Local man who worked for Trump comments on his character

Waymond Fermon of Indio got a surprise months ago when Donald Trump starting running for President.

A picture of Fermon and Trump in Coachella outside the then Trump 29 Casino started making the rounds on television.

“I had not seen it in a long time, so I started getting calls and messages on social media that my picture is floating around with Mr. Trump,” Fermon said.

Fermon worked security at Spotlight 29 Casino when it was managed by and renamed by Trump in 2002. He remembers Trump’s high level of charisma.

“He seemed like a normal guy, but you knew he was ‘the man’ when he walked in the room,” Fermon said.

In 2006, the relationship between Trump and the Twentynine Palms Band of Mission Indians ended, and the casino returned to its original name. Fast forward a decade, during the campaign Trump criticized a key feature of our landscape.

“You’re driving into Palm Springs, California and it looks like a poor man’s version of Disneyland. It’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen. And it kills all the birds,” Donald Trump said during a radio interview with Herman Cain in October of 2016.

“I think that is the shock value of what he brings for attention,” Fermon said.

But what about the president-elect’s signature slogan “Make America great again?”

“I am a firm believer that America is already great and we don’t have to make it great again. Lets keep America great and make it even better,” Fermon said.

We reached out to the Twentynine Palms Band of Mission Indians to get their reaction since they worked directly with Trump but they did not return our calls.

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