One World Trade Center.
Photo: Courtesy of Google Maps.
Republican front-runner Donald Trump may shy away from taking a position on the arts, but when it comes to bolstering his agenda, it seems he’s more than eager to invest in the right museum.
On Saturday, April 9, the presidential hopeful dropped by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum with his wife Melania—a visit paid just days ahead of the New York primary on April 19. According to a statement by Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks, the trip, which reportedly lasted less than half an hour, was led by 9/11 Memorial president and CEO Joe Daniels along with officials from the NYPD and Port Authority Police Department.
In what’s perhaps a move to leave a lasting impression on local memory, Trump bestowed the institution with a hefty $100,000 gift. The sum was confirmed by museum spokesman Michael Frazier according to CNN.
According to the NY Daily News, this is the first time the museum has received a financial gift from Trump since being founded in 2011. The museum officially opened in 2014. What’s more, this also marks the first instance that Trump paid a visit to the site.
Here’s more from the NY Daily News’s coverage:
Trump has often invoked the terror attacks on the campaign trail. But when he was just a real estate scion, Trump never found the time to pay his respects to the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives on 9/11 — despite his claims that he “lost hundreds of friends” at the World Trade Center.
Following his trip, Trump tweeted that the experience was a “great honor.”
Suffice it to say, this recent museum donation arguably carries little weight in better understanding Trump’s attitudes towards cultural institutions at large. His track record in arts funding, after all, could be better.