Sarasota Florida GOP Taps Donald Trump As “2012 Statesman Of The Year” After Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad Declines
Explaining his choice of Donald Trump as SarasotaGOP’s Statesman of the Year (official portrait at left), SarasotaGOP Chairman Joe Gruters hailed Trump as a “wise, skillful and respectful political leader,” According to HuffPo, Gruters, a 35 year old staff accountant at a Sarasota, Florida CPA firm,
“point[ed] to public polling last year that showed Trump narrowly trailing President Barack Obama in a hypothetical match-up.”
Now that’s statesmanship! And, truth be told, statesman Trump was seen flirting with a run for the White House, yet once the run for the White House got to know him, she ran for her life, hands in the air, screaming, like she was just a step ahead of a pack of vampires on motorcycles.
Nonetheless, Donald Trump, the diplomat, is a role well known to all, particularly as America’s ambassador-without-portfolio during the ongoing appeal to President Barack Obama to release his true birth certificate. According to Mr. Trump, the controversy, still unsettled, “will be pursued relentlessly through my personal diplomacy for as long as it takes.”
Moreover, as overseer of his iconic creation, Celebrity Apprentice 
series, Trump has often delicately negotiated an end to internecine warfare among contestants, most recently, a frightful 2011 death match between Ms. NeNe Leakes and the determined alliance of contestants Ms. Star Jones and Ms. La Toya Jackson, a conflagration which nearly caused another celebrity apprentice, Mr. Meatloaf, to be committed to a sanitarium.
On the international stage, Trump is unafraid to speak out. Such is his reputation among statesman, no one can, or dares to, shut him up. Advising on the 2011 Libyan Revolution, he offered technical assistance to the Libyan people in the future management of their oil reserves, explaining his proposal thus:
“I’d do one thing, either I’d go in and take the oil or I don’t go in at all. You know, in the old days, when you won a war, to the victor go the spoils, so why don’t we take the oil? All those rebels are going to be richer than the people of this country because they’re going to take all the oil!”
Ah yes, the “old days.” Recall the sensitive diplomacy of Attila the Hun.
Mr. Gruters wonders, perhaps, why was Mr. Trump so vilified for this statesmanlike solution to an intractable oil supply problem? Did not a single person stay to hear what Trump said later on in the interview?
“I’d take the oil,” but “I’d give them plenty so they can live very happily.”
Junior accountant Gruters must think, “Attila the Hun, indeed. Humbug!”
Statesman Trump had similar advice for the U.S. government regarding Iraq. As recently as April 2011 he presented Bill O’Reilly with a practical plan, elegant in its simplicity:
“We pay ourself back $1.5 trillion or more. We take care of Britain, we take care of other countries that helped us.”
He’s no Attila. Attila did not share.
He’s eloquent about oil independence, offering a practical solution that no one seems to want to hear,
“They want to go in and raise the price of oil because we have nobody in Washington that sits back and says ‘You’re not gonna raise that fuckin’ price. You understand me?”
And still, eminent historians preach of Attila’s forthrightness. Hah!
Statesman of the Year Trump also understands the limits of American military strength, and realizes a modern truism about ground warfare. As early as 2007, speaking about Iran, he waxed eloquent:
“You know, the one thing I sorta liked was what [President George W. Bush was] saying about Iran. I believe you have to go in and strike Iran — not with soldiers. You know, it’s not a world of soldiers anymore. It’s a world of air. It’s a world of different kinds of, you know, we’ve changed.”
Trump’s correct. We’d all be speaking something between Turkic and Mongolian if Attila had commanded even a single F-15 back then.
Most recently, Mr. Trump entered the fray regarding the rebuilding of New York City’s United Nations headquarters building. In mid-June 2012, appearing in his diplomatic role before a U.S. Senate subcommittee, he disputed the cost estimates, thus far in the billions of dollars. He believes he can do the job for well under a single billion. He politely promised to waive his fee, so little was he concerned about notoriety.
In evocative – poetic – tones, he appraised the United Nations project:
“This is a bigger version of the Wollman Skating Rink, that’s all it is to me. … I don’t want any money. I want nothing,”
Regarding the U.N. officials presently in charge of the project, Trump was as discreet as an ambassador to a long ago emperor of China:
“They don’t know what they want, they don’t know what they have, they don’t know what they’re doing.”
Indeed, 
much more could be written about Donald Trump’s record of statesmanlike diplomacy. Instead, mark your calendar for Florida, August 26, 2012, at the Sarasota Ritz-Carlton. Note too that the gala will coincide with the opening of the GOP National Convention, itself taking place in Tampa just a yacht’s throw from Sarasota. One would expect Mitt Romney to attend his benefactor’s gala. Most certainly.
Finally, for your convenience, here is the ticket information:
Statesman of the Year Dinner
Honoring Donald Trump
August 26, 2012 6:00 pm
The Ritz-Carlton
1111 Ritz Carlton Dr, Sarasota, FL 34236, USA
Executive Ticket
Includes: Private Meet & Greet with Mr. Trump, Photo with Mr. Trump, VIP Reception & Dinner.
$1,000.00
VIP Ticket
Includes: Photo with Mr. Trump, VIP Reception & Dinner. Note: VIP Reception begins at 5:30pm.
$500.00
“Early Bird” Ticket
Includes: Cash Bar Cocktail Reception & Dinner *Ticket must be purchased before August 1st. Price goes up to $150 on August 1st. Note: General Reception begins at 6pm.
$110.00
Regular Dinner Ticket
Includes: Cash Bar Cocktail Reception & Dinner Note: General Reception begins at 6pm.
$150.00
More Trump gala info here.
