Advertisement

Trump On Occupy Wall Street Movement: ‘Nobody Knows Why They’re Protesting’

Media-attention mogul and real estate tycoon Donald Trump joined the hosts at Fox & Friends to offer more of his thoughtful perspective on the Occupy Wall Street movement. “I think they’re very well-dressed,” he quipped, marveling one of the protesters “beautiful suits.” “Nobody knows why they’re protesting, but they’re having a good time,” he insisted.

Host Gretchen Carlson wondered whether “we’re all supposed to assume they’re unemployed,” to which Trump replied, “They don’t look unemployed. Some of them really don’t look unemployed. And their parents look like they really probably work on Wall Street.” Watch it:

This complete dismissal of grassroots protest is surprising coming from a former kingpin of the Tea Party. When flirting with a presidential bid and flouting his racist wedge issue, Trump lavished praise on Tea Party protesters, telling the Today Show that he considers himself one. “I’m very proud of some of the ideas they put forth. The big ideas they want to stop this ridiculous, absolutely killer of spending that’s going on.”

Advertisement

Slapping away any concern about the Tea Party’s radical goals, he said, “I think the Tea party has done an amazing service for this country because people now, including very liberal Democrats, are thinking well maybe we can’t just keep giving everything away. So I think they performed a great service.”

Ergo, to Donald Trump, pushing an economically destructive agenda while dressed in colonial garb is “a great service.” But joining a movement aimed at holding the banking industry that plummeted the economy into recession accountable is laughable.