Produced by KSQD 90.7, 89.5 & 89.7FM

“Be Bold America!” Aired April 17, 2026 at 5:00pm (PT)

Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist David Cay Johnston stated in his bestselling book, The Making of Donald Trump, when Donald Trump rode down the Trump Tower lobby escalator live on national television in June 2015 to announce his campaign for president, nearly every journalist treated his candidacy as a vanity project.

Having covered Donald Trump intensely from 1988 through 1995 and following him ever since, David knew his dramatic entry on live national television indicated Donald Trump was serious. He also knew that his presidential run would not be for the benefit of the United States of America, but only for Donald Trump

As the Financial Times wrote of Johnston’s book, “[It] gives Trump the thorough scrubbing, he deserves… He makes a compelling case that Trump has the attributes of both “dictator” and “deceiver.”

Interview Guest:

David Cay Johnston is one of America’s most award-winning investigative journalists with a long career reporting for the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the New York Times, where his work was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Johnston is a journalist and author with a specialty in economics and tax issues. Johnston is the author of several bestselling books and teaches at Syracuse University College of Law. Of local note, David Cay Johnston graduated from Soquel High School and considers Santa Cruz County the best place in the world to live.