The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family

David Cay Johnston

Nov 2021 · Simon and Schuster · Narrated by Danny Campbell

About this audiobook

Pulitzer Prize­–winning reporter and dean of Trumpologists David Cay Johnston reveals years of eye-popping financial misdeeds by Donald Trump and his family.

While the world watched Donald Trump’s presidency in horror or delight, few noticed that his lifelong grifting quietly continued. Less than forty minutes after taking the oath of office, Trump began turning the White House into a money machine for himself, his family, and his courtiers.

More than $1.7 billion flowed into Donald Trump’s bank accounts during his four years as president. Foreign governments rented out whole floors of his hotel five blocks from the White House while lobbyists conducted business in the hotel’s restaurants. Payday lenders and other trade groups moved their annual conventions to Trump golf resorts. And individual favor seekers joined his private Mar-a-Lago club with its $200,000 admission fee in hopes of getting a few minutes with the President. Despite earning more than $1 million every day he was in office, Trump left the White House as he arrived—hard up for cash. More than $400 million in debt comes due by 2024, and Trump still lacks the resources to pay it back.

“Few people are as well positioned to write an exposé of the former president as Johnston” (The Washington Post), and The Big Cheat offers a guided tour of how money flowed in and out of Trump’s hundreds of enterprises, showing in simple terms how a corrupt president used our government for his benefit, even putting national security at risk. Johnston details the four most recent years of the corruption that has defined the Trump family since 1885 and reveals the costs of Trump’s extravagant lifestyle for American taxpayers.

Ratings and reviews

Let's just say, let the truth be told. well here it is..in black & white, .that man has been crooked and manipulating incident people since practically the day he was born. All for benefiting himself...I just don't understand why the people of this wonderful land refuse to see that..his own parents seen it..cares for nobody but himself..don't be fooled by him anymore..build America great again..love this nation with all my heart...I've read all the books on him...since I was a teenager..I do not claim to be a republican or a Democratic..I am just me.. I will never make a mistake like voting for someone like that ever again...

Shocking details of how Trump, his family, and cronies got / get away with highly criminal financial fraud and corruption, which would land the average Joe and Jill years behind bars. My hope, as with many others, is that eventually, one day, justice will catch up with them, as justice matters!

About the author

David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter and bestselling author of The Making of Donald Trump and It’s Even Worse Than You Think. He has lectured on economics, journalism, and tax policy on every continent except Antarctica and is a former president of Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE). Johnston has been a frequent guest on MSNBC, CNN, the BBC, ABC World News Tonight, Democracy Now!, and NPR’s Morning Edition, among other shows, and was a consultant for the Netflix series House of Cards.