SIMULACRUM, EVERYWHERE

“Donald J. Trump State Park“ is a 436-acre undeveloped plot of land in Putnam County, New York. It was called a state park from 2006 until 2010, when the state abandoned it because of budget cuts. It has rested unused for seven years, wasted. Donald Trump, the former star of The Apprentice and now the President of the United States, purchased the land in the 1990s for $2 million with the intention of building a $10 million private golf course on the wetlands. Inconveniently, his plan was thwarted by “some local opposition” from environmental restrictions and permitting requirements. Ever-opportunistic, Trump donated the land to the state of New York in under the conditions that it would become a park bearing his name (forever — “I gave that land for the purposes of the park, and I always believed that once a park is there, it would always be a park”) and, more significantly, that he could use the donation for a $100 million tax break. Trump made no donation to maintain the land