David Cay Johnston - The Making of Donald Trump

February 4

We had David in the studio recently talking about his new work detailing the capers of former President Trump, in this archive show from 2018, David provides the background to the entire Trump brand, and it's not pretty.

The Making of Donald Trump gives a short tour of the business career of America’s 45th president. The narrative is episodic and inconsecutive, but it begins at the beginning, with the example set by Fred Trump, the father of Donald: a mid-century real-estate buccaneer, adroit at political manipulation and statute dodging. The book goes on to recount a few of the scandalous details of the construction of Trump Tower and the purchase, mismanagement and financial collapse of Donald’s casino properties in Atlantic City.

Various chapters take in the mob connections that Trump aimed to profit from while keeping at two removes (sometimes with the help of an apartment gratis); there are also free-standing anecdotes about friends and associates, and a chapter on Trump’s bid for the gambling custom of the high-rolling Japanese real-estate investor Akio Kashiwagi. The book bears the marks of having been put together under pressure to stop the election disaster. Pared down to half its length and distributed to every voter in the contested states, it might have helped to produce a different result.