At the height of his criminal powers, former Gambino crime family boss John Gotti was loved and hated in equal measure. A ruthless but charismatic gangster and killer, those that loved him, adored him. Those that hated him utterly despised him.
Gotti was famous in organised crime circles for being able to duck charges and stay out of jail. Somehow he managed to avoid prison after being acquitted in three huge federal trials. Because of this, the mafia head honcho earned the nickname ‘The Teflon Don’.
It’s a moniker perhaps even better suited to another, not entirely dissimilar man: Former US President Don(ald) J. Trump.
We’ll stop with the comparisons between New York kingpin John Gotti and New York kingpin Donald Trump now. Not because the comparisons end there. It’s partly because the 45th US President is quite litigious. But mostly because it’s never a totally smart idea to publicly take the Mickey out of the mafia.
Donald Trump was born into wealth in 1946, going on to build a Big Apple-focused real estate empire with a fat chunk of his old man’s money. The tycoon has lived his entire life playing by his own rules and faced numerous controversies because of it. These include numerous fraud lawsuits, casino bankruptcies and racial discrimination claims.
Despite his successes as both a businessman and a public figure, the native New Yorker has always been mired by scandal. His political career, launched in 2015, pushed him up into the scandal stratosphere.
From the now-infamous Access Hollywood tape to impeachment and criminal charges for election interference and mishandling classified documents. Via countless sexual harassment and assault claims. The weird thing is, Trump’s popularity and influence remains largely unaffected by it all.
So why do all these accusations, legal battles and lingering scandals seem to have such little impact on Trump’s political and public standing? Let’s find out…
Trump has faced numerous accusations over the years. For example, multiple women, including Stacey Williams, have accused him of sexual misconduct. These are claims, we should add, that the former Apprentice man strongly refutes.
Then there was the Stormy Daniels affair which involves allegations that Donald Trump paid the adult film star $130,000 in hush money to keep schtum about an alleged affair that the pair supposedly had back in 2006. It led to legal battles over campaign finance violations and further intense – and slightly embarrassing – scrutiny of Trump’s personal life and conduct.
His presidency saw a not unimpressive two impeachment proceedings: one for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress and the other related to incitement of insurrection after the events of January 6th 2021.
Allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election also dogged Trump’s presidency. Ongoing claims of election fraud in 2020 fuelled further scandal.
Trump’s financial dealings have also drawn scrutiny, including accusations of tax avoidance and questionable business practices. Currently, he faces criminal charges related to the handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Despite these controversies, his political standing remains remarkably resilient.
And those are just the headlines. We’d list them all of Trump’s scandals, but we have a word count and deadline to stick to.
Stacey Williams, a former model with ties to paedophile billionaire fixer and kompromat blackmailer extraordinaire Jeffrey Epstein, alleges that Trump sexually assaulted back her in the 1990s. Williams claims the assault occurred at Epstein’s New York residence, drawing renewed attention due to Trump’s chequered history of similar such allegations.
‘It was very clear then that Jeffrey and Donald were really, really good friends and spent a lot of time together,’ Williams has said. She claims that Trump grabbed her, pulled her toward him and groped her. She adds that he ‘put his hands all over my breasts and buttocks.’ While this was happening, Williams says, Trump and Epstein were smiling at each other.
The former – and potentially future US president – is currently facing a number of different criminal cases.
Firstly, he’s charged with mishandling classified documents after leaving office. He’s also accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
To add insult(s) to injury, Trump also faces federal charges related to his efforts to block the certification of the 2020 election. Oh, and he’s also involved in a fraud case in New York for allegedly inflating his business assets to secure himself favourable loan terms and cheaper insurance deals.
So just the four criminal cases at the moment, then.
If Donald Trump’s re-elected, his criminal charges wouldn’t go anywhere. They’d still proceed through the courts. However, as president, he could very well (and almost certainly would) employ weighty legal delays, or even try to influence the Department of Justice to swing things his way.
While he wouldn’t legally be allowed to pardon himself for state charges, he may well be able to do so for the federal cases.
It’s constitutional. Despite facing multiple court cases, impeachment and a number of criminal trials, Donald Trump can still legally run for president. US law doesn’t disqualify candidates with criminal charges or impeachments from running.
The exception to this would be if he’s convicted of the rather weighty crime of insurrection under the 14th Amendment. But that’s not happened. He’s free to stand and, if elected, serve once again.
Discussing women with radio host Billy Bush: ‘I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything… Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.’
On the campaign trail in 2016: ‘I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.’
Referring to a white supremacist rally in which someone died and 49 people were injured: ‘There were very fine people on both sides.’
On Covid-19: ‘It has more names than any disease in history. I can name ‘kung flu’. I can name 19 different versions of names.
Any one of these conversational snippets might have been enough to sink another politician’s career. But none seemed to have made any real lasting impact on Trump’s career. The man benefits from his fanbase either dismissing or justifying any potentially dodgy remarks he comes out with. So – within reason – he can say what he wants.
Donald Trump’s impressive resilience when it comes to controversies and scandals seems to stem from his fiercely loyal voter base, who tend to dismiss accusations made against him as politically-motivated attacks or smears. His mastery of controlling media narratives, combined with delaying legal tactics and loyal (or, at least, well-paid) legal teams, keeps him pretty well shielded from any significant consequences.
You could argue that there are somewhat broader political and cultural factors at play too. We live in a time of extreme political polarisation, with distrust in institutions at an all-time high. These things have helped protect his image as the gun-slinging maverick swinging into town to take down the corrupt mayor. Even if it isn’t strictly true.
While these strategies have kept him largely unscathed up to this point, the ongoing criminal trials may pose a bigger threat, raising questions about whether his legal defences will ultimately fail and trip him up. If this happens while the man is POTUS, it could see Donald Trump’s house of cards come tumbling down. And maybe even shape the future of American politics.
We wouldn’t bet on it, though. Teflon Donald’s a non-stick kind of guy.
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