1) The second installment of the NYT investigation into Trump's taxes is a tour de force, a narrative masterpiece.
It shows how Trump created a "fictional alter ego" as a business success, and milked it for years.
That's exactly what he did in 2016.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
2) Trump's creation of a fictional self on "the Apprentice," followed by years of squandering his gains through incompetence and narcissism, parallel his election in 2016 on a fraudulent platform and his disastrous first term with eerie precision:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
3) The NYT offers this killer summary:
"Trump’s genius, it turned out, wasn’t running a company. It was making himself famous — Trump-scale famous — and monetizing that fame."
But then he used this image to fleece desperate people w/scams like Trump U.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
4) In 2016 Steve Bannon performed the same role that Mark Burnett did in producing "The Apprentice." Both created a fictional Trump that he milked for years while the managerial disasters piled up.
This time we are the losers. But his bill is coming due:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
5) Bringing the scam full circle, two producers of "The Apprentice" helped stage Trump's convention, which also peddled massive illusions -- that Trump crushed coronavirus and that the real threat to the rule of law is leftist terrorism.
Full case here:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
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