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Mark Lennihan/PA

A magazine called Trump Bistro 'rich-man slop' so Trump said their editor had no talent

Trump has a long-standing dislike of Graydon Carter.

A SNEERING RESTAURANT review savaging a bistro in the lobby of his New York headquarters and casting aspersions on what it might mean for his presidency provoked another of Donald Trump’s infamous Twitter broadsides today.

Trump Grill Could Be The Worst Restaurant In America,” screamed the headline on the Vanity Fair online article, sub-headlined: “And it reveals everything you need to know about our next president.”

The incoming Republican president, who has been at loggerheads with the magazine’s editor Graydon Carter for decades, was not impressed.

Carter’s feud with Trump dates back to the 1980s when the real estate tycoon projected himself as the definition of wealth. Carter in the past infuriated the former reality star by calling him a “short-fingered vulgarian.”

Tourists today make a beeline for Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, shopping for souvenirs and stopping for lunch at the lobby bistro as they hope to catch a glimpse of the president-elect or his cabinet nominees.

‘Slop’

But the Vanity Fair review, written by reporter Tina Nguyen, summed up a recent late lunch with a group of companions as “rich-man slop.”

She complained about “unnecessarily high-end ingredients” such as truffle oil, compared a slumped, overcooked steak to “a dead body inside a T-boned minivan” and wrote that the cocktails “seemed to be concocted by a college freshman experimenting in their dorm room.”

“As soon as I got home, I brushed my teeth twice and curled up in bed until the nausea passed,” Nguyen wrote.

Screen-Shot-2016-05-05-at-3.23.47-PM Trump with the taco bowl from Trump Grill.

The most edible dish, she concluded, was the taco bowl, a dish that Trump famously tweeted a picture of himself appearing to eat, on top of a photograph of his ex-wife in a bikini, in an attempt to deflect criticism that he is anti-Hispanic.

Nguyen also reserved sympathy for the “well-meaning staff,” but finished by suggesting that the Trump Grill was an alarming indication of what might lie ahead for America under a Trump presidency.

“Perhaps it’s a sign that Trump is in over his head, and a shallow, mediocre man who runs a shallow, mediocre business empire (and restaurant) would sink and implode, crushing the expectations of millions of his hopeful supporters.”

- © AFP, 2016

Read: Deal reached to evacuate civilians and wounded from Aleppo

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    Mute Robert Burke
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    Dec 15th 2016, 6:44 PM

    He should just say the Russians hacked his account.

    84
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    Mute Paul Doyle
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:03 PM

    Still a better choice for president than hillary

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    Mute Donal O'Brien
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:24 PM

    No he wasn’t.

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    Mute Craig Ferguson
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    Dec 15th 2016, 10:26 PM

    @Paul Doyle: Trolling at its worst!!!!

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    Mute Drew TheChinaman :)
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    Dec 16th 2016, 7:06 AM

    Problem with members of the social media driven Generation Y… they can’t comprehend the best from the most popular or most mentioned/hashtagged person.

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    Mute Beachmaster
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    Dec 15th 2016, 6:48 PM

    Journalism is dead!

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    Mute John Considine
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:22 PM

    It’s with o’Leary in the grave.

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    Mute Brian MacCarthaigh
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    Dec 15th 2016, 6:48 PM

    Who cares …… Seriously!,

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    Mute Donal O'Brien
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    Dec 15th 2016, 6:53 PM

    Dodgy Don obviously cares.

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    Mute Neal, not Neil.
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    Dec 15th 2016, 6:59 PM

    I care. The child who’s saying – sorry I mean tweeting – this stuff gets the keys to the White House next month.

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    Mute Donal O'Brien
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:01 PM

    “To this day, I receive the occasional envelope from Trump. There is always a photo of him—generally a tear sheet from a magazine. On all of them he has circled his hand in gold Sharpie in a valiant effort to highlight the length of his fingers. I almost feel sorry for the poor fellow because, to me, the fingers still look abnormally stubby. The most recent offering arrived earlier this year, before his decision to go after the Republican presidential nomination. Like the other packages, this one included a circled hand and the words, also written in gold Sharpie: “See, not so short!” I sent the picture back by return mail with a note attached, saying, “Actually, quite short.” Which I can only assume gave him fits.”

    Graydon Carter, 2016

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    Mute Qwerty
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:18 PM

    My own personal theory on Trump is that he is a savvy troll. I think it’s more likely that he doesn’t have a thin skin and isn’t at all bothered about people thinking he has stubby hands for instance. But instead, he long ago during his adult life made the conscious decision to appear to be thin-skinned and to be extremely petty, all in a carefully calculated attempt to make people who receive boasting letters from him and things of that nature to think to themselves “this man is nuts”, leak things like this and other anecdotes and tales of absurd, disturbing and petty behaviour to the media. All to cause controversy and to keep him in the public consciousness.

    After all, you can’t be a reality TV star and a household name if you’re calm, collected and boring. Plus, it’s probably great fun for him to send those letters and laugh to himself knowing it will cause the recipient to be alarmed. His campaign was simply the same strategy on steroids and it worked perfectly. You might think to yourself “but how can he say these things and let nutters get riled up and attack minorities?” and so on. I attribute that to desensitisation due to being in the public eye for all his adult life and saying outrageous things with little or no consequence until now.

    But basically he’s trolled the world. He’s not an idiot. We’re the real idiots for thinking he’s an idiot.

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    Mute John Considine
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:26 PM

    @Qwerty: I’m not sure which scares me more, that he might be a populist simpleton or that he’s a master manipulator on par with Machiavelli himself.

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    Mute Donal O'Brien
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:27 PM

    He’s an idiot alright. Narcissistic, entitled and utterly pathetic.

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    Mute David Thomas
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:27 PM

    @Donal….. that’s how trolling was done before the internet.

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    Mute Qwerty
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:56 PM

    @John

    I’m willing to bet master manipulator. The Taiwan thing I’m guessing is a bargaining chip. To me it honestly comes across as smart. Brazen, bold, audacious…but smart. China will say they’re unhappy, but I can’t imagine things ever escalating with Taiwan. It’s unthinkable that China would ever come into military conflict with Taiwan when they’re culturally and ethnically Chinese (even if they formally declared independence). They are a fully sovereign country in every way already. I think Trump knows this and he’s showing the Chinese that he isn’t their enemy, but he won’t bend over backwards to them either.

    Even though Putin was probably jumping with joy at his election, he may find that Trump runs rings around him instead.

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    Mute Ross Stewart
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    Dec 15th 2016, 10:45 PM

    If he was a master manipulator why would he have skipped most of the security briefings offered to him as president elect?

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    Mute ManOnTheStreet
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    Dec 15th 2016, 6:58 PM

    The man is a tw@.

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    Mute Tricia Golden
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:01 PM

    Donald Trump would do well to listen to an actual great Republican President – “No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all of the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite.” – Abraham Lincoln

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    Mute Donal O'Brien
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:13 PM

    The USA is in terminal decline, Trumps administration will hasten it.

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    Mute Naberius
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:27 PM

    @Tricia Golden:

    Some more quotes from Abraham Lincoln:

    “You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffers very greatly, many of them, by living among us, while ours suffers from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this is admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated.”

    “And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”

    “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.”

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    Mute Warthog
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    Dec 15th 2016, 9:48 PM

    @Tricia Golden:
    Then he was assassinated. So that didn’t work out too well for him now, did it?

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    Mute Paddy Galloway
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    Dec 15th 2016, 6:48 PM

    “Well that’s not very relevant, is it”

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    Mute NeilGoochFerriter
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    Dec 15th 2016, 8:45 PM

    4 years of this ahead of us, This man is completely classless and has zero self control. You get what you wish for… Best of luck America.

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    Mute Charlie Fogarty
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:25 PM

    Although this is nonsense, his use of twitter relating to specific government contractors is really dodge.

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    Mute Alex Falcone
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:27 PM

    ‘Dodge’
    I see what you did there.

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    Mute Charlie Fogarty
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    Dec 15th 2016, 8:02 PM

    Ah ye caught Bud! Where’d ye get the Intel? Let Matel ye though. Deloitted you noticed…

    Kinda want it to be Hallmark…This feels like one of my biggest Lowes..

    Naaaahh that was GOLDMAN! Did you get a Chubb?

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    Mute Alex Falcone
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    Dec 15th 2016, 8:14 PM

    Exelont.

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    Mute Mursh
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:14 PM

    Another snobby critic out of touch with reality. Tripadvisor shows that most people are quite happy with what is offered at the grill and the prices. But hey what do normal people know?

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    Mute Alex Falcone
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:23 PM

    @Mursh:
    Hoping to get some attention for herself by taking a cheap shop at Trump.

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    Mute Donal O'Brien
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:36 PM

    Poor old Donald, let’s break out the violins.

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    Mute Poole Hyde
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:59 PM

    I’m not sure why it’s a surprise to anybody that it’s not getting good reviews. It’s not like the Trump brand is synonymous with good taste. In fact, quite the opposite.

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    Mute Críostóir Ó Faoláin
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    Dec 15th 2016, 6:47 PM

    An nuacht é seo?

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    Mute Gerry Ryan deG
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    Dec 15th 2016, 6:55 PM

    @Críostóir Ó Faoláin: Maybe not earth shattering news but we need to be informed of what a complete idiot he is so that in 4 years time we’ll be able to put ourselves in the shoes of the citizens of Europe in the mid 1930s who looked on and wondered what the fcuk was up with the Germans.

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    Mute Screaming Toddy
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    Dec 15th 2016, 6:56 PM

    I’m amazed none of the news channels are running with this. Headline news item that it is.

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    Mute Neal, not Neil.
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:00 PM

    The fact that the next leader of the free world has the interpersonal skills of a thirteen year old boy seems quite important to me.

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    Mute ManOnTheStreet
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:04 PM

    It’s simple, praise Trump and its news worthy. Criticise him and its unimportant or fake. Like the man himself, his supporters act like children.

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    Mute Poole Hyde
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:08 PM

    You obviously missed yesterday’s article about the woman who’d experienced a Parcel Motel mix up… and get this… she used Facebook to track down the intended recipient…. I think the New York Times had to stop the presses once they read that in The Journal….

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    Mute Screaming Toddy
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    Dec 15th 2016, 11:35 PM

    And you need to be reminded of that Neal? Simple is as simple does I suppose.

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    Mute Screaming Toddy
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    Dec 15th 2016, 11:38 PM

    ManOnTheStreet, I love how you think I am a trump supporter because I am fed up of all the stupid stories on here. It’s not exclusive to stories about donald trump. That tells a lot about your intellect.

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    Mute Alex Falcone
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    Dec 15th 2016, 6:52 PM

    AFP?
    No comment.

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    Mute Alex Falcone
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    Dec 15th 2016, 7:26 PM

    ‘Nguyen also reserved sympathy for the “well-meaning staff,” but finished by suggesting that the Trump Grill was an alarming indication of what might lie ahead for America under a Trump presidency.
    “Perhaps it’s a sign that Trump is in over his head, and a shallow, mediocre man who runs a shallow, mediocre business empire (and restaurant) would sink and implode, crushing the expectations of millions of his hopeful supporters.”

    Guess Democrats could have found themselves a new political harpy to replace the erstwhile Hillary.

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    Mute Eamonn
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    Dec 15th 2016, 11:39 PM

    Another AFP anti trump special. And right on cue too.

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    Mute Rosa Parks
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    Dec 16th 2016, 5:16 AM

    Strange to see political attacks in a dish review.

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    Mute Val Martin
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    Dec 16th 2016, 8:14 AM

    What is a T-Boned minivan?

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    Mute Sorcha Fox
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    Dec 16th 2016, 3:26 AM

    Is Journal.ie now a clickbait site? What’s with this terrible headline?

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    Mute Jake Orb
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    Dec 16th 2016, 5:42 AM

    Your headline writer needs some English lessons…

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