# Do you think Donald Trump's entire NYC penthouse is a gaudy as the pictures? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 18, 2018, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-donald-trumps-entire-nyc-penthouse-is-a-gaudy-as-the-pictures/823177 "2018-10-18T23:06:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-donald-trumps-entire-nyc-penthouse-is-a-gaudy-as-the-pictures/823177/41 "2018-10-20T14:24:53Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > In time we will know. In twenty years, it will be the President Donald J Trump Home. The National Park Service rangers will offer guided tours. If the building is still safe to occupy. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-donald-trumps-entire-nyc-penthouse-is-a-gaudy-as-the-pictures/823177/42 "2018-10-20T14:30:24Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > If David Pakman can be believed, Trump can’t read, at least above a first-grade level. With glasses or without. > > Which makes comprehension very difficult. Pretty sure I read the exact same claim made against George W Bush, someone who it turned out, read a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2018, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-donald-trumps-entire-nyc-penthouse-is-a-gaudy-as-the-pictures/823177/43 "2018-10-22T07:20:12Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > What is Mr. Pakman’s cite for that? I despise Trump, I would dance on his grave, but it’s hard to believe that he could function in society at all without that ability. I’ve known people who functioned in society while being able to read at about a 3rd-grade level, and some who couldn’t even do that; in some cases it’s linked to dyslexia, and the ones that make my head hurt are those who can read if only they’d get glasses. A coworker had long been thought to be one of the “bad readers” but we figured out he went beyond that on the day he “couldn’t understand a shipping document” he had clipped upside-down (he thought it must be cyrillic alphabet or something - he was able to recognize patterns enough to match the words on the paperwork to the labels on packages, but not to actually read). At the time of the upside-down clipping he’d worked in the warehouse for over 20 years. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2018, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-donald-trumps-entire-nyc-penthouse-is-a-gaudy-as-the-pictures/823177/44 "2018-10-22T12:04:37Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > What is Mr. Pakman’s cite for that? I despise Trump, I would dance on his grave, but it’s hard to believe that he could function in society at all without that ability. Here’s at least one [Pakman show that makes that claim](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd79UsXSLWg) [that Trump can’t read]. In the comments are links to supporting docs from the New Yorker, Salon, and others. It’s hard to substantiate such a claim if your subject doesn’t want you to investigate and won’t answer direct questions, but the analysis seems to have some credibility. From the [NewYorker article](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all): > [@](#): > > [Tony] Schwartz [Trump’s memoir ghostwriter] believes that Trump’s short attention span has left him with “a stunning level of superficial knowledge and plain ignorance.” He said, “That’s why he so prefers TV as his first news source—information comes in easily digestible sound bites.” He added, “I seriously doubt that Trump has ever read a book straight through in his adult life.” During the eighteen months that he observed Trump, Schwartz said, he never saw a book on Trump’s desk, or elsewhere in his office, or in his apartment. > > Other journalists have noticed Trump’s apparent lack of interest in reading. In May, Megyn Kelly, of Fox News, asked him to name his favorite book, other than the Bible or “The Art of the Deal.” Trump picked the 1929 novel “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Evidently suspecting that many years had elapsed since he’d read it, Kelly asked Trump to talk about the most recent book he’d read. “I read passages, I read areas, I’ll read chapters—I don’t have the time,” Trump said. As The New Republic noted recently, this attitude is not shared by most U.S. Presidents, including Barack Obama, a habitual consumer of current books, and George W. Bush, who reportedly engaged in a fiercely competitive book-reading contest with his political adviser Karl Rove. As far as functioning in society, if you’re rich enough, devious enough and arrogant enough, you can get someone to do almost everything for you except pee. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2018, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-donald-trumps-entire-nyc-penthouse-is-a-gaudy-as-the-pictures/823177/45 "2018-10-22T16:02:30Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > As far as functioning in society, if you’re rich enough, devious enough and arrogant enough, you can get someone to do almost everything for you except pee. I’m sure you could pay someone to insert a catheter and empty the bag on a regular basis. One of the late night comedians (John Oliver?) described Trump’s decorating style as, “How Elvis remembered what Versailles looks like.” ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-donald-trumps-entire-nyc-penthouse-is-a-gaudy-as-the-pictures/823177/46 "2018-10-22T16:26:39Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > That’s true. And yet, he was born into money and, from what I’ve heard, his mother was a classy woman. She was the daughter of a dirt poor Scottish crofter, so if she came across as classy, she was putting it on. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2018, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-donald-trumps-entire-nyc-penthouse-is-a-gaudy-as-the-pictures/823177/47 "2018-10-22T17:06:10Z")
> [@Quintas](#): > > This is what I mean. There has to be _some_ part of the man that enjoys some warm colors and a comfortable sofa… Also he had 4 children. I can’t imagine being a child in that mausoleum. Trump has said he didn’t have much to do with the raising of his kids, and that seems to be consistent with the three oldest kids’ comments about their closeness with their maternal grandparents. Given his generally narcissistic attitude towards everything, I doubt he makes comfortable space in his home for anyone. If you give people a comfy place to sit, they’re going to stay and take up your time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-donald-trumps-entire-nyc-penthouse-is-a-gaudy-as-the-pictures/823177.md?page=2)