. Instaread - Summary of the Making of Donald Trump: by David Cay Johnston

Guide to

David Cay Johnstons

The Making of Donald Trump

by

Instaread

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This is a companion to the original book.

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Table of Contents

David Cay Johnstons The Making of Donald Trump is an examination of Donald Trumps character and activities. It focuses specifically on his financial dealings, his perpetration of frauds, and his association with criminal and Mafia figures.

Trumps grandfather, Friedrich Trump, left Germany to escape the draft. He went to Alaska, where he established a bar frequented by prostitutes. Fred Trump, Donalds father, made a fortune in real estate in part through war profiteering. He set up a lucrative trust fund for his son Donald when the latter was still a child. Donald did not excel in school; his grasp of business theory and policy was weak, though he often boasts of attending the Wharton School undergraduate program in business.

Trumps main influence outside his family was Roy Cohn, a lawyer infamous for his work with Joseph McCarthy during the anti-Communist witch hunts of the 1950s. Cohn had associations with the Mafia and with mob-controlled unions. Trump took advantage of these connections in his real estate dealings. In one instance, he hired undocumented Polish immigrants to subvert union rules about site safety and worker pay.

Trump routinely engaged in fraudulent business dealings. He withheld information on his application to run a casino in Atlantic City in 1982; the authorities let him get away with it because of his wealth and influence. His Trump University real estate education business provided its students with no useful information and engaged in high-pressure sales tactics to extract more money from enrollees. In many instances, he licensed his name to other developers. The exact terms of these deals were withheld from purchasers, who believed Trump himself was involved in financing or managing the properties even though he was not.

Trump has said on numerous occasions that his guiding principle in business and in life is revenge. When he sees himself as the aggrieved party, he is unrelentingly vindictive as a point of pride and principle. When his nephew challenged the terms of Fred Trumps will, Donald Trump tried to cut off health care to his nephews desperately ill infant son. Trump engages in a pattern of filing lawsuits with the express purpose of harassing and intimidating those who he feels have insulted him or have been unfair to him in the press.

Trump is a poor manager, a deceitful businessman, and a cruel human being. Voters should take his character into account in the presidential election of 2016.

David Cay Johnston is an investigative journalist and author of Divided: The Perils of Our Growing Inequality (2014) and The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use Plain English to Rob You Blind (2012). He won the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting in 2001 for his work on tax loopholes.

Donald Trump is a businessman, real estate developer, and reality television star. He is the 2016 Republican nominee for president.

Wayne Barrett is an investigative reporter and the author of Trump: The Deals and the Downfall (1992).

Frederick Christ Trump (1905-1999) was a real estate developer and the father of Donald Trump.

Friedrich (Fred) Trump was a businessman who ran hotels, restaurants, and places of prostitution in the western United States. He was the grandfather of Donald Trump.

Fred Trump Jr. (1938-1981) was the oldest son of Frederick Christ Trump, and Donald Trump's brother. He suffered from alcoholism.

Roy Cohn (1927-1986) was a lawyer best known for his anti-Communist investigations while working with Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.

Marla Maples is an actress who was married to Donald Trump from 1993 to 1997.

Ivanka Trump is the daughter of Donald Trump and his first wife, Ivana Trump. She has been closely involved in many of Trumps businesses.

Joseph Weichselbaum is a convicted felon and cocaine trafficker. Donald Trump hired him to provide helicopter services in the 1980s.

1. Donald Trumps father, Fred Trump, was known for dishonest business tactics. Donald Trump followed his fathers example.
2. Donald Trump was strongly influenced by Roy Cohn.
3. Donald Trump has close connections with organized crime and known criminals.
4. Donald Trump is a poor businessman.
5. Donald Trump is much less wealthy than he claims to be.
6. Donald Trump uses lawsuits and threats of litigation to prevent and bury criticism of himself.
7. Donald Trump believes strongly in revenge. This contradicts his claim to be a Christian.
8. Donald Trumps character raises serious questions about his fitness for the presidency.

K ey Insight 1

Donald Trumps father, Fred Trump, was known for dishonest business tactics. Donald Trump followed his fathers example.

Analysis

Donalds father, Fred, was a real estate developer known for being a bad landlord who used cheap materials to maximize profits. After World War II, he was accused of cheating the Federal Housing Authority of funds meant to subsidize veterans housing. He testified before Congress, but the government did not bring charges. Fred Trump also partnered with organized crime figures who provided him with cash and ensured he had no trouble with unions.

Fred Trump bilked the federal government on FHA loans during the early 1950s. First, he delayed paying back a low-cost government loan until after he had gathered an additional $1.7 million in rents, about $15 million in 2016 dollars. Fred Trump was able to do this because the loan arrangement was approved by Clyde Powell, a bureaucrat who took bribeshowever, no one ever proved that Fred Trump had bribed him in this case. Fred Trump also padded his profits by overestimating construction costs and then jacking up rents based on those costs. [1]

Fred Trump was involved in other scandals. For example, he was one of many government contractors who donated to the 1961 mayoral candidacy of Robert Wagner in New York. The contractors contributions had the makings of a graft scandal, and Wagner was forced to return them to donors. [2]

Donald Trump would later associate with organized crime figures and engage in shady and shoddy business dealings just as his father had. Leveraging government rules to turn a profit in technically legal but unsavory ways became a hallmark of Donald Trumps career, as well. In his presidential campaign, for example, Trump has rented planes and other equipment from his own businesses, thereby using campaign contributions to enrich himself.

Donald Trump was strongly influenced by Roy Cohn.

Analysis

Roy Cohn worked as a lawyer for Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950s and aided in McCarthys infamous Communist witch hunts. Donald Trump hired Cohn in 1972 to defend him from federal lawsuits charging his family with racial bias in renting apartments. Cohn advocated aggressive defense and a countersuit. Although Trump was eventually forced to settle, Cohn became an important mentor. Trump admired and emulated the lawyers aggressive and vindictive attitude.