This morning, Donald Trump called in to ABC’s Good Morning America, to offer his comments on the apparent misunderstanding that he refused to disavow support of the KKK’s David Duke. Trump claims he disavowed Duke and his support “almost immediately after,” on his Twitter and Facebook feeds.
When asked if he was prepared to make an unequivocal statement renouncing all white supremacists, Trump replied, “of course I am.” This may have been a good place to stop, but Trump continued regardless.
“There’s nobody that has done so much for equality as I have. You take a look at Palm Beach, Florida. I built the Mar-A-Lago Club. Totally open to everybody.”
This may have come as a somewhat of a shock to the people of Palm Beach, where the Mar-A-Lago is advertised on its website by Trump himself as;
“One of the most highly regarded private clubs in the world.”
Just how ‘open to everyone’ is the Mar-A-Lago? Raw Story says members pay $100,000 to join the club, as well as an additional $14,000 in annual fees.
The Mar-A-Lago’s website touts the club as ‘ultra exclusive,’ which just serves as more evidence of how out of touch Trump is with the majority of Americans. While it’s nice to know he’s willing to tolerate equality when it comes rolled in cash, I find it difficult to believe that the ‘everybody’ he’s speaking to really suffer the same difficulties as most groups of discriminated people.
Still, Trump couldn’t pass up the opportunity to smack down Mitt Romney for daring to question his support of social justice. In a tweet, Romney referred to Trump’s initial response to the CNN interview as, “disqualifying and disgusting.” Trump dismissed Romney as a “failed candidate.”
Trump was also quick to dismiss questions about his ability to defeat Hillary Clinton, should the two of them make it past the Primaries.
“I will beat Hillary Clinton much more easily than anybody else.”
Finally Trump wrapped up his interview by repeating that he was going to “make America great again,” presumably by dismissing the concerns of anyone not privileged enough to get a membership at his “totally open” elite club.
Featured image by Michael Vadon/Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
