Last Friday’s meeting between Trump, Vance and Zelenskyy, reminded me of these mafia meetings that we see in movies, where a victim from organized crime is being intimidated and “shaken up” by two thugs. Based on Trump’s New York origins it’s easy to connect the dots and appreciate the staggering amount of experience he garnered from dealing with, and living alongside the mafia.
Several of Cohn's Mafia patrons commanded the building unions in New York, whose approval Trump needed to complete his projects.
It is said that he used mobster owned companies to build Trump Tower and his Trump Plaza residential complex in Manhattan. This involved purchasing concrete from a business allegedly owned by Mafia bosses Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno and Paul Castellano at an exorbitant cost. He told a 2004 panel at the Museum of Television and Radio in L.A. "You know, mobsters don't like, as they are talking to me, having cameras all over the room. It would play well on television, but it doesn't play well with them."
Roy Cohn had married into a Ukrainian family and frequented the ethnic Russian neighborhoods of Brooklyn as a teenager. He bragged to another guest at a friend's wedding that he belonged to the Russian mob. The friend didn't believe it, but Cohen was sent to negotiate a hotel deal for Trump in Moscow. He swung around unscrupulous people and offered Putin a penthouse on the top floor.
However, he has consistently lied, contradicted himself, and made misleading statements when questioned about his ties to the mob. It appears he has lied about these affiliations outright. Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, a former under-boss for the Gambino family, even endorsed him, saying that America "doesn't need a bookworm as president, it needs a mob boss."
Finally, on David Letterman's late-night show, Trump admitted to having met mobsters "on occasion." "They happen to be very nice people," he said. "You just don't want to owe them money." Now, you know what I’m talking about…
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