Donald Trump: Casino Welfare Queen and Takings-Abuser of Widows

With Donald Trump ending his quixotic-yet-simultaneously-cynical candidacy for president, this might not have the punch it could have had on his campaign, but I still think it is important to highlight his odious history as a rent-seeking developer. And particularly because his behavior in this case was so terrible. Way back in the early 1990s, Vera Coking was an elderly widow living right off the Atlantic City, New Jersey, boardwalk. Her great location caught the eye of real estate mogul Donald Trump, who conspired with the local development agency to seize Ms. Coking’s home through eminent domain. What was the proposed “public use?” The Donald wanted to construct a limo parking lot for his casino customers.

The Institute for Justice, the nation’s only libertarian public-interest law firm, represented Ms. Coking and won. Here’s a video from IJ on the case, and why citizens must be ever-vigilant about the Big Business/Big Government takings conspiracy: