Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump once told Manhattan magazine he hired a pilot from former Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi.
“I have a pilot who works for me who used to be Gaddafi’s pilot, he’s a highly trained American pilot.” Trump told Manhattan magazine. Trump reported he asked the pilot about Gaddafi, what kind of guy he was, how he led. “Mr. Trump, you’ve never seen a man like this, this man would get onto his plane, and he’s slap his subordinates in the face, a total schizo.”
Trump dealt with Gaddafi in the past. Gaddafi rented a portion of Trump’s Seven Springs estate in Westchester N.Y., in 2009 before his speech at the United Nations. Helicopters took pictures of a tent on the estate that had the same rugs and wall hanging that Gaddafi had used when bringing his tent to other locations.
Local regulators stepped in and stopped the erection of the tent, stating that no permit had been issued. The “illegal structure” was then taken down. Trump officials told reporters Gaddafi would not be staying at the property. “I earned a lot of money on that deal,” Trump told reporters later.
In October last year, Trump was asked if the world would be a better place with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi still in power. “100 percent,” Trump responded. “Right now, it’s far worse than it ever was under Hussein or Gaddafi, you have guys chopping guy’s heads off now.”
Trump wasn’t the only businessman to pursue relationships with the Libyan dictator. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett also tried to invest in Libya, but was not permitted to do so by the government. Coke, Caterpillar, and Boeing installed plants in the nation in the years following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
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