A Chess Allegory

My previous post, Election Special ('May the best woman win!'), turned out to be more special than I could ever have imagined. No one can predict the outcome of an election and the world will have to live with U.S. President Donald J. Trump. Eliminating Hillary from the election special gives us the following.

Google Image search on 'chess donald trump'

Again we have strange images associated with strange stories and again the '4D Chess' metaphor dominates the others. Another strange story involving chess and Donald J. Trump is Dumping on Bronx kids, Donald style by David MacEnulty (medium.com). That's the same MacEnulty of Knights of the South Bronx (wikipedia.org) fame:-

'Knights of the South Bronx' is a 2005 television film about a teacher who helps students at a tough inner-city school to succeed by teaching them to play chess. The movie is based on the true story of David MacEnulty who taught schoolchildren of the Bronx Community Elementary School 70 to play at competition level, eventually winning New York City and the New York State Chess Championships.

The same story found in 'Dumping, Donald style' is an anecdote related in Trump boasts about his philanthropy, but his giving falls short of his words (washingtonpost.com):-

At times, Trump seemed to make light of others' expectations about his generosity. In 1997, for instance, he was "principal for a day" at a public school in an impoverished area of the Bronx. The chess team was holding a bake sale, Hot & Crusty danishes and croissants. They were $5,000 short of what they needed to travel to a tournament.

Trump had brought something to wow them. "He handed them a fake million-dollar bill," said David MacEnulty, a teacher and the chess team's coach. The team's parent volunteers were thrilled. Then disappointment. Trump then gave them $200 in real money and drove away in a limousine. Why just $200? "I have no idea," MacEnulty said. "He was about the most clueless person I’ve ever seen in that regard."

The happy ending, he said, was that a woman read about Trump’s gift in the New York Times, called the school and donated the $5,000. "I am ashamed to be the same species as this man," MacEnulty recalled her saying.

Will this story serve as an allegory for the Donald J. Trump presidency? We'll know long before his four-year term is over.