Donald Trump's Historical Cuomo Dynasty-NY Democratic Party Connection Revisited--Part 2

The son of 20th-century millionaire real estate dealmaker Fred Trump [II]--celebrity real estate dealmaker and billionaire Donald Trump--wants to be nominated by the Republican Party National Convention to be the Republican Party candidate for U.S. president in the November 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Yet, ironically, members of the Trump family were apparently business associates, campaign contributors/fund-raisers, or political allies of current Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Andrew Cuomo's father, former Democratic New York Governor Mario Cuomo, historically. And the Trump family's private real estate dealmaking firm apparently profited, historically from Fred Trump [II] and Donald Trump's 20th-century connection to the Cuomo Dynasty and New York State's Democratic Party. As the 1992 book by former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett, Trump: The Deals and The Downfall revealed:

"The retention of the Falcone [law] firm was hardly Trump's only Cuomo move. In November 1985, Donald [Trump] hired Albany Lobbyist and former [NY State] transportation commissioner Bill Hennessy, who'd just resigned as chairman of the [New York] state Democratic Party...When Cuomo's [NY State] Thruway Authority chairman resigned in 1987, the governor appointed Hennessy immediately and permitted him to remain a 90 percent partner in his lobbying firm, which continued to lobby state agencies...On a $2,000-a-month retainer, plus a $500 per diem rate, the Hennessy firm's main job for Trump was to lobby some of the very transportation officials he [Hennessy] had appointed...

"As potent as the Falcone and Hennessy combination was, Donald [Trump] did not stop there. In the spring of 1986, Trump hired UDC [Urban Development Corporation]'s in-house counsel, Susan Heilbron...The two first discussed the job while they sat together in December 1985 during...talks. Well known at the top levels of the Cuomo administration, Heilbron helped engineer the selection of her best friend as [UDC Director] Tese's new counsel, Joanne Gentile...

"Trump also tried, over a period of 6 months in 1986 and 1987, to lure Sandy Frucher into his lair. Frucher, one of the governor's half-dozen top advisers, eventually declined, after countless courting sessions.

"On Falcone's recommendation, Sive Paget & Riesel, the...environmental law firm Trump retained..., hired Richard Gordon, the executive director of the Friends of Mario Cuomo. Gordon, who had worked with the Cuomos since the 1982 campaign, remained director of the campaign committee, even though his law firm had a multiplicity of matters before state agencies.

"Trump's most unusual reach, however, was for a very special driver and bodyguard, Joe Anastasi...Anastasi had been Mario Cuomo's personal bodyguard for years, starting when [Mario] Cuomo was lieutenant governor, and had accompanied him throughout the 1982 [NY] gubernatorial campaign, starting most mornings in [Mario] Cuomo's kitchen in Queens...After [Mario] Cuomo became governor, Anastasi was on his security detail in New York City...

"In 1986, Anastasi began accompanying Trump on various trips around the country...Lucille Falcone hosted the annual Cuomo fund-raiser at the Sheraton.Trump bought the most expensive ringside table...Trump was Cuomo's biggest 1989 corporate giver, donating $25,000.

"A few nights after the fund-raiser, Donald [Trump] went to a second, private Cuomo affair--Andrew Cuomo's birthday party at a midtown pub. The party was co-hosted by one of Andrew [Cuomo]'s closest friends, Dan Klores, the...aid to public relations czar Howard Rubenstein, who had handled the Trump account for years...Donald [Trump]...spoke to...Andrew [Cuomo] for a half hour. Andrew [Cuomo] would later claim that it was the first time he'd ever met Trump...It was just one more rhetorical Cuomo ploy--hiding a compromising business arrangement behind the supposed detachment of personal distance...

"Over the years, Donald [Trump] had devised a strategy for every significant public official in his path: the seduction of the elusive [Mario] Cuomo had simply been the most manipulative and extended..."

Donald Trump's Historical Cuomo Dynasty-NY Democratic Party Connection Revisited--Part 1

The son of 20th-century millionaire real estate dealmaker Fred Trump [II]--celebrity real estate dealmaker and billionaire Donald Trump--wants to be nominated by the Republican Party National Convention to be the Republican Party candidate for U.S. president in the November 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Yet, ironically, members of the Trump family were apparently business associates, campaign contributors/fund-raisers, or political allies of current Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Andrew Cuomo's father, former Democratic New York Governor Mario Cuomo, historically. And the Trump family's private real estate dealmaking firm apparently profited, historically from Fred Trump [II] and Donald Trump's 20th-century connection to the Cuomo Dynasty and New York State's Democratic Party. As the 1992 book by former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett, Trump: The Deals and The Downfallrevealed:

"...Donald [Trump]'s penetration of the Cuomo inner circle was a textbook case in seduction, and his compromising relationship with the administration would last...Trump knew he had a bit of history going for him. In 1958, Mario Cuomo had joined his first law firm--Brooklyn's Corner, Weisbrod, Froeb and Charles. Senior partner Richard Charles, who became [Mario] Cuomo's mentor at the small firm, had already been representing Fred Trump [II] for decades, and [Mario] Cuomo was assigned as a young associate...[Mario] Cuomo['s]...counsel as governor...remembers their travels out to Fred Trump's headquarters on Avenue Z for business lunches at which [Fred] Trump dished out the cheese sandwiches himself...

"When [Mario] Cuomo became [former Democratic New York Governor Hugh] Carey's running mate in 1978 and was elected lieutenant governor [of New York], [Donald] Trump contributed $4,000 to his...campaign committee...In the 1982 race [for New York governor[...he'd called [Mario] Cuomo's old friend and finance chairman, Bill Stern, on October 11, 1982, and made a $3,500 donation for the general election.

"...Several Trump business entities combined [on November 13, 1984]...to give the Friends of Mario Cuomo $15,000--making Trump one of the top donors at [Mario] Cuomo's annual fund-raiser.[Mario] Cuomo had personally approved Trump's invitation that August [in 1984] to serve on the campaign committee's board of advisers. The board was formed as `a permanent finance committee' of 30 to 50...individuals from every major region and industry in the state to raise a minimum of $30,000 each...Trump's role on the advisory board meant he was charged with raising at least as much as he directly donated...

"...In 1983...Lucille Falcone, a [then-] 33-year-old lawyer...was seen as merely an appendage of the governor's office...In 1983 ...news stories described her as the girlfriend of [Mario] Cuomo's 25-year-old son, [now current Democratic New York Governor]Andrew. She then scurried back to her law firm and took over the Friends committee. It was Falcone who recommended that Trump be named to the board of advisers in a letter to [Mario] Cuomo.

"Falcone was the only person to have worked at both of Mario Cuomo's law firms. She was a young associate at the Charles firm in Brooklyn, recruited from law school in 1976 by [Mario] Cuomo's close friend, Pete Dwyer, the treasurer of his [losing] 1977 mayoral campaign [for NYC mayor]. In early 1981, she was asked to join a new firm that had just been formed at [Mario] Cuomo's request by Jerry Weiss, who had been [Mario] Cuomo's special counsel as lieutenant governor...

"The small firm that the [then-] 38-year-old Weiss assembled was intimately connected with [Mario] Cuomo from the beginning--[then-] law studentAndrew [Cuomo] worked summers there, the campaign finance committee met there, and the firm's biggest client became the campaign's most generous donor.

"Shortly after [Mario] Cuomo won his astonishing victory [in the 1982 gubernatorial election], the firm was recast with two new partners as Weiss, Blutrich, Falcone and Miller and began to prosper, quietly, though everyone of its partners was [then] only `30 something.' Andrew [Cuomo] joined the [Mario] Cuomo administration as...special assistant and soon became the second most powerful state official...He'd begun dating Falcone in 1982 and worked closely with her on the annual dinner dances in 1983 and 1984...Andrew [Cuomo] joined the {Weiss, Blutrich, Falcone and Miller law] firm in May of 1985...

"Shortly before [then-] 25-year-old Andrew [Cuomo]became the firm's youngest partner, [Donald] Trump quietly retained it...His relationship with the firm would last for almost 2 years, though it did not surface publicly until August of 1986. The legal work it did for [Donald] Trump remains unclear, apart from Andrew [Cuomo]'s concession that it represented [Donald] Trump in lease negotiations...When Trump's retention of the firm did hit the newspaper in 1986, Trump's response was: `They are now representing us in a very significant transaction.'

"Though Andrew [Cuomo] insisted in later interviews that the firm did not interact with [New York State] officials on behalf of clients, Falcone did just that for Trump. She arranged and attended a July 21, 1985 lunch at the World Trade Center with Trump and Sandy Frucher, the president of the state's Battery Park City Authority. During the lunch, Trump expressed an interest in being designated for a choice hotel site on the Battery Park site, just off Wall Street..."

(end of part 1)

Donald Trump Father's Post-1945 Wealth, Robert Moses and Cuomo Connections Revisited

Following the end of World War II in 1945, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's father, Fred Trump [II], apparently increased his personal wealth a lot and developed more personal, political or business connections to politically influential people, such as former New York City Construction Coordinator Robert Moses and future Democratic New York Governor Mario Cuomo--the father of current Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. As former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett's 1992 book, Trump: The Deals and the Downfall, noted:

"It was in this immediate postwar period that Fred Trump became...a truly wealthy man...Fred began construction on a mansion...The family moved into the 9-room mansion at 85-14 Midland Parkway in 1948...Donald [Trump] was born at the...moment that Fred was making his career change...to big-time New York apartment developer...

"...His name was...mentioned in gossip columns as a possible candidate for Queens borough president, an idea he toyed with in conversations with influential friends...

"Beyond...[political] clubhouse ties [Fred] Trump also took advantage of a very special connection that transcended machine politics: a path of access to...[then New York City Construction Coordinator] Robert Moses...By the late 1950's and early 1960's...Mario Cuomo...would trek out for luncheon business meetings to Fred [Trump]'s Coney Island office, where [Fred] Trump would serve them all cheese sandwiches..." 

Donald Trump's Historical Cuomo Dynasty-NY Democratic Party Connection Revisited--Part 1

The son of 20th-century millionaire real estate dealmaker Fred Trump [II]--celebrity real estate dealmaker and billionaire Donald Trump--wants to be nominated by the Republican Party National Convention to be the Republican Party candidate for U.S. president in the November 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Yet, ironically, members of the Trump family were apparently business associates, campaign contributors/fund-raisers, or political allies of current Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Andrew Cuomo's father, former Democratic New York Governor Mario Cuomo, historically. And the Trump family's private real estate dealmaking firm apparently profited, historically from Fred Trump [II] and Donald Trump's 20th-century connection to the Cuomo Dynasty and New York State's Democratic Party. As the 1992 book by former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett, Trump: The Deals and The Downfall revealed:

"...Donald [Trump]'s penetration of the Cuomo inner circle was a textbook case in seduction, and his compromising relationship with the administration would last...Trump knew he had a bit of history going for him. In 1958, Mario Cuomo had joined his first law firm--Brooklyn's Corner, Weisbrod, Froeb and Charles. Senior partner Richard Charles, who became [Mario] Cuomo's mentor at the small firm, had already been representing Fred Trump [II] for decades, and [Mario] Cuomo was assigned as a young associate...[Mario] Cuomo['s]...counsel as governor...remembers their travels out to Fred Trump's headquarters on Avenue Z for business lunches at which [Fred] Trump dished out the cheese sandwiches himself...

"When [Mario] Cuomo became [former Democratic New York Governor Hugh] Carey's running mate in 1978 and was elected lieutenant governor [of New York], [Donald] Trump contributed $4,000 to his...campaign committee...In the 1982 race [for New York governor[...he'd called [Mario] Cuomo's old friend and finance chairman, Bill Stern, on October 11, 1982, and made a $3,500 donation for the general election.

"...Several Trump business entities combined [on November 13, 1984]...to give the Friends of Mario Cuomo $15,000--making Trump one of the top donors at [Mario] Cuomo's annual fund-raiser. [Mario] Cuomo had personally approved Trump's invitation that August [in 1984] to serve on the campaign committee's board of advisers. The board was formed as `a permanent finance committee' of 30 to 50...individuals from every major region and industry in the state to raise a minimum of $30,000 each...Trump's role on the advisory board meant he was charged with raising at least as much as he directly donated...

"...In 1983...Lucille Falcone, a [then-] 33-year-old lawyer...was seen as merely an appendage of the governor's office...In 1983 ...news stories described her as the girlfriend of [Mario] Cuomo's 25-year-old son, [now current Democratic New York Governor] Andrew. She then scurried back to her law firm and took over the Friends committee. It was Falcone who recommended that Trump be named to the board of advisers in a letter to [Mario] Cuomo.

"Falcone was the only person to have worked at both of Mario Cuomo's law firms. She was a young associate at the Charles firm in Brooklyn, recruited from law school in 1976 by [Mario] Cuomo's close friend, Pete Dwyer, the treasurer of his [losing] 1977 mayoral campaign [for NYC mayor]. In early 1981, she was asked to join a new firm that had just been formed at [Mario] Cuomo's request by Jerry Weiss, who had been [Mario] Cuomo's special counsel as lieutenant governor...

"The small firm that the [then-] 38-year-old Weiss assembled was intimately connected with [Mario] Cuomo from the beginning--[then-] law student Andrew [Cuomo] worked summers there, the campaign finance committee met there, and the firm's biggest client became the campaign's most generous donor.

"Shortly after [Mario] Cuomo won his astonishing victory [in the 1982 gubernatorial election], the firm was recast with two new partners as Weiss, Blutrich, Falcone & Miller and began to prosper, quietly, though everyone of its partners was [then] only `30 something.' Andrew [Cuomo] joined the [Mario] Cuomo administration as...special assistant and soon became the second most powerful state official...He'd begun dating Falcone in 1982 and worked closely with her on the annual dinner dances in 1983 and 1984...Andrew [Cuomo] joined the {Weiss, Blutrich, Falcone & Miller law] firm in May of 1985...

"Shortly before [then-] 25-year-old Andrew [Cuomo] became the firm's youngest partner, [Donald] Trump quietly retained it...His relationship with the firm would last for almost 2 years, though it did not surface publicly until August of 1986. The legal work it did for [Donald] Trump remains unclear, apart from Andrew [Cuomo]'s concession that it represented [Donald] Trump in lease negotiations...When Trump's retention of the firm did hit the newspaper in 1986, Trump's response was: `They are now representing us in a very significant transaction.'

"Though Andrew [Cuomo] insisted in later interviews that the firm did not interact with [New York State] officials on behalf of clients, Falcone did just that for Trump. She arranged and attended a July 21, 1985 lunch at the World Trade Center with Trump and Sandy Frucher, the president of the state's Battery Park City Authority. During the lunch, Trump expressed an interest in being designated for a choice hotel site on the Battery Park site, just off Wall Street..."

(end of part 1)

Donald Trump Father's Post-1945 Wealth, Robert Moses and Cuomo Connections Revisited

Following the end of World War II in 1945, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's father, Fred Trump [II], apparently increased his personal wealth a lot and developed more personal, political or business connections to politically influential people, such as former New York City Construction Coordinator Robert Moses and future Democratic New York Governor Mario Cuomo--the father of current Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. As former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett's 1992 book, Trump: The Deals and the Downfall, noted:

"It was in this immediate postwar period that Fred Trump became...a truly wealthy man...Fred began construction on a mansion...The family moved into the 9-room mansion at 85-14 Midland Parkway in 1948...Donald [Trump] was born at the...moment that Fred was making his career change...to big-time New York apartment developer...

"...His name was...mentioned in gossip columns as a possible candidate for Queens borough president, an idea he toyed with in conversations with influential friends...

"Beyond...[political] clubhouse ties [Fred] Trump also took advantage of a very special connection that transcended machine politics: a path of access to...[then New York City Construction Coordinator] Robert Moses...By the late 1950's and early 1960's...Mario Cuomo...would trek out for luncheon business meetings to Fred [Trump]'s Coney Island office, where [Fred] Trump would serve them all cheese sandwiches..." 

NYU's Michael Steinhardt, Wall Street and Golan Heights Oil Connection: Part 11

NYU’s Land Grabbing Project and Steinhardt’s Cuomo Campaign Contribution

Coincidentally, besides being funded by a Wall Street speculator who has collaborated with an Israeli power elite that continues to gobble up and exploit Palestinian land in the West Bank for new settlements and Syrian land in the occupied Golan Heights for Genie Energy to exploit, the NYU Administration, itself, plans to continue to gobble up and exploit neighborhood land in Downtown Manhattan in a big way in the 21^st-century. As the Village Voice noted in a Feb. 20, 2013 article: 

“Some neighbors are still bitter about NYU's previous fits of expansion in the 1960s and again in the '90s; in both periods, the university earned its reputation as an insatiable beast swallowing entire neighborhoods. But the current proposal goes much, much further…Dubbed `NYU 2031,’" the plan calls for…new construction…in the two blocks bound on the south and north by Houston and 3rd streets and on the east and west by Mercer Street and LaGuardia Place. The construction would…entail the demolition of the historically significant 1959 Washington Square Village Garden…It would also renege on promises it made 50 years ago, when it built the existing residential towers, to not further crowd the area…”

Yet the Democratic Administration of former Democratic New York Governor Mario Cuomo—Andrew Cuomo—has apparently not been that eager to pass state legislation which would prohibit or block tax-exempt and “non-profit” NYU from gobbling up more land in New York state for private, institutional expansion purposes. Nor was New York Governor Cuomo II apparently that eager to criticize the militaristic, right-wing Netanyahu regime in Israel/Palestine for ordering an Israeli military attack on people in Gaza between July 7 and Aug. 26, 2014 that killed 1,662 Palestinian civilians, including 519 Palestinian children and 297 Palestinian women, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

One reason might be because NYU Trustee and “Birthright Israel” founder Steinhardt apparently made a big campaign contribution to Andrew Cuomo’s re-election campaign fund in 2014. As the New York Times observed in its July 15, 2014 issue, “Mr. Cuomo…drew individual donations from a variety of real estate, financial and entertainment elites, including $40,000 from Michael Steinhardt, a hedge fund expert…”

(end of part 11)