Trump's 'Art of the Deal' co-author predicted tax fraud would be larger than Russian collusion: 'I knew it was bad'
Art of the Deal co-author Tony Schwartz had a major "I told you so" moment on MSNBC today after the bombshell New York Times report about President Donald Trump's taxes.
In a conversation with MSNBC host Ari Melber, Schwartz said that he knew that the business dealings and tax evasion would ultimately be Trump's undoing.
"Since 2016, I've felt and I've said on your show that there will come a moment where tax fraud and money laundering will be Donald Trump's biggest problem, even bigger than collusion and conspiracy," Schwarts said. "And that has come true now. The second thing is that it goes far beyond even when I thought had happened."
He went on to say, "I knew it was bad, but I didn't believe." He then stopped himself, floored by the enormity of "a man who took hundreds of millions of dollars or fraudulently took hundreds of millions of dollars."
Schwartz noted that the moment came when Fred Trump was '85 and near senile." The elder Trump was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and suffered from it for the final six years of his life. Meanwhile, his son was trying to take over his company and take all of his money.
He attributed it to the fact that "Fred Trump was in the business of making money, and Donald Trump was in the business of losing" it. Much of the money the junior Trump lost was his father's.
"Whatever myth there was, as you said earlier, that he was a self-made man, or that he was even a legitimate businessman, is gone forever," Schwarts assessed.
"As long as I've known Trump, which is more than 30 years, that this is a man who is a black hole," he continued. "And feels in every moment like a fraud. What comes out tonight is he had good reason to feel like he was a fraud. He was a fraud. And he was committing fraud -- he was being fraudulent. And here it is in living color."
Conservative commentator Bill Kristol said that he doesn't anticipate Trump's supporters caring about the fraud allegations.
"They'll think, 'Hey, he conned them all, good for him, he kept money away from the federal government, he took money away from his rivals, his father was a conning guy too, we need someone like that as president, he can cult good deals with trade rivals, stand up to the Democrats,'" Kristol assessed.
Watch the full video below: