Donald Trump learned how to do business in the crooked New York City warrens of the ’60s and ’70s, alongside father Fred Trump, a residential real estate developer, specializing in federally subsidized apartment buildings.
Back then, the city was broke — it nearly went bankrupt in 1975 — and crime families ruled the trades. Every politician had their hand out.
Trump learned that money would result in collectible favors. And, no doubt he learned if he wanted services or materials, he had to pay the “right” people to get them.
Trump was mobbed up for most of his career as a New York City and New Jersey developer. His association began with lawyer Roy Cohn, who engineered the 1950s “Red Scare” with Republican Sen. Joe McCarthy.
Cohn represented major organized crime figures, including members of the Genovese crime family such as Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Gambino family underboss John Gotti.
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Cohn, who died in 1986, acted as a “fixer” and power broker, bridging the gap between legitimate business, politics, and the Mafia, while also mentoring Trump in the 1970s and 1980s.
Cohn steered Trump to construction companies run by Salerno, a boss in the Genovese family, to build Trump Plaza and Trump Tower. Salerno’s firm, S&A Concrete, provided the concrete and guaranteed labor peace on the projects through mob controlled labor unions.
Paul Castellano, head of the Gambino family, also got a piece of the action on Trump Tower through his own concrete company. Of note, Trump Tower was the first skyscraper in New York City built entirely of prestressed concrete without using any steel.
Gotti rose to the top of the Gambino family after Castellano was killed in a mob hit in broad daylight outside a Manhattan restaurant.
Trump’s move into the Atlantic City casino business was facilitated by Kenneth Shapiro, a financier with ties to Philadelphia mobster Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo.
Trump also associated in Atlantic City with high-roller gambler Robert LiButti who had ties to Gotti and the Gambino crime family. Gaming authorities eventually banned LiButti from Trump’s casinos.
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In 1988, Trump entered a licensing deal with a limousine company owned by John Staluppi, who was a known “made” member of the Colombo crime family.
John Cody, a Gambino-linked union leader, allegedly received preferential treatment from Trump, including deals on multiple units in Trump Tower.
Michael Franzese, a former caporegime in the Colombo crime family in New York City, and son of former underboss Sonny Franzese, arranged for Russian mobsters to buy condos in Trump Tower.
Franzese, who met Trump through Cohn, claims to this day that Trump’s interaction with the mob was limited to construction, and never had relationships with any mobsters beyond that.
After his New Jersey casino empire collapsed, and he went through six bankruptcies, most U.S. banks cut him off. His cash starved company began licensing his name to real estate developers and managing projects to stay afloat.
Through it all, Trump was never above greasing the wheels to get what he wanted.
On Fox News after one of the early primary debates, he bragged that everyone who had been on the stage with him had accepted money from him.
He said Hillary Clinton came to his wedding because he made a payment to the Clinton Foundation and he told her to attend. She posed for photographs with him and his bride — a lesson Jeffrey Epstein learned to play like a fine Strad.
Trump even talks and acts like a crime boss. He often uses the language they use. He gins up nicknames like popcorn at the movie theater — Crooked Hillary, Sleepy Joe — just like the mafia does… Sammy the Bull, Joey the Nose.
Loose Lips Trump
But mob bosses don’t talk much, not in public, and Trump is a public blabbermouth, often contradicting himself.
He loves to hear himself talk. He is not careful with his words. He buys them by the gross at discount stores while the words of the mafiaso are few, measured, expensive.
Unlike Trump, they don’t boast or show feeling. When they provide information to others, it’s accurate. When they threaten it’s for a reason and not empty.
Considering his loose lips, if Trump was in the mob his colleagues, I suspect, would make him disappear, fit him for a pair of cement over shoes. He’d be an embarrassment. The Submerged Don.
Like any Mafia family, the money or viggerish, flows up. As family head, Trump has been on the receiving end of billions of dollars since starting his second term — a $500 million Boeing 747-8 airplane, a $25 million donation from Amazon, a $10 million donation from Apple.
He expects to be paid, and I suspect the payers expect their calls to be answered or they expect not to be placed in his cross hairs for retribution.
Payments for pardons? It’s the old-fashioned way of doing business, a shakedown or both, you decide.
To many of his supporters, he’s like the original mob in Italy, created by the people, from the people, to extract revenge on those the system would not prosecute.
He’s even been called a folk hero as he extracts revenge on politicians and others who do not do what he demands.
He is Clint Eastwood playing Dirty Harry.
Baseball bat politics
This week two senators whom he torpedoed in Republican primaries, John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, have refused to confirm controversal acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to the job full time.
Incredibly Tillis said other than Blanche not providing a written guarantee that he will not reinstate Trump‘s billion dollar slush fund, he is highly qualified for the job. OMG.
In what world does Tillis live?
On Friday, Trump made the right move. He would withdraw the nomination and keep Blanche in an interim role until the two senators we’re gone — then he vowed to resubmit his name.
But by Saturday either his ego or his mob instincts took over and he threatened the two senators and the rest of the Senate, telling them that if Blanche is not confirmed, he will press for legislation creating his slush fund.
Bring on the baseball bat, bust some knee caps.
First, that legislation would be abhorrent to many in and out of the Senate. But do not put it past them to create such a fund, if Trump demands it
Second, Trump must think that he has enough juice to get it done even if many of the senators will vomit in their throats voting for it.
This is the threat, the stick. Can Trump get it done before the midterms? Probably not. And after the midterms, he risks the loss of the House, maybe even the Senate.
In mob boss fashion, does he own many of the Republican senators?
Probably yes, considering that he will campaign against those who do not follow his directions. Those who do not listen to him.
It’s the political equivalent of a baseball bat wielded at the kneecap. Keep an eye out for this; it will be interesting.
PS. If he was a real crime boss, do you think his nickname might have been ‘’Donnie Orange’’?
Let us know your thoughts on a nickname in the comments.
