It’s widely believed that Roy Cohn, a New York lawyer, mentored the Donald on how to run his businesses – and that Cohn had very extensive connections to organized crime. Associations like these make some people suggest that our President runs our government like he’s a Don running a Mafia family.
But does the Donald actually sound, and act, like a Don? Since he notoriously conflates movie reality with actual reality, it seems fair to compare quotes from The Godfather, a movie about a most powerful Don, to quotes from the most powerful Donald on the planet.
“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
Don Corleone, The Godfather
“My style of deal-making is … I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I want.”
Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal
•••••
“I don’t like violence, Tom. I’m a businessman; blood is a big expense.”
Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo, The Godfather
“Leverage: don’t make deals without it.”
Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal
•••••
“Mr. Corleone never asks a second favor once he’s refused the first.
Understood?”
Tom Hagen, The Godfather
“Some places are never for sale.” “That’s true. But never saynever.”
Donald Trump responding to Canadian Prime Minister MarkCarney denying that Canada could become America’s 51st state.
•••••
“Tell Mike it was only business.”
Salvatore Tessio, The Godfather
“Have you ever knowingly done business with organized crime?”
“I have met on occasion a few of those people. They happen to be very nice people.”
From an interview of Donald Trump in 2013 with David Letterman
•••••
“If not, it’s all out war, we go to the mattresses.”
Sonny Corleone, The Godfather
“This is one we go to the mattresses on.”
Texted to Mark Meadows by Donald Trump Jr. on the Sixth of January
•••••
“My father is no different than any other powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator.”
Michael Corleone, The Godfather
“I’ve been investigated more than the great Alphonse Capone.”
Said proudly by Donald Trump, Campaign Rally, Pennsylvania, 10/27/2024
One can make an argument that the Donald sounds like a Don – but does he act like one? In the following list, a description of how a Don runs his mafia is in italics, followed by an example of how the Donald runs our government.
• There is only one Boss. He has signed 202 Executive Orders in his second term, deciding everything from what is science to who should play sports.
• Loyalty to the Boss is the most important thing. Marco Rubio has four jobs.
• Use money as a weapon, or any other force available to you, to get what you want. He has taken away college grants, sued television networks, and threatened judges.
• Enemies can be treated as friends, and friends can be treated as enemies, depending on what you need to get from them at the time. He vilifies the European Union, or praises the European Union, to get what he wants.
• Threaten overwhelming violence to those who oppose you. He threatened to drop a nuclear bomb on Iran.
• Blindside anyone who disagrees with you. Make examples of them to intimidate others. He set up, and then humiliated, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
• Protect and promote your family. His children make business deals with countries as he negotiates trade with those countries.
• Respect other mafia families but only cede them territories that you don’t really care about. Putin, and Ukraine.
• Use your power and position to do favors for people so that they owe you favors. He “made” Mike Johnson Speaker of the House.
• If you don’t trust someone, get rid of them. Elon Musk is damaged and gone.
• Demand “omertá” – a code of silence about criminal activities and a refusal to give evidence to authorities – from those working for you. His lawyers refuse to answer judges’ questions and donot provide evidence requested by the courts.
• Have a “consigliere,” a close and trusted advisor, who wields extraordinary influence behind the scenes on your behalf. Stephen Miller.
• Create a small “crew” of “soldiers” led by a “Capo,” a Captain who tells them who you want attacked. He instructed Pete Hegseth (who was commissioned as a Captain) to form a “quick reaction force” for him out of our National Guard.
So – does our Commander-in-Chief sound and act like a Mobster-in-Chief? It seems clear to me that there’s a lot of a Don in the Donald. If he continues to act like this – and considering how he likes to change the names of things – we may soon be living in The United States of Amafia.
Capisce?
Note: This piece was written in August, but on September 19, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas reacted to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s threat to revoke ABC’s broadcast license — “We can do this the easy way or the hard way” — by remarking, “I got to say that’s right out of Goodfellas [a Martin Scorsese gangster movie]. That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here. It would be a shame if something happened to it’.”
