In Case of Emergency, Break Glass

My friend coulda been another of Trump's chumps

Oct 14, 2024

My late husband’s best friend, John Lewis, has had a long career as an artist in glass. In the early 1970s he was blowing gorgeous pieces that sold for hundreds of dollars in galleries across the country. This is one of his iconic moon bottles he gave us back then, which I still treasure.

But art glass doesn’t pay the rent. So John started casting large pieces for architectural uses.

Fast forward a couple of decades to when Donald Trump was buying and renovating hotels… He’d seen John’s casting work in a New York gallery and decided to commission eight large glass panels for his latest hotel. [John told me this story years ago, so I no longer recall which hotel…]

It was a big order for the studio. He’d heard rumors about Trump stiffing vendors, but he told himself his contract was air-tight and his work was so special, Trump would never stiff him.

John’s policy is to get 50% down when the order is placed, and the rest on delivery. Each glass panel cost several thousand dollars, and as you can imagine, cross-country shipping something so heavy and fragile from his Oakland studio to Manhattan wasn’t cheap either.

He completed the order, the pieces arrived safely, but the remaining 50% payment didn’t come… and didn’t come.

He re-billed, adding late fees. He made phone calls. He wrote threatening letters. No response. When he finally got through to Trump’s accounts payable person, she just laughed. “Forget about it,” she said. “Trump never pays.”

John was furious—at Trump, and at himself for the self-delusion that he would not be one of the many fools who had been stiffed by Trump before him. According to a 2016 analysis by USA Today, more than 3,500 people and companies who’ve done work for Trump over the decades never got paid what they were owed.

Then, KARMA stepped up to the plate!

Turns out that in the course of installing the glass panels, Trump’s workmen broke two of them. The project manager called in a panic… “Will you make us two more? We open in a month!”

Glass can break, as John well knew, so on major orders he usually makes extra pieces, just in case. Not divulging that he had fabricated two extras, he told the project manager “I can make them for you. However, a rush order will cost $X,XXX extra.”

The man sighed with relief. John went on…
”And I’m not shipping until I receive the full amount Mr. Trump still owes, plus late fees and interest.”

He got paid.

John was one of the luckier ones. Many small businesses went bankrupt because Trump either refused to pay or made only a partial payment, and their legal fees were insurmountable. Links to other news stories below.

And yet today, Trump’s devoted followers still believe they are so special, he’d never abandon them—that he will repay their devotion and hard-earned donations with extra special treatment. Ha ha ha ha. I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell them.

As his former mentor, Roy Cohn (who Trump abandoned when he learned Cohn had AIDS) said, “He pisses ice water.”

https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/13/politics/trump-small-business-owners?cid=ios_app

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/28/little-guy-contractors-many/23428603007/

https://www.newsweek.com/2016/10/28/donald-trump-business-busts-victims-511034.html

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