In Thailand, even a bar called Trump Tower can trigger the woke Left.
In Jomtien, a beach town two hours south of Bangkok, the MAGA-themed watering hole has become a target of online fury from Western expats who call it everything from a “den of pedophilia” to a “tribute to the orange pedo hero.” So I decided to see the place and the people who gather there for myself.
I was in Jomtien for a couple of days’ change of scenery from my Bangkok home. The town, next to Pattaya and lined with open-air beer bars, resorts, and condos, draws throngs of Russian tourists, many of them families. I was staying on Soi Welcome, a bar-lined street running perpendicular to the Beach Road. After dinner at Daisy Dukes, I decided to walk up the soi for a drink.
Almost immediately, I noticed a massive gold banner above a street-level bar: TRUMP TOWER.
Across the soi, an older Western expat sat drinking with a ladyboy on his lap. A young tourist sporting a man-bun and fanny pack paused in front of them, looked at Trump Tower, scowled theatrically, shook his head in disgust, and continued up the soi.
At a street-level table in Trump Tower, a 60-something man was having tea with a couple of other men drinking Singha beer. I crossed the street, sat nearby, and ordered a beer from the Thai hostess.
The man with the teacup soon introduced himself as Paul Cross, the owner. A former Royal Mail postman from Bristol, England, Cross is also a well-known Donald Trump impersonator, rarely seen without his red MAGA hat over his bushy blond hair. His bar sells Trump memorabilia and serves as a home base for the expat Trump Tower pool team.
Paul told me the bar regulars are big fans of Trump and the U.S. Constitution, a fact that soon became clear in our conversation.
The internet, however, is a horse of a different color. On the bar’s Facebook page, anonymous commenters have called it a “den of pedophilia,” a “tribute to the orange pedo hero,” and worse. (It always fascinates me how Bill Clinton, a much closer pal of Epstein’s, it appears, gets a lifetime “pedo pass.”)
Another man at the bar, a Canadian expat who owns a bar farther up Soi Welcome, was equally admiring of the American president.
About an hour later, the man-bunned tourist reappeared, clutching a half-empty bottle of Chang beer. He stopped across from Trump Tower and stared at the bar, apparently debating whether to hurl the bottle at it.
Then he looked around, stomped his feet, and continued on his way.
Perhaps he’d done the math. Here in the Land of Smiles, political vandalism wouldn’t earn him praise from a sympathetic media as a “peaceful protester.” The local police probably wouldn’t treat a bottle tossed at a Trump bar with the kid gloves that the NYPD or Seattle cops might show at a “No Kings” rally.
He’d more than likely end up in a Thai jail and get deported.
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So he swallowed his rage, relaxed his grip on the bottle, and strode toward the sea.
Good decision, I reckon.
Lou Mulkern is a former NYC trade journalist and magazine editor. He was immortalized as “Bud Lite Lou” in Elizabeth Gilbert’s 1997 GQ feature story about her time working at the Coyote Ugly bar in Manhattan’s East Village. He currently resides in Bangkok, Thailand, where he teaches English part-time.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
