[View here as a Twitter thread]
1/ What’s up with all Trump’s lawbreaking? Spoiler: When you understand how the Trump family became wealthy, the meaning of MAGA becomes clear. I’ll explain. Sources in links and these (well researched books):
2/ Friedrich, DJT’s grandfather, left Germany in 1885. He came to the US in search of opportunity (and to avoid military service). He went west and figured out that “mining the miners” was more lucrative than mining for gold. He ran taverns and brothels. After earning a small fortune, he got married, and settled in Queens, NY.
3/ He had a premonition that Queens (then rural and sparsely populated) would see a building boom, so he bought a few choice pieces of real estate. He died before he could build a real estate empire. Fred Trump, DJT’s father, made a large fortune when he figured out how to cheat.
4/ Returning WWII soldiers were eligible for home loans under the new GI bill. There was thus a need for single family homes. The FHA offered building loans. The FHA allowed builders to recoup part of their expenses, so Fred set up shell equipment companies.
5/ He rented himself equipment at inflated prices and billed the government for tacked on expenses that never occurred. When he submitted costs, he added a 5% architect’s fee even though there was no architect.
6/ He submitted falsely high estimates, did the work for millions less, and pocketed the difference. When he was hauled before the Senate probe into public corruption, he escaped punishment because there were no specific laws against what he did (now there are).
7/ So he got away with it. He partnered with ‘Willie” Tomasello, who in turn partnered with some of NY’s most powerful crime families, the Genovese and Gambino families. Through his mob connections, Fred secure masonry and other supplies at bargain prices he could pay laborers below minimum wage.
8/ He had access to the city bureaucrats and the most lucrative contracts. By the time DJT took over the family business, Fred’s tactics had been outlawed. Trump used them anyway because he didn’t know any other way to make money.
9/ You see, the Trumps had never actually added value; they took advantage of situations. It was clear from Fred Trump’s testimony in front of the Senate that he thought himself clever for finding the loopholes. And he was indignant that anyone dared accused him of crimes.
10/ Money laundering (which Trump did plenty of) was not illegal until 1986. Trump ignored laws he didn’t like. In 1986 he helped Russians launder money Breaking “unfair” laws is sometimes thought of as heroic. Remember Thoreau refusing to pay a tax in protest because he didn’t want to fund the Mexican-American war or the expansion of slavery into the west? The difference, of course, is the protesters break unjust laws openly. Trump hid what he was doing.
11/ When Fred Trump refused to rent to blacks, it was legal. When DJT took over the business, the 1968 Fair Housing Act made it illegal to discriminate against renters on the basis of race. DJT refused to rent to blacks anyway. He resented laws that restricted him.
12/ Earlier this year in Michigan Trump said: “all our laws are so corrupt and stupid” What he meant, of course, was that he doesn’t like the laws that get in his way. Trump has often railed against the 1977 Foreign Bribery Act.
13/ The NPR questioned whether Trump would enforce the laws he hated after becoming President. The real question was: Would he stop breaking the laws he hated once he became president? If the Penthouse-for-Putin rumors are true, Trump was breaking the law while running for president. Since taking office—while everyone is distracted by Trump’s constant spectacle and crisis—he has been methodically dismantling the agencies and rolling back regulations. The ones he hates.
14/ Back in the time of Trump’s father, it was hard to convict a white man of rape. Sexual harassment wasn’t illegal. Basically white men could do as they pleased. As Archie Bunker sang: Those were the days. For what I mean about rape laws, click here.
15/ It’s easy to imagine America without without the laws Trump wants to get rid of. Just carry yourself back to the 1920s, before the New Deal and before Civil Rights legislation. There was no income tax or minimum wage, so people (whites) with money lived like kings.
16/ There was no Social Security, no protection against injury in the workplace. Injured workers were left to starve. No overtime or 40 hour workweek. Income inequality meant that only 5% of families could afford college, which trapped laborers in a poverty cycle.
17/ Things were worse for blacks, who were segregated and lived in fear of lynching. There were no regulatory agencies. Insider trading was legal. Basically, white men of means could do as they pleased. They could cheat. They could grab. MAGA means take America back to 1920.
