My Odd Personal Experience with Donald Trump

My Odd Personal Experience with Donald Trump

By Ben Hart

I had a very strange experience involving Donald Trump in the early 1990s at the top of Aspen Mountain (also known as Ajax Mountain).

Not sure exactly what year it was, possibly 1992.

We used to go to Aspen just about every winter to ski. I still try to get back there as often as I can.

So here’s what happened . . .

I came out of the lodge at the top of the mountain,went to where my skis were in the racks, grabbed them, and started putting then on.

It so happened that Donald Trump and Marla Maples were right there at the same rack putting on their skis.

They were a couple at that time.

Marla was clearly a novice skier and was having trouble putting her skis on.

The snow and ice was caked on the soles of her ski boots.

So she couldn’t get the bindings to clamp down properly over the ridges on the boots where the bindings are supposed to clamp down.

It was snowing and windy. In fact, the snow was mostly blowing sideways.

She had fallen over into the snow a couple of times while trying to knock the snow and ice off the soles of her boots with her hand and point on her ski pole.

She was on the verge of tears.

Meanwhile, The Donald was not the least bit helpful. In fact, he was constantly yelling at her to hurry up.

Well, she couldn’t hurry up. She was a beginning skier. Looked to me like she hadn’t skied much at all.

So The Donald just kept yelling at her to hurry up.

Then, after a few more minutes, he mumbled something and said something like “to hell with it,” skied off . . . and left her there to fend for herself.

Marla was is tears.

She clearly had no idea how to get down the mountain. She couldn’t even get her skis on.

The Donald was now gone.

From what I saw (before he disappeared into the snow storm), The Donald wasn’t much of a skier either.

But he thought he was great.

So I took my skis off and went over to help Marla get the ice off the soles of her boots and put her skis on.

She asked if maybe it would be a better idea to just take the Gondola (ski lift) back down the mountain.

I said “No, you have to learn to ski sometime. Now’s as good a time as any. There’s an easy trail over here. I’ll take you down.”

She really could not ski at all when we first started out, falling every few feet or so.

It took us about an hour to get down the mountain.

By at the end of the run, she was skiing pretty decently.

She also was a very nice person.

But the point of all this is . . .

Where was The Donald?

He just left her at the top of Aspen Mountain to fend for herself.

Altitude: About 11,000 feet. Blinding snow storm.

She was a rank beginner. She could have been badly hurt up there by herself.

He didn’t give a wit what happened to her up there. He was petulant. He was impatient. He was not a good guy at all.

Could he not have at least hired an instructor to come along to help her?

He could certainly afford it.

I really could not believe what I saw that day.

Is this the guy you want as President of the United States?

Is this the guy you want to represent the Republican Party?

Is this the guy you want to be the face of conservatism?

He’s not even a conservative.

For example, he supported universal health care, as in the system they have in Canada — in other words, Socialized Medicine.

I do like the fact that he’s prodding Obama on the birther issue. Kudos on that front for The Donald.

But more than that is required for a POTUS.

Don’t get me wrong. If the choice is Trump or Obama for POTUS, I’d vote for Trump . . . because Obama is a proven disaster.

Trump does seem to be the only one who has the guts to tackle Obama head on. So I’ll also give him credit for that. He’s saying mostly the right things at the moment.

And there’s always the possibility that he’s changed since then — that he’s no longer the schmuck I remember running into at the top of Aspen mountain in the early 1990s.

Here’s an old photo of me from my days when I was a serious ski racer. This is still what I like to do for fun.

Ben in a Ski Race (Circa 1976