Trump trips up UN

Fire of Liberty
It seems that "The Donald" has decided to get in the fray with the UN. According to this article in The New York Sun, the New York developer and reality show host, has expressed his dismay towards the UN and its efforts to squeeze some $1.2 billion from the US to renovate its dilapidated headquarters at Turtle Bay. Just look at what the NY Sun had to say:

Mr. Trump said the construction of the brand-new Trump World Tower - a 90-story luxury residential complex in Turtle Bay - cost roughly half what the United Nations expects to spend on the renovation on a per-square-foot basis.

"Anyone who says that building renovation is more expensive than building a new building doesn't know the business," the developer said. "It only costs a fool more money."

Mr. Trump said that, as a result of meetings with Secretary-General Annan and conversations with other U.N. officials, he had come to the conclusion that the world body was being "naive," at best, in its approach to the renovations. "I'm going to predict that it will cost over $3 billion because they just don't know" what they're doing, Mr. Trump said of the project. "In my real opinion, it should cost around $700 million," he added.

His "dream," the developer added, would be "to take the United Nations and move it to the World Trade Center as a brand-new U.N., and sell the U.N. site for much more money" than the renovation would cost.

Mr. Trump conceded that such a move was unlikely. As the Sun reported in December, the United Nations was offered space at ground zero in 2002 and turned it down, citing an excessively taxing commute for U.N. employees living in Midtown.

The developer appeared at the hearing at the invitation of Mr. Sessions, who joined Mr. Trump as a witness. Mr. Sessions, along with Dr. Coburn, expressed grave concern about the U.N.'s unwillingness to provide information to the Senate about the renovation project, including a cost breakdown, auditing records, and material about the design work done on the project.

I'm sure glad we have folks like Donald Trump, Sens. Coburn and Sessions as well as the diligent reporters of The New York Sun watching out for us. Keep up the good work in imposing some well needed reform on this august body.