QUEENS — The head of a queens nonprofit took aim at presidential candidate Donald Trump in his monthly newsletter, saying any presidential candidate from the world's most diverse borough should, at minimum, appreciate diversity.
"Think about it...a president from Queens. It's never happened, but it would be so cool," Seth Bornstein, the executive director of the Queens Economic Development Corporation, wrote in an essay on next week's election in his newsletter, sent out Wednesday.
Bornstein goes on to imagine an ideal candidate from the borough — the most diverse place on the planet — listing a host of attributes that are at direct odds with Trump's political platform.
"This elected official would be at ease with those who speak different languages and eat all types of foods, not just Americanized taco bowls from upscale restaurants in midtown Manhattan," he wrote.
He ends by saying that, based on what he's read, he has his doubts Trump is even from the borough.
"I want to see his birth certificate," he wrote.
As a nonprofit organization, the Queens EDC can't legally endorse anyone, Bornstein said in a later interview with DNAinfo New York.
But as he usually riffs on local happenings in his newsletter, he knew he had to talk about the election.
"It is pointing out what I believe a good leader would have if they were president," he said.
"It's just [my] thoughts on traits a good candidate would be if they were a real New Yorker."
The response to the column was mostly positive, he said, although one person emailed that he shouldn't discuss politics.
But with Trump's ties to Queens — the Republican candidate was born in Jamaica Estates and attended the Kew Forest School in Forest Hills until middle school — it felt relevant, Bornstein said.
The 2016 election has felt particularly personal, he said.
Bornstein has a mild case of cerebral palsy and was "hit in a big way" by Trump's mocking of a disabled reporter back in 2015, he said. The comments brought back memories of being teased and bullied as a child.
"Being someone who's disabled, it was horrifying to me," he said.
"As a child, people made fun of me, other children... that's what children do. But when an adult does that, an adult running for president, it was the most horrible thing I ever saw."
