[nfb-talk] Washington Post: Trump ordered Braille removed from elevators in Trump Tower according to execs

[Jack Heim]

 From 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-asked-to-have-braille-removed-from-elevators-in-early-1980s-executive-says/2018/09/12/67d97548-b6a6-11e8-a7b5-adaaa5b2a57f_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9dd0be8d19d9

President Trump in the early 1980s asked an architect to remove Braille 
from planned residential elevators in Trump Tower in New York, saying 
blind people would not live there, according to a former longtime 
executive with the Trump Organization.

Barbara Res, a former vice president in charge of construction, made the 
allegation in an op-ed published Wednesday by the New York Daily News 
and in a subsequent interview with The Washington Post, in which she 
said the incident happened in 1980 or 1981 as Trump Tower was being 
designed.

According to Res’s account, an architect came to Trump’s office to show 
him designs for the interiors of residential elevator cabs in Trump 
Tower, which also hosts businesses. He noticed dots next to the buttons 
and asked what they were, she said.

“Braille,” the architect replied, according to Res.

Trump then told the architect to “get rid of it,” and the architect 
resisted, saying doing so would be against the law, she said.

“Get rid of the (expletive) Braille. No blind people are going to live 
in Trump Tower. Just do it,” Trump told the architect, according to 
Res’s account.

The use of Braille in elevators is now a requirement of the Americans 
With Disabilities Act.

The White House on Wednesday referred questions about the alleged 
episode to the Trump Organization, which did not immediately respond.
Res would not disclose the identity of the architect to The Post.

Her anecdote was included in an op-ed that argued Trump frequently 
ordered underlings to do things that were impossible “to castigate a 
subordinate and also blame him for anything that ‘went wrong’ in 
connection with the unperformed order later.” She wrote that she was not 
surprised by revelations in Bob Woodward’s new book “Fear” and the 
recent anonymous op-ed in the New York Times attributed to a senior 
administration official. Both works describe a president whose orders 
are not always carried out by those around him.

Res, who was a Trump Organization executive from 1978 to 1996, said she 
learned not to always follow Trump’s orders.

“Some of them you follow,” she told The Post. “Some of them you don’t 
follow, and you just prepare to take what comes, if anything comes. And 
the others you fight.”

She said it was possible to convince Trump not to do what he was 
ordering her to do, but he would resent it and punish her later.

“When you win with him, you always pay some way,” she said.

“He was always saying to fire somebody, or to write this letter to the 
contractor and tell him this,” Res said, but she said she regarded these 
seeming orders as just Trump “blowing off steam,” and she wouldn’t 
follow them.







-- 
Jack Heim, john at johnheim.com
"In my position, it is somewhat important that I not say any foolish 
things."
  -- Abraham 
Lincolnhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-asked-to-have-braille-removed-from-elevators-in-early-1980s-executive-says/2018/09/12/67d97548-b6a6-11e8-a7b5-adaaa5b2a57f_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9dd0be8d19d9


-- 
Jack Heim, john at johnheim.com
"In my position, it is somewhat important that I not say any foolish 
things."
  -- Abraham Lincoln
-- 
Jack Heim, john at johnheim.com
"In my position, it is somewhat important that I not say any foolish 
things."
  -- Abraham Lincoln