4 years in, Trump fondly recalls Trump Tower campaign launch

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4 years in, Trump fondly recalls Trump Tower campaign launch

2019-06-16 20:25 Last Updated At：20:30

It was the escalator ride that would change history.

Four years ago on Sunday, Donald Trump descended through the pink marble and brass atrium of Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for president , the first step on a journey few believed would take him all the way to the White House.

It turns out the 2015 event might not have happened, at least not on June 16. And the over-the-top staging that featured a crowd including paid actors could have been even more theatrical if one early idea hadn't been scrapped.

(Trump nixed suggestions to feature a live elephant. "Too political," he decided.)

Now, the president who loves to reminisce about that "famous" Trump Tower moment is trying to recreate the magic as he formally launches his re-election bid Tuesday in Florida. Four years in, Trump still is echoing much of the same divisive rhetoric he let fly when he ditched the speech prepared for that original campaign kickoff.

His 2015 announcement, according to those involved in the effort, was a classic Trump production aimed at highlighting all the things that made Trump, well, Trump: his brashness, his wealth and his skill for lighting rhetorical fires and watching the press scramble to respond.

Trump had been in Europe playing golf the week before his scheduled announcement, with plans to return in time to go over remarks written by his ragtag team of early staffers.

"I get a call while he is in Europe and he asked, 'What do you think about postponing this a little?'" recalled Sam Nunberg, an early campaign adviser. But the press already had been invited, trips to early-voting states planned and the timing — a day after assumed front-runner Jeb Bush's announcement — seemed ideal.

And there was fear among advisers that any delay would trigger talk of cold feet about a campaign some observers doubted would ever happen because Trump had already flirted with, but then bailed on, previous bids.

"I tell him, 'We can't do that. We have set this date. If we postpone it, it would be covered that you got cold feet and you would not be taken seriously,'" said Nunberg. "I told him that postponing would be like Madonna not performing at MSG on a show day," referring to New York's Madison Square Garden.

So the show went on. Trump and his wife, Melania, emerged from an upper level of Trump Tower and descended the "famous" escalator, with the future president offering thumbs-ups and waves. It was a scene Trump had carefully crafted, paying frequent visits to the lobby as crews worked through the night to erect press risers, build the stage he would stand on and polish every inch of marble and brass.

A speech had been written. But Corey Lewandowski, Trump's first campaign manager, wrote in his book, "Let Trump Be Trump," that the candidate "gave a quick look at the sheet of paper Corey handed him, folded it up, and put it in his breast pocket, never to look at it again."

Four years later Trump remembers it fondly.

"I never forget standing on the famous escalator, you know the escalator, right?" he likes to tell crowds. "Remember the scene with Melania in front of me waving very elegantly and Trump coming down, waving less elegantly? But I just took a deep breath and I said, 'Let's go do it. Let's make this country great,' because it takes guts. It takes guts. And I'm so glad I did it."

And four years later, the speech Trump delivered, following an introduction from his eldest daughter, Ivanka, sounds just like one he would deliver today.

"Our country is in serious trouble. We don't have victories anymore," Trump told the crowd, railing against China for "killing us on trade" and promising to build a "great, great wall" along the U.S.-Mexico border that the American ally would pay for, "Mark my words."

"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," Trump said in one infamous line. He panned Obama-era unemployment statistics as "full of nonsense" and described himself as "really rich."

"He's doing exactly what he said he was going to do, and as a result of what he said he was going to do, he got elected," said George Gigicos, who was hired to produce the 2015 event and went on to serve as advance director for both the campaign and at the White House.

Trump, said Roger Stone, another longtime adviser, "orchestrated every minute detail of his announcement," including vetoing a suggestion from his former personal attorney Michael Cohen to decorate the lobby with red, white and blue bunting and feature a live elephant to add to the circus.

Trump "decided to come down the escalator and worked from his own handwritten notes rather than a prepared text," said Stone, insisting that, "then, as now, Donald Trump does not have handlers or managers or chief strategists."

That included scrapping aides' ideas on what he should wear.

"He asked me about a black suit. I said, 'Yes, that's iconic, that's 'The Apprentice,''" recalled Nunberg. Trump disagreed. "He said 'You're a moron. Blue is better. It works better with the flags.' He was right."

Trump was thrilled with the speech's reception and later remarked on how successful the day had been for his brand. "How great is this for Trump?" Nunberg recalled the candidate saying at one point.

It helped, of course, that some in the crowd had been paid to be there. Extras were offered $50 to "wear t-shirts and carry signs and help cheer" in support of Trump's announcement, according to a casting call email obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.

The ploy was first discovered by Angelo Carusone, now president of the progressive Media Matters group. Carusone said after the event, he was struck that, at a time of selfie obsession, he couldn't find anyone who had posted photos of themselves attending the event.

"That was weird," he remembered thinking. "People who care about a presidential press announcement are going to post selfies," he said. He finally came across a single photo posted by a man who worked as an extra and taken with a woman who appeared to do the same.

Trump's campaign has never acknowledged knowingly hiring actors, but did acknowledge paying $12,000 to Gotham Government Relations, a firm that was said to have hired the Extra Mile Inc. casting company, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Neither Gotham nor GMLV Casting, which took over Extra Mile, responded to requests for comment in recent days.

While some in Trump's orbit suggested a return to Trump Tower for his re-election announcement, the president will head to Orlando — in a state he must win to secure a second term.

This time, there will be no need to hire actors. Trump and his campaign say 100,000 tickets have been requested for Tuesday's event at the 20,000-seat Amway Center. The event will feature a pregame show with food trucks, live music and jumbo screens to pump up the crowd.

Even if Trump is exaggerating, there is little doubt the arena will be packed.

Follow Colvin and Lemire on Twitter at https://twitter.com/colvinj and https://twitter.com/JonLemire

Storm-battered South is again under threat. A boy swept into a drain fights for his life

2024-05-10 02:46 Last Updated At：02:51

COLUMBIA, Tenn. (AP) — Dangerous storms crashed over parts of the South on Thursday even as the region cleaned up from earlier severe weather that spawned tornadoes, killed at least three people, and gravely injured a boy who was swept into a storm drain as he played in a flooded street.

A heavy line of storms swept into Atlanta near the end of the morning rush hour. Busy hub airports in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, reported delays. The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center cited an “enhanced risk” for severe weather from Texas to South Carolina.

The storms continue a streak of torrential rains and tornadoes this week from the Plains to the Midwest and, now, the Southeast. Since Monday, 39 states have been under threat of severe weather and at least four people have died. On Wednesday, 98 million people were under some sort of severe weather risk, said Evan Bentley, a Storm Prediction Center forecaster.

The weather comes on the heels of a stormy April in which the U.S. had 300 confirmed tornadoes, the second-most on record for the month and the most since 2011.

More than 170,000 homes and businesses still lacked power Thursday afternoon in several Southern states after storms the night before, according to PowerOutage.us.

One in Tennessee damaged homes, injured people, toppled power lines and trees, and killed a 22-year-old man in a car in Claiborne County, north of Knoxville, officials said. A second person was killed south of Nashville in Columbia, the seat of Maury County, where officials said a tornado damaged or destroyed more than 140 homes.

Bob Booth had just gotten home to Columbia from Georgia and was sitting down to watch television when he heard a “crazy racket.”

“I get up and look out, and it was all hell breaking loose outside,” Booth said. “Then the top half of one of my trees goes down across the road.”

Retired pastor Walter Shell said he and his wife grabbed their two dogs and headed for the basement when his phone alerted him to a tornado.

“It missed where me and my wife were standing by about 4 inches. It went around,” he said. “It pays to pray, I can tell you.”

Torrential rains led to a flash flood emergency and water rescues northeast of Nashville, and the weather service issued a tornado emergency, its highest alert level, for nearby areas.

A 10-year-old boy was seriously injured in Christiana, southeast of Nashville, when he got caught in a storm drain and swept under streets while playing with other children as adults cleared debris, his father, Rutherford County Schools Superintendent Jimmy Sullivan, posted on social media.

The boy, Asher, emerged in a drainage ditch and survived after being given CPR, “but the damage is substantial,” Sullivan posted on Facebook, asking for prayers. A vigil was planned for Thursday afternoon at the school district office.

“Asher needs a miracle,” Sullivan wrote.

Schools were closed Thursday in Rutherford and several other Tennessee counties. In Georgia, some districts north of Atlanta canceled in-person classes or delayed start times because of storm damage overnight that included fallen trees on houses and vehicles around Clarkesville. No injuries were reported there.

“We’re just trying to clean up right now and wait for the next round,” said Lynn Smith, director of the Habersham County Emergency Management Agency.

A strong tornado damaged at least 20 homes in northern Alabama’s DeKalb County and caused injuries but no deaths, officials said.

In North Carolina, a state of emergency was declared Wednesday night for Gaston County, west of Charlotte, after a storm that toppled power lines and trees, including one that landed on a car. One person in the car was killed, and another was taken to a hospital, officials said.

The storms followed heavy rain, strong winds, hail and tornadoes in parts of the central U.S. on Monday, including a twister that ripped through an Oklahoma town and killed one person. On Tuesday, the Midwest took the brunt of the bad weather. Tornadoes touched down in parts of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, according to the weather service.

Michigan's Kalamazoo area was hard hit as a FedEx facility was ripped apart, with downed power lines trapping about 50 people.

Tornadoes were also confirmed near Pittsburgh, in central Arkansas and in northern West Virginia. The West Virginia twister was at least the 11th tornado this year in the state, which sees two tornadoes in an average year.

Both the Plains and Midwest have been hammered by tornadoes this spring.

Associated Press journalists around the country contributed to this report, including Travis Loller, Jeff Amy, Joey Cappelletti, Ed White, Sarah Brumfield, Adrian Sainz and John Raby.

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