queens private school and sent him Upstate to NYMA.”

If you’re familiar with the greater New York metropolitan area, you’ll smile at Fisher’s turn of phrase, because you know that if somebody says somebody was sent Upstate, that usually meant the somebody was sent to Sing Sing.  Not the case here, of course, but a clever inside joke.

So, Mr. Trump, perhaps bouncing off the walls but surely facing some disciplinary issues, was packed off to NYMA, where he spent his middle school and high school years.  According to its Wiki page, NYMA is a college prep boarding school located 60 miles north of New York City in Cornwall on Hudson and one of the oldest military schools in the United States.  However, like its most famous alumnus, Mr. Trump, NYMA got into financial difficulties.  A group of graduates trying to raise money to save the school sought a $7 million dollar donation from Mr. Trump in 2010.  “Donation” might begin with “don,” but Donald turned them down and the school, like its most famous alumnus, Mr. Trump, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2015.  It was sold at bankruptcy auction to a Chinese investor and reopened with 29 students.

NYMA students in uniform, 1964.  Donald Trump, second from left.

As Mr. Trump’s father willed, NYMA had a strict code of conduct modeled after West Point.  Fisher reports that Mr. Trump loved competing for cleanest room and best-made bed.  He may not have been a scholastic standout, but we can only speculate as to that, because his academic transcripts are MIA. 

What we do know is that NYMA has some notable alums besides its most famous one, Mr. Trump:  Francis Ford Coppola, Troy Donahue, Stephen Sondheim, Les Brown.  But clearly the most notable of all is John A. “Junior” Gotti, Class of 1983 (did not graduate), organized crime figure.  Like its most famous alumnus, Mr. Trump?  No comment.  But at least we now know what’s up with the tin soldiers. 

Keep it real!

Marilyn