On this edition of Parallax Views, former President Donald Trump has had an image, sometimes leaned into by the man himself, as being akin to a mob boss. The image of Trump-as-mob-boss is even evoked, arguably, in the way that Trump is sometimes referred to as "The Donald". But beyond the image of pop culture image of Trump-as-mobster lies a portal to understanding white-collar crime and the corruption of democracy, argues Gregg Barak, author of Chronicles of a Radical Criminologist: Working the Margins of Law, Power, and Justice and Criminology on Trump. Barak joins us on this edition of the program to discuss not just Trump but rather the bigger picture of how America faces democracy deficits due to white collar criminals and crooks racketeering and using shell companies to enrich themselves. In this conversation we discuss:
- The politics of antagonism as enjoyment and how Trump played the media
- Trump as both outlaw and a product of profound wealth and privilege
- Comparing mob figures like John Gotti and Bugsey Siegel with Donald Trump
- The Trump family; Trump's father Fred Trump; the Trump children; Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner
- Trump and social Darwinism
- The Trump Presidency and pay-to-play pardons
- Trump, Deutsche Bank, and money laundering
- The Trump Presidency and the dismantling and/or impeding of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Health and Human Services, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; anti-science, anti-regulation, and anti-environmentalist interests and the Trump Presidency
- Shell companies and the corruption of democracy
- Structural concerns that are bigger than Donald Trump; Trump as not opening a Pandora's Box but rather exploiting structural inefficiencies
- Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, and Jared Kushner as the three most significant players around Trump
- Addressing corporate crime; why we use RICO more when it comes to tackling corporate crime; corporate personhood; Citizens United; the electoral system
- And much, much more!
