'Rules are for suckers': Analyst claims Trump expects to be targeted by his own tactics

Former President Donald Trump constantly claims the system is rigged against him, from conspiracy theories about election fraud to accusations that he's being targeted by federal prosecutors under President Joe Biden's command.

But there's a good reason for that, argues David Corn for Mother Jones — Trump sees rigging everywhere, because rigging the business world is how he got so rich and famous in the first place.

Trump, wrote Corn, "emerged from the swamp of New York City real estate, where political connections were as important as architectural blueprints," after his father Fred Trump fraudulently bilked money out of a government housing stimulus program. The young Trump used the political system and his father's connections to get tax deals that let him expand that empire.

"When Donald, in his late 20s, made the leap into Manhattan real estate in the 1970s, he relied on the relationships Fred had acquired via campaign contributions," wrote Corn.

For instance, he brokered a first-of its kind $168 million tax break from the mayor to buy a hotel near Grand Central Terminal and a tract of land held by the insolvent Penn Central Railroad. Then he worked with a mob-connected union boss to build Trump Tower, and secured tax breaks for it with Mafia lawyer Roy Cohn. And once he had this empire, he did deals with foreign oligarchs, like in Saudi Arabia, who wanted to hide their wealth in American real estate, later even securing real estate deals in some of these countries himself.

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What Trump learned from all this, said Corn, is that "rules are for suckers" and he could game the system to get whatever he wanted.

"In most countries, the superrich have a transactional relationship with the ruling regime: They help preserve its hold on power in exchange for the opportunity to amass great wealth for themselves," Corn wrote. This stands in contrast to how U.S. plutocrats work, "in which they employ their fortunes to shape the political order and the workings of the government to their advantage.

"Trump has taken that further, merging his business interests fully with politics and his attempt to dominate the American political system."

This is why Trump projects suspicion onto everyone investigating and politically outsmarting him, Corn concluded. And it's precisely what makes him so dangerous should he win again: "For Trump, oligarchy is a stepping stone to a system that poses a greater threat to American democracy: autocracy."