April 23, 2018 3 min to read

Jonathan’s WaPo story on Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Publication : Uncategorized

This segment originally aired on April 23, 2018 on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

Trump Bullshitted His Way Onto the Forbes 400 List

On April 23, 2018, The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah hit my Trump as John Baron lying his way onto the Forbes 400 story out of the ballpark with scathing, hilarious insight: “This weekend we discovered Trump’s origin lie: the bullshit foundation that he built his bullshit career on. ”

The Daily Show also used the segment to open the ‘So Much Winning” Trump roundup show that it produced in August, for more than 7 million online viewers, here.

Transcript below:

Daily Show with Trevor Noah, 4/23/18 – Trump Bullshitted His Way Onto the Forbes 400 List

Trevor Noah: What was amazing though, is that this weekend we also discovered Trump’s origin lie.

Various news clips: There’s a new report tonight that President Trump may have lied his way onto the Forbes magazine annual list of the richest Americans back in the 1980’s. Trump first made the list in 1982 with a reported net worth of $100 million, but the documents later proved he was only worth $5 million dollars. He lied about how many apartments the Trump organization owned, how much the units were worth, and that Trump, not his father, owned the apartments.

Trevor Noah: That’s right, all the way back in 1982, Trump apparently got onto the very first Forbes list by lying about his net worth, and claiming that the stuff his dad owned was actually his. Which is a classic lie every 20 year old would recognize. You know it’s like, “Let’s get out of here, girl. I got my own place, above my dad’s garage.” And please, and please, don’t get me wrong. This wasn’t just a casual lie that Trump told at a dinner party. He made a concerted effort to face interviews, references, and his financial statements. He even created a fake person.

MSNBC news clips: Former Forbes reporter Jonathan Greenberg claims in a new piece in the Washington Post that  Trump called him pretending to be a Trump organization official named John Barron.

Jonathan: We have this really strange technical thing, Mr. Barron, in terms of  who owns, you know, the equity.  I mean are you saying that for tax purposes, it’s been, the ownership has been transferred to Donald?

Donald Trump: Correct. Correct. That’s Correct.

Jonathan: Ok, and when you say, you know, in excess of 90 percent of the ownership?

Donald Trump: I’d say in excess of 90. In face, well, it’s really even closer to even the, the ultimate, but it’s in excess of 90 percent, yes.

Trevor Noah: Even the ultimate. You know it’s amazing that even with all the effort Trump put into getting onto the Forbes list, he still never thought of doing a different voice. And knowing Trump he probably put on a full costume, with a hat, a fake mustache, full prosthetic nose, and then still used his own voice on the call. Now Trump lying to Forbes could easily be seen as just someone trying to boost his ego, but Trump’s lie may have gotten him a whole lot more than just some flattering press.

MSNBC interview with Jonathan

Jonathan: Because Donald never had an actual statement of his assets and his liabilities, he used the Forbes 400 and this statement of inflated assets to borrow billions and billions of dollars, which he used to build Atlantic city and over-leverage himself.

Interviewer: You’re saying, he wanted to use the Forbes list to fraudulently induce people to fund him in ways they otherwise would have not?

Jonathan: That’s correct. I think he did that.

Trevor Noah: Ok I don’t know about you, but this is mind-blowing. Trump lied to get onto the Forbes list. Then the Forbes list cemented him as a mogul. And then he used his mogul status to get to the White House. Because, remember, his success story wasn’t just a minor detail of who he was, it was the very heart of his campaign. If I was a Trump supporter this new revelation would have me shook. I’m not gonna lie. Because it turns out his entire origin story was fake.

 

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