Past racist remarks may haunt Trump's top Michigan man

The Republican Party has announced that Ron Weiser of Michigan will serve as one of six vice chairs for a newly created Donald Trump Victory Fund.

Like Trump, Weiser made his millions in real estate. And like Trump, he is adept at flip-flops.

At one time Weiser was the picture of traditional Republicanism, a former state GOP chairman and a former U.S. ambassador appointed by President George W. Bush.

Then in 2014 he cozied up to the tea party, including infamous northern Michigan radio host “Trucker Randy” Bishop and Texan Ted Cruz who, at the time was known as the “tea party senator.” In recent months, Weiser was raising money for anti-Trump groups, according to CNN.

Now, he is one of the top GOP big-wigs assigned with raising $1 billion for the Trump general election campaign. That’s quite a switch.

Over at Eclectablog, Chris Savage reminds his readers that Weiser has one more thing in common with Trump: bigoted remarks from the standpoint of a rich white guy.

In 2012, Weiser was caught on video talking about how Republican prospects in Detroit were vastly improved because of a lack of Democratic political “machines” in the city, according to Savage. In that speech, he had this to say about the people of Detroit:

There’s no machine to go to the pool halls and the barbershops and put those people on buses and then bus them from precinct to precinct where they vote multiple times. And there’s no machine to get ’em to stop playing pool and drinking beer in the pool hall. And it does make a difference.
… Obama has hired a lot of people to help him get that vote out. But if you’re not from Detroit, the places where those pool halls and barbershops are, you’re not going to be going at 6:30 in November. Not without a side arm.

Two years later, Weiser was running for the University of Michigan Board of Regents and appeared to be on his way to victory. But late into the Election Night of November 2014 the Detroit votes came in, and Weiser lost.

In December of 2014, with the tea party now his enemy, Weiser made a very Trumpian move: He donated $50 million to U-M and then last month he announced that he’s running again for the university board.

As the elections approach, perhaps U-M loyalists will remember the Trumpian remark he made to a tea party audience in his last campaign: Weiser said he wanted to counter the socialists on the faculty who “brainwash” U-M students.

So, Trump can now boast that his best bud in Michigan is a guy named Weiser – just like Budweiser, the beer that, in Trumpian fashion, has renamed itself “America” for the rest of this election year.

It all seems to fit.

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