Editor:
Not surprisingly, in the months leading up to the Republican National Convention this week in Cleveland, the media began focusing more attention on Donald Trump’s wife, Melania. And rightfully so. After all, she is a potential First Lady.
What once was considered a rumor has now been confirmed by multiple sources. Melania Trump never obtained a college degree or became an architect, both “facts” she had previously posted on her personal website.
We, here in Orange County, have experience dealing with politicos who embellish their resumes. Back in 1988, when she ran for Congress, then-Supervisor Harriett Wieder claimed she was a graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit. By the time Wieder finally acknowledged the truth, the damage was done. She lost that race but remained in county government until 1995.
Closer to home, who can forget Jon Madison’s ill-fated campaign for Laguna Beach City Council in 2014? Madison, who had a long history of supporting nonprofit organizations in town, not only claimed he graduated from Cornell University in New York, he also said he was a graduate of UCLA Law School. Neither academic record ever was corroborated, nor his work experience as a lead architect on the restoration of Central Park or his career as an attorney. Like Wieder, Madison lost his race.
Which brings me back to Melania Trump. I realize she is not running for office like her husband. However, as a potential First Lady, the nation deserves to know the truth about her background. Politics is not for the faint of heart, either for the candidate or his or her family. As nice a person as she appears to be, Melania Trump had to know the truth finally would come out. Unfortunately, it’s being revealed now.
Time will tell how voters react to this news. If Harriett Wieder and Jon Madison’s experiences mean anything, I’m afraid it’s going to be a tough slog for everyone in the Trump campaign.
Denny Freidenrich, Laguna Beach
Denny, good piece. Of course, the plagiarism problem eclipsed the resume problem. It matters because of his utter lack of experience in the culture of government, which his supporters view as a good thing. To address that issue one of his promises is to surround himself with the “best people.” The Pence veep pick was intended to reassure people he would rely on others who had experience in government, like Pence. However, in the glare of national convention coverage he leaves his wife’s credibility in the hands of incompetent people who as you report leave inaccurate info in her resume. That got far less unwanted negative attention than the Melania speech debacle that became a national news story. It would have been bad enough if she had stolen a line or two from and Margaret Thatcher or Jeanne Kirkpatrick speech, but to invoke for the aspiring first lady the narrative of the opposing party’s outgoing first lady borders on lunacy. I can’t believe Trump left his wife in the hands of such idiots. But none of that matters to me or concerns me as much as his decision not to fire the staff who stole, cheated and lied to the American people. He treated it as if all the staffer did was let down his wife, but it was about integrity and honesty in politics and he rewarded dishonesty and theft. How can we criticize Obama’s refusal for withdraw the nomination of Geithner to head the Treasury and IRS when his failure to pay taxes was revealed, or Lois Lerner for political abuse of IRS power and then give Trump a pass on theft of intellectual property? True the campaign staff has not taken an oath, but lack of integrity in a campaign message to the nation reflects the moral attitude of the candidate, and for that reason it made it even more important that the candidate make it clear he will not tolerate cheating. The sad thing is that Melania was right in asking her speech writer to look at Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech, that was smart. Same with Cindy McCain’s 2008 speech. At the time I told friends I thought voters would have a better choice if Michelle and Cindy were the candidates! And I still think I was right! Anyway, I agree with you that candidates need to be able to back up whatever they put out because it is a test of their integrity that predicts ethics in office. I felt bad for Madison, he was a successful business leader, generous philanthropist, challenging the establishment and incumbents, a high energy Democrat, openly gay civic activist, and he would not have been a go along to get along councilman. We need that. When he got himself into resume hot water I offered to advise him on how to reclaim and redeem his credibility by explaining his failure to revise his resume now that he was seeking public office. Even though I was supporting one of his opponents, having been unjustly accused once I felt a lot of compassion, and I thought our town would be better served by honesty and forgiveness whether he won or not. The problem was, of course, that he was not wrongly accused because his resume was inflated, and lamentably he did not manage the issue well. Instead, he became the target of a sophisticated tactical plan to end his candidacy through a brutal exercise in the politics of personal destruction. You are right, the lesson is that a candidate’s resume should always be understated so people discover the candidate has been modest, instead of the opposite. Finally, I recall reading somewhere that your dad was a JFK supporter. So was I, and it really bugged my Republican parents and grandparents, although my dad’s mom was a Connecticut yankee liberal and my own mom not so secretly loved JFK. Anyway, when I got out of law school I joined the Peace Corps because I had always thought that was one of JFK’s best ideas and a wonderful way to promote cross cultural understanding. Ironically, I think one impact of Peace Corps that people do not think about much is that going out and seeing what goes on in other countries makes PCV’s come home realizing that despite our flaws and fallibility the USA is really the most free and open society in the world and not the cause of the world’s problems. Anyway, just wanted to agree with your piece, and I think Trump and unfortunately his wife had a triumphant performance she delivered stolen from them by really bad staff work. It may not be a significant factor in what promises to be a wild and nasty election, but it tainted a moment that should have been a highlight and raised concerns about Trump’s understanding that personal loyalty to staff is a luxury a national leader cannot afford when it involves dishonesty and breach of public trust.