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The Making of Donald Trump
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER that first revealed the Russia connection
The culmination of nearly 30 years of reporting on Donald Trump, this in-depth report by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston takes a revealingly close look at the mogul's rise to prominence --- and, now, ultimate power
Covering the long arc of Trump's career, Johnston tells the full story of how a boy from a quiet section of Queens, NY would become an entirely new, and complex, breed of public figure. Trump is a man of great media savvy, entrepreneurial spirit, and political clout. Yet his career has been plagued by legal troubles and mounting controversy.
From the origins of his family's fortune, to his own too-big-to-fail business empire; from his education and early career, to his whirlwind and ultimately successful presidential bid, The Making of Donald Trump provides the fullest picture yet of Trump's extraordinary ascendency. Love him or hate him, Trump's massive influence is undeniable, and figures as diverse as Woody Guthrie (who wrote a scathing song about Trump's father) and Red Scare prosecutor Roy Cohn, mob bosses and high rollers, as well as the average American voter, have all been pulled into his orbit.
Drawing on decades of interviews, financial records, court documents, and public statements, David Cay Johnston, who has covered Trump longer and more closely than any other journalist working today, gives us the most in-depth look yet at the man who has shocked the world.
"Provides useful, vigorously reported overviews of Mr. Trump's life and career ... Mr. Johnston, who has followed the real estate impresario for nearly three decades, offers a searing indictment of his business practices and creative accounting."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"David Cay Johnston has given us this year's must-read Trump book."--Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC's The Last Word
"Johnston devastatingly covers ground he broke open as a reporter on the Trump beat in Philadelphia and at The New York Times...The best of investigative reporting is brought to bear on a man who could potentially lead the free world."--USA Today
"Carefully fleshes out the details of Trump's known biography...with solid documentation."--Tampa Bay Times
The culmination of nearly 30 years of reporting on Donald Trump, this in-depth report by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston takes a revealingly close look at the mogul's rise to prominence --- and, now, ultimate power
Covering the long arc of Trump's career, Johnston tells the full story of how a boy from a quiet section of Queens, NY would become an entirely new, and complex, breed of public figure. Trump is a man of great media savvy, entrepreneurial spirit, and political clout. Yet his career has been plagued by legal troubles and mounting controversy.
From the origins of his family's fortune, to his own too-big-to-fail business empire; from his education and early career, to his whirlwind and ultimately successful presidential bid, The Making of Donald Trump provides the fullest picture yet of Trump's extraordinary ascendency. Love him or hate him, Trump's massive influence is undeniable, and figures as diverse as Woody Guthrie (who wrote a scathing song about Trump's father) and Red Scare prosecutor Roy Cohn, mob bosses and high rollers, as well as the average American voter, have all been pulled into his orbit.
Drawing on decades of interviews, financial records, court documents, and public statements, David Cay Johnston, who has covered Trump longer and more closely than any other journalist working today, gives us the most in-depth look yet at the man who has shocked the world.
"Provides useful, vigorously reported overviews of Mr. Trump's life and career ... Mr. Johnston, who has followed the real estate impresario for nearly three decades, offers a searing indictment of his business practices and creative accounting."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"David Cay Johnston has given us this year's must-read Trump book."--Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC's The Last Word
"Johnston devastatingly covers ground he broke open as a reporter on the Trump beat in Philadelphia and at The New York Times...The best of investigative reporting is brought to bear on a man who could potentially lead the free world."--USA Today
"Carefully fleshes out the details of Trump's known biography...with solid documentation."--Tampa Bay Times
288 pages, Hardcover
First published August 2, 2016
About the author
David Cay Johnston
16 books194 followersDavid Cay Boyle Johnston (born December 24, 1948) is an American investigative journalist and author, a specialist in economics and tax issues, and winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting.
From 2009 to 2016 he was a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer who taught the tax, property, and regulatory law of the ancient world at Syracuse University College of Law and the Whitman School of Management. From July 2011 until September 2012 he was a columnist for Reuters, writing, and producing video commentaries, on worldwide issues of tax, accounting, economics, public finance and business. Johnston is the board president of Investigative Reporters and Editors. He has also written for Al Jazeera English and America in recent years.
From 2009 to 2016 he was a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer who taught the tax, property, and regulatory law of the ancient world at Syracuse University College of Law and the Whitman School of Management. From July 2011 until September 2012 he was a columnist for Reuters, writing, and producing video commentaries, on worldwide issues of tax, accounting, economics, public finance and business. Johnston is the board president of Investigative Reporters and Editors. He has also written for Al Jazeera English and America in recent years.
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August 2, 2020
2.5 "what have we come to?!?" stars
Update: my dear American neighbors take care of yourselves and each other - your nation is deeply hurt and wounded and needs compassion and not hate ! ( NOV. 9 , 2016 )
I want to start off by saying I was not a fan of Mr. Trump's prior to this book and after this book I am terrified for the US and the world in general.
When I was 26 or so I had a good friend who was always going to see motivational speakers and get rich quick scheme seminars. I found her stories fascinating. Well....she happened to split up with her beau who did not take his 3 day weekend ticket to see all these big name motivational speakers. My friend offered it to me as I found the whole motivational speaking world so interesting psychologically and sociologically.
I only remember seeing Anthony Robbins (just because I find him so damn sexi) and via satelite we saw Mr. Trump. We saw many others but alas I do not remember them or their content except for one talk that mixed New Age philosophy with timeshares (sooo weird). The audiences were fascinating. People hungry for money, fame or both. Some were quite odd, others very pushy and others very charismatic. I had a great time. My poor friend signed up for $3000 of future seminars and I got a lot of brochures and business cards. I don't remember the content of Mr. Trump's speech but I do remember a lot of yelling, alpha male showing off and even then I was fascinated by his hair style.
Overall, I found this book very disappointing as it was very much a smear campaign of all the antics that Mr. Trump has been up to over the years and I do not know how much of it is accurate. He is portrayed as somebody who takes advantages of loopholes, uses the court system to his advantage, mixes with unsavory characters and appears to tell many falsehoods. Even if only ten percent is true it is still very frightening. We find out very little about his formative years, personal life or his inner thoughts and feelings. A very unbalanced journalistic expose as opposed to a proper biography. Mr. Johnston might be an excellent reporter but he is certainly not able to provide any decent analysis of any kind on his subject. In fact, the author, appears to have as big an ego as Mr. Trump and to this he alludes to throughout his book.
Here is a brief sample of the content and this is only one example of many that Mr. Johnston provides:
"The DGE prepared its on 111-page report. It noted that Trump owed (not owned, but owed) 302 billion dollars. Of that, he had personally guaranteed 833.5 million. Absent an agreement by all creditors, Trump would face an uncontrolled, domino-effect chain of bankruptcies. If just one creditor moved against one Trump property, the others would follow, creating chaos.
More than one thousand lawyers working for Trump and his creditors had hammered out a "fragile" deal to keep him going, hoping to minimize losses on the loans they had extended without checking his finances carefully. The lawyers had already billed almost 11 million for their services.
Part of the deal was putting Trump on an allowance. He would have to by on $450 000 per month, down his May 1990 spending of $583 000 (the equivalent of more than one million 2016 dollars). The allowance was so large that the New York Times quoted one billionnaire as saying, "I would have no idea how to spend $450 000 a month. It's just phenomenal."
This blows my mind!!! One thousand lawyers working on this and banks extending him such huge amounts of credit. What the hell gives? I have cousins in the rust belt evicted and losing their 39k dollar homes due to high uemployment and overextension of credit. I don't understand. Truly I don't!! I do not understand American politics and how we have come to this current juncture.
I just want to end by saying
If Hilary Clinton is elected I will worry immensely.
If Donald Trump is elected I will despair !!
PS...it was interesting to read a biography of Caligula alongside this to contrast and compare!!
Update: my dear American neighbors take care of yourselves and each other - your nation is deeply hurt and wounded and needs compassion and not hate ! ( NOV. 9 , 2016 )
I want to start off by saying I was not a fan of Mr. Trump's prior to this book and after this book I am terrified for the US and the world in general.
When I was 26 or so I had a good friend who was always going to see motivational speakers and get rich quick scheme seminars. I found her stories fascinating. Well....she happened to split up with her beau who did not take his 3 day weekend ticket to see all these big name motivational speakers. My friend offered it to me as I found the whole motivational speaking world so interesting psychologically and sociologically.
I only remember seeing Anthony Robbins (just because I find him so damn sexi) and via satelite we saw Mr. Trump. We saw many others but alas I do not remember them or their content except for one talk that mixed New Age philosophy with timeshares (sooo weird). The audiences were fascinating. People hungry for money, fame or both. Some were quite odd, others very pushy and others very charismatic. I had a great time. My poor friend signed up for $3000 of future seminars and I got a lot of brochures and business cards. I don't remember the content of Mr. Trump's speech but I do remember a lot of yelling, alpha male showing off and even then I was fascinated by his hair style.
Overall, I found this book very disappointing as it was very much a smear campaign of all the antics that Mr. Trump has been up to over the years and I do not know how much of it is accurate. He is portrayed as somebody who takes advantages of loopholes, uses the court system to his advantage, mixes with unsavory characters and appears to tell many falsehoods. Even if only ten percent is true it is still very frightening. We find out very little about his formative years, personal life or his inner thoughts and feelings. A very unbalanced journalistic expose as opposed to a proper biography. Mr. Johnston might be an excellent reporter but he is certainly not able to provide any decent analysis of any kind on his subject. In fact, the author, appears to have as big an ego as Mr. Trump and to this he alludes to throughout his book.
Here is a brief sample of the content and this is only one example of many that Mr. Johnston provides:
"The DGE prepared its on 111-page report. It noted that Trump owed (not owned, but owed) 302 billion dollars. Of that, he had personally guaranteed 833.5 million. Absent an agreement by all creditors, Trump would face an uncontrolled, domino-effect chain of bankruptcies. If just one creditor moved against one Trump property, the others would follow, creating chaos.
More than one thousand lawyers working for Trump and his creditors had hammered out a "fragile" deal to keep him going, hoping to minimize losses on the loans they had extended without checking his finances carefully. The lawyers had already billed almost 11 million for their services.
Part of the deal was putting Trump on an allowance. He would have to by on $450 000 per month, down his May 1990 spending of $583 000 (the equivalent of more than one million 2016 dollars). The allowance was so large that the New York Times quoted one billionnaire as saying, "I would have no idea how to spend $450 000 a month. It's just phenomenal."
This blows my mind!!! One thousand lawyers working on this and banks extending him such huge amounts of credit. What the hell gives? I have cousins in the rust belt evicted and losing their 39k dollar homes due to high uemployment and overextension of credit. I don't understand. Truly I don't!! I do not understand American politics and how we have come to this current juncture.
I just want to end by saying
If Hilary Clinton is elected I will worry immensely.
If Donald Trump is elected I will despair !!
PS...it was interesting to read a biography of Caligula alongside this to contrast and compare!!
Read
November 1, 2020When I ordered this book, I expected it to be an ordinary biography. Instead, I found it to be a non-fiction thriller of scams, deceit, corruption, tax-fraud, intimidation, and other variants of crime.
David Cay Johnston is an award-winnning investigative journalist, who has followed Trump for nearly three decades, while collecting relevant material.
Reading this book, one is bound to reach the conclusion: Assume of Trump the worst, and you will come closest to the truth.
It would be bad enough if this were only a story about a deceitful, crooked, and unscrupulous businessman with close ties to organized crime, but this story is about a man who is now the President of the United States of America and who can be no more trusted with doing what's good for this country (and its allies) than a fox could be trusted with managing a chicken coop.
Here are two excerpts from the author’s epilogue, which was added to the book, after the paperback came out, in September 2017:
“I do not expect this to end well. It is possible, though I deeply hope not, that we are seeing the beginning of the end of America’s experiment in self-governance. But at a minimum we need to recognize that Trump may be part of the emergence of a new world order run by Putin and the many other power mongers like him, who believe in a strong-man theory of iron rule, and who consider democracy to be a joke.--We live in dangerous times, far more dangerous than the Cold War era, … … …”
“Our hope must be that no matter how bad things get, our Constitution … … … will survive Trump, because it provides for checks and balances that limit the abuse of power. But those checks and balances require that all three branches of our federal government do their duty.”
For those who still believe Trump’s claims that he is a devout Christian (no, here I am not talking about Stormy Daniels—here I am talking about Trump's claims that he frequently reads the bible): When asked for a bible story, psalm, or any other part of the bible he particularly liked, Trump could not produce anything other than the non-committing gibberish he usually spits out when he does not have an answer. After being further probed by the interviewer, he eventually came up with, “an eye for an eye”. This is not surprising, as it fits well with Trump's numerous times repeated credo that one of the pillars to success is to take revenge. Not exactly what Jesus has preached.
If Trump should even know the Ten Commndments, he clearly does not observe them. All he observes is the so-called Eleventh Commendment, which says: “Thou shalt not get caught.”
Btw, I am not an avid reader of the bible, but from what I faintly remember when I read it more than half a century ago, didn’t it repeatedly say something against adultery and fornication? Obviously, not any of Trump’s favorite bible passages. And isn’t this topic also covered in the Ten Commandments? O.k., o.k, quite a few other Presidents were not exactly monogamous either, but did they try to tell us that they were pious Christians and that they read the bible on a regular basis? I don’t think so.
There was this woman on tv, a few months ago, who said that if Roy Moore had committed any sins, God would have forgiven him. (I had wondered at the time, how she would know, since there is no evidence that Moore has ever asked God for any forgiveness or that he had even confessed.) Yet Trump had said on tv, that he NEVER asks God for forgiveness, because he has never done anything wrong. Could Trump have forgotten what it says in the Sixth Commandment, and the Seventh, and the Eighth, and the Ninth and the Tenth? Or could Trump have forgotten all his sins? This has me a bit confused. It has me particularly confused because Trump claims that he has such an excellent memory capacity (which, btw, keeps failing him on a regular basis whenever he is under oath).
How on earth could this man get even a single vote from Americans who believe in the bible, be it a Christian edition or only the Old Testament? This is beyond me.
And now I am asking you: Is this man really sitting in the White House as President of the United States, or is this merely a bad dream?
I just pinched my arm to make sure that I am not caught somewhere in the Twilight Zone. Turned out, I am wide awake. So I can only say: GOD HELP US!
P.S. My five-star rating is for the well-researched and thoroughly documented contents of the book, not for the writing style, which I did not particularly care for.
David Cay Johnston is an award-winnning investigative journalist, who has followed Trump for nearly three decades, while collecting relevant material.
Reading this book, one is bound to reach the conclusion: Assume of Trump the worst, and you will come closest to the truth.
It would be bad enough if this were only a story about a deceitful, crooked, and unscrupulous businessman with close ties to organized crime, but this story is about a man who is now the President of the United States of America and who can be no more trusted with doing what's good for this country (and its allies) than a fox could be trusted with managing a chicken coop.
Here are two excerpts from the author’s epilogue, which was added to the book, after the paperback came out, in September 2017:
“I do not expect this to end well. It is possible, though I deeply hope not, that we are seeing the beginning of the end of America’s experiment in self-governance. But at a minimum we need to recognize that Trump may be part of the emergence of a new world order run by Putin and the many other power mongers like him, who believe in a strong-man theory of iron rule, and who consider democracy to be a joke.--We live in dangerous times, far more dangerous than the Cold War era, … … …”
“Our hope must be that no matter how bad things get, our Constitution … … … will survive Trump, because it provides for checks and balances that limit the abuse of power. But those checks and balances require that all three branches of our federal government do their duty.”
For those who still believe Trump’s claims that he is a devout Christian (no, here I am not talking about Stormy Daniels—here I am talking about Trump's claims that he frequently reads the bible): When asked for a bible story, psalm, or any other part of the bible he particularly liked, Trump could not produce anything other than the non-committing gibberish he usually spits out when he does not have an answer. After being further probed by the interviewer, he eventually came up with, “an eye for an eye”. This is not surprising, as it fits well with Trump's numerous times repeated credo that one of the pillars to success is to take revenge. Not exactly what Jesus has preached.
If Trump should even know the Ten Commndments, he clearly does not observe them. All he observes is the so-called Eleventh Commendment, which says: “Thou shalt not get caught.”
Btw, I am not an avid reader of the bible, but from what I faintly remember when I read it more than half a century ago, didn’t it repeatedly say something against adultery and fornication? Obviously, not any of Trump’s favorite bible passages. And isn’t this topic also covered in the Ten Commandments? O.k., o.k, quite a few other Presidents were not exactly monogamous either, but did they try to tell us that they were pious Christians and that they read the bible on a regular basis? I don’t think so.
There was this woman on tv, a few months ago, who said that if Roy Moore had committed any sins, God would have forgiven him. (I had wondered at the time, how she would know, since there is no evidence that Moore has ever asked God for any forgiveness or that he had even confessed.) Yet Trump had said on tv, that he NEVER asks God for forgiveness, because he has never done anything wrong. Could Trump have forgotten what it says in the Sixth Commandment, and the Seventh, and the Eighth, and the Ninth and the Tenth? Or could Trump have forgotten all his sins? This has me a bit confused. It has me particularly confused because Trump claims that he has such an excellent memory capacity (which, btw, keeps failing him on a regular basis whenever he is under oath).
How on earth could this man get even a single vote from Americans who believe in the bible, be it a Christian edition or only the Old Testament? This is beyond me.
And now I am asking you: Is this man really sitting in the White House as President of the United States, or is this merely a bad dream?
I just pinched my arm to make sure that I am not caught somewhere in the Twilight Zone. Turned out, I am wide awake. So I can only say: GOD HELP US!
P.S. My five-star rating is for the well-researched and thoroughly documented contents of the book, not for the writing style, which I did not particularly care for.
January 30, 2018
I'm feeling a lot of sympathy for Psyduck, the Pokemon who always has a stunning headache, a depressed evolution of the type, maybe.
It covers some of the same material as Matt Taibbi in Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus. Both books come across as reporting not gossip. Taibbi focused on the election. Johnston's book has more background about Trump as a businessman, performer, husband, and father. Neither author is bias-free, but the information is overwhelming. I would feel less comfortable if they remained wholly detached from the narrative.
It covers some of the same material as Matt Taibbi in Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus. Both books come across as reporting not gossip. Taibbi focused on the election. Johnston's book has more background about Trump as a businessman, performer, husband, and father. Neither author is bias-free, but the information is overwhelming. I would feel less comfortable if they remained wholly detached from the narrative.
February 9, 2020
David Cay Johnston is somebody who knows his Trump. He has been studying the Donald “intensely”—Johnston’s word—for the last thirty years, and, in the days before digitalization, he accumulated enough Banker’s Boxes full of investigative materials about DJT to fill a good portion of two separate storage lockers.
When he met Trump in Atlantic City in 1987 (during his casino phase), Johnston “sized him up as a modern P.T. Barnum selling tickets to a modern variation of the Feegee Mermaid, one of the panoply of Barnum’s famous fakes,” and his opinion has not changed substantially in the last thirty years. He knew as little about running a casino back then as he knows about governance now, and Johnston wrote this book “to make sure Americans know a fuller story about Trump than the one he has polished and promoted with such exceptional skill and determination.”
Johnston has a keen eye for tax fraud and financial flam-flam, and he reveals clearly—even to a person ignorant of the subtleties of finance (like myself)—exactly what the Donald and his accountants are up to. His chapter titles may seem somewhat random, his book episodically organized, ranging from “Making Friends” and “Trump's Most Important Deals” to “Golf and Taxes and “Myth Maintenance,” but the book is less random that it first appears to be. Almost every chapter illustrates a distinct Trumpian flaw that not only characterizes his dealings as a businessman/reality star, but also reflect the ways he has recently behaved both as a campaigner and a president.
The chapter “Personal Values,” for example, is devoted to “getting even,” Rosie O’Donnell, and Trump's favorite biblical quote (“An eye for an eye”); “A Sickly Children” tells of Donald’s war with his deceased brother Fred’s family over the provisions of Father Fred’s will, a war Donald began by cutting off the health care allowance of his seizure-plagued little nephew, a victim of cerebral palsy; “A Great Lawsuit” relates the story of Trump’s legal action against the NFL, on behalf of his USFL New Jersey Generals, and how this ill-timed lawsuit may have destroyed the USFL; and “Trump Beaches a Whale,” demonstrates how casino-owner Trump, through impatience and a failure to understand the mathematics of gambling, loses big time to high-roller baccarat player Kashiwagi. Thus, in four short chapters, we are given illustrations of how Trump’s vengefulness, his ruthlessness, his litigiousness, his rashness, and his willful ignorance of matters essential to the accomplishment of his goals, damage himself and those around him.
And there are more stories where these came from: twenty additional chapters illustrating other flaws and failings, each of them entertaining and informative.
I’ll leave you with this interesting detail about one of the ways Trump limits the taxes on his golf course at Bedminster:
On part of the property, Trump nearly wipes out his property tax bill by penning in a small herd of goats. Without the goats, the bill would be $80,000 a year, but because the goats qualify it as active farmland, the tax comes to just under $1,100.
December 3, 2016
The best part of this book comes near the end, in Trump’s Atlantic City casino.
Johnston prepares us for nearly two hundred pages with Donald’s history of self-promotion, alignments with shady racketeers, tax dodges, questionable accounting practices, and the real sleaze of a man who’d reached his intellectual limit selling real estate. The reader literally becomes queasy imagining the damage this man could do when handed the keys to the country.
The story at the casino is told in minute detail, how $18.8 million in $5K chips are stacked on the table and floor beside Kashiwagi at the baccarat table as he reached the pinnacle of his win in the double-or-nothing wager he had with the house. He was still in the black by the middle of the next week, and Trump could not sleep.
It is in the middle of this story when I realize that this is one of Trump’s biggest moments…a game…for money. I can’t tell you how it turns out—the book is worth seeking out, Johnson tells the story so well—but it does have something to do with reputation and the real wealth of both men, not the heralded fake wealth bragged about. It is a fight to the death, considering mob-boss friends hold the velvet stage curtains behind which both men hide.
In the final pages Johnston's skill as an investigative journalist and writer come across clearly. He focuses the last part of the book on Trump’s little known mob connections, and criminal associates. Knowing bad folks, as Johnston points out, proves nothing. But Johnston goes on to show how Trump profited by his relationships with folks who commonly transgressed the law. Trump cared about money, and measured his worth by it. He measures other people's worth by their beauty or wealth...or power.
The ups and downs in the legal battle over Trump University alone should have given the American voting populace pause because it showed Trump’s desperation and his rhinestones-for-diamonds charlatanism. Johnston gives a good overview of the bribery, threats, lawsuits, misdirection, and outright lies involved with this case. Right after this section is one on supposed donations to charity that got all tied up in donations to and from his own foundation.
I wasn’t going to read anything about Trump right away because I was in a deep funk after the election, but a discussion with another Goodreader led me first to TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald by Timothy O’Brien, and before I finished that, to Johnston’s book. TrumpNation first came out in 2005, and was reissued in early June 2016 with a new introduction. O'Brien has a fascinating in-depth section on the Koch-Trump rivalry (Koch was mayor of NYC in the 1980's) and a hilarious description of Trump's purchase of New York's fabled Plaza Hotel.
O’Brien was an editor at the NYT before moving to become executive editor of Bloomberg View. He actually edited some of Johnston’s work when both worked at the NYT. Johnston is a specialist in tax law and reporting, earned a Pulitzer in 2001 for his reporting on taxation, and was able to see some of his suggestions adopted by Congress into tax law shortly afterward. The material in Johnston's book and O'Brien's overlaps: both are sobering assessments of the man they watch, and detailed in what they focus on specifically.
Johnston’s book came out in English and German in Aug 2016, but he’d been researching Donald Trump for almost thirty years. Johnston met Trump back in the 1980’s, when he was investigating money flows, taxes, and tax avoidance, and casinos. There were so many folks involved in Trump’s success that investigations into his financial reporting went nowhere. He was both too big and too inconsequential. Trump's net worth was nothing like he claimed, but there was so much money going in and out of his accounts. It was going somewhere.
Johnston makes an excellent observation early in the book, in his bio of Fred Trump, Donald’s father.
Johnston starts Trump’s family history with the observation that the family name was once Drumpf, changed in 1648, too early to implicate Donald, but not too early to influence his sense of himself. Johnston points out various meanings of the word:
Johnston has just the right amount of amused skepticism and new information to hold us in thrall rather than have us toss the book across the room in a rage. O’Brien’s book is liable to make us too angry to read more about the man. Johnston keeps us reading and thinking. It is absolutely unbelievable that Trump was victorious in November.
“Akio Kashiwagi was one of the world’s five biggest gamblers, literally a one-in-a billion customer, who…in May 1990 was sitting at a green-felt table at Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino calmly wagering $14 million an hour. He had been there for nearly a week.”
Johnston prepares us for nearly two hundred pages with Donald’s history of self-promotion, alignments with shady racketeers, tax dodges, questionable accounting practices, and the real sleaze of a man who’d reached his intellectual limit selling real estate. The reader literally becomes queasy imagining the damage this man could do when handed the keys to the country.
The story at the casino is told in minute detail, how $18.8 million in $5K chips are stacked on the table and floor beside Kashiwagi at the baccarat table as he reached the pinnacle of his win in the double-or-nothing wager he had with the house. He was still in the black by the middle of the next week, and Trump could not sleep.
It is in the middle of this story when I realize that this is one of Trump’s biggest moments…a game…for money. I can’t tell you how it turns out—the book is worth seeking out, Johnson tells the story so well—but it does have something to do with reputation and the real wealth of both men, not the heralded fake wealth bragged about. It is a fight to the death, considering mob-boss friends hold the velvet stage curtains behind which both men hide.
In the final pages Johnston's skill as an investigative journalist and writer come across clearly. He focuses the last part of the book on Trump’s little known mob connections, and criminal associates. Knowing bad folks, as Johnston points out, proves nothing. But Johnston goes on to show how Trump profited by his relationships with folks who commonly transgressed the law. Trump cared about money, and measured his worth by it. He measures other people's worth by their beauty or wealth...or power.
The ups and downs in the legal battle over Trump University alone should have given the American voting populace pause because it showed Trump’s desperation and his rhinestones-for-diamonds charlatanism. Johnston gives a good overview of the bribery, threats, lawsuits, misdirection, and outright lies involved with this case. Right after this section is one on supposed donations to charity that got all tied up in donations to and from his own foundation.
I wasn’t going to read anything about Trump right away because I was in a deep funk after the election, but a discussion with another Goodreader led me first to TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald by Timothy O’Brien, and before I finished that, to Johnston’s book. TrumpNation first came out in 2005, and was reissued in early June 2016 with a new introduction. O'Brien has a fascinating in-depth section on the Koch-Trump rivalry (Koch was mayor of NYC in the 1980's) and a hilarious description of Trump's purchase of New York's fabled Plaza Hotel.
O’Brien was an editor at the NYT before moving to become executive editor of Bloomberg View. He actually edited some of Johnston’s work when both worked at the NYT. Johnston is a specialist in tax law and reporting, earned a Pulitzer in 2001 for his reporting on taxation, and was able to see some of his suggestions adopted by Congress into tax law shortly afterward. The material in Johnston's book and O'Brien's overlaps: both are sobering assessments of the man they watch, and detailed in what they focus on specifically.
Johnston’s book came out in English and German in Aug 2016, but he’d been researching Donald Trump for almost thirty years. Johnston met Trump back in the 1980’s, when he was investigating money flows, taxes, and tax avoidance, and casinos. There were so many folks involved in Trump’s success that investigations into his financial reporting went nowhere. He was both too big and too inconsequential. Trump's net worth was nothing like he claimed, but there was so much money going in and out of his accounts. It was going somewhere.
Johnston makes an excellent observation early in the book, in his bio of Fred Trump, Donald’s father.
”When Fred Trump was under intense criticism for plans to destroy a popular Coney Island attraction…where he wanted to build the first apartment project bearing the family name, Fred Trump shifted the focus of news coverage by hiring a bevy of beauties in hard hats and polka-dot bikinis to hand out bricks to locals and city dignitaries…Decades later, of course, Donald Trump would surround himself with models to attract television cameras and would have his third wife pose nearly nude aboard his Boeing 757 jet for a men’s magazine while he looked on during a photo shoot.”Hard to believe near-nakedness distracts anyone from hanging onto their pocketbooks anymore--isn't that the oldest con of all? But so it goes. Donald continues to point to sexy beauty and away from his own indiscretions.
Johnston starts Trump’s family history with the observation that the family name was once Drumpf, changed in 1648, too early to implicate Donald, but not too early to influence his sense of himself. Johnston points out various meanings of the word:
”Donald no doubt enjoys the bridge player’s definition of trump: a winning play by a card that outranks all others. But other definitions include ‘a thing of small value, a trifle’ and ‘to deceive or cheat’ as well as ‘to blow or sound a trumpet.’ As a verb, trump means to ‘devise in an unscrupulous way’ and ‘to forge, fabricate or invent,’ as in ‘trumped-up’ charges.”
Johnston has just the right amount of amused skepticism and new information to hold us in thrall rather than have us toss the book across the room in a rage. O’Brien’s book is liable to make us too angry to read more about the man. Johnston keeps us reading and thinking. It is absolutely unbelievable that Trump was victorious in November.
August 6, 2016
Spoiler: He is a bad human being.
October 4, 2016
Donald Drumph is a HUGE liar, a HUGE criminal and an INCREDIBLY icky 'person'. So icky you wouldn't even believe it, believe me when I tell you that.....baleeeve me.
David Cay Johnston is an investigative reporter that gathered everything you didn't want to know about Donny over the last 30 years. While none of what was revealed in this book was a great surprise to me, it would be to those who get their news in passing from the mainstream media. I highly recommend you read this book to get the whole story, the one that the media won't tell you because they need they need this election to be a horse race....because, ratings.
At the very least, Trump should be in jail, not the Republican nominee for president. It's beyond embarrassing for the country, it's downright dangerous.
I wish I had a time squishing machine, so that I can squish the time between today and November 8th, because I can't look at that orange cat's asshole face for one more day. Nor can I listen to anymore of the steaming, stinking piles of poo that come out of his disgusting mouth.
David Cay Johnston is an investigative reporter that gathered everything you didn't want to know about Donny over the last 30 years. While none of what was revealed in this book was a great surprise to me, it would be to those who get their news in passing from the mainstream media. I highly recommend you read this book to get the whole story, the one that the media won't tell you because they need they need this election to be a horse race....because, ratings.
At the very least, Trump should be in jail, not the Republican nominee for president. It's beyond embarrassing for the country, it's downright dangerous.
I wish I had a time squishing machine, so that I can squish the time between today and November 8th, because I can't look at that orange cat's asshole face for one more day. Nor can I listen to anymore of the steaming, stinking piles of poo that come out of his disgusting mouth.
February 10, 2019
When I ordered this book, I expected it to be an ordinary biography. Instead, I found it to be a non-fiction thriller of scams, deceit, corruption, tax-fraud, intimidation, and other variants of crime.
David Cay Johnston is an award-winnning investigative journalist, who has followed Trump for nearly three decades, while collecting relevant material.
Reading this book, one is bound to reach the conclusion: Assume of Trump the worst, and you will come closest to the truth.
It would be bad enough if this were only a story about a deceitful, crooked, and unscrupulous businessman with close ties to organized crime, but this story is about a man who is now the President of the United States of America and who can be no more trusted with doing what's good for this country (and its allies) than a fox could be trusted with managing a chicken coop.
Here are two excerpts from the author’s epilogue, which was added to the book, after the paperback came out, in September 2017:
“I do not expect this to end well. It is possible, though I deeply hope not, that we are seeing the beginning of the end of America’s experiment in self-governance. But at a minimum we need to recognize that Trump may be part of the emergence of a new world order run by Putin and the many other power mongers like him, who believe in a strong-man theory of iron rule, and who consider democracy to be a joke.--We live in dangerous times, far more dangerous than the Cold War era, … … …”
“Our hope must be that no matter how bad things get, our Constitution … … … will survive Trump, because it provides for checks and balances that limit the abuse of power. But those checks and balances require that all three branches of our federal government do their duty.”
For those who still believe Trump’s claims that he is a devout Christian (no, here I am not talking about Stormy Daniels—here I am talking about Trump's claims that he frequently reads the bible): When asked for a bible story, psalm, or any other part of the bible he particularly liked, Trump could not produce anything other than the non-committing gibberish he usually spits out when he does not have an answer. After being further probed by the interviewer, he eventually came up with, “an eye for an eye”. This is not surprising, as it fits well with Trump's numerous times repeated credo that one of the pillars to success is to take revenge. Not exactly what Jesus has preached.
If Trump should even know the Ten Commndments, he clearly does not observe them. All he observes is the so-called Eleventh Commendment, which says: “Thou shalt not get caught.”
Btw, I am not an avid reader of the bible, but from what I faintly remember when I read it more than half a century ago, didn’t it repeatedly say something against adultery and fornication? Obviously, not any of Trump’s favorite bible passages. And isn’t this topic also covered in the Ten Commandments? O.k., o.k, quite a few other Presidents were not exactly monogamic either, but did they try to tell us that they were pious Christians and that they read the bible on a regular basis? I don’t think so.
There was this woman on tv, a few months ago, who said that if Roy Moore had committed any sins, God would have forgiven him. (I had wondered at the time, how she would know, since there is no evidence that Moore has ever asked God for any forgiveness or that he had even confessed.) Yet Trump had said on tv, that he NEVER asks God for forgiveness, because he has never done anything wrong. Could Trump have forgotten what it says in the Sixth Commandment, and the Seventh, and the Eighth, and the Ninth and the Tenth? Or could Trump have forgotten all his sins? This has me a bit confused. It has me particularly confused because Trump claims that he has such an excellent memory capacity (which, btw, keeps failing him on a regular basis whenever he is under oath).
How on earth could this man get even a single vote from Americans who believe in the bible, be it a Christian edition or only the Old Testament? This is beyond me.
And now I am asking you: Is this man really sitting in the White House as President of the United States, or is this merely a bad dream?
I just pinched my arm to make sure that I am not caught somewhere in the Twilight Zone. Turned out, I am wide awake. So I can only say: GOD HELP US!
P.S. My five-star rating is for the well-researched and thoroughly documented contents of the book, not for the writing style, which I did not particularly care for.
P.P.S. Dec. 1st, 2018: This review was originally written on March 22, 2018. For reasons unknown, it only appeared on one edition of the book (where it got 73 LIKEs and a number of comments) but later could not be found anymore at all. It just popped up again, when someone LIKEd it again. I am presently trying to copy it to all other editions. Hope it works. (Goodreads's ways are mysterious. :-))
David Cay Johnston is an award-winnning investigative journalist, who has followed Trump for nearly three decades, while collecting relevant material.
Reading this book, one is bound to reach the conclusion: Assume of Trump the worst, and you will come closest to the truth.
It would be bad enough if this were only a story about a deceitful, crooked, and unscrupulous businessman with close ties to organized crime, but this story is about a man who is now the President of the United States of America and who can be no more trusted with doing what's good for this country (and its allies) than a fox could be trusted with managing a chicken coop.
Here are two excerpts from the author’s epilogue, which was added to the book, after the paperback came out, in September 2017:
“I do not expect this to end well. It is possible, though I deeply hope not, that we are seeing the beginning of the end of America’s experiment in self-governance. But at a minimum we need to recognize that Trump may be part of the emergence of a new world order run by Putin and the many other power mongers like him, who believe in a strong-man theory of iron rule, and who consider democracy to be a joke.--We live in dangerous times, far more dangerous than the Cold War era, … … …”
“Our hope must be that no matter how bad things get, our Constitution … … … will survive Trump, because it provides for checks and balances that limit the abuse of power. But those checks and balances require that all three branches of our federal government do their duty.”
For those who still believe Trump’s claims that he is a devout Christian (no, here I am not talking about Stormy Daniels—here I am talking about Trump's claims that he frequently reads the bible): When asked for a bible story, psalm, or any other part of the bible he particularly liked, Trump could not produce anything other than the non-committing gibberish he usually spits out when he does not have an answer. After being further probed by the interviewer, he eventually came up with, “an eye for an eye”. This is not surprising, as it fits well with Trump's numerous times repeated credo that one of the pillars to success is to take revenge. Not exactly what Jesus has preached.
If Trump should even know the Ten Commndments, he clearly does not observe them. All he observes is the so-called Eleventh Commendment, which says: “Thou shalt not get caught.”
Btw, I am not an avid reader of the bible, but from what I faintly remember when I read it more than half a century ago, didn’t it repeatedly say something against adultery and fornication? Obviously, not any of Trump’s favorite bible passages. And isn’t this topic also covered in the Ten Commandments? O.k., o.k, quite a few other Presidents were not exactly monogamic either, but did they try to tell us that they were pious Christians and that they read the bible on a regular basis? I don’t think so.
There was this woman on tv, a few months ago, who said that if Roy Moore had committed any sins, God would have forgiven him. (I had wondered at the time, how she would know, since there is no evidence that Moore has ever asked God for any forgiveness or that he had even confessed.) Yet Trump had said on tv, that he NEVER asks God for forgiveness, because he has never done anything wrong. Could Trump have forgotten what it says in the Sixth Commandment, and the Seventh, and the Eighth, and the Ninth and the Tenth? Or could Trump have forgotten all his sins? This has me a bit confused. It has me particularly confused because Trump claims that he has such an excellent memory capacity (which, btw, keeps failing him on a regular basis whenever he is under oath).
How on earth could this man get even a single vote from Americans who believe in the bible, be it a Christian edition or only the Old Testament? This is beyond me.
And now I am asking you: Is this man really sitting in the White House as President of the United States, or is this merely a bad dream?
I just pinched my arm to make sure that I am not caught somewhere in the Twilight Zone. Turned out, I am wide awake. So I can only say: GOD HELP US!
P.S. My five-star rating is for the well-researched and thoroughly documented contents of the book, not for the writing style, which I did not particularly care for.
P.P.S. Dec. 1st, 2018: This review was originally written on March 22, 2018. For reasons unknown, it only appeared on one edition of the book (where it got 73 LIKEs and a number of comments) but later could not be found anymore at all. It just popped up again, when someone LIKEd it again. I am presently trying to copy it to all other editions. Hope it works. (Goodreads's ways are mysterious. :-))
Want to read
August 13, 2016The central message of this book, I understand from the other reviews, is that Mr. Lyin' Crooked Donald Trump is a crooked liar. I have mailed the publisher to ask whether they can send me a review copy. Synthetic a priori statements have long been one of my passions.
August 8, 2016
A fast yet deep book about the life and the making of Donald Trump.
David Clay Johnston has been investigating mr Trump for over 30 years and in this book he shows the various schemes of bankruptcy and loans and debts that Trump and his organization used to build hotels and towers.
The book describes the fraud of Trump and his organization, how he shorts money, how he licenses his name for projects that he got no relation to.
The book describes the power and the awe associated with Trump; how it's a lucrative brand name, yet it's built on a house of cards.
I hope many people would read this book and see how horrible the future would be if this person gets elected to lead the free world... Perish the thought.
David Clay Johnston has been investigating mr Trump for over 30 years and in this book he shows the various schemes of bankruptcy and loans and debts that Trump and his organization used to build hotels and towers.
The book describes the fraud of Trump and his organization, how he shorts money, how he licenses his name for projects that he got no relation to.
The book describes the power and the awe associated with Trump; how it's a lucrative brand name, yet it's built on a house of cards.
I hope many people would read this book and see how horrible the future would be if this person gets elected to lead the free world... Perish the thought.
October 28, 2016
The third in a series of six books I've committed to read before the election, The Making of Donald Trump was written by David Cay Johnston, past winner of the Pulitzer.
A look into the myth behind the man, Johnston's portrayal of Trump raises serious questions about the Republican presidential candidate. A real-estate mogul turned reality TV star, Trump has polarized this year's Presidential election like no other. To some he represents the anti-politician, the anti-establishment, the anti-PC sentiment that is valued especially among those voters who fear that their "white working class America" is in jeopardy. One has to wonder exactly what "Make America Great Again" means to his base.
America has a long history of suspicion and distrust when it comes to our government. Politics has always been messy, and that is the beauty of democracy. Donald Trump, however, is something completely different, and I'm convinced it's that "different-ness" that has made his candidacy a frightening reality. He is applauded for speaking his mind, no matter that what he says is often poppycock. He is praised for his business acumen, despite many failed businesses and at least four bankruptcies in which he has profited from his failures while those around him has suffered. He accuses his critics of dishonesty, even as fact check after fact check demonstrates that he lies or mostly lies 70-80 percent of the time. He claims conspiracies all the while he is creating and/or perpetuating his own. He questions the Clinton Foundation, while his own foundation has been cited for shady behavior. He screams that the media is out to get him, even though if not but for the media and its excessive coverage of his three-ring-circus he would not be the Republican candidate. He criticizes his opponent's supposed mistreatment of her husband's mistresses and affairs even as he publicly denigrates women reducing them to their bra size, suggesting his own accusers must be lying because they are simply too ugly to be assaulted. He claims his opponent is running a smear campaign and refuses to talk issues, yet given a chance to talk issues he resorts to calling her a "nasty woman," "crooked Hillary," and "liar."
It's all so bizarre. We are all sitting here watching him say and do these things, yet after the fact he simply denies that's he's done/said them. And he's so adamant, you almost begin to question yourself.
Well according Johnston, this is nothing new. When caught and confronted, Trump has a history of going on the offensive. He also describes Trump as vindictive, petty, and full of himself. Yet his criticism of Trump goes beyond these character flaws. If you believe the case made in Johnston's book, Trump is also a criminal with a long history of ties to organized crime and a blatant disregard for the law.
I think what I found most disconcerting is that Trump's characterization of Hillary as crooked is ironically a self-portrait of himself. Interestingly, if you pay attention, whenever the media asks Trump or one of his representatives a question, rather than answer the question they somehow use it as an opportunity to attack Hillary, often in areas that have absolutely nothing to do with the original topic.
From talking to Trump supporters, I think they think he is a self-made man, a simple man who relates to the average American, a non-politician who can create jobs and cut through the bureaucracy of government. Unfortunately, Trump is not self-made, he is not simple, he can not relate to the average American, and his success as a businessman has less to do with his ability to create and run companies and more to do with his ability to create and sell himself...The Donald. And he's a bully and a spoiled brat. Definitely a narcissist and possibly even a sociopath. I'm not really sure what kind of President he would make. I want to believe it would be a horrible one. After all, life is not a reality TV show. And if Trump runs America the same way he ran his casinos, we'll end up in bankruptcy.
And perhaps what is most upsetting to people like me is that a solid chunk of the American electorate actually thinks Trump not only can win...but should. Even if he is worth billions, which is debatable, how does that qualify him to lead America?
The book provides many detailed sources. I would enjoy reading the rebuttal to Johnston's claims as there is obviously some bias here. Sadly, I doubt the people who would benefit the most from reading this book will.
A look into the myth behind the man, Johnston's portrayal of Trump raises serious questions about the Republican presidential candidate. A real-estate mogul turned reality TV star, Trump has polarized this year's Presidential election like no other. To some he represents the anti-politician, the anti-establishment, the anti-PC sentiment that is valued especially among those voters who fear that their "white working class America" is in jeopardy. One has to wonder exactly what "Make America Great Again" means to his base.
America has a long history of suspicion and distrust when it comes to our government. Politics has always been messy, and that is the beauty of democracy. Donald Trump, however, is something completely different, and I'm convinced it's that "different-ness" that has made his candidacy a frightening reality. He is applauded for speaking his mind, no matter that what he says is often poppycock. He is praised for his business acumen, despite many failed businesses and at least four bankruptcies in which he has profited from his failures while those around him has suffered. He accuses his critics of dishonesty, even as fact check after fact check demonstrates that he lies or mostly lies 70-80 percent of the time. He claims conspiracies all the while he is creating and/or perpetuating his own. He questions the Clinton Foundation, while his own foundation has been cited for shady behavior. He screams that the media is out to get him, even though if not but for the media and its excessive coverage of his three-ring-circus he would not be the Republican candidate. He criticizes his opponent's supposed mistreatment of her husband's mistresses and affairs even as he publicly denigrates women reducing them to their bra size, suggesting his own accusers must be lying because they are simply too ugly to be assaulted. He claims his opponent is running a smear campaign and refuses to talk issues, yet given a chance to talk issues he resorts to calling her a "nasty woman," "crooked Hillary," and "liar."
It's all so bizarre. We are all sitting here watching him say and do these things, yet after the fact he simply denies that's he's done/said them. And he's so adamant, you almost begin to question yourself.
Well according Johnston, this is nothing new. When caught and confronted, Trump has a history of going on the offensive. He also describes Trump as vindictive, petty, and full of himself. Yet his criticism of Trump goes beyond these character flaws. If you believe the case made in Johnston's book, Trump is also a criminal with a long history of ties to organized crime and a blatant disregard for the law.
I think what I found most disconcerting is that Trump's characterization of Hillary as crooked is ironically a self-portrait of himself. Interestingly, if you pay attention, whenever the media asks Trump or one of his representatives a question, rather than answer the question they somehow use it as an opportunity to attack Hillary, often in areas that have absolutely nothing to do with the original topic.
From talking to Trump supporters, I think they think he is a self-made man, a simple man who relates to the average American, a non-politician who can create jobs and cut through the bureaucracy of government. Unfortunately, Trump is not self-made, he is not simple, he can not relate to the average American, and his success as a businessman has less to do with his ability to create and run companies and more to do with his ability to create and sell himself...The Donald. And he's a bully and a spoiled brat. Definitely a narcissist and possibly even a sociopath. I'm not really sure what kind of President he would make. I want to believe it would be a horrible one. After all, life is not a reality TV show. And if Trump runs America the same way he ran his casinos, we'll end up in bankruptcy.
And perhaps what is most upsetting to people like me is that a solid chunk of the American electorate actually thinks Trump not only can win...but should. Even if he is worth billions, which is debatable, how does that qualify him to lead America?
The book provides many detailed sources. I would enjoy reading the rebuttal to Johnston's claims as there is obviously some bias here. Sadly, I doubt the people who would benefit the most from reading this book will.
August 5, 2016
I was against Donald Trump's presidential bid before I started this book. After reading it, I feel the cries of "lock her up" are directed at the wrong candidate. Johnston is an award winning investigative journalist and the factual claims in the book are painstakingly sourced.
I won't get into details, but Trump has a record of racism, criminal associations, & dishonest & unethical business practices. When he says he is good with debt, what he is referencing is his ability to make deals in bankruptcy court to pay creditors (to whom he oft lied to get loans) dimes on the dollar.
The thought of this man as President is considerably more terrifying after having read this book. Beware of that.
I won't get into details, but Trump has a record of racism, criminal associations, & dishonest & unethical business practices. When he says he is good with debt, what he is referencing is his ability to make deals in bankruptcy court to pay creditors (to whom he oft lied to get loans) dimes on the dollar.
The thought of this man as President is considerably more terrifying after having read this book. Beware of that.
February 8, 2017
This was not a great book for me to read because I'm already overly worked up about what's going to happen to this world with this thing as our president and the book was terribly depressing, making him out to be much worse of a person than I had realized. But I'm trying not to hide under a friendly rock, trying to become informed.
I can knock the book around a little, but I should be gentle because it's important. If you like the idea of Donald Trump as president, you are not well informed. Period. There is no other answer. And...as a follow up, I would like to try to figure out why so many of us are ill informed, many willfully.
We all know he's narcissist in a class by himself, that he has a force of personality, is a highly effective salesman, that he goes his own way and doesn't listen to anyone, that he's all about his money and himself. That, however, does not make you informed. He's far worse. He perennial liar, and manipulator with adolescent ethics, no sense of consequences, a man with a wreckage in his wake everywhere, and who denies everything. He's someone that won't listen to anyone he doesn't agree with, and will listen to practically anyone who offers him the right kind of praise and loyalty. He has a long record of association with large-scale criminal and mafia elements, not to mention numerous scams, generally in the theme of real estate, but also in his charities and "university". This is the guy who will cause problems everywhere, and then blame everyone else, and get away with it. He more or less never suffers consequences. His record is a bit insane.
The book itself suffers a little because of its snark and the arrogance of Johnston. He's really well informed about Trump and really dedicated to his craft as a journalist, and that gives this book a lot of value. For this reason I recommend it, highly. But as you read it becomes clear that Johnston feels he can do no wrong as long he is honorable to the journalist's code of ethics. This is at best an incomplete story, and, if you like, a selection of highlights of the Donald Trump horror stories. It's rushed, and short, which is nice. But what is lost is much of the context in which all this stuff was taking place. I finished feeling very scared by Trump, aware of how bad he can get, but not feeling like I had a good sense of who he was day-to-day.
end rant.
------------------------------------------
77. The Making of Donald Trump by David Cay Johnston
reader: Joe Barrett
published: 2016
format: 5:47 digital audio
acquired: library
read: Dec 16-29
rating: 4
I can knock the book around a little, but I should be gentle because it's important. If you like the idea of Donald Trump as president, you are not well informed. Period. There is no other answer. And...as a follow up, I would like to try to figure out why so many of us are ill informed, many willfully.
We all know he's narcissist in a class by himself, that he has a force of personality, is a highly effective salesman, that he goes his own way and doesn't listen to anyone, that he's all about his money and himself. That, however, does not make you informed. He's far worse. He perennial liar, and manipulator with adolescent ethics, no sense of consequences, a man with a wreckage in his wake everywhere, and who denies everything. He's someone that won't listen to anyone he doesn't agree with, and will listen to practically anyone who offers him the right kind of praise and loyalty. He has a long record of association with large-scale criminal and mafia elements, not to mention numerous scams, generally in the theme of real estate, but also in his charities and "university". This is the guy who will cause problems everywhere, and then blame everyone else, and get away with it. He more or less never suffers consequences. His record is a bit insane.
The book itself suffers a little because of its snark and the arrogance of Johnston. He's really well informed about Trump and really dedicated to his craft as a journalist, and that gives this book a lot of value. For this reason I recommend it, highly. But as you read it becomes clear that Johnston feels he can do no wrong as long he is honorable to the journalist's code of ethics. This is at best an incomplete story, and, if you like, a selection of highlights of the Donald Trump horror stories. It's rushed, and short, which is nice. But what is lost is much of the context in which all this stuff was taking place. I finished feeling very scared by Trump, aware of how bad he can get, but not feeling like I had a good sense of who he was day-to-day.
end rant.
------------------------------------------
77. The Making of Donald Trump by David Cay Johnston
reader: Joe Barrett
published: 2016
format: 5:47 digital audio
acquired: library
read: Dec 16-29
rating: 4
August 10, 2017
The book itself was ok, but I still believe the man is a complete moron and nowhere near president material.
The main thing this book highlighted is something most people already know. No-one loves trump as much as trump.
The main thing this book highlighted is something most people already know. No-one loves trump as much as trump.
July 24, 2016
Thanks to Melville Publishing and Edelweiss I was able to procure an advance copy of this book.
I chose this book because I was familiar with David Cay Johnston's work since I'd read an earlier work of his. I went into the book thinking that Johnston would give an unbiased opinion of The Donald.
Having finished the book, I'm not sure that I still think Johnston is unbiased, but his prejudices align with mine.
The book is brief but damning about 30 years of Trump's litigious, criminal, and immoral behavior. Much of the information contained in this book, I had read previously in other places.
It should not have come as a surprise that Donald Trump has two mottos, "Always get even" and "Hit harder."
I'll be sure to stay out of his way.
I chose this book because I was familiar with David Cay Johnston's work since I'd read an earlier work of his. I went into the book thinking that Johnston would give an unbiased opinion of The Donald.
Having finished the book, I'm not sure that I still think Johnston is unbiased, but his prejudices align with mine.
The book is brief but damning about 30 years of Trump's litigious, criminal, and immoral behavior. Much of the information contained in this book, I had read previously in other places.
It should not have come as a surprise that Donald Trump has two mottos, "Always get even" and "Hit harder."
I'll be sure to stay out of his way.
December 14, 2016
This book should have been required reading before the election.
August 2, 2016
In The Making of Donald Trump, investigative journalist David Cay Johnston presents the truth behind Trump's self-aggrandizing and oft-touted art of deal-making. In truth, Trump's art hinges on revenge, deception, fraud, tax evasion, and deals with criminals tied to organized crime. The book presents the biggest deals of Trumps career, both personal and professional, along with the dirty tricks, lies, and cheats that Trump has employed through the years to grab all of the money and power he can while spinning a version of himself befitting his massive, narcissistic ego and suppressing any information that could tarnish his gaudy, gilded public image.
This is the book on Trump our nation needs right now. It’s incredibly up to date, with the author having fact-checked stories as recently as July 2016. Johnston displays a depth and breadth of knowledge about Trump only a seasoned journalist with decades of experience specifically investigating and personally dealing with Trump could present, complete with expert analysis of the bearing Trump's actions have on his character and the chilling implications his conduct has on a potential Trump presidency. All of this is put forward with an impressive journalistic brevity, with a sometimes astonishing amount of information per page. All of this makes the book impossible to put down and easily digestible, despite how hard the subject matter can be to stomach.
This is the book on Trump our nation needs right now. It’s incredibly up to date, with the author having fact-checked stories as recently as July 2016. Johnston displays a depth and breadth of knowledge about Trump only a seasoned journalist with decades of experience specifically investigating and personally dealing with Trump could present, complete with expert analysis of the bearing Trump's actions have on his character and the chilling implications his conduct has on a potential Trump presidency. All of this is put forward with an impressive journalistic brevity, with a sometimes astonishing amount of information per page. All of this makes the book impossible to put down and easily digestible, despite how hard the subject matter can be to stomach.
February 8, 2017
Got to 55% and just could not stomach anymore! I knew Trump is despicable, but I could not have even imagined just how despicable and what a lunatic he is! I never knew about his football team the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League, and how he tried to bully his way into the NFL.
He is no billionaire, in fact many of us probably have a larger net-worth than that bull-sh***ing blowhard!
He plants his own news stories by pretending to be made-up persons to journalists he calls!
The biggest favor to the world journalists could do, is to totally ignore him and not mention him once for about 2 weeks, and he would flip out and his inflated sense of self-worth would be so deflated that the whole world would see just how insane he is!
He is a complete phony, and if his mouth is open he is lying, when he is not speaking complete idiotic gibberish!
The author did great research to uncover all the things this creep has tried to keep hidden.
He is no billionaire, in fact many of us probably have a larger net-worth than that bull-sh***ing blowhard!
He plants his own news stories by pretending to be made-up persons to journalists he calls!
The biggest favor to the world journalists could do, is to totally ignore him and not mention him once for about 2 weeks, and he would flip out and his inflated sense of self-worth would be so deflated that the whole world would see just how insane he is!
He is a complete phony, and if his mouth is open he is lying, when he is not speaking complete idiotic gibberish!
The author did great research to uncover all the things this creep has tried to keep hidden.
August 6, 2016
30% finished, and wow. Donald Trump is like Scientology, SO MUCH WORSE than you can even imagine.
Update: Book finished. Seriously terrifying. Trump is a megalomaniac with many many mob connections, dubious business deals and all around dangerous behavior. Having him in charge of the country would unlock the Seventh Seal!!!
Update: Book finished. Seriously terrifying. Trump is a megalomaniac with many many mob connections, dubious business deals and all around dangerous behavior. Having him in charge of the country would unlock the Seventh Seal!!!
July 19, 2017
Essential reading for anyone in America who has Trump for a president or anyone across the globe who is affected by his presidency. So, basically a must read for everyone around the globe.
I kept having to remind myself that this book was written prior to Trump becoming president because it seemed as if David Cay Johnston picked specific events in Trumps life, in which Trump used specific wording and behaviors, that perfectly parallels the events that have occurred since Trump took office.
Johnston, the reporter who broke many of the shocking Trump stories published in the New York Times over the last few decades, brings to life the unbelievable world of Donald Trump. To give his reader a good idea of how Trump learned about morality in business practices, Johnston recounted the life and business dealings of Donald Trump's Grandfather and father, whose dealings were as questionable as Trump's are now.
Despite proclaiming to be a self made man, Trump was unquestionably a trust fund kid who believed the rules never applied to him. When he broke the rules as a kid, he got sent to reform school. As an adult, he was continually rewarded for breaking the rules. Time after time, Trump demonstrated that the rules don't apply to him. He told dangerous lies that jeopardized his real estate and casino licenses. Yet, time after time, the very people entrusted to enforce the laws helped Trump get away with his lies and criminal business practices. This book is one of the best examples I can point to for anyone wanting to understand how money allows the rich to carry out criminal actions, while being poor puts individuals at much higher risk for receiving devastating and life-changing punishments for carrying out the same bad actions.
The best thing about Johnston is that he does not write from the gut. Rather, he provides an unbelievable amount of facts to support each statement he makes about trump. Johnston quotes Trump directly, quotes from various trial records, quotes from various interviews in the public record, details individual forms that Trump filled out. Exceptional reporting. Trump would, of course, call Johnston "overrated" and probably a "loser" as well because these are terms he uses for anyone who provides unflattering facts about him.
Johnston was also quite skilled at providing insights and real life detailed accounts of Trump's actions and words to drive home the insight. For example, he pointed out that Trump has a habit of cutting off anyone who tries to bring up his past (connections to mobsters, past lawsuits, past relationship issues, past lies, past aliases, and the like) while at the same time drudging up decades old dirt on the *spouse* of his running mate-- not even his actual running mate. It's hard to get more hypocritical than that.
As an aside, you won't read any line like, "It's hard to get more hypocritical than that " in this author's book. My review will undoubted be more sensational and emotionally fuel than Johnston's book. He chose to deliver his scathing portrayal of Trump using a measured, pragmatic, and solidly journalistic approach.
There are so many shocking entries in this book. Each page seemed to bring a new shocking moment. In the interest of not ruining the book, I will related only a few.
Trumps view of immigrants:
Trump needed to tear down a building he owned. At the time the building needed to come down, Trump claimed to be worth 3 billion. Turned out he was 3 billion in debt, not worth 3 billion. Being very short on cash, Trump was in a pickle. Instead of going with a company that could take down the building properly, he hired a guy who he knew had illegal immigrants working for him. During the day, they brought in a modest number of immigrants to work *by hand,* without the aid of the necessary demolition machines, without hardhats, without masks even though there was asbestos, all for a very modest sum for the number of workers doing back breaking work. To make matters worse, at night, when inspectors were not likely to come into the building, 200 immigrants were working with sledge hammers -- for the same total pay *to be split by all* that had already been agreed upon for the small group of workers. Trump was getting a steal! IMO, it's pretty terrible to exploit the desperation of workers to that level. But in Trump's opinion, it wasn't enough exploitation! He figured, they are illegal. If I let them work like slaves and give them no money, no food, and no other compensation, what can they do, sue me? (Remember *this* is our president, our leader!) He refused to pay the illegal immigrants after they broke their backs for him, to help him take down his building and to help him save money. There is a lot more to this story and Johnston tells it far better than me. But my take home point was that, clearly, all immigrants should be slaves who serve the rich.
Trumps self serving fake publicist:
Trump pretended to be publicist John Miller. Miller, who just started working for Trump, knew intricate details about Trumps actions and inner thoughts. He portrayed Trump to be the most sought after lover and husband. You will get to hear the riveting story of who gets to be the second Mrs. Trump. John is Trump's middle name btw and when he used a second alias to again build up his image in a truly preposterous manner, he again used the name John. Come on Trump; you can do better than that. Johnston relates the many "John" stories and it's hard to believe anyone would be this vain and this stupid, but to know that it is the leader of the free world makes it that much more shocking and appalling. The alias stories were really addictive. I couldn't put the book down.
Trump's predictable denials:
One of Trump's go to moves when he is associated with someone who is of questionable character but who he has very close ties to, he likes to say, "I don't know them. I couldn't pick them out of a crowd." Recently, Trump even tried saying he didn't really know Jared Kushner that well. LOL. He needs to learn some new tricks. It's easy to draw a line back to all the people Trump spent *lots* of time with, had many dealings with, and even rented his own personal space to, took many meetings with, went to public places with (in a very small crowd) who he now "barely knows."
Johnston details all the Trump tricks. If you want to know what they are, I recommend reading this book. After reading myriad stories, facts, and various details Johnston has recounted about Trump, it's fairly easy to predict what he will do in just about any circumstance.
I kept having to remind myself that this book was written prior to Trump becoming president because it seemed as if David Cay Johnston picked specific events in Trumps life, in which Trump used specific wording and behaviors, that perfectly parallels the events that have occurred since Trump took office.
Johnston, the reporter who broke many of the shocking Trump stories published in the New York Times over the last few decades, brings to life the unbelievable world of Donald Trump. To give his reader a good idea of how Trump learned about morality in business practices, Johnston recounted the life and business dealings of Donald Trump's Grandfather and father, whose dealings were as questionable as Trump's are now.
Despite proclaiming to be a self made man, Trump was unquestionably a trust fund kid who believed the rules never applied to him. When he broke the rules as a kid, he got sent to reform school. As an adult, he was continually rewarded for breaking the rules. Time after time, Trump demonstrated that the rules don't apply to him. He told dangerous lies that jeopardized his real estate and casino licenses. Yet, time after time, the very people entrusted to enforce the laws helped Trump get away with his lies and criminal business practices. This book is one of the best examples I can point to for anyone wanting to understand how money allows the rich to carry out criminal actions, while being poor puts individuals at much higher risk for receiving devastating and life-changing punishments for carrying out the same bad actions.
The best thing about Johnston is that he does not write from the gut. Rather, he provides an unbelievable amount of facts to support each statement he makes about trump. Johnston quotes Trump directly, quotes from various trial records, quotes from various interviews in the public record, details individual forms that Trump filled out. Exceptional reporting. Trump would, of course, call Johnston "overrated" and probably a "loser" as well because these are terms he uses for anyone who provides unflattering facts about him.
Johnston was also quite skilled at providing insights and real life detailed accounts of Trump's actions and words to drive home the insight. For example, he pointed out that Trump has a habit of cutting off anyone who tries to bring up his past (connections to mobsters, past lawsuits, past relationship issues, past lies, past aliases, and the like) while at the same time drudging up decades old dirt on the *spouse* of his running mate-- not even his actual running mate. It's hard to get more hypocritical than that.
As an aside, you won't read any line like, "It's hard to get more hypocritical than that " in this author's book. My review will undoubted be more sensational and emotionally fuel than Johnston's book. He chose to deliver his scathing portrayal of Trump using a measured, pragmatic, and solidly journalistic approach.
There are so many shocking entries in this book. Each page seemed to bring a new shocking moment. In the interest of not ruining the book, I will related only a few.
Trumps view of immigrants:
Trump needed to tear down a building he owned. At the time the building needed to come down, Trump claimed to be worth 3 billion. Turned out he was 3 billion in debt, not worth 3 billion. Being very short on cash, Trump was in a pickle. Instead of going with a company that could take down the building properly, he hired a guy who he knew had illegal immigrants working for him. During the day, they brought in a modest number of immigrants to work *by hand,* without the aid of the necessary demolition machines, without hardhats, without masks even though there was asbestos, all for a very modest sum for the number of workers doing back breaking work. To make matters worse, at night, when inspectors were not likely to come into the building, 200 immigrants were working with sledge hammers -- for the same total pay *to be split by all* that had already been agreed upon for the small group of workers. Trump was getting a steal! IMO, it's pretty terrible to exploit the desperation of workers to that level. But in Trump's opinion, it wasn't enough exploitation! He figured, they are illegal. If I let them work like slaves and give them no money, no food, and no other compensation, what can they do, sue me? (Remember *this* is our president, our leader!) He refused to pay the illegal immigrants after they broke their backs for him, to help him take down his building and to help him save money. There is a lot more to this story and Johnston tells it far better than me. But my take home point was that, clearly, all immigrants should be slaves who serve the rich.
Trumps self serving fake publicist:
Trump pretended to be publicist John Miller. Miller, who just started working for Trump, knew intricate details about Trumps actions and inner thoughts. He portrayed Trump to be the most sought after lover and husband. You will get to hear the riveting story of who gets to be the second Mrs. Trump. John is Trump's middle name btw and when he used a second alias to again build up his image in a truly preposterous manner, he again used the name John. Come on Trump; you can do better than that. Johnston relates the many "John" stories and it's hard to believe anyone would be this vain and this stupid, but to know that it is the leader of the free world makes it that much more shocking and appalling. The alias stories were really addictive. I couldn't put the book down.
Trump's predictable denials:
One of Trump's go to moves when he is associated with someone who is of questionable character but who he has very close ties to, he likes to say, "I don't know them. I couldn't pick them out of a crowd." Recently, Trump even tried saying he didn't really know Jared Kushner that well. LOL. He needs to learn some new tricks. It's easy to draw a line back to all the people Trump spent *lots* of time with, had many dealings with, and even rented his own personal space to, took many meetings with, went to public places with (in a very small crowd) who he now "barely knows."
Johnston details all the Trump tricks. If you want to know what they are, I recommend reading this book. After reading myriad stories, facts, and various details Johnston has recounted about Trump, it's fairly easy to predict what he will do in just about any circumstance.
January 4, 2017
The more I read about this man, whether it is something written by someone else, such as this fully referenced book written by an investigative journalist who has worked for a number of papers and who is currently with the New York Times, or whether it is a book written by Donald Trump himself, such as his recent Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again, the more I read the more I am appalled by him, the more I am flabbergasted that this man, this con man, this liar and cheat, this hater, has been elected President of the United States.
These are not just books of people "out to get" Mr. Trump either, as some might like to use to brush them off. These are books by people who have known him well for many years. This author has known Mr. Trump for almost 3 decades. And the picture he paints of this man, this "businessman" is not of anyone that should ever be the person in charge of running this great country. It details friendships and dealings with mobsters, other shady financial dealings, scamming of investors, a total non-understanding of the casino and gambling industry when he was involved in it, all the lawsuits he has been involved in that he always gets "sealed" , and other horrible and quite possibly illegal business dealings. It shows a man totally unfit for the office to which he has just been elected.
I am going to continue reading books about Mr. Trump. Everyone should read these books. Read those by people who know Mr. Trump well. Read Mr. Trump's own books. See who he really is. I am going to keep doing it, because I need to stay appalled as it keeps me on my A-game to continue to oppose and work against everything he is trying to do to destroy our country. It keeps me contacting my Senators and Congressmen. It keeps me supporting the ACLU. It keeps me active in opposition, because I believe America IS great, and this man is just going to ruin it. I predict he will be impeached, as so much of what I have read shows that he lies and cheats and cons and scams, and this is not going to work as the President, something he is going to do will catch up to him. But until that time, I will stay active, and I will continue to read all that I can about this man.
These are not just books of people "out to get" Mr. Trump either, as some might like to use to brush them off. These are books by people who have known him well for many years. This author has known Mr. Trump for almost 3 decades. And the picture he paints of this man, this "businessman" is not of anyone that should ever be the person in charge of running this great country. It details friendships and dealings with mobsters, other shady financial dealings, scamming of investors, a total non-understanding of the casino and gambling industry when he was involved in it, all the lawsuits he has been involved in that he always gets "sealed" , and other horrible and quite possibly illegal business dealings. It shows a man totally unfit for the office to which he has just been elected.
I am going to continue reading books about Mr. Trump. Everyone should read these books. Read those by people who know Mr. Trump well. Read Mr. Trump's own books. See who he really is. I am going to keep doing it, because I need to stay appalled as it keeps me on my A-game to continue to oppose and work against everything he is trying to do to destroy our country. It keeps me contacting my Senators and Congressmen. It keeps me supporting the ACLU. It keeps me active in opposition, because I believe America IS great, and this man is just going to ruin it. I predict he will be impeached, as so much of what I have read shows that he lies and cheats and cons and scams, and this is not going to work as the President, something he is going to do will catch up to him. But until that time, I will stay active, and I will continue to read all that I can about this man.
April 15, 2017
I was thinking that this would be a biography of Donald Trump, but it feels more like an oppo dump, which was disappointing. My concern is not that I found it too negative--I quite accept that Trump is as big a piece of shit as he comes off here--but that Johnston doesn't spend nearly enough time advancing an overarching theory of Trump. Each story by itself is interesting (and frequently infuriating), but because they doesn't seem like part of a larger whole they start to blend together a bit. Plenty of stories to learn from, but perhaps this would be more impactful for those inclined to read a chapter at time before setting it aside for something else.
February 18, 2017
In case you haven't heard, Donald Trump is the president of the United States. No matter where you stand, I recommend reading up on him. This is an easy, enjoyable read that lays out quite a bit of his background and history. I plan to read several different books to fact check the books against each other.
August 13, 2016
Not for Trump supporters. This one is full of facts. In the Garden of the beasts gave me a decent picture of how nazism flourished, I wanted a peek on how this hateful fraud had risen to his current standing. Each chapter captures another factor that defines why this man is unsuitable for any office. A crook, cheat, narcissist. As the writer perfectly put it a man who "dismisses those who do no see him as he sees himself" . That's a growing number. Surprisingly this is an excellent beach read. One sitting. No need to read anything else on this lunatic now.
August 8, 2016
Donald Trump has spent his life swimming in rat-infested waters. His unscrupulous way of doing business has not just bankrupted many who were caught in his net, but has left his soul bereft of any true moral or ethical compass. If just half of this book were factual (and I believe ALL of it) we should be ashamed of ourselves for allowing this man to be as close as he is to becoming the leader of our great nation. Thank you, David Cay Johnston, for your diligent and thorough investigative work.
November 18, 2016
I guess this biography of the many misdeeds of our new president is now an artifact. It did have the effect of chilling me to the bone when Trump won the election.
April 23, 2018
David Cay Johnston wrote this book, apparently in only 27 days, in the twilight of the sane years during which Donald Trump not only wasn't president, but it seemed as though he would not ever ascend to that position. Perhaps it was a bit too dim by the point it was written--this was one of the many collections of facts, in addition to the lived experience of reality, that was as clarion as the calls come that Trump should never be given any sort of political power, bequeathed any dignity, or really kept out of jail for so long--but I think by that point everyone was so exhausted by the run up to the election and the constant spectacle of it all that I don't even remember this book being something of note.
The first half was satisfying--it's a highlight reel of Trump's many, many failings, from the familial and personal up to the present, where they incorporate dealings with the mob, Russian gangsters, fabricated identities and sexual insecurities. The man is a pathetic slob, and he personifies the arrogant decline of the United States, and I even found it nice to be reminded in a succinct manner that my visceral odium for this man is justified. Unfortunately the foregoing does not fill a whole book, so there are some lengthy discourses on particular deals and moral failings that are frankly not that interesting or relevant.
But it's still short, so if you are a literary masochist like I apparently am, it's a quick, worthwhile read.
The first half was satisfying--it's a highlight reel of Trump's many, many failings, from the familial and personal up to the present, where they incorporate dealings with the mob, Russian gangsters, fabricated identities and sexual insecurities. The man is a pathetic slob, and he personifies the arrogant decline of the United States, and I even found it nice to be reminded in a succinct manner that my visceral odium for this man is justified. Unfortunately the foregoing does not fill a whole book, so there are some lengthy discourses on particular deals and moral failings that are frankly not that interesting or relevant.
But it's still short, so if you are a literary masochist like I apparently am, it's a quick, worthwhile read.
May 15, 2017
And I thought I was worried about Donald Trump before I read this book...
Wow. The lack of reading. The lack of curiosity. The lack of a desire to understand.
The imperative to be popular. The imperative to win at all costs. The imperative to dominate.
This book reviews Trump's family origins and how he built both his real estate and casino 'empire.' The ego and desire to sacrifice any sense of the 'greater good' for selfish gain remains the argument of this book.
If you are frightened of what Donald Trump could do, then don't read this book. If you do - you would never leave your house ...
Wow. The lack of reading. The lack of curiosity. The lack of a desire to understand.
The imperative to be popular. The imperative to win at all costs. The imperative to dominate.
This book reviews Trump's family origins and how he built both his real estate and casino 'empire.' The ego and desire to sacrifice any sense of the 'greater good' for selfish gain remains the argument of this book.
If you are frightened of what Donald Trump could do, then don't read this book. If you do - you would never leave your house ...
August 7, 2016
Interesting read by an investigative reporter who has followed Trump for 30 years, with copious notes on sources at the end. If you are thinking Trump could be a reasonable choice for president I urge you to read this book before you vote!
February 25, 2018
no, it's not funny.
definitely not.
but boring.
anthropologically.
why has capitalism succeeded so far?
because it appeals to the most basic instincts of hominids.
greed.
self-preservation.
recklessness.
ethical numbness.
moral crippledom.
the president of the united states of america.
a fine poem by gottfried benn.
with a title and two verses only:
Die Krone der Schöpfung
Das Schwein.
Der Mensch.
no, it's not funny.
definitely not.
definitely not.
but boring.
anthropologically.
why has capitalism succeeded so far?
because it appeals to the most basic instincts of hominids.
greed.
self-preservation.
recklessness.
ethical numbness.
moral crippledom.
the president of the united states of america.
a fine poem by gottfried benn.
with a title and two verses only:
Die Krone der Schöpfung
Das Schwein.
Der Mensch.
no, it's not funny.
definitely not.
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