Donald Trump apparently stopped a mugging in 1991, according to an old New York Daily News article at the time.
The original article, “Mugger’s Trumped: Donald stops attack,” written by Daily News staff writer James Rosen, is still on Philly.com, but with the title, “Trump Strikes Out Would-be Mugger.”
“I’m not looking to play this thing up,” Trump said in the Nov. 20, 1991, report. “I’m surprised you found out about it.”
In the incident, Trump ordered his driver to pull over after he saw “a big guy with a big bat” bashing another person.
An old copy of the article went viral on Reddit’s The Donald Subreddit on Wednesday.
“Someone in the car looked over and said, ‘Gee, look at that, it’s a mugging,’ ” Trump said. “I said to my driver to stop the car because it was brutal-looking.”
Witnesses told the Daily News that Trump got out of his black stretch limousine on Monday during the assault in Manhattan. Marla Maples, who was married to Trump in the ‘90s, was seen grabbing his arm.
“The guy with the bat looked at me, and I said, ”Look, you’ve gotta stop this. Put down the bat,“‘ Trump said. ”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.”
Kathleen Romeo, a student at the time, said a bunch of people cried: “There’s Trump!” when he got out.
“A lot of people were surprised that he got out to see what was happening,” Romeo said, adding that the bat-wielder ran off right before he appeared. Trump then “just looked around and went back into his limo,” she said.
But another witness supported Trump.
“All of a sudden, a big long limousine pulls up on an angle, and Donald Trump pops out with the blond, too,” the unnamed witness added. “There was a guy with a bat, hitting a guy over the head, and Trump yelled, ‘Put that bat down. What are you doing?’ The guy dropped the bat, came over and started talking to him.”
The attack wasn’t ever reported to police.
Also in 1991, Trump delivered a speech to the House on “economic recovery.” The clip has since gone viral on YouTube amid Trump’s run for president.
