NEW YORK — Nearly 30 years before President Trump nominated federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, a student newspaper Gorsuch established and edited at Columbia University joked about the idea of a Trump presidency.
The Fed, an alternative student newspaper founded by Gorsuch, Andrew Levy — now a Fox News personality — and P.T. Waters, polled students in October 1987 on the upcoming presidential election.
Then New York Gov. Mario Cuomo earned the highest percentage of the vote with 25.8 percent, followed by undecided at 17.3 percentage points, and Michael Dukakis at 12.6 points. But the prospect of a Trump presidency looked so outlandish at the time that Gorsuch’s newspaper poked fun at Trump in a section labeled “Tidbits from the first Fed poll” that highlighted students’ strange responses regarding their choices for president.
(Courtesy Columbia University Archives)
Here’s the relevant portion of the tidbits section:
“Choice for President:
‘Marx.’ (And they thought Reagan was too old to run for president)
‘Trump should run for pres.’ (With Zeckendorf as VP, perhaps?)
‘Power to the People’ (would they all fit in the White House?)
‘I would have loved Gore, but Tipper lost the election for him.’ (from an irate “Twisted Sister” fan)
Zeckendorf, the Fed’s joking selection of vice president for Trump, appears to refer to William Zeckendorf Jr., a real estate developer whose family owned the Chrysler Building among many other properties in New York City. Zeckendorf Jr. died in 2014 at the age of 84 and never lived to see Trump’s successful 2016 campaign.
(Courtesy Columbia University Archives)
The poll also noted that someone who “defies normal political classification” wrote “BLOCK BORK.” Judge Robert Bork’s nomination for the Supreme Court was rejected in October 1987.
