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October 9 - October 19, 2024
The resulting story, published in October 2018, revealed for the first time that Donald Trump had received the equivalent of more than $400 million from his father, much of it through fraudulent tax evasion schemes.
For our work exposing the true state of Trump’s finances, we were honored with a Pulitzer Prize.
The family fortune that launched Donald Trump was built on government programs designed to ease the pain caused by the Great Depression and World War II, and to assist the veterans returning from that war. His father wrung millions of additional dollars from those programs by twisting the rules.
Fred viewed the perception of his wealth as threatening perceptions of his honor. Donald’s viewed perceptions of his wealth as fueling perceptions of his honor.
Donald would announce dreams and fantasies as if they were a certainty before he had lined up anything. Attention in pursuit of attention.
Fred forecasted the expenses and revenues of his projects to the dollar. He never missed. Donald early in his life decided that any project with his name above the door would bring enough revenue to cover whatever he spent. He missed often. Some of Donald’s mistakes cost his father millions of dollars. Yet Fred never wavered in his support, one of the great enabling factors of Donald Trump’s life.
The secret of his life, one that emerges in hundreds of moments big and small, is that the less he has been involved in decision-making, the better his chances of financial success.
Donald Trump came to be imbued with a host of attributes that speak to how we confer admiration and status in modern America. Our awe of celebrity. Our tendency to conflate the trappings of wealth with expertise and ability. Our eagerness to believe people of apparent status will not lie to us. Our inability to distinguish the fruits of hard work from those of sheer luck.
Donald didn’t do anything to acquire his percentage in those eight buildings, a portfolio he never publicly acknowledged and that would go on to produce $20 million for him, all hidden from public view.
The letter did encapsulate what became Donald Trump’s three-step rhetorical style, a pattern so predictable and unique it could be branded “Trump Logic.” First, he confidently makes an assertion that often oversimplifies or ignores the truth of the matter. He builds upon that soft foundation with an act of clairvoyance, claiming to know what large groups of people fear, or at whom they laugh, as proof that his original assertion was true. Finally, he closes the deal by making clear that disagreeing with his un-facts or his psychic vision is prima facie evidence of stupidity.
He posited that any amount he spent to create a business would generate an even larger increase in revenue. “I believe in spending extra money,” he said. “I believe in expending maybe more money than other people would think almost rational. Because in the long run you’re talking about a very small difference in terms of the money spent, but you’re almost guaranteeing success.”
Schwartz kept a journal. He wrote that Trump struck him as driven by an unending need for public attention. “All he is is ‘stomp, stomp, stomp’—recognition from outside, bigger, more, a whole series of things that go nowhere in particular,” he wrote.
Florida is not a state known for its waterfalls.
