Mother Jones illustration; Shutterstock
This post was originally published as part of “The Trump Files”—a collection of telling episodes, strange but true stories, and curious scenes from the life of our current president—on June 23, 2016.
Just the sight of Donald Trump can calm the violent streets of New York, apparently.
At least that was reportedly the case in November 1991, when Trump was on his way to a Paula Abdul concert in his limo and saw a man being pummeled on an unidentified Manhattan street. “The man was getting beaten with a baseball bat, but no one did a thing until the limo drove up and Super Donald leaped out,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
That was all it took to stop the assailant in his tracks. “The guy with the bat looked at me, and I said, ‘Look, you’ve gotta stop this. Put down the bat,'” Trump told the New York Daily News. “I guess he recognized me because he said, ‘Mr. Trump, I didn’t do anything wrong.’ I said, ‘How could you not do anything wrong when you’re whacking a guy with a bat?’ Then he ran away.” (Witnesses at the scene gave the newspaper conflicting reports on what happened, with one saying Trump “just looked around and went back into his limo.” Police said the attack wasn’t reported.)
Surely not wanting to miss the concert, Trump left the victim in the care of “a man who appeared to be a doctor” and headed off. “I’m not looking to play this thing up,” he told the Daily News when they came asking about the heroic deed. “I’m surprised you found out about it.”
