Liz Crokin’s column “Trump Does the Unthinkable” has endured online since it was first published. The 2016 piece, which originally appeared on TownHall.com, tells of Donald Trump’s good deeds, and it is meant to defend Trump against claims that he’s a racist, a bigot, and a sexist:
Donald Trump is a racist, bigot, sexist, xenophobe, anti-Semitic and Islamophobe — did I miss anything? The left and the media launch these hideous kinds of attacks at Trump everyday; yet, nothing could be further from the truth about the real estate mogul. As an entertainment journalist, I’ve had the opportunity to cover Trump for over a decade, and in all my years covering him I’ve never heard anything negative about the man until he announced he was running for president.
Crokin makes a number of specific claims about Trump’s good deeds. Some of them are true, but the article begins with two glaring errors: First, that there had never been negative coverage of Trump before he ran for president and second, that Trump didn’t get any attention or press coverage or credit for any of them. Both of these claims are utterly false, as we found endless media reports about both.
Trump Prevented Foreclosure of Annabel Hill’s Family Farm in 1986
Truth. Annabel Hill’s husband, Lenard, apparently killed himself in 1986, twenty minutes before his family farm in Georgia was to be sold in a bank auction. He had hoped to use life insurance money to pay debts, which exceeded $300,000, but it only covered $175,000.
That’s reportedly when Atlanta businessman Frank Argenbright, Jr., who had helped another area farmer save his land, organized a news conference for Annabel Hill in Atlanta to plead for public help, and Donald Trump stepped in when he saw coverage of the press conference.
According to Trump: The Art of the Deal, Trump phoned a vice president of the bank the next morning and threatened to sue the bank for murder if they did not bring a halt to the auction. Then, after the public raised a portion of the debt, and Trump and Dallas landowner Tom McKamy split the remaining $78,000 tab, saving the farm, the Associated Press reports.
Trump Sent his Plane for a Sick Orthodox Jewish Child.
Truth. Donald Trump sent his Boeing 727 to Los Angeles to retrieve Andrew Ten, a 3-year-old Orthodox Jewish child who was sick with a “rare and still undiagnosed” breathing illness in 1988. According to a story at the time published in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Trump stepped in after the boy was not allowed on commercial airlines because he needed medical equipment:
Trump made his plane available for the special trip to New York after the boy’s parents, Judy and Harold Ten, called Trump and told him of their plight.
Commercial airlines refused to fly the child because he could not travel without an elaborate life-support system, which includes a portable oxygen tank, a suction machine, a breathing bag and an adrenaline syringe.
“Mr. Trump did not hesitate when we called him up. He said ‘yes, I’ll send my plane out,’” 29-year-old Harold Ten recalled shortly after he landed here Tuesday morning.
Asked why he thought Trump made his private jet available, Ten replied, “Because he is a good man. He has three children of his own and he knows what being a parent is all about.”
Ten said he believes that Trump fulfilled the Talmudic saying that “he who saves one person’s life is as if he saved the entire world.”
Among the relatives at the airport to greet the child and his parents were the paternal grandparents of the sick boy.
“Donald Trump is a miracle, just a miracle,” said grandmother Feigy Ten, who came to the airport with her husband, Phillip Ten.
Trump Flew Operation Desert Storm Troops from North Carolina to Miami.
Fiction. The rumor is that after a logistics error prevented 200 Marines who had recently returned from Operation Desert Storm in 1991 from flying from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, to see their families in North Carolina, Donald Trump reportedly stepped in.
Today, Stickney would like to say “thank you.”
Stickney (left), was a squad leader in a TOW company of a Marine reserve unit based in Miami, FL and spent approximately six months in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War between 1990 and 1991.
Upon his unit’s return to the United States, the former Marine says the group spent several weeks decompressing at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina before heading back to Miami.
Stickney recalls being told that a mistake had been made within the logistics unit and that an aircraft wasn’t available to take the Marines home on their scheduled departure date.
This—according to Stickney—is where Donald Trump comes in.
“The way the story was told to us was that Mr. Trump found out about it and sent the airline down to take care of us. And that’s all we knew….I remember asking ‘Who is Donald Trump?’ I truly didn’t know anything about him,” the former Marine said.
We have a more in-depth debunking of that story here.
Trump Paid Off a Good Samaritan’s Mortgage?
Uncertain. Much of this story is hearsay. After a man stopped to help repair a flat tire on Donald Trump’s limo in 1995, Trump asked the man how he could repay him. The man said Trump should send flowers to his wife.
A while later, the flowers arrived, along with a note from Trump. The card reportedly said, “We paid off your home mortgage, Marla and Donald.”
Trump Helped a Little Girl With Brittle Bone Disease in 2000.
Truth. After a little girl with brittle bone disease appeared on The Maury Povich Show in 2000, Trump appeared on a follow-up show to deliver a message to her:
I was watching Maury’s show the other day, and you hit me right here. I think you are so beautiful both inside and out. I have a little something, a little gift that I gave to Maury… and I hope that you and your mother have a good time with it. You are very special.
Povich then presented the little girl and her mother with a check from Trump and said, “We’re not talking about chump change here.”
Trump Hosted Jennifer Hudson in His Windy City Hotel After Her Family Was Murdered.
Truth. Accounts of Trump putting Jennifer Hudson up at Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago after her mother and brother were found murdered came from Access Hollywood:
Jennifer and some of her family members have been staying at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago – and Trump has been picking up the tab.
“They are safe,” Trump told People on Monday night. “She’s a great girl and we’re protecting them well.”
According to E! Online, Hudson has been staying at the hotel since arriving in Chicago on October 24 – the day her mother, Darnell Donerson, and brother, Jason Hudson, were found murdered, and her nephew, Julian King, was found missing.
Since checking into the hotel, the Oscar winner and former “American Idol” star has rarely left the hotel.
“She is still in shock,” a source told E!. “She hasn’t gone out much at all and has a lot of security around her.”
Trump Gave a Check to a Bus Driver Who Prevented Woman’s Suicide.
Truth. In 2013, Darnell Barton had just picked up 20 high school students when he saw a woman standing on a bridge, about to jump. After he put his arm around her, she stepped back, according to a story in the Buffalo News. Later, reports appeared that Donald Trump had offered Barton a $10,000 check to show his appreciation to the bus driver.
Trump Gave $25,000 to Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi
Truth. We previously investigated this one and found it to be true. Click here for our report.
Black Executive Lynn Patton Defends Trump.
Truth. Again, we previously investigated this one and found it to be true. Click here for our report.