Turning Politics Into Money

Trump, Inc.

WNYC Studios

Don, Trump, News, Business, Jared, Ivanka, Jr, Politics, Business News, Government, Eric

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2020

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For generations, the Trump family has used government and politicians as a path to profit. As president, Donald Trump has taken things even further. “This guy is a state capitalist,” said Trump’s first biographer, reporter Wayne Barrett, in a 1992 WNYC interview, cited extensively in this episode. “[In] every single one of his major deals, he was designated to be a millionaire and subsequently a billionaire by the government officials that he co-opted and compromised.” “The Trump family is not shy on transforming their wealth into power in a very crude and brutal way,” says economist Gabriel Zucman, co-author of the book “The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay.” “But that's the nature of extreme wealth. When you're extremely wealthy what do you do? You spend your wealth and your time trying to defend your established position.” This episode is based on reporting from host Andrea Bernstein’s new book “American Oligarchs: the Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power.” Read about the history of a 40-year tax break Trump negotiated for his Grand Hyatt hotel at ProPublica.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In 1992, the investigative journalist Wayne Barrett did an interview with WNYC about his
0:08.9	book, Trump, The Deals and the Downfall.
0:13.3	It was the first major biography of Donald Trump.
0:17.2	When he's cutting his first deal in the mid-70s, he's walking down the street with the
0:21.8	gallery about the deal that made Trump a real estate mogul.
0:45.0	This interview was recorded 28 years ago.
0:49.1	Wayne died in 2017, just hours before Trump was inaugurated president.
0:54.3	Decades before most people thought Trump was an important person, Wayne Barrett had
1:02.2	devoted a good chunk of his life to investigating Trump.
1:05.7	And what struck me is that the Donald Trump that Wayne Barrett talked about is the
1:10.5	very same Donald Trump we know today, not just the bragging or the outrageousness, but
1:17.0	also his use of government to profit.
1:20.8	Well, his father really lent him not just the money that made the first deals possible,
1:25.1	but much more importantly the political connections.
1:28.2	Wayne was a friend of mine and a mentor.
1:31.4	He was a legendary muck raker working for the weekly The Village Voice.
1:36.3	Wayne hit a method.
1:37.6	He would work the phones and answer his own.
1:39.7	Yeah, Barrett.
1:41.6	He would show up on people's doorsteps to get them to talk.
1:44.7	And he would sink himself into documents.
1:46.9	So much so.
	...

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