Paul Dans

They were emigres.

They were born in the U.S., but their parents weren't.

And to see that city grow, you know, my grandfather was a seafarer.

40 years as a merchant marine.

And my grandmother was an interpreter.

She spoke eight languages in the city.

But the malaise that happened in the 1970s, they never thought would change.

And then it did change with Rudy Giuliani.

and Trump and this belief that we could rebuild in America.

And so I knew of Trump long before that, just from hearing the stories of my grandparents about, you know, facing being mugged on the subway and all the, how the city had slid down.

And finally people were digging out New York and he's, he's famous for the Wallman rink there, but it's emblematic of somebody who basically comes in and reorders the system and who kind of

um is a strong man in a way as a mayor or somebody who can actually come in and get things done when bureaucrats are running around doing exactly it's it's funny that you you saw that so early i didn't at all and when trump called me in 2015 to say he was running

Well, like I say, you know, we graduated my, you know, if we can go back to kind of how I evolved as to be like a Republican.

My family dances Spanish, it's Gallego.

And my grandparents were living down in the cold water flat.

That means there's no hot water.

This is a tenement that they tore down.

They moved my family into housing projects.

And ultimately my dad was, was a only child, but he was, you can think of it when it was just a dookie house or a guy who was raised by his maternal grandmother because everyone's working.

She was a cleaning lady.