What Donald Trump Learned From the Mob

Donald Trump speaks at a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Wednesday. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

I recently picked up a piece of gossip about Donald Trump: He was pissed off at a senior government official because that person’s adult children were making money in a deal related to an administration policy, and Trump and his family were not receiving a cut of the action. Now I don’t normally report speculation and rumor that is unconfirmed. But what’s notable about this scuttlebutt is how believable it is. As many have observed, Trump is running his administration like a mob operation. He demands absolute loyalty, surrounds himself with groveling lieutenants, seeks vengeance against his foes, looks to exploit all circumstances for his personal profit and to enrich his family, and, with his pardon of the January 6 rioters, embraces violence as a tool of power.

His attempt to create a $1.776 billion slush fund—the so-called Anti-Weaponization Fund—fits this characterization, especially that last point about violence. It can be used to reward Trump foot soldiers who engaged in the violent J6 insurrection or who might do something similar in elections ahead. And its setup is akin to a mob bust-out—when crooks take over a legitimate business, suck money out of it, and leave it for dead. That’s comparable to what Trump is doing to the federal government. He’s racking up the federal debt while extracting funds for his own benefit and self-glorification: the absurd ballroom, the ludicrous arch, the Reflecting Pool (being rehabbed through a rigged contract), the 747 gifted him by the Qataris (which is being retrofitted for $1 billion in taxpayer funds!), and, of course, tax breaks for him and other plutocrats.

With Trump, the mob is more than a metaphor. As I’ve noted previously, he has a history of associating with organized crime. During his 2016 presidential run, I was one of the few reporters who bothered to pay attention to that, and I’m sorry I failed to generate more interest in this component of his checkered past. But now is a good time to once again review what was overlooked back then and seemingly forgotten.

* As journalist Tim O’Brien noted in his 2005 book, TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald, Trump began his casino empire in Atlantic City, New Jersey, by leasing property owned by two mobsters: Kenneth Shapiro and Daniel Sullivan. Shapiro, O’Brien wrote, was a “street-level gangster with close ties to the Philadelphia mob,” and Sullivan was a “Mafia associate, FBI informant and labor negotiator.” (Trump also obtained Sullivan’s assistance when he had trouble with undocumented Polish workers who were demolishing the Bonwit Teller building in Manhattan to make way for Trump Tower.) When O’Brien interviewed Trump for the book, Trump told him that he believed Sullivan was mobbed up and “the guy that killed Jimmy Hoffa.” He described Shapiro as a “mob guy.”

After New Jersey regulators in 1982 granted Trump a casino license, they compelled him to buy the property that he had leased from Shapiro and Sullivan because of their backgrounds. Shapiro later told a federal grand jury that he illegally funneled thousands of dollars to the Atlantic City mayor on Trump’s behalf—a charge Trump denied.

* In 1999, when Trump was considering running for president as the candidate of the Reform Party, he was interviewed on Meet the Press by Tim Russert, who asked Trump about his “relations with members of organized crime.” Trump denied having any such connections. He neglected to mention that he got his start in Atlantic City via that deal with Shapiro and Sullivan. He also did not say anything about having worked with a cement company owned by Mafia captains and with a mob-linked union official when he was building Trump Tower. Yet eight months earlier—when Trump was not weighing a presidential bid—he acknowledged that he had done business with organized crime figures. Talking to the Associated Press, Trump remarked, “Usually, I build buildings. I have to deal with the unions, the mob, some of the roughest men you’ve ever seen in your life.”

* In 1991, the Philadelphia Inquirer asked Trump about his connection to Robert LiButti, a famous horse breeder and high-stakes gambler with ties to infamous Mafia boss John Gotti. At the time, New Jersey regulators were investigating allegations that the Trump Plaza casino had repeatedly removed women and Black people from craps tables after LiButti griped about their presence while playing. “I have heard he is a high roller, but if he was standing here in front of me, I wouldn’t know what he looked like,” Trump told the newspaper. And when Yahoo News in 2016 asked Trump about this 1991 investigation, which resulted in a $200,000 fine, Trump answered, “During the years I very successfully ran the casino business, I knew many high rollers. I assume Mr. LiButti was one of them, but I don’t recognize the name.”

Edith Creamer, LiButti’s daughter, had a different take. She told Yahoo News that Trump and her father knew each other well. “He’s a liar,” Creamer said. “Of course he knew him. I flew in the [Trump] helicopter with [Trump’s then-wife] Ivana and the kids. My dad flew it up and down [to Atlantic City]. My 35th birthday party was at the Plaza and Donald was there. After the party, we went on his boat, his big yacht. I like Trump, but it pisses me off that he denies knowing my father. That hurts me.”

The Yahoo News story by Michael Isikoff (with whom I have co-authored two books) also reported that a 1991 book written by John O’Donnell, the former president of the Trump Plaza casino, recounted a 1988 meeting between Trump and LiButti aboard Trump’s private helicopter. On this flight, according to O’Donnell, Trump discussed buying a racehorse for $500,000 from LiButti. Moreover, Isikoff obtained the transcript of a wiretapped meeting in 1990 between LiButti and a top Trump executive in which LiButti made numerous references to his conversations with Trump and described an occasion when Trump personally handed him a check after he lost $350,000 at the craps table. (It was supposedly a gift to keep LiButti happy so he would continue gambling at the Trump Plaza.)

There’s been much commentary over the years about Trump’s relationship with Roy Cohn, who was a lawyer for Mafia chieftains and who has been described as a mentor for Trump. This has yielded the presumption Trump learned much of his bullying and unprincipled ways from this sleazy attorney. (See the movie The Apprentice.) But Trump also did business with Mafiosi and might have picked up a pointer or two from them directly. His manic obsession with vendettas comes straight out of a mob movie.

Trump’s mob past—and his lies about those interactions—never became an issue in the 2016 race. Now it’s ancient history. Since then, there’s been so much other shady Trump stuff, and it’s no surprise when he conducts government business as if he were a Mafia don. With the “anti-weaponization” fund—which a federal judge temporarily blocked on Friday—he’s angling to steal taxpayer dollars to dole out big bucks to his loyalists and brownshirts, trying to tap into a legitimate enterprise—the federal government—for his own personal and corrupt purpose. Exactly like a mob boss would do.

Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland.corn@gmail.com.

Usually, this part of the newsletter appears in the premium version. But I thought this week everyone could use a dose of inspiration from a musician and from a student journalist.

This week, Bruce Springsteen ends his Land of Hope & Dreams tour that he poignantly launched in March in Minneapolis. The Boss has long injected political activism into his music and performances, going back to his appearance at the historic No Nukes concerts in 1979. (Yes, I was there.) He has written what might be called protest songs, such as “American Skin (41 Shots)” and the recent “Streets of Minneapolis.” He has campaigned for John Kerry, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris. (During the 2024 campaign, Trump absurdly suggested, without any evidence, of course, that the Harris campaign had illegally paid Springsteen for his endorsement.) And he has long championed progressive values.

That said, his recent tour has been perhaps the most political act in his six-decade-long career. At his shows, he has consistently slammed Trump as a treasonous, corrupt, and venal threat to American democracy and called on his audience and fans to find a way to join the opposition to Trump. He has paid moving tributes to Renée Good and Alex Pretti and led chants of “ICE Out Now.” His half-century of writing about America and the multitude of stories it holds has culminated in this moment with a full integration of art and resistance. It may be fair to say that he has done more than any of his fellow American music legends to directly challenge Trump.

On Wednesday, he performed at Nationals Park in Washington, DC. It was a helluva show, with his E Street Band (joined by Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine) performing at a level of 11. The set list was smart, full of songs for this time of crisis (“Long Walk Home,” “American Land,” The Clash’s “Clampdown,” Edwin Starr’s “War”) and his classic joy-sparking rockers. Springsteen voiced his earnest and heartfelt concern about Trump’s war on American values and cited Good’s last words—“I’m not mad at you”—as a message for the country. “Do as Renée did,” he urged the crowd, “and find a way to take aggressive peaceful action to defend our country’s ideals.” Then he performed Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom.” It was inspiring.

For more inspiration, let’s turn to Santiago Campos, a student journalist who recently won a Mike Wallace Memorial Scholarship. Accepting the award named after the legendary 60 Minutes correspondent at the Emmys, he took aim at CBS News, which funds this scholarship, and said,

While I want to thank CBS News for funding this generous gift toward my education, I want to acknowledge how the recent direction of the outlet stains the legacy of Mike Wallace, the namesake of this scholarship…As corporate elites take hold over the very pipes through which our information flows, journalism that serves people becomes increasingly harder to come by yet ever more crucial. And what the people want is the truth. So if at any time you hesitate to utter the word “genocide” or remain silent in the face of blatant lies, remember to ask yourself, “Who is this for?” I hope you choose us.

A ballsy move from a kid who’s just starting out as a journalist. Good luck to him.

Want my advice on how to make a bundle? Place a heavy bet on the US Senate race in Texas between corrupt Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico becoming the nastiest political contest in decades. The Republicans have launched blistering assaults on Talarico for being a vegan (he’s not a vegan and not even a vegetarian) and for supporting transgender rights. One line of attack focused on a statement that Talarico made in 2021: “God is nonbinary.” Ted Cruz and the National Republican Senate Committee bitched about that this week:

As Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, has said, his point was that God transcends such human categories as gender. Still, GOPers want to make hay out of this to depict Talarico as a pro-trans weirdo. But let’s think about it. Does God have genitalia? How would anyone know? In the Bible, God is referenced with male pronouns. But there’s no mention of him possessing a schlong. And the main view of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam is that God is spirit and does not possess a physical body. Which would mean...no johnson.

Cruz’s argument is a dumb one. God’s gender—if he, she, or they exist and have one—is, like so much about God, unknowable. Besides, we don’t have to worry about what bathroom God would use.

The Trumpified Freedom 250 outfit released its lineup of musical performers for the so-called Great American State Fair being held on the National Mall as part of the celebration of the semiquincentennial anniversary of the founding of the United States, and it was a stupid roster.

Featuring Milli Vanilli, a fraudulent lip-syncing act from Germany, to celebrate the United States? That wasn’t too smart. Nor was announcing artists who apparently weren’t fully briefed on this gig. On Wednesday, Morris Day and The Time announced he would not be participating in a Trump-connected event. Then Young MC pulled out. He declared, “The artists were never told about any political involvement with the event.” Others joined this parade—the Commodores, Martina McBride, Bret Michaels (who fronted glam metal band Poison), and, yes, Milli Vanilli. Where’s Kid Rock? Perhaps Ted Nugent is available for the full week.

The Republican governor of Nevada has not bothered to figure out how Trump’s tariffs affect his state. In an interview with a local news station, Joe Lombardo was asked about the impact of these tariffs on Nevada, and he whiffed: “I don't know all the nuances of foreign policy associated with that and tariffs and how it directly affects, uh, Nevada. But me, as the governor of the state of Nevada, I’m concerned about Nevada.”

So the guy who’s in charge of Nevada is concerned about Nevada but knows nothing about what a major economic policy means for Nevada. Got it.

Right-wing commentator Megyn Kelly campaigned for Trump during the 2024 election, appearing at rallies for him and praising him to the hilt. Now she says she’s shocked, shocked to discover that Trump is corrupt.

“I didn’t expect the corruption to be quite as widespread as it has been. The self-dealing, the lining of his and his family’s pockets. It’s shocking,” she remarked this week. “You look across the board at the Trump family, I’ve never seen a family get so rich off the presidency.”  

We can be glad Kelly has finally seen the light. But there was plenty of warning. During his first stint in the White House, Trump lined his pockets with assorted grift, such as accepting large payments from foreign government officials at his Washington, DC, hotel, in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. Forbes estimated that Trump hauled in $2.4 billion through his various business enterprises during that first term. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington tallied 3,700 conflicts of interest in those four years. And let’s not forget Jared Kushner’s $2 billion deal with the Saudis.

There has always been a strong stench of corruption surrounding Trump and his clan—long before his return to the White House. Yet only now Kelly recognizes it as a problem? Better late than never. But for suggesting that Trump’s previous level of corruption was acceptable, she wins the week.

With the holiday weekend and a skipped issue, the mail was a touch light this week. A worried Richard Gilbert sent in this question:

By what authority does Trump have the ability to cancel an election?

The answer is clear: He has no such authority. According to the Congressional Research Service, “The United States Constitution does not provide in express language current authority for any federal official or institution to ‘postpone’ an election for federal office.” The Constitution hands election authority to Congress and the states. Congress set Election Day, per a statute passed in 1845, and only it can change the date. The president has no say in when or whether an election is held. But that doesn’t mean that Trump won’t try to screw with the midterms this year or the 2028 elections by claiming some emergency authority to do so, as he attempted to do with tariffs—a move the Supreme Court put the kibosh on.

Also, keep this in mind: Elections are overseen and conducted by states and localities. That means many key House contests this year are in states and areas politically controlled by Democrats, such as Pennsylvania. It would take extreme machinations for Trump to try to seize control of elections in those places. I’m not saying he won’t give it a shot. But it will not be easy for him to pull off such authoritarian shenanigans.

Tom Meyer, a retired psychiatrist, wrote in about the issue that covered the new biography of Mary Todd Lincoln and noted that it was wrong to suggest the 16th first lady would have benefitted from antidepressants:

From your description she sounds bipolar. Often with bipolar people, they will switch into manic mode if given an antidepressant. Sometimes that is your first clue to their diagnosis. There were no psychiatric medications back then and hospitalizations were often long, as in years. Patients were kept in basements, as in Jane Eyre.

“Moxie, let’s go look at the cut.”
“But the sign says ‘danger.’”
“I can see there’s no danger there. You don’t trust me?”
“Humans are notoriously bad at assessing risk.”
“Yet dogs often follow wherever we go.”
“It’s an occupational hazard of being your best friend.”