We've Had Someone Like Trump Before
Donald Trump has a Lot in Common with Jimmy Hoffa
A blunt, charismatic force of nature, supported by the nation’s blue collar voters, wages an outsider insurgent campaign to become President. By surprise, he’s successful and changes the management from a practical, legal, reasoned approach to a bullying, corrupt exercise of power. He antagonizes allies. He amasses a centralized power structure, purging those who contest him and consolidating power using loyalists in key positions. It’s alleged he corruptly tried to influence a public official and he’s arrested. Additional hearings occur on a broad spectrum of related conduct and his defense is to accuse the government of a weaponized conspiracy against him.
Donald Trump? Nope. This all happened 60 years ago to International Brotherhood of Teamsters President, James “Jimmy” Hoffa.
Hoffa got his start as a local union organizer of truck drivers, so he was not a part of the New York socialite crowd Trump was growing up. However, like Trump he understood leverage very well. As an organizer, he used strikes, thuggery and intimidation to get better contracts, increase union membership, pressure businesses and threaten those that would not support him. It worked. From 1933 to 1936 he more than quadrupled Teamster membership.
Like Trump, Hoffa evaded military service. He was granted a draft deferment, not becaue of bone spurs, but because his union management was more valuable to the nation as Teamsters truckers and railworkers were necessary to keep the freight moving and contribute to the war effort. Once the war ended, with the Interstate Highway Act under Eisenhower, trucking became the principle way to distribute freight nationwide, and Teamster membership was all but required.
Hoffa’s ties to the illegitimate world of organized crime were lengthy, and in certain areas of the country a necessary evil he courted. During the 1950s and early 60s, organized crime became intertwined with many of the unions, as regional interests expanded nationally. This coincided with Hoffa’s rise within the Teamsters to President. In 1957, the AFL-CIO in a 5 to 1 vote expelled the Teamsters from their organization for corruption; they were offered a return only if they expelled Hoffa as President.
As organized crime became a focus of the Kennedy Justice Department, Hoffa’s contacts within the illegitimate business world came under scrutiny. During several trials, Hoffa was convicted of attempted bribery, jury tampering and mail fraud, which he stretched out serving time for with appeals. However, what really was the nail in his coffin was when associates of his within the Teamsters Union testified against him about skims of the Teamsters Pension Fund going to mob bosses. For that, he was found guilty of one count of conspiracy and three counts of mail and wire fraud, had to resign from the Teamsters and serve a 13 year Federal Prison sentence.
Trump’s management style, personality, and his speaking style all mirrors Hoffa. His constant appeals to the masses, his demogoguery, even his skirting of the line between legal and illegal, sometimes ventuing over brazenly without regard to the rule of law are all eerily similar. Trump’s improprieties are completely congruent with Hoffa’s, including how he leans on officials and then uses the legal system to draw out the process that never reaches resolution. When testifying before Congress, Hoffa devolved into rants about whataboutism and projection and questioning the process, much like Trump does on a regular basis on the campaign trail and on social media.
So What Can We Expect From The Trump Cases?
Well, Hoffa had to go to jail. As previously mentioned, it was his associates that turned against him ensuring his convictions. With Trump’s cases, particularly the classified documents case and the one in Georgia, there are plenty of witnesses and complicit individuals who would love to make a deal if it means they get out of trouble. If they do, Trump is heading to the big house.
In Hoffa’s case, in 1971 (less than five years into the sentence) Nixon commuted Hoffa’s sentence to time served, conditional on Hoffa never again managng a labor organization, something Hoffa claimed he didn’t know about when he accepted.1 Hoffa sued the Nixon DOJ and John Dean regarding the clause but lost the case on account that Nixon had drafted the clause within his powers due to the misconduct leading to Hoffa’s conviction, and that Hoffa was aware of the restriction when he accepted the clemency.
Hoffa’s subsequent public appeals for support, to attract the attention of any camera or radio microphone within range, was neverending. That is, he remained a very vocal public figure right up until his disappearance July 30, 1975 when he was last seen at the Red Fox diner outside Detroit, never to be seen again.2
What it can tell us about what may happen to Trump is that if he is convicted, Trump is very likely going to jail. The Georgia case, no President can pardon since it is state violations that are charged. In the classified documents case, it is entirely plausible that a Joe Biden or a subsequent Democratic President pardons or commutes a sentence contingent on him 1) never seeking public office again and 2) stays out of the public eye in certain verifiable ways. Then again, Trump has proven unreliable in such conditions so it’s just as likely he stays in jail until a Republican becomes President and pardons him.
When it gets right down to it though, it’s likely Trump will leave the public stage, like Hoffa, not with a bang, but a whimper.
PurpleAmerica’s Cultural Corner
There are generally two movies that seek to document Hoffa’s life.
The first is “Hoffa” starring Jack Nicholson as the Teamster Boss and Danny DeVito, directed by the latter. Nicholson is mesmerizing as Hoffa and nails his mercurial attitude and forceful nature. The movie though is relatvely so-so; DeVito’s direction is not great and you get the feeling the movie would have been better with a more seasoned director.
The other film is Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman.” I’m always one for a Scorsese mobster flick, especially when it stars Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and has Al Pacino as Hoffa. But you know what? It’s boring as hell. It’s a four hour movie in which the typical conversation is:
{Pesci]: You know that guy?
[DeNiro]: What guy?
[Pesci]: You know, that one guy?
[DeNiro]: Oh yeah, yeah yeah. What about him?
[Pesci]: There’s that thing you gotta do with him?
[DeNiro] : You mean that thing we did before?
[Pesci]: No, that other thing.
ANd it goes like that for four hours.
PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day
I’m always a fan of people who have odd middle names. Hoffa’s is one of the oddest.
James RIDDLE Hoffa.
Yes, his middle name is Riddle, just like Voldemort’s last name.
PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject
Not really a spoiler, but…..
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Footnotes and Fun Stuff
In addition, although there was never an explicit quid pro quo, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters officially endorsed Richard Nixon in the 1972 election.
Not that I’m condoning something horrible happening to Trump, but wouldn’t it be great if one day he was just gone and we never heard from him ever again?