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David Cay Johnston
250 quotes
“Where are the moralists who scream about drugs and say nothing about what I describe... Donald's deep entanglement with a major international cocaine trafficker [Joseph Weichselbaum], and things he did that make no sense whatsoever, unless they were in business together, in which case everything he did makes perfect sense. Where are these people?”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where are the ministers? ... ...said ..."Donald denies it." Well, Eliot Spitzer denied it. ...Bill Clinton denied it. ...[Graham] goes... "Donald is a changed man from 10 years ago." ...That's a reasonable question to think... you know, was I different 10 years ago? ...I was. I had less grey hair.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What matters is that we get a new Congress. Donald Trump ran for president based on the economic policies (just the economics, not the racism) that was in my trilogy on the American economy: Perfectly Legal, Free Lunch and The Fine Print. If you know that uses your tax dollars to build its stores and GE taxes its workers in Ohio to build factories, you know that because of my work; and it's now widespread... even if most people have forgotten I'm the guy brought all that to the fore years ago.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I said back in 2012, a year when the average income of the bottom 90% of Americans was lower, adjusted for inflation... than in 1967... that if you ran for president on the economics in my books you would win, because it champions the 90%, in fact it champions... the 99.5%; and that's what Donald did, and I know he watched me on television because he talked to other people about it, who told me...”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Donald Trump said "I'm going to drain the swamp." He comes here and immediately turns it into a federally protected wetland, a paradise for Wall Street.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He says in 2015, "I have a tax plan here. The best tax experts in America have all been over it." ...I called and said "Where are the experts?" There are no experts. They didn't have anybody. Come April, he's been in office three months. He promised, day one, we're going to have a tax bill. They put out a 100 word tax plan... It was a shopping list for ' clients.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is the anti-education presidency.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People don't know... They... are so fascinated by what's going on in the White House, they're not paying attention to what matters. ...[T]he reason I hope every single one of you reads my book (and if you can't afford to buy the book, it's in the library...) is that people need to know this or we will not get change.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Citizenship is not something that you can outsource! ...We've got to do the work ourselves, and you've got to know, and you've got to talk to people.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[O]ne of the problems that all the labor leaders I speak to face, is that a lot of their members believe Donald Trump is helping them. They have no idea the damage he is doing to them, because it's not in the news!”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Journalism never did a great job of covering government, but 40% of journalism jobs in this country have disappeared since 2000. ...[A]s a result of that the agencies aren't being covered at all. The electricity markets, job safety, diplomacy, all through the government, the military. All of these things are being ravaged by this . ...Spend a couple of evenings reading the book, and then you've got to... tell other people. Have the facts to persuade them to understand what's wrong.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People have to get registered to vote. People have to be driven to the polls on election day... Go to a district where there might be change. Arrange in advance... Don't call people and ask them to go. Go get them! Take them to the polls. That's the only thing that matters at the end of the day, our votes.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we do our jobs as citizens, we become informed, we insist on rational debate about real issues and we then get people to the polls, we can get a different Congress, we can get rid of this presidency and we can have a bright future. There's damage that will last forever, but the longer he's in office, the longer he is a clear and present danger to all the world. So please... read my book, get to the actual damage being done, and tell other people.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Next time you go to a talk by me, because I'm sure I'll be back with one of my future books. Maybe the one I hope to have out next year, which is a whole new tax system that's simple and... you can't cheat under my system without committing a crime. Bring a young person.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Viewed properly in the context of their times, the last forty-four presidents all pursued policies that they believed would make for a better America tomorrow.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Trump presidency is about Trump. Period. Full stop.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trump is desperate for others to fill the void inside himself. He has a sad need for attention and, preferably, public adoration.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trump has... lived a life of thumbing his nose at conventions and law enforcement, learning... from his father, Fred, whose business partner was an associate of the Gambino and Genovese crime families. He has long been in deep with mobsters, domestic and foreign, along with corrupt union bosses and assorted swindlers. Trump even spent years deeply entangled with a major international drug trafficker who, like many of the others, enjoyed their mutually lucrative arrangements.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Instead of a president of specific duties and constitutionally limited authority, Trump and his aides talk as if he is an absolute ruler, or should be, to whom all must bend the knee.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trump has himself reduced his life philosophy to a single word—revenge. ...Repeatedly he has said in talks and in books that destroying the lives of people he considers disloyal gives him pleasure. That Trump does not recognize ethical limits on conduct... derives from his fundamental character, narcissism.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Over many years in paid public appearances and in books bearing his name... Trump rejected the idea of turning the other cheek, saying that those who do are "fools" and "idiots." This philosophy was ignored by the many pastors who endorsed Trump and accepted... that he is a Christian. ...[R]evenge is explicitly rejected by Jesus and runs counter to the whole theme of the New Testament.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Golden Rule has no place in the life of Donald Trump.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Revenge is the philosophy of dictators and mob bosses... used to keep others in line with threats of economic ruin, violence, or worse.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he Trump presidency is unlike anything that came before, a presidency built on open public contempt for Constitutional principles.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[H]e brought into the White House a host of people with fringe ideas, some of them Islamophobes... white nationalists... xenophobes, and many... sharing Trump's ignorance of science. ...[M]any ...had no qualifications ...for the posts ...he got the advice and consent of ...senators despite testimony revealing some as ...know-nothings and one ...determined to destroy the agency he now runs.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trump has left the vast majority of positions under his control vacant.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Few things benefit Trump more than ignorance. ...Unless and until some fact they cannot reconcile slaps them hard in the face, the con's marks will keep seeing the world through the credulous and distorted lens...”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He has boasted about not paying banks that loaned him billions of dollars. He conned thousands of people desperate to learn... paying up to $35,000 to attend . ...[T]hese professors turned out to be fast-food managers and others with no experience in real estate, the focus of the "university." Because of... law suits Trump paid back $25 million... so the scam would not follow him into the White House.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many of those who believe in Trump come from the 90 percent whose economic fortunes have dwindled over that last half century... [P]olicies embraced by both parties ignored their plight or made it worse.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Chinese have seized upon Trump's erratic behavior and his cancellation of the to promote their own trade deal, orienting fifteen economies and India away from Washington and toward Beijing.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trump used illegal immigrants with sledge hammers (but no hard hats or safety gear) to demolish a... Manhattan department store so he could build . A federal judge... held that Trump engaged in a conspiracy to cheat those men out of their full $4 an hour pay.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trump started a faux university named for himself that taught nothing of value and collapsed in scandal.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Questions of corruption and foreign influence are on the front burner... because of the extensive business holdings of Donald Trump and his actions encouraging foreign powers, lobbyists, and other favor seekers to spend money at his Washington hotel and other properties.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The domestic emoluments clause... states that beyond his government salary the president may not receive "any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them." Those... words bar payment from the federal government or any of the fifty states... Trump has been profiting from spending at his properties by foreign governments... Also Trump has been profiting from federal, state, and local governments spending money at his properties as part of presidential security details. When Trump stays at [his properties]... these governments... pay full retail prices.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lawsuits accusing Trump of violating the Constitution's s have been filed by attorneys general from sixteen states and by 196 senators and representatives,... a bipartisan ethics watchdog organization called ... and a growing list of business owners who compete with Trump hotels and restaurants.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The s... go to the very nature of... America and whether we are a nation of laws... whether elected office is for public service or it permits profiteering.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trump is the first president to pose numerous questions about whether he is receiving income from foreign governments, which the Framers felt was inherently corrupting. He is also the first to present the issue of profiting from spending by federal, state, and local governments with payments that the Framers denied... How these cases are resolved will likely have an enormous influence on whether the American Republic endures...”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trump's private and Justice Department lawyers narrowly define emolument. ...[A]nything short of an flat-out bribe is legal ...so long as the transaction is run through one of the ...companies owned by the president.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“During the Constitutional Convention... [d]ictionaries from the era... show that emolument had a broad meaning, including profit, gain, benefit, and advantage. John Mikhail... found that "the majority of Blackstone's usages of 'emolumnent' involve benefits other than government salaries and or perquisites," including profits from business and rents from land.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“and ... as leaders of [CREW]... describe Trump's conduct as a "flagrant abuse" of the Constitution for personal profit. ...Painter, the Bush ethics chief... is almost apoplectic at Trump's conduct and the failure of his fellow Republicans to speak up.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trump bought the Doral with $104.8 million he borrowed from ... infamous for laundering money for Russian oligarchs. ...When Trump took office, the Doral was under a foreclosure order. Trump, as he often does, refused to pay contractors in full. ...Most contractors just walk away when Trump refuses to pay... because Trump will spend far more to litigate than the amount in dispute to discourage contractors and small business owners he cheats from suing for what they are due.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[I]n modern language we think of "idiot" as someone who is stupid or a fool. That is not the classical meaning... An idiot is someone who cares only about himself and has no regard for anyone else, and that's terribly important when you think about tyrants. ...[W]e think of tyrants as people who are horrible... oppressors. ...[I]n its classic historic meaning, tyrant was simply someone who ceased power.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Founders of this country are in two groups... [W]e live in the second American republic because the first American republic under the Articles of Confederation failed, because it had no power to tax.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[A] government that can't tax ...is no government at all.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The reason we created the Constitution was to tax ourselves... It's Article 1, Section [8]... that Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties and imposts [and excises].”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Governments throughout history have been run by tyrants.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whose society lasted 3,300 years? It was the [Egyptian] Pharaohs. ...They figured out through public works how to keep people busy and out of trouble, and every high-born Egyptian was taught... how far you can oppress people before they would strike back. ...[T]hey also learned one other lesson. You've all heard of the ?”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The is a grant of tax relief. ...[E]ssentially it says... I, Pharaoh so and so... hereby make this grant of tax relief to these priests.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[W]hat's happened in our society is we have seen this experiment, this crazy idea of self-governance which had very few antecedents, atrophy.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Haudenosaunee people, the People of the Longhouse, the ones we call the created a democracy. ...[T]hey had the equivalent of state legislatures. ...[O]nly men ran for office. Only women voted, and women could remove from office men who misbehaved, and they did.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source