Polarizing rhetoric may burn the Trump brand here

Steve Friess

Wednesday, May 4, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

Pity the poor souls trying to make that Trump International thing work in Las Vegas. They’ve got no casino, show or shopping, their lobby is usually quieter than a library and they greet absolutely no walk-in traffic thanks to a horrible location. DJT restaurant earned a Michelin star in 2008 and seemed poised to be the joint’s one calling card, but poor traffic led to downscaling, and it now suffers consistently middling reviews.

Oh, and that guy whose name is in gold letters across the top of the building is now an alleged politician who has adopted the worst instinct of politicians, namely a cynical propensity to change positions to suit the moment. That, too, is their headache to bear.

Other pundits can debate whether Donald Trump’s possible GOP presidential campaign is real or viable. He sure enjoys his own carnival-barker act, the climax of which may well have been his intensely entertaining and obscenity-laced address at Treasure Island last week.

He may think of his current utterances are as ephemeral as prior outlandish remarks attacking Rosie O’Donnell or some other star, the stuff that’s generated decades of controversy and attention for him. But this time, it’s not Trump having an inane feud with a specific celebrity or ex-paramour.

In recent months, he’s deeply and personally offended blacks with his Obama birth certificate idiocy, women by opposing abortion rights and gays by reversing his own 2000 position favoring legal equality for all couples and now claiming he’s against even civil unions. Any day now, he’ll probably alienate Hispanics by asserting support of Arizona’s aggressive anti-immigration statute; you can’t win Iowa as a Republican without doing that, can you? (Or maybe he’ll avoid that to prevent scrutiny into whether he’s employed undocumented immigrants, which, being in construction, is fairly likely.)

So who, exactly, will be left to stay in his fine lodging establishments? Christian fundamentalists? Do they visit Las Vegas much?

In the recession-pummeled hospitality industry — and especially the hypercompetitive Las Vegas market — what a man like Trump says on such issues can permanently alter the public’s perception of a brand. With so much choice on the Strip and elsewhere, is it so hard to imagine fickle travelers picking other options?

Already, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has listed Trump properties on a site that urges readers to “consider Trump’s decision to stand against LGBT families when you’re deciding” where to stay, meet or play. The International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association, a group of 2,200 gay travel industry organizations and companies, will consider this month whether to kick Trump hotels out. The Las Vegas chapter of the Human Rights Campaign, a federal GLBT lobbying group, last week declined a donation from Trump Las Vegas for their silent auction Saturday, citing a new national policy of not accepting help from The Donald’s subsidiaries.

Leaders of other minority organizations have suggested a boycott, too.

Yes, other Las Vegas moguls are proud Republicans without being so stigmatized, and there’s a reason for that. You never hear Jim Murren, Steve Wynn or Sheldon Adelson take Rick Santorum’s side on marriage equality, abortion rights or immigration reform. Wynn rants angrily about health care and the national debt, but that’s it. And Adelson is consumed primarily with Israel and taxes. In 2008, Adelson told me he considered himself “a social liberal” and an environmentalist who favors abortion rights and whose wedding chapels warmly welcome same-sex ceremonies.

The earnest people running Trump’s properties have a problem, so a spokeswoman pointed me to a list of charitable efforts they’ve made for local minority causes. Terrific, but tourists won’t know or care, especially when others on the Strip have become so fierce in pursuing blacks, Hispanics, women, gays and any other heretofore neglected potential customer group.

It may be unfair to associate the hotel with the man’s espoused views, but Trump’s showmanship has long been a boon to them. Welcome to the far more durable downside.

“When a hospitality or entertainment brand bears the very name of the executive or owner, as the verbose Donald Trump insists on everything he touches in the market, then you can’t blame consumers for confusing the two,” said Bob Witeck, a public relations expert who advises American Airlines and Marriott hotels on minority outreach and marketing. “His words, his values, his political opinions, touch his businesses or perhaps even smear them.”

Trump may someday try to walk back his polarizing remarks, but that will only seem insincere. What’s interesting is that Trump is about to be the target of stealth, subtle discrimination by potential customers who choose elsewhere and never tell him why.

I doubt he’ll like it much.

This column first appeared in the current issue of Las Vegas Weekly, a sister publication of the Sun.