The Making of Donald Trump: on Principles & Values

OpEd: curries favor with journalists who don't cross-check

I sized him up as a modern P.T. Barnum selling tickets to modern variations of mermaids, that people decided were worth a bit of their money. Trump was full of himself.

Trump made a profit from his 2016 campaign

OpEd: Trump dealt with Genovese & Gambino crime families

OpEd: Trump never faced tough press questioning

Alas Trump never faced tough questioning as a candidate in a forum where he could not walk away or give nonsense answers without repeated follow-up. This is a serious problem for the future of American democracy in the television era, when appearances matter more than reality. Trump will not be the last manifestly unqualified candidate who knows how to manipulate television to his or her advantage and fool many people. To guard against that we need to have flint-eyed reporters--not just smiling television news readers--asking tough questions in public forums that are aimed at eliciting facts and truths.

Didn't vote in any Republican primary from 1989 until 2016

[The next generation] were even less diligent in their civic duties. When Donald Trump's name appeared on the New York State primary ballot in 2016, his daughter Ivanka and son Eric, both in their thirties, could not cast ballots because they had neglected to register as Republicans. They blamed the government, saying they should have been allowed to change from independent to Republican at the last minute. But the primary voting rules, however outmoded, had been law in the Empire State for many years.

Talked about running for president since 1985

Trump again declared his candidacy in 2012. Trump's campaign then had a purpose other than moving to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. His real goal, we surmised, was a more lucrative contract with the NBC television network for his aging "Celebrity Apprentice" show. As such, journalists gave little regard to his announcement for the 2016 election.

But this time things were different. I'd spent decades as an investigative reporter, reporting on him, and I had kept my files. When Trump announced his bid for the Republican nomination for the 2016 election, I knew it was for real.

Anti-corruption laws ensure that Trump profits from campaign

For the 2016 run as well, a large share of Trump's campaign money has been spent paying himself for the use of his Boeing 747, his smaller jet, his helicopter, his Trump Tower office space, and other services supplied by Trump businesses. By law, Trump must pay charter rates for his aircraft and market prices for services from his other businesses. This anticorruption law was designed to prevent vendors from underpricing services to win political favors--a legacy of a time when no one imagined that a man of Trump's immense wealth would buy campaign services from himself. In 2016, the law ensures that Trump makes a profit from his campaign.

OpEd: Trump was a modern P.T. Barnum

And he spent vast amounts of time currying favor with journalists, mostly those who never let facts get in the way of a good story. Only a few journalists checked and crosschecked his claims and didn't buy Trump's nonsense.

I sized him up as a modern P.T. Barnum selling tickets to a modern variation of the Feejee mermaid, one of the panoply of Barnum's famous fakes that people decided were worth a bit of their money. Trump was full of himself.

OpEd: Question Trump's dealings with Genovese crime family

OpEd: News media never asked Trump hard questions

Alas Trump never faced tough questioning as a candidate in a forum where he could not walk away or give nonsense answers without repeated follow-up. This is a serious problem for the future of American democracy in the television era, when appearances matter more than reality. Trump will not be the last manifestly unqualified candidate who knows how to manipulate television to his or her advantage and fool many people. To guard against that we need to have flint-eyed reporters--not just smiling television news readers--asking tough questions in public forums that are aimed at eliciting facts and truths.

OpEd: Trump's winning began with fraud and deception

So, the campaign that ended with Trump's winning the Electoral College vote despite losing the popular vote by a large margin began with fraud and deception.