(The) Donald Does D.C.

Oh. My. Gawd. The Senate International Security Subcommittee was holding hearings on a proposed U.N. renovation in the 1.5 BILLION DOLLAR neighborhood and someone had the bright idea to ask New Yawk’s most famous developer his opinion. Man, does he deliver on your tax dollars at work! This transcript is, bar none, one of the funniest things I’ve ever read in my life. I can hear the man speaking in my head and, as an ex-pat of the TriState Area, I know who and what he’s talking about. I am going to pull out some howlers to pique your interest, like this…

It’s going to be a disaster. And if you know your New York City landlords, and some of you do, there is no worse human being on Earth, okay?

…in the section below, but read the whole thing when you’ve got the time, youse guys. And yeah. I’m tawkin’ ta you. Tanks to the Blogfaddah and RadioBlogger for da Swill tip.
UPDATE: Your tax dollars at work. This is why they asked The Donald to speak:

…is the U.N.’s plan to undertake a complete renovation of its headquarters at Turtle Bay, at a cost of $1.2 billion, 22% of which would be shouldered by American taxpayers. The renovations – set to begin in 2007 and expected to take five years – would be financed by America in the form of a $1.2 billion, 30-year loan at 5.54% interest offered last fall by the Bush administration.

Well NavyFed sure hasn’t done that for ME lately…

…I’m very impressed with Mr. Bernam, but Mr. Bernam, it’s not his business. Mr. Bernam is in a different business. And the man he hired, who has done some work, I guess, has just been on the payroll for two days, so perhaps he’ll be a great genius, and he’ll bring down the cost to what it should be, which I think is about $700 million dollars, tops,…
…I was very impressed with Mr. Bernam, but again, you have to deal in New York City construction, to see what tough people are all about, to see what tough contractors are all about. And if you haven’t done it, they…you’re not going to…you’re going to go to school, and they’re just going to take you lunch, and you’re just not going to even know what happened. So this project, at $1.2 billion, will cost, in my opinion, $3 billion dollars. In my own opinion, however, in my real opinion, it should cost approximately $700 million dollars…
…They are going to have more fun with these folks from the United Nations, when it comes to signing that lease. And the United Nations, their heads will be spinning. Assuming there’s honesty, their heads will be spinning…
…But in your great wisdom, you folks have said asbestos is a horrible material, so it has to be removed…
…The old Delmonico Hotel. And I had people living in the building when I did a major, $100 million dollar job. It’s a $200 million dollar building. So the concept of moving to another location, and getting everybody out of this building, is absolutely asinine, and will cost you so much money, you’re not even going to believe it. And then, you’re going to have to move in…
…But the number of $44 million dollars for an architect, is one of the great numbers in the history…In fact, I think this man is a genius, whoever he may be, wherever he may be in Italy. I think he’s a great genius. I would like to meet him. He is, without question, the richest architect in the world. And I listened, as one person said, I think they only got $500,000. Another person said, I think they got a million, and then changed their mind, and it was $7.8 million. And then I listened to Senator Sessions, who actually did his homework, said they got paid $27 million dollars, because you were able to check the books. So they got paid $27 million dollars. They haven’t done anything. They don’t even have plans. Nobody even knows what they’re building, and they got paid $27 million dollars…
…I’m building all the roads…Mayor Daley made me build roads around the building. I had no choice, otherwise, if you know Mayor Daley, you’re not going to build the building. He’s a great mayor, but he made me do that. So all of this is $600 million dollars, and they’re spending $1.2 billion…
…When they’d spent $27 million dollars, and terminated the architect, there’s big trouble. Because I don’t think they have a new architect…The worst thing you can do, and you said you were in the home building business for a while…the worst thing you can do, as you know, is start a job without complete plans and specs. Because the sub-contractors will eat your lunch, right? So, it’s one of those things. So they don’t even have an architect. They spent $27 million dollars, and they don’t have an architect…
… But the fact is that the United Nations building, with all of its buildings, with its parking, should be completed, and I mean completed at a cost of $700 million dollars. And it’s my opinion that it will not be completed for less than three to three and a half billion dollars…
…The fact is, that I can take those same firms, and tell them the way I want it built, and those same firms will come up with prices that are half the price that they’re coming up with. They’re being told what to do by people that don’t know what they’re doing. So if I take Turner Construction, which is fine, or if I take a couple of others…and by the way.. When I say fine, fine, but Rolls-Royce. They spend money. But if I take a couple of those firms, and if I show them the right way to do it, and if I lead them down the right way, which is really what a good developer does, that number they’re coming up with, will be cut in half. So, that’s it. Congratulations. You’ve got yourself a mess on your hands…

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