as vanity fair mentions, the founding editors spy magazine, great and carter and , recognize trump by what he was, an aggrandizement bully with a curious relation to the truth and his supposed wealth and business hakeem. and now more than three decades later, trump is finally facing for his misdeeds. new york attorney general accusing trump of systematically misstating the value of his properties to the tune of billions, purely for financial gain. and it is fitting that it s happening right here in new york, a place that made trump could now and may come. i can think of no one better to talk top two in this moment then kurt andersen, one of the founding editors of spy magazine, and the author of evil geniuses, the unmaking of america. and kurt andersen joins us now, it s good to see you. i mean, that article should be decided in letitia james s lawsuit. it outlines everything he has done for 30 years, kurt. my question is, why did it take
million. the pattern of fraud and deception used by mr. trump and the trump organization for their own financial benefit is astounding. inflating the values of assets by whatever means necessary. to increase mr. trump s purported net worth. letitia james accused the ex president of quote, staggering fraud, filing a lawsuit against him, to his children for $50 million. comes attorney denied any wrongdoing on behalf of her client. for this alleged fraud. it has essentially been hiding in plain sight for years. accusations of shady business tactics of dogged trump since well before he saw political office. when 30 years ago. 1990, one spy magazine published an exposé on trump s financial scheming, including at this, publicly inflating the value of his properties.
new york attorney general filing a lawsuit accusing him of misstating the value of his properties to the tune of billions purely for financial gain and fitting has happening in new york, the pla is that made trump can now unmake him. i can think of no one better to talk in this moment than kurt anderson, one of the founding editors of spy magazine and author of evil geniuses. good to see you. my pleasure. that article should be cited in her lawsuit, right? outlines everything he s been doing for 30 years. and my question is, why did it take so long? well, it is extraordinary. and it s one thing to be able to say 31 years later we told you so. but like you, i read that story today. in my case for the first time in 31 years when you didn t read it because you were a child, it was extraordinary. it is the same stuff. it is inflating wealth to cheap investors.
go to trial, and i don t believe they can afford to, they will be put in front of the jury, which is likely to despise him. and they will likely just not believe anything he s saying. so this is really different from the criminal cases where would there be someone who could almost buy it? there are things that he can say, but given the enormity of the evaluation and the specific evidence that he s the one who calls the shots, starting with michael cohen, who first testified about the whole undervalue, overvalue scheme, i just don t think that it can fly. and if they challenge it or go to trial, they re taking what s already a life-threatening situation for the company into one that, you know, it could literally be in embers when all is said and done. david, something you know, i think, better than most of us, is how long this has been going on. this is a spy magazine cover
from that game to charity. years later, huffpost did some digging and found out that surprise, there is no evidence that trump never did such a thing. back in 1989, the nation had yet to learn the extent of donald trump s huckster-ism, his propensity for shameless lies and endless self promotion. but in his hometown of new york, trump was already well known as a charlatan. and perhaps no one knew that better than the good folks at spy magazine, the irreverent and statistical magazine made it their mission to poke and mock and expose trump at every turn. the same year that trump the game came out, spy magazine ran an article titled the art of the art of the deal, dedicated to exposing trump s many lies about his wealth. it was perhaps the very first investigation into trump s inflated assets. by 1991, they had dug even deeper into trump s financial chicane horry was an article titled all the, people all the time. how donald trump fooled the media, use the media to fool the banks, use th