Written by two investigative journalists working with the New York Times and published a little before Donald J. Trump was elected as President of the United States of America (POTUS) for a second term of four years, this book is an extremely detailed exposé of how he acquired his wealth through inheritance, fraud, and deceit. Based on 20 years of confidential tax information and business records obtained by leaks from whistleblowers and off-the-record interviews with insiders, the authors debunk the assiduously cultivated myth surrounding Trump, namely, that “life was not easy for me.” That’s bullshit, they argue very convincingly.
Buettner and Craig meticulously and systematically take apart the fable of how Trump converted a small loan taken from his father into a multi-billion-dollar real estate empire. They show how his television presence enabled him to project a hyped image of himself as a “self-made billionaire.” The book, encompassing events that have taken place over almost a century, documents how he squandered fortunes on loss-making businesses, took huge loans that he would struggle to repay — and how he was saved time and again from bankruptcy by “blind luck” and favorable government rules that were framed by administrations that were on occasions led by his political opponents such as Barack Obama.
Trump’s father had gained greatly by government regulations and largesse doled out by successive American governments during the Great Depression of the 1930s and after World War II, including the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. What the writers recount is that Fred C. Trump’s career trajectory as a builder, mainly around New York, was quite in contrast to the rise of his son, the POTUS, the controller of Mar-a-Lago and Atlantic City, and the superstar of the “reality” TV show The Apprentice that made him what he is, a creature of a monstrous media.
Here’s a short excerpt from the book’s Introduction:
"He was perhaps the best-known businessperson in the country about whom almost nothing was known for certain. He had hovered for decades at the nexus of business and tabloid celebrity, often treated more as an entertaining sideshow than a man of consequence. He rose to national stature alongside the same media outlets that elevated the rich and successful to a new level of celebrity. Countless fawning profiles in more serious outlets, including in the Times, dutifully quoted him making assertions that could have been revealed as wildly false…And the bombast made for good copy and excellent television, boosting ratings and newsstand sales for decades. A portion of the nation happily went along for the ride, seemingly eager to believe a fantasy from a handsome rich man. None of it mattered. Until it did."
Yes, despite the blistering critique of Trump by Buettner and Craig, their detailed muck-raking of the “fraudulent tax evasion schemes” that he benefitted from, and the reams of research and references that form an integral part of the book, the fact is that the voters of the “most militarily powerful country” and the “world’s oldest democracy” have voted him to power till 2028. This is why it’s important to understand the working of the American media (notably Fox News) and the claims of a country whose minorities and underprivileged have been brainwashed to believe in the virtues of free enterprise capitalism (that certainly doesn’t exist as far as real estate markets in the US is concerned).
Four years ago, Trump had fuelled a lie that he had won the Presidential elections that he had actually lost. The untruth inspired some of his supporters to storm the US Capitol. He was the first president since 1869 to refuse to attend his successor’s inauguration. The book, while mentioning his innumerable peccadilloes, focusses mainly on his finances and his “entrepreneurial” claims. In the process, it lays bare the way aggressive tax manoeuvres that have taken place and how the labyrinthine legal system works in America to favour the rich and the powerful.
Here’s another excerpt, this time from the book’s Epilogue:
"Here’s the part that may sting the most in a country that sees itself as history’s greatest meritocracy. Good things happened to Donald Trump. He did not earn most of those good things. He was born. He was discovered by a revolutionary television producer (Mark Burnett). And he was pushed into an investment against his will. And from those three bits of good luck came the equivalent today of more than $1.5 billion. That sort of tailwind could paper over a litany of failure and still fund a lavish life. And there is no evidence that in fifty years of labour Donald Trump added to his lucky fortunes…"
By June 2015, the authors write that Trump “finally and fully emerged from behind the carefully crafted visage of competence” that had been crafted by Burnett and others. The writers evocatively describe how he descended a brass escalator into the marble lobby of Trump Tower, while his third wife Melania and his grown children from his previous marriages waited below. He then made an announcement, not about the purchase of a building or a casino or a football team or an airline or a golf estate. He announced that he would be running for the post of POTUS to MAGA (Make America Great Again).
He has made demands that, according to the authors, would have probably ended the careers of other US Presidents. He told the President of Ukraine that military support to fight against Russia might not be forthcoming unless his goverment in Kyiv announced an investigation into the deals made by the outgoing US President Joe Biden and
his son Hunter Biden. After he lost the election in 2020, despite his claims to the contrary, Trump was recorded telling an official from the Republican Party to which he belongs, to “find me the votes” in Georgia “that would flip the election in his direction.” Then, while he was out of office, he showed a journalist a classified document to cast aspersions on a former official of his own cabinet who he perceived as not being loyal to him.
The book compares Trump to Richard Nixon, the US President who resigned in ignominy in 1974 after the Watergate scandal had been exposed by journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. During Trump’s lifetime, a new media ecosystem had come into existence, “one eager to explain away evidence of any Republican president’s wrongs and endlessly magnify the thinnest assertion of any Democrat’s missteps” — an ecosystem epitomised by Fox News.
Trump never really apologised for his racist slurs against Obama, nor his unfounded claim that he had been born in Africa and was hence not eligible to hold the post of President. During his presidency, Fox gave his supporters safe harbour “from confronting his most craven acts.” “In this virtual world, no criticism or finding of fault against Trump could be based on merit,” write Buettner and Craig, adding that he successfully undermined fact-based journalism. He described reporters as “enemies of the state” and, to use his own words, was able to “discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”
Trump not only found no competency in the media other than in Fox News. He was able to considerably destroy the credibility of the judiciary – judges and prosecutors who brought cases of fraud against him were called “crazed’ and “Trump hating.” As the authors argue, Trump’s mission was “an effort to destroy public confidence in the historical pilars of fact in America so that only his pronouncements would hold credibility”.
The book has 43 pages of notes containing 449 references. It has not been written in an academic style but, as the excerpts quoted indicate, is accessible to lay readers who may not be particularly familiar with the intricacies of finance and the niceties of accounting. Therein lies the book’s biggest advantage.
The illusion of Trump’s so-called persecution reveals a significant shift in the culture and politics of the US that will not go away in a hurry. This is reflected in his success in making “illegal immigration” a key issue in the country. One shudders to think that Donald Trump’s actions will, in the coming four years, directly influence not only the lives of Americans but indirectly, almost everyone across the globe. He has not just repeatedly lied in a nonchalant manner, his lies have been called out. Nevertheless, his most vicious remarks have apparently not made much of a difference to sections of the US electorate — including African Americans, Latinos, women, and the working class — who have voted him to power. And that’s really scary.
