NYT author reveals decades-long knowledge of Donald Trump in new book

The new book "The Making of Donald Trump" is filled with “basically everything that Donald Trump does not want you to know,” author David Cay Johnston told a National Press Club Book Rap Aug. 4.

In the book, Johnston goes back in time to examineTrump’s rise to power, including his family background, his litigation history and his ties to organized crime.

Johnston is an investigative journalist and the winner of a 2001 Pulitzer Prize for journalism. A long-time reporter and columnist for The New York Times and former president of the Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE), he is also the author of several New York Times bestsellers, including "Perfectly Legal," "Free Lunch," and "The Fine Print." He has won the IRE Medal and a George Polk Award for his reporting, and is currently a columnist for the Daily Beast, Investopedia and USA Today. Johnston teaches at the Syracuse University College of Law.

“If people want to elect Donald Trump after they read my book, then they should vote for him, but they should know who they are voting for,” Johnston said. “They are voting for a man that doesn’t know anything about anything, who bluffs his way through everything, who has one skill and that is how to make deals that bring cash to him to support the lifestyle that creates the appearance of being a billionaire, and who has no regard for his fellow man.”

Trump called Johnston at home on April 27 to respond to an email inquiry, Johnston said, noting the candidate has had his home phone number for several of the 28 years he has known him.

“It was the kind of phone call that I am used to getting from Donald,” Johnston said. “It was … gathering information … bluster, romance … menace … click.”

Johnston believes that there has never been a major-party candidate for president with “relationships like Trump.”

Trump is “the P.T. Barnum of our time,” Johnston said. “Donald doesn’t know anything.”

During the question-and-answer session, where no pro-Trump questions were asked, Johnston refused to discuss the Republican candidate’s private life. He said he is more interested in policy, noting he knew about Marla Maples –- Trump’s former mistress and second wife –- nine months before it became public knowledge.

As for the other major-party candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton: Johnston said he has never met her but he has written two articles about her. “She was livid about them,” he said.

Johnston was introduced by Joe Luchok, a member of the NPC’s Book & Author Committee.