Donald Trump: His ties to the Mafia and Drug Traffickers

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/37497-the-making-of-donald-trump-david-cay-johnston-on-trump-s-ties-to-the-mob-and-drug-traffickers

We continue this holiday special with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston, who's been reporting on Donald Trump for decades. Johnston first covered Trump in the 1980s while he was working as bureau chief for the Philadelphia Inquirer in Atlantic City. David Cay Johnston later covered Trump at The New York Times. Johnston's new biography of Donald Trump has just been published; it's called "The Making of Donald Trump."

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Pete Seeger singing "Which Side Are You On?" This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman, as we continue this holiday special with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston, who's been reporting on Donald Trump for decades. Johnston first covered Trump in the 1980s while he was working as bureau chief for the Philadelphia Inquirer in Atlantic City. David Cay Johnston later covered Trump at The New York Times. Johnston's new biography of Donald Trump has just been published; it's called The Making of Donald Trump.

Juan González and I interviewed David Cay Johnston last month. We began by asking him, what's the main theme he's taken away from his years of studying Donald Trump and his operations?

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Donald doesn't know anything. And if you listen carefully to what he says, it becomes apparent. He was asked by a Hugh Hewitt during one of the debates, the right-wing radio talk show host, about the nuclear triad. That's the capacity of the US to deliver a nuclear bomb from a submarine missile, a land-based missile or an airplane. His answer indicated he had no idea. Well, it turned out Hugh Hewitt had asked the same question months earlier on his radio show, and Trump didn't learn in between. Trump talks as if the president's a dictator. When he ran casinos, he didn't know the games, he didn't know the odds, he didn't know how to handle customers. All he knew how to do was take money out of the organization, which weakened it, and that's why his casinos were among the first to fold.