Was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau secretly trolling President Trump with his gift to the contentious president at the opening of the G7 summit in Quebec?
Trudeau handed Trump a framed photo of the Arctic Restaurant and Hotel in British Columbia which was owned and operated during the Klondike Gold Rush by the president’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump, in 1897.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted out a press photo of the gift exchange yesterday as an example of a “great moment between @JustinTrudeau and @POTUS.”
Great moment between @JustinTrudeau and @POTUS when he gave him picture of the President’s grandfather’s hotel in Canada. #G72018 pic.twitter.com/mtl5c7QPB3
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) June 9, 2018
The trace of a smirk on the Canadian Prime Minister’s face could be on account of his knowledge of the true nature of the business that the presidential forebearer was conducting on the arctic edifice that was one of the founding properties in the Trump family real estate empire.
If that was indeed the case, the more astute readers on Twitter were in on the joke and pointed it out to those of us less attuned to the long legacy of sexual exploitation associated with the Trump family name.
…did no one on Trump’s press team recognize this was a not-subtle dig that the Trump family fortune came from running a brothel?! https://t.co/TV6CsqtLs1
— Mika McKinnon (@mikamckinnon) June 9, 2018
Hotel, eh? It was a brothel. https://t.co/o0KRj1VDcX
— Lauren Santo Domingo (@TheLSD) June 9, 2018
Was that one of Frederick Trump’s brothels? (True story) https://t.co/Nd7OqqGOwM
— John Aravosis (@aravosis) June 9, 2018
Yeah, also, the hotel was a brothel: https://t.co/FLgzqUAhpO https://t.co/FVflFCssyF
— Heather Barr (@heatherbarr1) June 9, 2018
The story on Bloomberg includes some choice details about the now demolished font of the trump family fortune.
“It was open around the clock with ‘private boxes for ladies and parties,’ according to an advertisement in the Dec. 9, 1899 edition of the Bennett Sun newspaper. The boxes typically included a bed and scale for weighing gold dust used to pay for ‘services,’ according to a three-generational biography by Gwenda Blair, who traced the origins of the Trump family’s wealth.”
While Prime Minister Trudeau’s knowing smile hints at the knowledge of Trump’s little known generational legacy with a subtle dig at the hereditary throughline of less than conventional morality, Trump seemed to appreciate the gesture of the gift.
While Friedrich Trump may have been impressed with the advancements his progeny have been able to make in the real estate trade, one can only speculate what his reaction would be to his grandchild’s devolvement from his own role of a pimp to that of a customer for sexual services, as indicated by his offers of cash to the playmates he’s bedded.
Perhaps that was the thought that inspired the Canadian Prime Minister’s smile, but Trudeau, for his part, isn’t telling.
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