How Trump Saved The Parade

The year was 1995. The patriotic feel from the Persian Gulf War had faded away. Slowly, death reduced the number of World War II veterans who marched in the annual Veterans Day parade in New York. Was it time for us to bid adieu to this tradition?

Hell and no.

 

Then developer Donald John Trump stepped up to save the parade.

After all, this event came in 1995 -- the 50th anniversary of Victory in Europe and Victory in Japan as the United States and its allies won World War II.

The 1995 parade needed some sponsors. Tom Fox, the parade's executive director, asked 200 corporations to chip in. None gave, not even military contractors.

"Zippo, nada, zilch," Fox told the New York Times. "Nothing from Northrup, United Technologies, none of them. To me, it's a sin."

Then along came Trump.

"By mid-August, organizers had a bank account of exactly $1.21. A request to airlines to donate blankets for aging veterans was turned down because logos might not be visible on television. Then Donald Trump, a non-veteran, agreed to throw in $200,000 as well as raise money from his friends, in exchange for being named grand marshal," the Times reported.

Trump helped Fox raise $2.4 million.

"Donald Trump saved the parade," Fox told United Press International.

So how did the parade go?

"More than 500,000 people jammed the sidewalks of Manhattan's Fifth Avenue Saturday to watch three generations of veterans march in the Nation's Parade. The crowd cheered as 25,000 veterans marched in one of the last national events marking the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II," United Press International reported that day.
Don Surber