OWNER OF BURNED CAMERA SHOP IN KENOSHA SLAMS TRUMP FOR LYING

The owner of a camera shop that was destroyed during unrest in Kenosha and highlighted during President Donald Trump’s visit says the president used his store for political gain by appearing with a former owner of the business while touring the epicenter of the latest eruption over racial injustice.

Tom Gram the Associated Press (AP) late on September 2, 2020 that he bought Rode’s Camera Shop from the Rode family eight years ago, though John Rode still owns the land upon which the business sits. Gram’s four decades of work at the store came to an end Aug. 24, when the building was destroyed by fire during protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

Gram said he got a call Monday from the White House asking if he would join the president on a tour that would showcase the destruction to the business, but Gram rejected the offer. And he said Trump’s references to Rode as the owner of the business were deceptive.

“I think everything he (Trump) does turns into a circus and I just didn’t want to be involved in it,” Gram told Milwaukee station WTMJ-TV. The White House, however, noted Wednesday that Rode and his family founded and built Rode’s Camera Shop before World War II and still own the building that houses the shop. Trump didn’t visit the site of the shop, but Rode met with him a few blocks away and participated in a roundatble with the president.