Was Donald Trump trying to channel Vito Corleone when he “asked” Volodymyr Zelensky for a “favor”?
Much has been made of the shakedown-like tone of the conversation between Donald Trump and Volodymry Zelenski. And Trump has frequently been compared to mob boss.
They say life imitates art. When reading the so-called “transcript” of the Orange Orangutan’s July 25th phone call with the President of Ukraine, it is hard not to be struck by the similarities in the lead up to the infamous “horse head” scene from The Godfather.
In case you’ve forgotten, Tom Hagen (VitoCorleone’s Consigliere) asks Hollywood film director Jack Woltz for a favor: to put Johnny Fontaine in his new movie.
When Woltz refuses, a stern warning comes next from the Consigliere — about never asking for a second favor when the first one has been turned down. When that fails, of course, the next scene becomes cinematic history.
As we think about this, the parallels are eerie. Rudy Guiliani has filled the Tom Hagen role. And who knows what those earlier conversations were like? About the only difference between real life and the movie is that Trump actually asks for the favor himself. He was so stupid he did it in plain daylight, and there was a transcript which so worried his advisers that they put it into “lock down” in the hopes this high crime wouldn’t be discovered.
The only remaining question is: Did Donald Trump deliberately use the “favor” term fully knowing that was how a famous mobster like Vito Corleone would do it? Or is it just a case of Mario Puzo understanding 50 years ago how a punk politician would speak?