They both enjoy playing golf and dislike cooperative witnesses who “flip” to assist federal agents.
Donald Trump, a former president, and Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino, a former boss of the Philadelphia mob, don’t have much to say about how they ended up in a photo together at a South Florida golf club.
At the Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach earlier this month, Trump and Merlino posed for a picture. In golfing clothes, the two men and an unidentified third man make Trump’s trademark “thumbs-up” hand gestures and smiles.
Trump’s presidential campaign refuses to comment on whether Trump knew who he was posing for photos with.
The Inquirer was able to get a hold of the image, which is likely to rekindle concerns among Trump supporters eager to help him win the White House back next year that he still lacks the kind of safeguarded political infrastructure that would prevent a candidate for president from taking a picture with a convicted mobster whose most recent federal prison sentence ended in mid-2020.
“President Trump takes countless photos with people. That does not mean he knows every single person he comes in contact with,” said a Trump spokesperson, however, they did not state whether Trump knew who Merlino was.
When Trump had dinner on November 22 with Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist who had arrived with Ye, the musician formerly known as Kanye West, who was under fire at the time for a slew of antisemitic comments, he provoked to anger. Mar-a-Lago is Trump’s private club and mansion in Palm Beach.
Only a week had passed since Trump’s third presidential campaign announcement when the now-famous meal took place.
Later, Trump lamented the uproar, complaining that he didn’t know Fuentes or his ferociously racist worldview. Nevertheless, Trump’s meal was criticized by both Democrats and Republicans, and his former vice president, Mike Pence, urged him to issue an apology.
Trump’s campaign adopted new guidelines for screening and approving individuals he met with as a result of the fallout. These procedures did not appear to have been followed this month at Trump’s golf course.
Merlino is clad in a gray polo shirt, dark shorts, and sneakers in the slightly hazy image. The third man in the picture is a friend of Merlino’s, according to a source who gave the image and asked to remain anonymous to discuss it. In addition, the man is sporting a red “Keep America Great” baseball cap, shorts, and a polo shirt.
Trump is pictured donning a red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap, dark slacks, white golf shoes, and a white polo shirt.
Merlino has been open about his admiration for Trump in the past. Trump’s feelings may or may not be the same.
In the 1990s, Philadelphia saw the emergence of both Trump and Merlino, but for quite different reasons.
Also, in the 1990s, Trump was a well-known New York real estate tycoon who amassed a sizable number of casinos in Atlantic City.
Merlino was a cruel crew leader before he became the leader of an organized crime group in Philadelphia and Atlantic City.
Trump’s casino empire finally went bankrupt, but his star kept rising thanks to a reality television series that gained him further fame in the following decade and a successful presidential campaign in 2016.
Merlino spent ten years in federal prison after being found guilty of racketeering in 2001. He then claimed to have moved on from that life, claiming to have taken a job as maître d’ at an Italian restaurant bearing his name in Boca Raton, Florida.
Following Merlino’s most recent run-in with the law, which resulted in a two-year term in October 2018 after he pled guilty to a felony related to gambling, the restaurant was forced to close. Merlino repeated remarks made by Trump at the time that were critical of witnesses who assist with federal investigators after being convicted.
“President Trump is right — they’ve got to outlaw the flippers,” said Merlino, who was released from prison in July 2020.
In August 2018, after his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to a campaign finance crime — paying women to keep quiet about affairs they had with Trump — and implicated his former client, Trump said the practice of prosecutors “flipping” people accused of crimes into witnesses who testify against others “almost ought to be illegal.”
After the 2020 presidential election, a website known for spreading false information said that Merlino had been paid $3 million to help Joe Biden win Philadelphia by using thousands of fake ballots. This was not true. This brought Merlino into Trump’s orbit.
By posting a link to the webpage, Jordan Sekulow, an attorney who had worked on Trump’s legal team for his first impeachment in late 2019 and early 2020, gave that false allegation further exposure.
Several media outlets, including Fox News, quickly refuted the assertion. Even Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, described the claim as “far-fetched.”
However, it annoyed Merlino a little.
“Joey is a Trumper and any allegation of fixing this is just completely fiction,” an attorney for Merlino told Fox News at the time, adding that his client “is against cooperating witnesses and against making uncorroborated deals with snitches, which is what the president is against.”
