‘Mafia Shakedown Scheme’: My Latest Hot Type Column in Byline — ‘Trump and Dump’
In my latest Hot Type column for Byline Supplement ‘Trump and Dump’ I interview Martin Sheil and Craig Unger on Trump’s ‘art of the steal’ and what feels like a ‘mafia shakedown scheme’
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Save the Date: Our next community event is Bette’s Happy Hour Tuesday, April 15, 10 am Pacific, with Steven Lacey, a Russian propaganda whistleblower who will share his story on how he went down the rabbit holes of Russian propaganda and came out the other side. He is now a fierce critic of Putin’s regime and unforgiving of those who push Putin’s lies. Registration will be sent in separate post.
A couple of milestones to report: I received a notice from Substack that I am 84th and rising for American political coverage on its Top 100 list and the moment was bittersweet. As I scanned the authors listed I saw many of my amazing, worthy colleagues, but I also saw a handful of bad actors — Russian propagandists obfuscating their trash by larping as conservatives or leftists. Nevertheless, I’m proud to be the Little Mother That Could, and I keep on trucking.
I had another personal milestone this week. Shortly after the privilege of being a featured guest panelist speaking on the topic of deradicalization at Byline Times 6th Anniversary event, Byline’s co-founder Peter Jukes informed me I was sharing the cover of the latest print edition with investigative reporter Carole Cadwalldr, who just released her new TedTalk six years since her first bombshell speech, which resulted in years of lawfare and personal torment. 30,000 people from all over the world supported her in her fight.
I am so grateful to be included in such good company. For me, it’s always been about the work and the rewards are moments such as these.
My report included in the print edition came from my Hot Type column on Vaclav Havel. I am cueing up many more reports on historic work to help shape and inform our action moving forward.
Please read on for my latest Hot Type column.
Hot Type: Trump and Dump in Byline Supplement
In today’s Hot Type column for Byline Supplement, I remind everyone of Trump’s massive history of business failures:
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Today’s report was posted at Byline without a paywall, and I am cross-posting it here:
Hot Type: Trump and Dump
For all the talk of Donald Trump's supposed business expertise, the truth is that his only real experience has been in the 'art of the steal', reports Heidi Siegmund Cuda
There is so much that people forget, and many things that MAGA never knew, so let’s take a trip down memory lane.
Donald Trump bankrupted his own casinos, multiple times. In 1987, Trump’s bid to build Sydney Australia’s first casino was rejected after police revealed concerns about his links to the mafia.
In 1995, he reported losing $916 million dollars. As a candidate in 2016, he boasted of his great wealth, while refusing to release his tax records. Turns out, he was broke and campaigning had become the family business.
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Among the first headlines after his 2016 presidential win was an out of court settlement for victims of his now-defunct Trump University. The Trump Foundation was dismantled in 2018 due to illegal use of funds. Last year, the Trump Organization was forced to shutter in New York, and on Tuesday, his debt in the civil fraud judgement surpassed $500 million.
So he sells overpriced shoes, cheap bibles, pulls crypto stunts, and games the market, all in plain sight, because the judicial coup came first.
Just this week, after being accused of insider trading and market manipulation, after reneging on global tariffs, causing stocks to soar after days of record bottoms, Trump bragged that his friends made billions from the stock market surge. (Author’s note: all this, after an all-caps ‘buy’ post on social media, which preceded the 90-day pause.—hsc)
To those who have been documenting Trump’s ‘art of the steal’ since the 1980s, when he was known for stiffing contractors and getting Russian bailouts, none of this is shocking.
More Lies, Bankruptcy and Failure
“Trump’s greatest accomplishment of all may have been promoting the myth that he’s a great businessman. He stinks,” investigative reporter and author Craig Unger told Byline Supplement. “He had one great success early on developing the Hyatt Grand Central. But after that, he had decades of litigation, multiple bankruptcies and $4 billion in debt. His over expansion into Atlantic City casinos was ludicrous beyond belief.”
With the exception of his reality TV show, Unger noted, the only thing that saved him was that “the Russians came to his rescue again and again.”
“Starting in the Eighties, the Russian Mafia laundered countless millions through Trump real estate,” said Unger, whose most recent book about Trump is titled American Kompromat. “Bayrock, a real estate development firm with ties to Russia’s mafia state, came up with franchising schemes that paid Trump ridiculously high fees. So the idea that he’s good at business is a lie.”
Retired Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator Martin Sheil told Byline Supplement to brace for continued impact.
“I'm saddened when I see this,” Sheil said, referring to the chaos of the past week. “There's so many potential issues of corruption and implying of influence and the possibility that a close circle of economic advisors tied to the White House may well have benefited from inside knowledge with regard to the imposition of the tariffs, one, and two, the rescission, or the decrease in the tariffs and the impact that had on the stock market.
“Some of Mr. Trump's closest advisors are from Wall Street… They know how to make money when the stock market is going down. It's called selling short. And of course, they know how to make money when the stock market is going to go up. And if they have advanced inside knowledge that the stock market in various companies is going to rocket up, you can make a huge amount of money, and I'm sure many people do. In fact, the Trumpster was just quoted as saying, acknowledging that some of his best friends made a lot of money in the stock market when he lifted or decreased the tariffs. And is that right? Is that fair? Should he be prosecuted? You know, in past years and decades and terms, an investigation would have been opened immediately.”
Art of the Steal
Sheil called it the ‘art of the steal’ but said that because Trump controls everything — Congress, the FBI, the Department of Justice — he’s feeling brazen. But he also reminds us that Trump’s long history of failure could give those who would like to see him impeached and deposed some ideas on how to exploit his weaknesses.
“Look, it’s really hard to bankrupt a casino,” he said. “The casinos are money makers. Any gambling function you want to play in a casino, whether it's slot machines or roulette or blackjack or craps, the odds are heavily in the favor of the house. So to lose money in a casino has to be a function of clear and total mismanagement or a function of fraud. Somebody's dipping into all the cash coming in every day, every hour.”
As I listen to Sheil, all I can think is a felon’s gonna felon. The signs of Trump’s unique criminality were there from the very beginning.
“If you go back to when he was applying for University of Pennsylvania and Wharton [business school], Trump’s biographers indicate that he had other people take the SATs for him and take whatever test needed so that he could be assured of getting the right score to get admission,” said Sheil. “This is a guy who just does whatever he has to do, plugs in any numbers to get the results that he wants. He clearly doesn't understand economics. He has basically made his money through fraud, and here's a guy who was just circumventing Congress and deciding to impose all sorts of tariffs on countries all around the world.
“The Wall Street Journal editorial staff came out and said, ‘You know, these tariffs are stupid’. The Wall Street Journal has some pretty sharp folks. You may not agree with them politically but when it comes to finances and economics, they just said this is a stupid trade war. So when the Wall Street Journal does that, basically Wall Street follows.”
Mafia Shakedown Scheme
Unger, whose investigations of Trump and his ties to the Russian mob dates back to the 1980s, said Trump’s latest ‘art of the steal’ has mafia fingerprints.
“What’s most interesting about his flip-flopping tariff policies is how they resemble a Mafia shakedown scheme. If Trump hikes up tariffs, he can destroy Apple—$3500 for an iPhone!-- and Tim Cook knows it. He—and every other CEO—has to make a deal with Trump—and you can bet Trump will get something in return.”
The question remains, who else is profiting?
The above report was originally published in Byline Supplement on April 12, 2025.
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