Mark F. Pomerantz made his comparison between Donald Trump and John Gotti in the context of his efforts to demonstrate that the real estate mogul’s business empire was built upon a criminal foundation. It was a comparison the former president didn’t appreciate — he took to Truth Social to complain and had his lawyer dismiss the Gotti comments as a transparent effort to boost book sales (per Newsweek). But Pomerantz isn’t the first to allege that Trump wasn’t a clean businessman. And his connections to Gotti and the world of organized crime may have gone deeper than quirks of personality and leadership styles.
According to Politico, Trump’s construction empire was very much in bed with the mafia during the 1980s, a time when organized crime had a firm hold over that sector of New York business. His dealings with the mob included the building of Trump Tower and Trump Plaza with firms controlled by Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Paul Castellano, Gotti’s predecessor as boss of the Gambino crime family. The FBI subpoenaed Trump over his connections to Gambino figures, and he later faced conspiracy charges over his dealings with a mob-controlled labor firm.
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Trump has maintained ignorance of any mob or mob-connected figures from this time in his life. But besides court cases and hard evidence, there are reports that he personally associated with “Fat Tony” Salerno of the Genovese family through Roy Cohn, the infamous New York fixer. Among Cohn’s clients at one time was John Gotti himself.
