Give 'Em Hell, Larry

Larry Kramer Busts Billionaire Buddy For Joining Trump’s Economic Brain Trust

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This past Friday, in his much-hyped economic policy speech, Donald Trump named real-estate mogul Steven Roth as one of the many old white dudes who would make up his economic policy team. And that had Larry Kramer seeing red. Today, the playwright and gay rights activist posted a blistering open letter on his Facebook page, taking Roth to task for his involvement in the Trump regime.

“I don’t know why but I was incredibly shocked and disappointed when it was announced that you had become one of Donald Trump’s billionaire brain trust,” writes Kramer. “I could not believe that you could support a candidate, a vice-president, and a party that threatens many of the things that you hold most dear.”

For those of you unfamiliar with Roth and what he may or may not hold dear, Kramer sets up the billionaire and their personal relationship thus: the two became friendly back in 2010 when Roth’s wife, Daryl (of New York’s Daryl Roth Theater, home of Fuerzabruta) produced the Broadway revival of The Normal Heart. Roth’s gay son, Jordan, owns Broadway’s Jujamcyn Theaters — a gift from dear old daddy, according to Kramer — making him “one of the most important persons in the theater.” Kramer writes about attending Jordan’s wedding to Nurse Jackie executive producer Richie Jackson in 2012 — Donald Trump was there too — and mention’s the couple’s newborn sons.

All of which is meant to remind Roth of the threat the Republican nominee poses to those Roth cares about: “The platform of the Republican Party is the most homophobic one in recent memory. Its candidates spout nothing but hate for your extended family.”

Kramer goes on to recite the litany of Trump’s “ignoble acts”:

“He has refused to meet with anyone gay or any of our organizations that attempt to protect us and fight for our country’s health. He has not said a single intelligent word about gay marriage, gay adoption, AIDS, the gross ineptitude of the National Institutes of Health, the unconscionable greed of the pharmaceutical companies that are prepared to only save people when they are rich. He also has racial issues (one of your own grandsons is of mixed heritage), issues with women that certainly must offend your wife, and a growing list of off-the-wall remarks that only engender hate.”

Possibly most damning is Kramer’s indictment of Roth for his seeming motivation for aligning himself with Trump: greed. “You are one of the richest men in the world… I ask you fervently: don’t you have enough? How much more does one need to acquire before you and your fellow billionaires are willing to share and help and fight with us and not against us?”

Finally, Kramer attempts to appeal to Roth’s intelligence in challenging him to dump Trump, before deploying one of the most scathing and…accurate descriptions of the Republican candidate I’ve read thus far: “I cannot accept that such an intelligent and gifted man as I know you to be can believe that Donald Trump is anything but strange and scary, an indigestible cauldron of rotten and poisoned ingredients.”

Read Kramer’s full post here.

h/t: Vulture

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