But if the Republican Party will survive, American democracy is
another matter. The damage already done by Trump to the American political
system – which underpins America’s economic success and global leadership – may
prove irreparable over the long run.
Trump is a product of the New York real estate market, which is
where he made his money and gained fame. This market is currently a massive
scam.
Over the past decade and a half many people around the world
became extremely wealthy extremely quickly. When so many come into money so
quickly, there will always be those who are ready to separate them from a
portion of their wealth.
The nouveaux riches from Russia, China and elsewhere are
concerned that their governments will one day confiscate their wealth. Helping
them overcome their worries are real estate developers in the several major
cities around the world – in London, Miami, and, of course, New York. Like
every successful scam, this one is based on real facts. New York is indeed
experiencing a major renaissance: it is the world’s cultural, business and
financial capital, it has museums, art galleries, theaters, concert halls and
restaurants. Young people flock here from all over the country and the world.
What could be safer than an investment than New York real estate?
The massive New York real estate scam is built on this solid
foundation – which, however, make is no less of a scam. Аpartments in specially
built business went for over $100 million last year. Manhattan’s 57th Street
has become studded with skyscrapers and nicknamed the Billionaires’ Row.
Trump is a son of an undistinguished mid-range real estate
developer and he went into the family business. His early years in the trade
coincided with a difficult period in the history of the city, when it narrowly
avoided bankruptcy. No one was building anything and real estate prices were
deeply depressed.
Trump became one of the pioneers of the New York renaissance,
renovating the old Commodore Hotel on 42nd Street (new the Grand Hyatt) and
then developed the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. He did well out of the
subsequent revival of the city’s fortune, but the really big New York developers never let Trump in on
really lucrative deals. For them he has always remained a brash low-class kid
from Queens with wacky interests such as casinos, wrestling and brainless
long-legged supermodels. According to the writer who ghost wrote his Art of the Deal masterpiece, in his
adult years Trump has not read a single book. Meanwhile, Daniel Brodsky, for
example, is the head of the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum. Other
New York developers sit on its board – or on the boards of other New York
museums and cultural institutions.
But, even more important, they always shunned Trump because he
is an incorrigible scam artist – and top-flight New York developers don’t need
such a transparent crook in their midst.
Scamming is Trump’s nature. He loves to swindle people – to
stiff contractors and architects, cheat partners, leave creditors holding the
bag. He makes claims about his generous
donations to charity but reporters who have looked into it have
discovered that he never actually sends the money. His career is littered with
such machinations. He does not pass up a chance to make even tiny amounts – as
long as he can screw someone into the bargain. The infamous Trump University,
for example, the subject of a scandalous lawsuit – brought the self-proclaimed
billionaire no more than small change. But think of the pleasure of taking
thousands for a ride.
Trump is a natural confidence artist. He loves tinsel, fool’s
gold, marble, water fountains, limousines and everything else that vows the
gullible. He is a tireless self-promoter. Wikipedia has a list of towers, buildings, villages, hotels,
parks, casinos and golf clubs bearing his name – along with vodka and spirits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_things_named_after_Donald_Trump
But far from everything belongs to Trump. He mostly leases his
name to the highest bidders, who pay him
royalties because fools are impressed by his name which they see popularized by
his endless branding and by The
Apprentice, a reality TV show where Trump plays a successful businessman.
Trump is no builder, producer or developer. He’s a brand – and a fraudulent one
at that: many of those who fall for it end up swindled or short-changed.
Trump’s real business is suing people or defending himself from
lawsuits. He has been party to more than 3,500 of them to date.
Small wonder that he has sued everyone who dared question the
extent of his wealth: his brand depends on his claims about his presumably
enormous fortune. But it is all fraud as well: Mark Cuban, the billionaire
owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, thinks Trump’s fortune is well short of a
billion. This is probably why Trump, unprecedentedly among presidential
candidates, refuses to release his tax returns. And, probably, because once
scrutinized by the public, he will be shown to stiff the government as well.
Like every crook, Trump has a lot of respect for more serious
criminals. He has already managed to insult various American allies but has
been chummy with Putin. In their romance with Trump the Republicans have
already sold Ukraine down the river. If Trump wins, the world may be treated to
the indignity of seeing the first visit by the new US president to Moscow.
Also like every crook, Trump is an opportunist, constantly
jockeying to take advantage of the situation. This is evident in his political
campaign. His campaign uses Trump-branded products as the billionaire doesn’t
let an opportunity slide to score a few bucks. In his speeches he tends to make
a number of stupid or shocking allegations, and develops those themes which
resonate with his followers or are picked up by reporters.
And then there was this example of his crass con artist
opportunism: the day after the attack in Nice, Trump was planning to name his
vice presidential pick. After the attack, he announced that out of respect for
the victims he would postpone the presentation. However, later he admitted that
he had not yet made his choice. Like most crooks, Trump has no respect for
anything and holds nothing sacred. It’s the scam that matters.
Once a crook, always a crook and everything around Trump is
bound to be sleazy: his wife’s much touted convention speech turned out to be
plagiarized from Michelle Obama.
Apparently, Trump never expected to win the Republican
nomination. His goal was to create a wave, bathe in the spotlight and swindle
somebody out of some more money along the way. But the wave he created proved
strong enough to get him to the top. Look how quickly he settled into this new
role – although like many unexpectedly successful crooks he sometimes seems
frightened by his own success.
New York real estate is deflating. Top-flight apartments are
not selling. Although cheaper segments are still doing well, nothing is worse
for a scam than to be known as a scam. The bubble may burst catastrophically if
the owners of hundred-million dollar apartments take a sober look at their
properties and scramble to rescue at least some of their money.
Democratic politics is also a kind of scam – of a different
kind. It too is a confidence game. Dickens provides a brilliant caricature of
it in the opening scenes of Nicholas
Nickleby. American democracy was also a hoax until the 1930s and the
election of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Then, suddenly, it emerged that citizens
could make a difference, that their choices mattered and that they could shape
their future with their own hands.
Norman Rockwell’s Freedom
of Speech, painted in 1943, depicts a small town political meeting. A blue
collar worker is trying to speak. He is not well-educated or well-spoken, he
speaks haltingly and clearly doubts the validity of what he has to say. An
elderly neighbor – a doctor or a pharmacist – looks up at him encouragingly.
At some level, this painting still reflects many Americans’
attitude toward elections. Yes, politics is a dirty business full of liars, clowns,
fools and slackers. Hillary Clinton and her husband certainly have an air of
greed about them. But they clearly take public service seriously, and Americans
still consider democracy a serious matter. It is what allowed Bernie Sanders to
rally millions under the banner of his political revolution.
Trump’s success, his presence on the podium in Cleveland and
his leadership of a major political party shows up democracy as another one of
his scams. If a swindler can succeed in democratic politics at the presidential
level – and succeed by his usual methods, by shameless lies, slander, bragging
and making false promises – in short, by scamming everybody – then what else
can it be but a scam?
Trump probably won’t win the presidency – even though in 2016
nothing seems out of the realm of possibility. But even if he loses, shameless
lies, insults, insinuations, skullduggery and thuggery will from now on become
part of America’s political vocabulary.
From now on, everything goes. You can, as the RNC just did, put
a distraught mother who is still grieving for her dead son on national
television and coldly milk her genuine grief to incite hatred of your political
opponent. It’s in the best traditions of Trump’s reality TV, which is, of
course, the ultimate fraud of all.
The 20th century was often called the American century. Marco
Rubio, Trump’s failed rival, spoke of the American century during his campaign
– before colluding with Trump, endorsing him and revealing himself as another
scam artist. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, once a Democrat, spoke on the
first day of the Convention, and also invoked the term. I wonder if either of
them realized that in Cleveland they are burying the American century and
celebrating its gravedigger.
