Donald Trump, criminal mastermind: Scholar Gregg Barak on the supreme con artist of our time [View all]

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Donald Trump, criminal mastermind: Scholar Gregg Barak on the supreme con artist of our time
Author of "Criminology on Trump" on our 45th president as "a superb agent of obscene, transgressive enjoyment"

By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
PUBLISHED JUNE 1, 2022 6:30AM (EDT)


(Salon) Donald Trump can fairly be described as a political crime boss. His contempt for democracy and the rule of law is reminiscent of the legendary organized-crime chieftains found in both fiction and reality. He used his presidency (and its aftermath) to enrich himself, along with his family and other members of his inner circle. Trump is deeply attracted to violence, although — like the head of a crime family — does not personally engage in it. He may be a sociopath or a psychopath, but regardless of clinical definitions is certainly antisocial and destructive.

Despite his uneven recent record of political endorsements, Trump remains the obvious leader of the Republican Party and the larger fascist movement in and around it. For millions of Americans, his orders and wishes are not to be disobeyed, and at least some of his loyal foot soldiers are willing to commit acts of violence at his command and perhaps to kill or die for him.

Trump runs his crime family from Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, which in a fictional narrative or a journalistic report from another nation would be described as a "compound." Republican candidates, party leaders and other members of his MAGA movement arrive there to make offerings of cash and undying loyalty, and to receive his praise (or admonition) and receive their further orders.

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Gregg Barak has tried to fill that void with his new book "Criminology on Trump," published in May by Routledge. Barak is an emeritus professor of criminology and criminal justice at Eastern Michigan University and was formerly a visiting distinguished professor in the College of Justice & Safety at Eastern Kentucky University. He is also the author of "Violence and Nonviolence: Pathways to Understanding" and "Violence, Conflict, and World Order," among other works, and is co-founder and North American editor of the Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime.

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How are you feeling given all the crises we have faced in America during the Age of Trump and beyond?

I'm emotionally stressed. I'm anxious. I'm seeing the end of democracy. I'm just totally absorbed in writing about and thinking about Donald Trump. I began thinking about writing a book about Donald Trump in 2017. I got sucked in. Everyone else had been talking about Donald Trump from the perspective of journalists, lawyers, therapists and other points of view. But where were the criminologists? Donald Trump is a matter of crime and justice.

You say that you "got sucked in," that Trump pulled you into his orbit, in effect. I have heard many people say that about him. How did this happen? What is so compelling and intriguing about him? That's a big part of his power.

I'm sucked in because I study deception. I study mistrust. I study the con. Donald Trump is the archetype of all those things. He's a grifter, he's a racketeer. He's all of those things in one persona and one individual. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/06/01/donald-trump-criminal-mastermind-scholar-gregg-barak-on-the-con-artist-of-our-time/