«Here are all the lies and dirty deals of Trump» (David Cay Johnston)

An investigative book by a journalist who has followed the president of the United States throughout his thirty-year career. "A searing indictment," according to the New York Times, which nevertheless helps us understand where America is headed.

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Trump's lies

TRUMP'S LIES

How long will it last Donald TrumpWill he be able to complete his term at the top of the White House? Establishments, public opinion, and bookmakers of all kinds are all around the world revolving around these two questions with a mixture of anxiety and bewilderment. No one has a crystal ball, and while we're all pretty convinced (or resigned?) that the new president of the United States will surprise us every day with special effects, Never before has it been so important to delve deeper into the profile of the most powerful man on the planet.A helping hand, not exactly warm, but very tight for the quantity of news and details it provides, comes to us from the investigative journalist David Cay Johnston who followed the tycoon for over thirty years, from his first real estate operations in Queens until his arrival at the White House, and wrote a biography (Donald Trump, Einaudi editions) which rightly the New York Times he calls it "a searing indictment."

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TRUMP'S UNScrupulousness

Inside a book that nonetheless has the hand of a Pulitzer Prize winner, you will find everything and more. Trump's unscrupulousness in business, with a constant in and out, before it's too late, of the gray area where the economy and crime intersect. In real estate, in the casino business, in finance, where, however, the current president has never been particularly popular and even considered unreliable in terms of financial stability. This book features, like a Scorsese film, characters from the Chinese, American, Italian, and Russian underworld. The post-truth Trump appears, as skilled at telling lies as he is at making jokes. (in comparison to him, the Silvio Berlusconi that many Italians consider The Caiman he really seems like an amateur), but condemned, by rather distorted and confused ideas, to transform itself into a gaffeuer serialYou can discover, reading Johnston's pages, how Trump fails to conceal his racist streak as a visceral anti-black man, and how he instead becomes a highly skilled mediator with the most uncouth Arab oil billionaires. There's the Trump who manipulates, with arrogance and ease, the corridors of power in Washington, and there's the Trump who acts as a collector of women, not caring that all this, once he arrives in the White House, could become fodder for powerful blackmail.

By the end of the book, which flows quickly despite the density of its stories and reconstructions, you're left asking yourself two questions. The first: is it all true? Johnston is an investigative journalist, and his work has been thoroughly scrutinized by lawyers and archival experts (as is customary in America, where journalism isn't dead). He's also been insulted and threatened with legal action by Trump, but beyond words, the White House resident hasn't responded in a concrete way to stem the wave of discredit unleashed by the American journalist's book.

TRUMP:

TRUMP PRESIDENCY

The second question is connected to the initial questions: The man is used to a reckless life, and he certainly won't change his lifestyle just because he became president of the United States. On the contrary.. From this book it is easier to understand, for example, why a part of Americans are experiencing Trump's presidency as a nightmare, rather than as a phase in the history (and politics) of the United States and the worldBut here, aside from moods and possible predictions, it's still the numbers that count, and they carry weight when it comes to drawing conclusions, even in politics. Johnston, with his "searing indictment," merely confirms all the American establishment's doubts about Trump's election, but let's remember that the president-elect only garnered 4 percent of the vote in New York. His victory came in the heart of America, the deep but real and vital America, certainly not in the niches of its ruling classes, often self-absorbed and abysmally distant from popular sentiments and interests. And at the moment, this gut feeling. It doesn't yet show any irreparable cracks. Clear, right? This is democracy, baby. And it has its risks.

(Cover image credits: JStone / Shutterstock.com)

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