General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson could see the Nazi in the GOP a long time ago. [View all]barbaraann
(9,151 posts)The media gets a lot of credit for uncovering Watergate, when the mobster connection IMHO was much worse.
Guess who else had/has mob connections?
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a33350476/fear-city-new-york-mafia-donald-trump-tower-mob-ties-explained/
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Netflix's new documentary miniseries, Fear City: New York vs. the Mafia, isn't about political figures with mob-like tendenciesit's about the real-life mafia, which exercised huge power over New York in the 1970s and '80s, and the efforts by the FBI and the US attorney's office (then helmed by future Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani) to take it down. The series makes extensive use of the FBI's secret recordings from bugs planted in mob homes, cars, and hangouts, and on one tape, Trump's name comes up in relation to a construction deal.
As Fear City points out, doing business in broad swaths of New York's economy when Trump was a young man meant doing business with the mob. But Trump's main industriesdevelopment, casinos, and luxury real estatewere particularly infested with organized crime. And what makes him notable is that he sometimes appeared to do more business with the mafia than was strictly necessary. According to biographer Wayne Barrett, "he went out of his way not to avoid" contacts with the mafia, "but to increase them."