American Oligarchs

A wide-ranging exposé of "the crashing of norms and laws and the mixing of family and business that is the Trump administration." Unlike many other mainstream journalists, Peabody-winning Trump, Inc. podcast host Bernstein, who has been digging into the Trump and Kushner family businesses for years, never hesitates to label Donald Trump a liar, a perjurer, and a felon who has escaped imprisonment for his numerous business crimes. (The author pays little attention to the multiple accusations against Trump as a serial sexual assaulter, which have been reported in depth elsewhere.) Bernstein documents how much of her scathing critique of the current president also applies to Trump's father, his two adult sons, and his daughter, Ivanka, who linked the Trumps to the Kushner clan through her 2009 marriage to Jared Kushner. According to Bernstein's carefully documented research, Jared has morphed from a mostly upright, nonpolitical New Jersey real estate developer into a right-wing tyrant and congenital liar. Already well known before this book was the criminal conviction of Jared Kushner's father for business fraud, but Bernstein provides useful added detail regarding the Kushners' many misdeeds. She also sticks to the facts and avoids partisan politics: After all, for most of their lives, members of the Trump and Kushner clans identified more as Democrats than Republicans, though they gave campaign contributions to politicians of all ideologies while trying to buy influence that would benefit their real estate empires. Of all the characters Bernstein exposes in this necessarily hard-hitting book, Ivanka is the only one who comes across as willing to rise to power through honest work rather than just her family name. The author, who conducted hundreds of interviews and read more than 100,000 documents to create this damning portrait of two clearly unscrupulous families, credits investigative journalists before her, especially Wayne Barrett, whose 1992 Trump biography exposed his decades of nefarious business and personal dealings. A painstaking documentation of a relentless culture of corruption.

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January 27, 2020
Investigative journalist Bernstein debuts with a fine-grained dual biography chronicling the parallel trajectories of the Kushner and Trump families and the concurrent social and political trends that made their rise to power possible. Opening with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s 2009 wedding (“the joining of two famous real estate dynasties, each braided into the worlds of politics and media and celebrity”), Bernstein then meticulously details the families’ American arrivals, documenting the harrowing escape Jared’s grandparents made from Poland during the Holocaust, and Ivanka’s great-grandfather Friedrich Trump’s 1885 journey from Germany to the Canadian Yukon, where his restaurant and brothel became “the origin of the Trump family fortune: selling food, liquor, and sex.” Both families entered into the property development industries, took advantage of New Deal–era legislation to build vast real estate empires, exploited (and perhaps violated) tax laws and urban renewal programs, and aggressively bought political influence. In the book’s most riveting sections, Bernstein details how Jared’s father, Charlie, went to prison for breaking campaign finance laws and hiring a prostitute to blackmail his brother-in-law. Bernstein occasionally tips over the line between snark and sincerity (particularly when it comes to Jared Kushner’s elocution), but by and large she delivers a tough yet fair-minded analysis of how both families embody the dangers wealth and influence pose to American democracy. Progressives will be equal parts horrified and fascinated by this rigorous account.

February 1, 2020

Journalist Bernstein explores the origins and inner workings of the Kushner and Trump family businesses. Beginning with the Kushner family's dramatic escape during the Holocaust and immigration to New York, Bernstein charts the rise of their real estate empire. At the same time, she explores the beginnings of the Trump family's business and shows how both families benefited from taxpayer money to build their livelihoods. Later chapters delve into shady business dealings by both families, and their desire to enrich themselves at the expense of others, which Bernstein argues they have continued to do while serving in public office. Finally, Bernstein shows the corruption and conflicts of interest in the Trump administration, and briefly summarizes legal efforts to curb the crimes. Many of the stories in the book were previously reported on Bernstein's podcast Trump Inc. VERDICT A well-reported summary of scandals and corruption surrounding the Trump and Kushner family businesses that may already be familiar to fans of Trump Inc. Still, Bernstein gives a clear analysis of complex topics, making this a solid read for all interested in politics.--Rebekah Kati, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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