The whole Kong thing really goes back, as so many things do, to the corruption of the NY political machines of the post-Civil War era.

The spoils system had run amok under Roscoe Conkling and his grip on the US Customs House. Of course most cargo, like Kong, would have flowed through New York Harbor, the Port of New York and was processed, and taxes and duties paid, at the Customs House.

Conkling, Boss Tweed, and the scions of the fabled 400 Club were in what could only be described as a Mexican standoff over control of the endless gushing of money flowing through these corrupt institutions.

The 400 Club members, primarily Cornelius Vanderbilt and Chauncey Depew, conceived a plan to import the most bizarre items in an attempt to discredit political adversaries. Paint them as fools for allowing the importation of ridiculous goods. One such import attempted was a giant gorilla. A literal primate to make figurative baboons out of those in the opposing machines.

And so it was that Vanderbilt and Depew's giant ape was imported. But, as everyone knows, the plan backfired as Kong was to make fools of New York's elite as his rampage took him to the top of the Empire State building, financed of course by Vanderbilt ally Pierre DuPont.

FDR gets mixed up Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy actually was the president during the Great Depressions of the 1910s (which incidentally is when King Kong was brought to the USA). This had to do with the Boston Massacre's sugar stamp act in the 1600s. Basically Teddy was into giant bears but was defeated as he couldn't find any and bought King Kong as a pet.