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 1st 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
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