Author David Cay Johnston lashes out at ‘corrupt’ Trump

If the Trump administration can boast of one accomplishment besides the recent tax bill, passed in time to mark Trump’s one-year anniversary of his presidency, it’s that practically anyone can now buy and own a gun — even the mentally ill.

With no cameras present, Trump signed into law a joint congressional resolution ending background checks on gun buyers last February — checks that Congress had required after the Sandy Hook massacre that killed 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 and passed at President Obama’s urging.

‘Thanks to Trump the mentally ill now have virtually the same gun rights as the sane’, writes Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and New York Times bestselling author David Cay Johnston in It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America, published next week. 

Unlike Michael Wolff’s recently published book, Fire and Fury, based on White House staff interviews, Johnston, a specialist in economics and tax issues, has meticulously investigated what has transpired inside federal agencies during the Trump administration. 

Johnston has been following Trump since 1988 and believes that his administration is destroying the American government from within and compromising citizens’ safety, jobs, finances and more.

In a new book, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist claims that Trump was estranged from Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric – ‘until as adults they went on Daddy’s payroll and became his loyal aides’. Pictured: His eldest three children breaking ground on his new DC hotel

Everyone in Washington knows if you want to do business with the administration, you have to stay at the Trump International Hotel (pictured), according to author David Cay Johnston

Everyone in Washington knows if you want to do business with the administration, you have to stay at the Trump International Hotel (pictured), according to author David Cay Johnston

While prior administrations weren’t necessarily devoid of some corruption, Johnston writes that even ‘the worst of the presidents shared one common trait vital to democracy that is missing from the Trump administration – their administrations were about America and its people’.

‘The Trump presidency is about Trump. Period. Full stop.’ And his ‘sad need for attention and public adoration’, fueling ‘his fundamental character, narcissism’.

Johnston has been warning about the dangers of Trump for years since the publication of his best-selling 2016 biography, The Making of Donald Trump.

Trump signing off on ending the background checks on anyone purchasing a gun is only one indicator that he will never support limiting the types of guns sold or their open display, the author contends.

Trump became the first president to address the NRA leadership since Ronald Reagan and told them: ‘As your president, I will never, ever infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms’. And apparently, that includes the mentally insane.

Trump repeatedly used violent imagery while campaigning. After the massacre of 49 patrons in a Florida nightclub in 2016, he suggested it would be ‘beautiful’ if the partiers had been armed, suggesting a shootout between drunken nightclub patrons and a terrorist. 

He suggested an open firing could have nailed the shooter between his eyes. But it would have killed many more people, which he failed to note.

‘The deaths at Sandy Hook and in Orlando and Charlottesville apparently trouble Trump little or not at all’, writes the author.

With this casual use of violent imagery, Trump is not calming gun violence or potential urban warfare. 

After publicly humiliating his first wife Ivana with planted news stories in 1990 to keep the news cycle flowing about himself, Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric became estranged from their father. He never interacted with them when they were children but only when they were in college. Pictured: Trump with Ivana, Ivanka, Don Jr and Eric in 1988 

After publicly humiliating his first wife Ivana with planted news stories in 1990 to keep the news cycle flowing about himself, Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric became estranged from their father. He never interacted with them when they were children but only when they were in college. Pictured: Trump with Ivana, Ivanka, Don Jr and Eric in 1988 

Trump’s first ex-wife, Ivana, revealed in 1990 that Trump read from a book of Hitler’s speeches, a book that he kept in his bedside cabinet.

When asked about that book in 1990, Trump claimed it was Mein Kampf, a gift from a Jewish businessman, Martin Davis. 

Interviewing Davis, the author learned that Davis was not Jewish and the book was My New Order, Hitler’s collected speeches – precisely what Ivana had said.

One Trump Organization employee, John Walter, clicked his heels and said ‘Heil Hitler!’ when entering Trump’s office, Ivana told her friends.

After publicly humiliating Ivana with planted news stories in 1990 to keep the news cycle flowing about himself, Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric became estranged from their father for years – ‘until as adults they went on Daddy’s payroll and became his loyal aides’.

He never interacted with them when they were children but only when they were in college.

Issues about anti-corruption clauses in the Constitution are being raised because Trump is blatantly enriching himself and his family through Federal, state and local governments when he’s not in Washington and is staying at one of his own properties, claims the author. 

Taxpayers have to pick up the full-priced tab for staffers, Secret Service and anyone in the entourage accompanying him on his getaways.

He even threw the Secret Service out of Trump Tower because he wanted to rent that space at an even higher cost.

At Trump’s Old Post Office hotel in Washington, overpriced rooms and dining rooms were empty until he stopped the motorcade in front of the hotel and strolled outside of the building that he had converted into the Trump International Hotel Washington. 

'The deaths at Sandy Hook and in Orlando and Charlottesville apparently trouble Trump little or not at all', writes Johnston. Pictured: The Las Vegas massacre, the deadliest mass shooting that has occurred in the past 50 years 

‘The deaths at Sandy Hook and in Orlando and Charlottesville apparently trouble Trump little or not at all’, writes Johnston. Pictured: The Las Vegas massacre, the deadliest mass shooting that has occurred in the past 50 years 

Trump repeatedly used violent imagery while campaigning. After the massacre of 49 patrons at Pulse (pictured),  in 2016, he suggested it would be 'beautiful' if the partiers had been armed, suggesting a shootout between drunken patrons and a terrorist

Trump repeatedly used violent imagery while campaigning. After the massacre of 49 patrons at Pulse (pictured), in 2016, he suggested it would be ‘beautiful’ if the partiers had been armed, suggesting a shootout between drunken patrons and a terrorist

Omar Mateen (pictured), killed 49 people and wounded 58 others in a terrorist attack/hate crime inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, in June 2016

Stephen Paddock (pictured) killed 58 people and hundreds injured in the Las Vegas massacre in October

Trump signing off on ending the background checks on anyone purchasing a gun is only one indicator that he will never support limiting types of guns sold. Pictured: Omar Mateen (left), killed 49 people and wounded 58 others inside Pulse in June 2016. Stephen Paddock (right) killed 58 people and injured hundreds in the Las Vegas massacre in October

Projected losses before that blatant message were $2.1 million for the first four months of 2017 – not to mention unpaid bills to angry contractors who wanted their money.

After the stroll on Pennsylvania Avenue with Melania, the hotel generated a profit of $2 million with the highest room rates in Washington – although it’s certainly not the finest – and a rate triple the average of other DC hotels.

Steaks cost $60 – despite lousy reviews – and food and beverage in the first 120 days of his presidency totaled $8.2 million – thanks again to that stroll. 

Lobbyists, executives, foreign diplomats and other slavish favor seekers quickly learned that Trump’s hotel was the place to meet cabinet members and other appointees. 

One lobbyist reported in a lawsuit that the senior White House staff hangs out at the hotel’s lobby bar to see who’s ordering that $1,000 bottle of wine.

Everyone in Washington knows that if you want to do business with the administration, you have to stay at the Trump International Hotel, according to the author.

‘Trump controls the amount of money he collects this way’, writes Johnston. In his first 202 days in office, Trump spent 65 days at Mar-a-Lago, his New Jersey golf course or Trump Tower. ‘That’s almost one day in three’.

‘Trump is the first president to pose numerous questions about whether he is receiving income from foreign governments, which the Framers of the Constitution felt was inherently corrupting.

‘He is also the first to present the issue of profiting from spending by federal, state and local governments with payments that the Framers denied to the President’.

Trump leased the Old Post Office building in Washington from the federal government, which ‘specifically forbids’ any federal employee from receiving any gain or benefit from the lease.  

'Trump controls the amount of money he collects this way', writes the author. In his first 202 days in office, Trump spent 65 days at Mar-a-Lago, his New Jersey golf course or Trump Tower. 'That's almost one day in three'

‘Trump controls the amount of money he collects this way’, writes the author. In his first 202 days in office, Trump spent 65 days at Mar-a-Lago, his New Jersey golf course or Trump Tower. ‘That’s almost one day in three’

When queried about this, Trump acknowledged in a lawsuit that he signed documents without reading them, says Johnston

He put his more than 500 businesses supposedly in a blind trust that is managed by his two oldest sons. It was modified shortly after he took office allowing him to withdraw as much cash as he wants at any time.

In one of Trump’s most egregious acts, he has cut some funding to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), so it would be harder to enforce and monitor companies violating laws against disposal of toxic waste in the environment.

This could lead to Americans facing more cancer, heart disease, asthma and death — from unchecked pollution.

Tons of rubbish riddled with PCBs – chemicals known as polychlorinated biphenyls – burn in Tennessee and there is no longer oversight on this – one of many unchecked violations.

Once used as insulators by electric utilities, PCBs are known to cause liver and nervous system damage, lesions in the eyes, damage to sex organs and can result in reduced intelligence when ingested by pregnant women.

The EPA now refuses to respond to journalists’ requests for information with anything other than a canned email response and investigations of polluters have dropped sharply under Trump’s appointment of administrator Scott Pruitt to head the agency.

‘The spigot sustaining complex corporate anti-pollution prosecutions is being turned off at the source,’ writes the author. 

Trump signed an executive order aimed at undoing the Clean Power Plan that could have prevented 90,000 fewer asthma attacks a year; 3,600 fewer premature deaths and 300,000 fewer missed work or school days. 

The EPA now refuses to respond to journalists' requests for information with anything other than a canned email response and investigations of polluters have dropped sharply under Trump's appointment of administrator Scott Pruitt (pictured) to head the agency 

The EPA now refuses to respond to journalists’ requests for information with anything other than a canned email response and investigations of polluters have dropped sharply under Trump’s appointment of administrator Scott Pruitt (pictured) to head the agency 

Pruitt served as Oklahoma’s Attorney General prior to running the EPA and refused to talk about the health issues the population would face with these new policies, such as less restriction where companies dump toxins, when he was questioned by Trump-friendly Fox News host Chris Wallace in April 2017. 

‘Without the Clean Power Plan, how are you going to prevent those terrible things’? Wallace asked.

‘What about the 166 million Americans, half the population, who breathe unclear air? Or the thousands of children who develop asthma? The many who die prematurely because of pollutants such as micro dust particles from coal-burning electric power plants?’

Pruitt had no answer other than ‘regulatory overreach’ and ‘front-loaded costs’.

Pruitt’s main concern about Americans’ health was what it was costing the federal government. 

Hiring Pruitt was in line with Trump’s attacks on renewable energy. The EPA head loves coal and is undaunted by the mounting evidence of climate change and global warming, which he unashamedly calls a ‘Chinese hoax’.

He proposes to close the Trade and Development Agency although that undercuts his ‘America First’ claims.

The agency is vital to exporting to poor countries as well as promoting clean, renewable energy. The trade agency does more than encourage exporting high-value American goods like telecommunications and transportation systems. It promotes energy projects as well as helping partner countries develop renewable energy resources and invest in cleaner forms of traditional energy and modernize, the author explains.

Renewable power using wind, solar and biomass could mean lots of jobs for American green energy companies and is cheaper energy. But Trump loves coal and wants to revive American coal mining – an archaic concept. 

Trump's presidency is compromising our safety, jobs, finances and more, claims Johnston in his new book. He says that by signing a joint congressional resolution that ends background checks on gun buyers, Trump is endangering Americans

Trump’s presidency is compromising our safety, jobs, finances and more, claims Johnston in his new book. He says that by signing a joint congressional resolution that ends background checks on gun buyers, Trump is endangering Americans

The author addresses other major  issues that Trump has stumbled over: the wall in Mexico that U.S. taxpayers will be paying for if Congress passes legislation; stocking the swamp in Washington with millionaires and billionaires – from Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, a Goldman Sachs and hedge fund veteran who made his fortune by foreclosing on homeowners, to billionaire heiress Education Secretary Betsy DeVos who puts interests of bankers ahead of debt-burdened students. 

Johnston exposes Trump’s total lack of knowledge of international business and affairs. He threatened to stop doing business with any country doing business with North Korea — not knowing how many European countries traded with North Korea’s president, Kim Jong-Un. 

The lapse in knowledge is surprising, as Trump has claimed he’s so smart because he attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

The author writes ‘he went only to its undergraduate program in real-estate economics’.

‘Our Constitution is meant to free the human spirit so we and our posterity may become something better than we were, better than we are today.

‘Freedom is about choosing, but it is also about having to live with the consequences of the choices we make. If we choose to empower the dishonest, the ill prepared, the mean-spirited, and the emotionally immature, we will pay dearly’, concludes the author. 



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