Donald Trump Announced His Candidacy 30 Years Ago Today
By Dan Schwartz| September 2nd, 2017
https://amgreatness.com/2017/09/02/donald-trump-announced-candidacy-30-years-ago-today/
ednesday morning, September 2, 1987. It started out with news item on a Philadelphia area
morning drive-time show featuring Atlantic City casino owner Donald Trump spending almost
$100,000 ($207,000 in today’s dollars) of his own money to take out full-page newspaper ads
attacking Japan and Saudi Arabia?and indirectly, President Reagan?for allowing the United States
military to defend the interests of those nations for free. These ads with the banner headline read
“There’s nothing wrong with America’s Foreign Defense Policy that a little backbone can’t cure,”
and it ran in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe.

Expecting some interest because of Trump’s nonstop media exposure in the New York and
Philadelphia media markets, the New York Times also ran this brief story on page A12, titled
“Trump Gives A Vague Hint of Candidacy.” From the story: