We’ve told you before that chess champion Garry Kasparov is no fan of Putin-admirer Donald Trump, but this takes it to a new level.
Kasparov took to the pages of the New York Daily News today with a brutal op-ed titled “Donald Trump’s vile New York values” that compares the GOP front-runner to mob boss John Gotti and swindler Bernie Madoff.
Nice layout of my Trump op-ed in the @NYDailyNews! https://t.co/pkfREoYCXq pic.twitter.com/besDsSDaws
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) April 17, 2016
An excerpt:
It’s tempting to rally behind him-but we should resist. Because the New York values Trump represents are the very worst kind. He exemplifies the seamy side of New York City – the Ponzi schemers and the Brooklyn Bridge sellers, the gangster traders like Bernie Madoff and the celebrity gangsters like John Gotti — not the hard work and sacrifice that built New York and America.
Born into millions, Trump wants us to believe we can follow in his footsteps if only we buy his book, go to his classes and, yes, vote for him. He stands for fake values and fake value, debt instead of cash, appearance over substance, gold paint instead of the real thing. Soon after that showy scene, the Plaza became Trump’s second bankruptcy. But he was already moving on to the next headline, to his next performance.
He may have business experience, but unless the United States plans on going bankrupt, it’s experience we don’t need.
Kasparov ends with this warning, calling Trump a “profiteer” of “fear, ignorance and hatred”:
I believe in good and evil. I believe that the values of the free world are indeed under attack and must be defended. But the greatest threat comes from profiteers of fear, ignorance and hatred like Trump.
He believes that the rights and ideals expressed by the American Constitution are expendable. He tells us that the American experiment of freedom and inclusiveness is over. New Yorkers should tell him that he is very wrong on both counts.
You can read the entire piece here.
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Editor’s note: We’ve corrected a typo in the headline. It’s “Garry,” not “Gary” Kasparov. We apologize for the error.
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