Does President Trump’s Tough Guy Talk Come From His Mob Connections in New York?

The Washington Post’s Marc Fisher, in a weekend Outlook piece, writes that “Trump borrows his rhetoric—and his view of power—from the mob. The opening grafs:

President Trump’s reaction to a new guilty plea Thursday from his longtime attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, was predictably pugnacious: Cohen, one of Trump’s strongest defenders for more than a decade, was “a weak person and not a very smart person.” Asked why he had kept such a character on his payroll for so many years, the president sounded like a parody of a lousy mob movie: “Because a long time ago, he did me a favor.”

That was predictable, too.

An affinity for mobsters and their rhetoric has been a consistent thread through Trump’s adult life. From his early professional mentor, the New York lawyer and power broker Roy Cohn , to his many years of dealing with mob-connected union and construction industry bosses, Trump has formed close alliances with renegades and rogues who sometimes ended up on the wrong side of the law. He’s long learned from and looked up to tough, street-smart guys who didn’t mind breaking some rules to get things done. Trump also admires mobsters’ no-nonsense language and basis for action; he cites “The Godfather” and “Goodfellas” among his favorite movies.
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Last year Ezra Klein also suggested the Trump-Mafia connection, which brought back these 2017 memories of a Washingtonian story, by Vic Gold, titled “If a Mafia Boss Ran the Country.”

The Boss of Bosses takes the oath.

Trump would have made a great mafia boss. Not sure he’s going to make a great president.

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