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Riding in a cab from Penn Station to the Waldorf Astoria for the 2017 meetings of the American Psychoanalytic Association, my wife and I listened to our driver's stories about himself; he claimed to be a powerful figure in local New York politics—such an outspoken, progressive activist that local politicians were afraid of him. When we asked what he thought of then newly elected President Trump, our driver seemed to shrink into himself. He explained that he didn't feel comfortable criticizing Trump. Perhaps because of Trump's alleged Mafia ties, we wondered to ourselves? Yes, Mafia ties. Although Justin Frank does not mention this in Trump on the Couch , it has long been alleged that Trump actively sought ties with the Mafia, more than other New York builders did. In 2013 Trump said to David Letterman, of mobsters he had met, “They happen to be very nice people” (Bruney 2020).
That conversation in the taxi alarmed me, and made me worry even more about the future of free speech in our democracy. A couple of days later—on January 21, the day after Trump's inauguration—my wife and I participated in the Manhattan Women's March. Here, by contrast, we saw reassuring evidence that women and others were not afraid to protest against Trump. A woman from Eastern Europe told us she had seen demagogues corrupt democracy in her country of origin, and she was disturbed by all the similar warning signs that Trump intended to do just that in the United States.