Shelly Vanscyoc ran across the busy four-lane road separating her apartment from a miniature horse in Donald Trump apparel — and other roadside attractions on Mary Greer’s Lake Township property.
Greer, who says she’s known as “the Donald Trump of Uniontown,” bought the 10.5-acre estate in 2003 to build a petting zoo for the disabled. Other clients go there to gather inspiration from the motivational speaker.
Lately, she’s been speaking out in support of Trump, her choice for the country’s next president. And she’s enlisted the help of Dream Cloud, a rescued 5-year-old miniature mare that she dresses in patriotic garb and Trump signs.
After a Stark County Trump staffer told her a German camera crew was coming to town, Greer began dressing up her horse and parading it along the road or in the Uniontown square in late April.
Just as with Trump, Greer’s horse in the presidential race has its share of supporters and naysayers.
As Vanscyoc, the neighbor, looked over the “cute” scene Friday morning, a driver in a silver two-door car rolled down his window, beeped his horn and bellowed a boisterous expletive.
Along Cleveland Avenue, Greer has built a picturesque scene worthy of Trump’s ambitions. His infinite drive to outdo himself, which some might call an insatiable ego, Greer finds endearing in the fellow real estate mogul and presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States.
His apparent lust for power and prestige, she explained, will lead him to do what’s best for the country. After all, she added, that is what’s best for his legacy.
Behind her miniature horse stable and lined with alarms, Greer has six Koi fish ponds. She travels once a year to a convention in Florida to watch fish, not all hers, sell for more than $1 million apiece.
Plus — “thinking like Trump,” she said — farming fish provides a nice credit on her property tax bill.
“I didn’t want the world out there. I wanted my own paradise,” Greer said, remembering the castles she built as a “poor” child playing in the sandbox her father built. With Stark County wealth akin to a Trump in Manhattan, Greer has installed thrones for toilet seats, 10-foot tall bronze statues of crusaders on horseback and has plans to incorporate columns and pillars into the scenery.
“I couldn’t find a house with a moat,” she said standing beside a team of ducks who come when she quacks. “So the lakes were about as close as I could get.”
Observing the spectacle from a distance was Craig Reed, a Trumpeter “from the beginning” and a friend of Greer. Trump signs have been stolen twice from their yards.
Reed, like his anti-political hero, is not without controversy. The former stage and production manager for Lynyrd Skynyrd said thieves took Confederate flags from his Arlington Road property in Green.
Against his lawyer’s advice, the self-proclaimed rebel described how police recently came to his home as he flew a flag of a gun and a contentious message: “Come and take it.”
The sheriff’s deputy, Reed explained, had been told by a neighbor that Reed was waving a gun at traffic while poking around a bridge on his property. Reed said he told police that he had taken his shotgun down to the bridge, which he blames the city of Green for destroying with floodwater diverted by municipal construction projects, to dispatch coyotes.
The case is pending, but it says a lot about why Reed supports Trump.
“It’s a rebellion,” he explained.
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug.