It Looks Like Trump Might Have Literally Made Up A Friend Named Jim

Look, we all know Trump is a guy who plays loose and fast with the truth. He’s got a rhetorical style cooked in the spicy, spicy soup of the Manhattan real estate market, which means he big ups his statements until they really bear no resemblance to reality.

But according to an Associated Press investigation today, Trump has been telling a particularly odd lie over the past little while. The AP claims that Trump has fabricated a mate of his who doesn’t actually exist.

Trump has repeatedly referred to a gentleman by the name of Jim – a dear, dear friend of his who used to love travelling to Paris, but no longer can because the city has been “infiltrated by extremists”. Poor Jim! Le monde pleure avec vous!

Here’s an example of Trump referring to JIm:

The AP goes on to explain that the White House refuses to elaborate on whether Jim is in fact a real guy:

The way Trump tells it — Jim is a friend who loves Paris and used to visit every year. Yet when Trump travels to the city Thursday for his first time as president, it’s unlikely that Jim will tag along. Jim doesn’t go to Paris anymore. Trump says that’s because the city has been infiltrated by foreign extremists.

Whether Jim exists is unclear. Trump has never given his last name. The White House has not responded to a request for comment about who Jim is or whether he will be on the trip.
Of course, Trump is using JIm as a rhetorical device to explain what apparently happens to beautiful cities which become complacent about terrorism, or whatever. But he sure referred to him a lot for a moan who is probably not at all real.

It’s not the first time the existence of Trump’s friend Jim has been called into question. The New Yorker applied a little bit of scrutiny back in March, and found it very difficult to identify who this Jim might be.
Jim, from Trump’s description, sounds old, settled, rich. His Paris, one imagines, spanned from Cartier to L’Ami Louis. But he didn’t ring a bell for observers of the New York–Palm Beach power scene. “I haven’t got a clue as to who Trump’s friend Jim is,” David Patrick Columbia, of New York Social Diary, said. “I know a few Juleses but no Jims who fit the bill,” the writer William Norwich said, confessing that he’d been puzzling over Jim’s identity ever since Trump name-checked him. “You really think there is an actual person?” the journalist Kati Marton asked. “Jim is akin to Mexican rapists and Swedish terrorists.”
Another possible lead is the Jim who is mentioned in Trumps book The Art of the Deal as “a guy with a 180 IQ,” who “couldn’t have sex with his wife” because he was stressed about selling a house. If it’s the same Jim, and he is real… what a journey.
If you’re out there, Jim: please reach out.
Source: AP.
Photo: Getty Images.

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