Best of 2025 – Mob Rule – How the Mafia influences the White House

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Podmasters

News, Government, Politics, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 December 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In case you missed them, over Christmas we’re bringing you some of the best Bunkers of the year. Today: How mobbed up is the American political establishment? From FDR to Trump, every modern president has had brushes with organised crime. So how have secret pacts, betrayals, and under-the-table deals influenced the commander-in-chief? Eric Dezenhall, author of Wiseguys and the White House, explores the not-so-hidden ties between the leader of the free world and the mob with Seth “The Consigliere” Thévoz. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Seth “The Consigliere” Thévoz. Produced by Liam “Big Guy” Tait. Audio editor: Ice-Pick Simon Williams. Art direction: Crazy Jimmy Parrett. Managing editor: Jacob “Mr Clean” Jarvis. Music by Mr Fingers Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew “Uncle Junior” Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. You should drop by some time. Play some cards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, it's Andrew Harrison here.
0:05.9	To brighten up the intra-Christmas and New Year wasteland,
0:09.3	we're bringing you a few of our favourite editions from the year.
0:12.2	And this one from back in March was really great.
0:14.4	You might think that Trump is the first president to act like a mob boss.
0:18.4	If so, you don't know the half of it.
0:20.6	Listen for a fascinating portraits
0:22.2	of American presidents and their ties to La Cozanoestra, from Roosevelt to Kennedy and beyond.
0:28.3	Your host, Maid Man and Stand Up Guy, Seth the Dark Table. Hello and welcome to The Bunker, your need to know on news and politics.
0:47.4	I'm Seth Teville.
0:48.8	As the saying goes, the secret ingredient is crime.
0:52.8	Gangsters and organised crime have always made for fascinating stories,
0:56.8	as the prevalence of true crime podcasts attests. And politicians are no exception, particularly in the US.
1:04.3	The tales are manifold of John F. Kennedy's Faustian pact with the mafia to win the 1960 election.
1:13.3	But a much wider look at this can be found in Eric Dazenhall's time-ly new book, Wise Guys and the White House, gangsters, presidents, and the deals
1:19.4	they made. It tells the story of the many colourful mafia links of US presidents over the last
1:24.7	90 years, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Donald Trump.
1:29.2	We're very lucky to be joined by Eric Dazen Hall. Welcome to the bunker, Eric.
1:33.5	Thanks for having me. This is fun.
1:35.6	No, it's great. Your background is in crisis communication. So what first interested you about this topic?
1:42.3	Well, my career, my day job for 40 years was running a crisis
1:47.4	management firm, but that was somewhat separate from my literary interests. I mean, I grew up in
	...

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