M.L. Nestel joined Raw Story in 2023. An award-winning writer and editor, his work has been published in New York Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine and The Guardian, among other titles. He also produces and writes for true-crime genre TV shows. Prior to that, he served on the Newsweek masthead as a senior writer, wrote as a correspondent at ABC News and held the titles of West Coast bureau chief and senior writer at The Daily Beast. Priors also include working as senior national correspondent at The Daily Mail and investigative reporter at all three NYC tabloids: The New York Post,The New York Daily News and Newsday. He traveled around the country as a national correspondent at The Daily. M.L. published hundreds of stories about underground music and cinema — most notably as a critic for Box Office Magazine and the New York editor at Soma Magazine. He also headed development at Fountainhead Films. M.L. splits his time between Los Angeles and New York.
The Don calls the shots and his kids do his bidding.
That's the read on the family dynasty's makeup painted by Trump biographer Tim O'Brien in an appearance with Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC.
Asked about what Don Jr.'s role is in the Trump Organization, O'Brien didn't hold back describing him as having "never been a particularly bright bulb."
"He does what his father tells him to do," he said. "As does Eric and as does Ivanka."
"They are all essentially hostages."
The author of the 2005 book The Art of Being the Donald, said that the NYC-based company with a massive real estate portfolio, erected skyscrapers and owned and operated resorts and casinos — not to mention the TV juggernaut of the early aughts "The Apprentice" — is run by Trump himself.
That means that despite the roles in the company held by his grown children, they are beholden to him.
"No major decisions were made in the Trump Organization without Donald Trump's input," O'Brien explained. "And none of the children would bark unless they had Donald Trump's input."
Don Jr., Trump's eldest son, appeared in a Lower Manhattan court on Wednesday to testify in the $250 million civil fraud accusing him, his brother, their father as well as the company's former CFO Allen Weisselberg of juking the numbers and their assets with bankers and insurers to gain favorable deals and loans.
O'Brien explained on the network appearance that the accounting practices by the Trump Organization during the time they're being scrutinized screamed with red flags.
"None of the Trump financial statements comported with GAAP because they were making things up every step of the way," he said. "The statement of financial conditions they gave to the bank said very prominently inside the statement of financial condition, 'None of this comports with GAAP.'"
He added: "And the reason it said that is because the accountant wouldn't sign off on it. They were not going to put their names on the line to a document that they believed was being used to mislead people."
