Trump Travels to Iowa, Bashes New York

Donald Trump has gone all the way to Iowa to insult New York.

The bombastic New York-based millionaire held a press conference with Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King in Des Moines Tuesday, where he proclaimed that LaGuardia and JFK were “like third world airports.” In contrast, Trump praised Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China for having airports “the likes of which we’ve never seen in this country.”

Trump’s comments echo those made by Joe Biden earlier this year in which the Vice President compared LaGuardia to a “third world country.” Biden made the statement at an event in Philadelphia, where he pushed for an increase in federal infrastructure spending.

At the time, the Vice President’s comment provoked some backlash from New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio, as well as from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates LaGuardia. While there was universal agreement that LaGuardia badly needed renovation, DeBlasio thought that the phrasing of Biden’s critique was “inappropriate.”

Unlike Biden, Trump wasn’t making a plea for greater federal spending on transportation when he slammed his home state’s two biggest airports. Instead the reality show star, who flirted with running for Governor of New York earlier this year, had travelled to Iowa to announce his endorsement of King, a controversial six-term Republican incumbent.

In addition to bashing New York’s airports, Trump praised King, notorious for his comments about illegal immigrants with “calves the size of cantaloupes,” as “a smart person with really the right views on almost everything.”

However, for all the controversy around him, King has always been smart enough not to bash his home state’s two biggest airports. After all, unlike Donald Trump, he’s actually running for office.