Back in 2008, Donald Trump was asked to pay a $10,000 fee after he illegally erected a 70-foot flag pole at one of his golf clubs in California. Donald Trump did not want to pay the $10,000 fee. Not because he’s grossly misrepresented his liquid assets, of course, but because the American flag is about freedom. Or something.
To give you a sense of just how big this 400-square-foot flag is, The LA Times wrote in an article at the time that the “flag the size of a studio apartment continues to fly on the oceanfront, towering 54 feet over the city’s 16-foot limit on ‘accessory structures.’ On a recent windy afternoon, the 25-by-15-foot flag was flapping at its full length, emitting a propeller-like sound that echoed off clubhouse walls.”
Regardless of such trifles as “common decency” or “the law,” Trump believed that no one should have to get permission to fly the flag. So when the California town voted several years prior against legally forcing him to take it down, Trump remarked that it was “a great day for the American flag and what it represents.”
But what, exactly, does the American flag represent? Stephen Colbert asked him just that when news of Trump’s refusal to pay the fee started making the news. And despite his claims of being a staunch believer in the flag and everything it stands for, it turns out that Donald Trump doesn’t actually have any idea what it is he’s screaming about, telling Colbert point blank, “I don’t know what the 13 stripes represent.”
We should have seen his campaign coming.