Jonathan Greenberg chronicles the methods used by crime family boss Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump as he was creating his myth of competence and success:
... Journalists told me how he’d tried to block their reporting on his empire — by making up ethical scandals about them, furnishing fake documents and, in one case, threatening to expose the private life of a closeted media executive. Wall Street analysts witnessed a campaign of intimidation that began when Trump got one of them fired for (correctly) doubting his casinos’ ability to pay off their debts.
Even while he was suffering tremendous financial setbacks — and precisely because he was suffering those setbacks — these efforts show Trump in the desperate act of spinning a mythology about himself (rich) that would sweep aside the facts (broke). And he did it by imperiling the livelihood of his doubters, silencing them and inducing a chilling effect both in the press and among the very people who are supposed to protect investors from terrible gambles like Trump’s businesses. If this self-promotion scheme had failed, Trump would never have become a reality-TV-starring symbol of business acumen. He would have skulked off into anonymity or ignominy, just another failed real estate developer and speculator. (our emphasis)Some of what Greenberg details may be a known quantity to many, but reminding ourselves how this trashy know- nothing arrived at where he is today is still important. His methods haven't changed, only the targets. As Greenberg concludes,
His brand survived all that, and even thrived, because he wasn’t just concocting tales of his greatness; he was also forcing others to repeat them, or at least not to contradict them. It was a strategy that more recently has paid off handsomely against onetime opponents like Sen. Lindsey Graham. Nobody can succeed on this scale simply by lying. Trump’s greatest and most cynical skill, honed during the 1980s and 1990s, was learning how to win by silencing truth-tellers and suppressing the truth when it matters most.If some key people had resisted caving to Trump early on, we might not be where we are today. And yet the caving continues today, now imperiling our democracy, not merely Trump's shady business myths.
BONUS: LGM points us to a piece on the person most responsible (besides Trump) for creating the myth. Disgusting POS.
