The Big Cheat Quotes

“The signal Trump sent to corporate executives and owners of multinational businesses was loud and clear: if you invested your untaxed profits creating jobs overseas, then Trump and the Republican majority in Congress would give you a better deal than if you simply held the money in the corporate equivalent of a savings account.”
― David Cay Johnston, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family

“Had Trump been an appointed official he would never have passed a security clearance because of his foreign dealings. This was the Donald J. Trump Eyes-Wide-Open-Blind-Trust.”
― David Cay Johnston, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family

“Congress should also prohibit the appointment of relatives in the first and second degrees from positions other than on honorary boards and commissions with minor duties. When John F. Kennedy made his brother Robert attorney general in 1961 he may have made a wise choice, but that decision should not excuse nepotism in a nation with no shortage of talent for high government positions. As Sarah Kendzior and others have shown, nepotism is an early indicator of likely criminality and dictatorial tendencies. Two other reforms would encourage integrity. One would be to strengthen our whistleblower laws. Various journalists, me included, got information from whistleblowers during the Trump years. But not until he was out of office did we learn about the use of secret subpoenas to seize telephone, email and other records of members of Congress who were critical of the president and some journalists under surveillance, which is anathema to a free society. That kind of action is outrageous, but it also shows the reason we need to strengthen whistleblower protections”
― David Cay Johnston, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family

“Congress should also prohibit the appointment of relatives in the first and second degrees from positions other than on honorary boards and commissions with minor duties. When John F. Kennedy made his brother Robert attorney general in 1961 he may have made a wise choice, but that decision should not excuse nepotism in a nation with no shortage of talent for high government positions. As Sarah Kendzior and others have shown, nepotism is an early indicator of likely criminality and dictatorial tendencies. Two”
― David Cay Johnston, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family

“Zephyr Teachout’s 2016 book, Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United.”
― David Cay Johnston, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family

“When we finally get a full accounting, we will learn how much he benefited from forcing taxpayers to spend for his hotel rooms, golf cart rentals, meals, and other expenses at his properties. The bill, excluding necessary security costs, will run into many millions of dollars.”
― David Cay Johnston, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family

“Just the four trips he made to Mar-a-Lago over five weeks in February and March 2017 cost taxpayers $13.6 million, the Government Accounting Office determined.”
― David Cay Johnston, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family

“In his four years as president of the United States, Donald Trump bullied, cheated, denied, and lied because that’s who he is. He is a con artist always looking for another mark, a man who has let billions of dollars slip through his fingers because prudence and judgment are concepts alien to his nature.”
― David Cay Johnston, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family

“Loyalty is the most treasured virtue, far above honor or talent or love, and the greatest guarantee of loyalty can be found in kin ties.” That would explain not only the security clearances but why Trump gave his son-in-law such a broad portfolio of issues in which neither of them had a wisp of expertise. Trump had no training in diplomacy, but he had a nose for developing lucrative relationships and knew he could trust Jared to do what he wanted and to keep secrets within the family.”
― David Cay Johnston, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family

“Tricia Newbold, one of the White House employees who works on security clearances, told a House committee that at least 25 Trump staffers got clearances over objections from those whose job was to vet applicants. Newbold told the committee that “two current senior White House officials” were among those given clearances despite “a wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct.” The background check of one person, publicly described only as “Senior White House Official 1,” uncovered “significant disqualifying factors, including foreign influence, outside activities (‘employment outside or business external to what your office at the [Executive Office of the President] entails’), and personal conduct.”
― David Cay Johnston, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family

“Jared, for instance, omitted from his SF86 that Trump Tower meeting with the Kremlin agents, his request to Kislyak to use secure Russian diplomatic communications, and a meeting he had had with the head of a Russian “bank” that the FBI regards as a front for Russian spying. The FBI had caught spies at the bank’s Manhattan office posing as bankers. Any one of those omissions too would be reason to deny a security clearance.”
― David Cay Johnston, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family

“In December 2016, Jared again demonstrated his disloyalty. He approached Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., and asked to use the Russian embassy’s secure communications link to contact the Kremlin without the knowledge of American national security agencies. Ponder that for a moment. Ask yourself what would have happened if anyone close to Obama or any other previous president had done this.”
― David Cay Johnston, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family