8-11-19

“We are all in the closet,” said a boutique owner in Southampton who fears reprisals from his customers — most of them moneyed Democrats — if he speaks openly about his allegiance to Trump. “It’s like you have this disease and people want to run away from you.”

A builder based in Westhampton worried that his customers would boycott his services if he reveals his support of the president. “People have really strong opinions here and if you go around wearing a MAGA hat, you really need to fear physical violence,” he said, adding the anti-Trump aggression comes mostly from summer residents.

Trump won 51.

5 percent of the vote among year-round residents of Suffolk County in the 2016 election, compared to 44.6 percent for Democrat Hillary Clinton. In 2008 and 2012, most of the county voted for Barack Obama.

Despite the recent shift, many of Trump’s core supporters fear speaking out, especially during the summer months, when beachfront villages from Westhampton to Montauk are filled with left-leaning visitors from New York City.

“They’re all Democrats, so for us it’s a matter of survival,” said an art consultant who works in Sag Harbor.

“We live in the land of the First Amendment, but if you want to stay in business out here, you have to keep your opinions to yourself. We are hitting a very dark and strange place as a country.” One Manhattan artist who was at a recent benefit for the Watermill Center, a Southampton arts space, said she was shocked when she saw Trump’s commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, and wife Hilary Geary Ross mingling among the guests, most of them artists and art dealers.

“They’re Republicans!” the shocked artist said at the time. “What were they doing there?”

But Ross is a noted art collector and longtime resident of the Hamptons, where fellow Republican and real-estate developer Joe Farrell hosted a $2,800-a-person fundraiser for Trump’s 2020 presidential bid at his 17,000-square-foot mansion, Sandcastle, in Bridgehampton on Friday.

“You can’t win,” said the Southampton boutique owner. “If you want to stay in business, you have to learn to lie to people. You have to say stuff like, ‘I hate his hairdo.’ I’m just struggling to make the bottom line here. Honestly, I am not rich enough to have a political opinion.”

Trump cracks jokes about Equinox scandal, kamikaze pilots at Hamptons fundraiser

This article was sourced from NYpost

President Trump cracked jokes about the Equinox scandal, the old days of rent-controlled New York and his dealings with North and South Korea among deep-pocketed pals in the Hamptons on Friday.

Trump was feted at two big-money fundraisers — first a lunch for 60 hosted by real estate guru Stephen Ross, whose company owns Equinox and Soul Cycle. Then Trump talked for an hour to a crowd of 500 at the sprawling Bridgehampton home of developer Joe Farrell. The two events raised a total of $12 million.

After Equinox members revolted over Ross’ fundraising for the president, with many threatening to cancel memberships, Trump said he had joked with Ross about how divided the nation is.

Noting the relentless attacks on himself by the media, Trump quipped, “Steve Ross got into a little bit of trouble this week, I said, ‘Steve welcome to the world of politics!’ ”.

Of his fundraising visit, Trump went on to say, “I love coming to the Hamptons, I know the Hamptons well, everyone here votes for me but they won’t admit it.”

And of his tough stance on trade tariffs and US military aid, Trump told a story of going as a boy to collect rent checks with his father, adding, “It was easier to get a billion dollars from South Korea than to get $114.13 from a rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn, and believe me, those 13 cents were very important.”

Trump thanked a number of people at the event, held in a huge tent in the garden of Farrell’s famous home, titled “Sandcastle,” Trump said, “There’s Don Jr.

, I didn’t think he liked politics, but actually he’s really good at it. And so is Kimberly. Don Jr. is my gun expert, he knows more about guns than anyone I know.”

Turning to the tragic events of this past week Trump said, to applause, “We need meaningful background checks. It is time.

“I spoke to Lindsay Graham on the way over in the car, I spoke to Nancy Pelosi, I called her, she called me, I talked to Chuck Schumer . . . we are all in agreement about this. It is time for meaningful background checks.”

Trump kept returning to hit back at the “fake news” media attacks on him, saying of claims from the Democrats that he is a racist, “That is the only ammunition they have.

”

Trump also made fun of US allies South Korea, Japan and the European Union — mimicking Japanese and Korean accents — and talked about his love of dictators Kim Jong Un and the current ruler of Saudi Arabia.

He started by saying how the EU had not paid its share to NATO and he insisted it does so.

Talking about South Korea, Trump said it makes great TVs and has a thriving economy, “So why are we paying for their defense. They’ve got to pay.” He then mimicked the accent of the leader Moon Jae-in while describing how he caved in to Trump’s tough negotiations.

On his remarkable friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, “I just got a beautiful letter from him this week. We are friends. People say he only smiles when he sees me.

“If I hadn’t been elected president we would be in a big fat juicy war with North Korea. “

Turning to Japan, Trump then put on a fake Japanese accent to recount his conversations with Shinzo Abe over their conversations over trade tariffs.

Trump spoke about his friendship with Abe and how fascinated he was with Abe’s father, who had been a kamikaze pilot.

Trump asked Abe if the kamikaze pilots were drunk or on drugs. Abe said no, they just loved their country. Trump remarked, “Imagine they get in a plane with a half a tank of gas and fly into steel ships just for the love of their country!”

Of the midterm elections he said the media predicted a disaster for the Republican Party, but in the end it won seats in the Senate with only a few shocking defeats (the Democrats won the House). Trump added, “We got rid of two nasty ones,” perhaps referring to some politicians he claimed at the time hadn’t shown him enough love.

And he couldn’t resist a real estate joke or two.

Noting that the very house the event was at is currently on the market for $39 million, Trump joked to Farrell, “What would you rather have, Joe, this beautiful house for $40 million or the White House for free?”

Among the 500 people at the Joe Farrell event were Somers and Jonathan Farkas, Steve Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross and wife Hilary Geary Ross, Rory Tahari, Joe Piscopo, Geraldo Rivera, Rudy Giuliani, Andrew Giuliani, Phil Falcone and wife Lisa Maria, Jean Shafiroff and Neal Sroka.

\https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/634779-were-all-in-the-closet-trumps-hamptons-supporters-go-underground-special?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI