The Forty Year Con Game

Book excerpt: Most voters during the 2016 presidential election were largely unaware of Trump’s forty-year history as a skilled con man but an incompetent failure otherwise. In anticipation of the 2020 election, this book describes Trump’s public life from his mob connections in the early 1980s through his first two stumbling years in the White House. It documents Trump’s inescapable history of ignorance, self-absorption, poor judgment, corruption, impulsive decision-making, bigotry, and strong authoritarian instincts. Taken together, all guaranteed a disastrous presidency. His first two years in the White House fulfilled this guarantee, threatening America’s constitutional democracy.