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Susanne Craig
Susanne Craig
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Susanne Craig CM is a Canadian investigative journalist and author who works at The New York Times. She gained prominence for her reporting on Donald Trump's finances, revealing his 1995 tax returns during the 2016 presidential election and co-authoring a 2018 investigation into Trump's claims of self-made wealth and financial practices.

Key Information

Craig received the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2019 for this work and continued to report on and investigate Trump's tax payments. She published her first book, Lucky Loser, with her colleague Russ Buettner on Donald Trump's financial and business practices in 2024.

Craig is also known for her coverage of the 2008 financial crisis and of New York State and New York City government and politics. She also serves as an on-air analyst for MSNBC, and previously worked for Canada's national newspaper The Globe and Mail and The Wall Street Journal.

Early life and education

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Susanne Leigh Craig was born in Calgary, Alberta, growing up in its Charleswood neighbourhood, and attended the University of Calgary, graduating in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.[1][2][3][4]

While at the University of Calgary, she volunteered as a reporter for the campus paper The Gauntlet where she got her start in journalism and reported on topics like student politics, dinner theatre, and movie reviews.[3][5][6]

Career

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Career beginnings

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Craig began her career as a summer intern for the Calgary Herald in 1990 where she covered various city transit topics and the career of Canada's first elected senator, Stan Waters. Although she struggled finding work due to a lack of formal education in journalism, her experience at the Herald encouraged her to keep pursuing a career in reporting.[7]

She later worked on a summer contract for the Windsor Star in 1991, and after winning the inaugural Edward Goff Penny Memorial Prize for young journalists, she was offered a full-time job as a reporter at the paper in Windsor, Ontario. She then spent four years at The Star where she worked on reporting police stories and the North American Free Trade Agreement's effect on Heinz's operations in Leamington, Ontario.[8][9]

First introduced to business reporting after taking on a one-month contract with The Financial Post, Craig then moved on to join The Globe and Mail in Toronto where she won the National Newspaper Award in Canada (Business – 1999) and also accepted an Honourable Mention Michener Award on behalf of the Globe.[10][9][11]

She then went on to become a reporter for the Wall Street Journal where she has recounted a story of her interview process at the paper with Daniel Hertzberg where he allegedly said to her “money, power, and greed; what more can a reporter want?” while overlooking the New York Stock Exchange.[12] While at the WSJ, she became the recipient of several Gerald Loeb Awards including one for deadline writing on the resignation of New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso.[13][9][14] Additionally, she was the lead journalist on a team that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for National Affairs Reporting for coverage of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.[15][16]

The New York Times

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In 2010, Craig joined The New York Times to continue reporting on Wall Street as part of its business section and DealBook newsletter. She was later promoted to the bureau chief of New York City Hall for coverage of the New York State government in 2013, and moved to Albany, New York in 2014 to continue covering on state government and municipal politics.[17][13][18][19]

On October 1, 2016, The New York Times published an article authored by Craig and her colleagues David Barstow and Megan Twohey, which stated that Donald Trump had reported a loss of $916 million in 1995, which could have allowed him to avoid paying income taxes for up to eighteen years.[20][21] In subsequent television interviews, Craig described having received a portion of Trump's 1995 tax records, around which the story was based, in her mailbox from an anonymous sender.[22] She wrote that the experience "has left me eager to share a bit of advice with my fellow reporters: Check your mailboxes. Especially nowadays, when people are worried that anything sent by email will leave forensic fingerprints, 'snail mail' is a great way to communicate with us anonymously."[23]

On October 2, 2018, the Times published a 14,000-word exposé co-authored by Craig, David Barstow, and Russ Buettner titled "Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father."[24][25] The findings of the story was based on over 100,000 pages worth of documents, both public sources and private disclosures, that allegedly revealed the inner workings of Trump's financial practices and claimed misleading statements about his self-made wealth and business empire.[26][27]

In 2019, Craig and the two other reporters shared the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for "an exhaustive 18-month investigation of President Donald Trump's finances that debunked his claims of self-made wealth and revealed a business empire riddled with tax dodges".[28] They also shared the 2019 George Polk Award for Political Reporting.[29]

On September 27, 2020, Craig and others further reported on Trump's tax record, demonstrating how Trump paid $750 in federal income tax during 2016 and no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years.[30][31]

Craig has stated that since her coverage of Trump and his finances, she has received death threats and high-profile criticism.[8] In 2020, Donald Trump sued The New York Times Company, Craig, Buettner, Barstow, and Mary L. Trump, accusing his niece of conspiring with the reporters in an "insidious plot" to obtain his tax records.[32] In May 2023, a New York Supreme Court judge in Manhattan dismissed the lawsuit, concluding that Donald Trump's claims "fail as a matter of constitutional law" and that investigation into his finances was protected by the First Amendment.[32] The court also ordered him to pay nearly $392,000 to the Times and its reporters to cover the cost of the legal defense; the order was made under the anti-SLAPP law, which penalizes baseless litigation aimed at silencing criticism.[33]

In 2021, Craig started serving as an on-air analyst for MSNBC, where she has spoken about her research into Trump's finances, tax returns, and his indictment and criminal trial.[34][35] She has also spoken on-air about her reporting on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.[36]

Lucky Loser

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Craig at Trump's New York trial in May 2024

On February 22, 2024, Craig announced through an Axios exclusive that she would be publishing a book titled Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created The Illusion of Success with Penguin Random House LLC in collaboration with her colleague Russ Buettner on September 10, 2024. The book would draw on over twenty years' worth of Trump's confidential tax information, including the tax returns he tried to conceal, alongside business records and interviews with Trump insiders.[37] It was released on September 17, 2024.[38]

In interviews, Craig said she intended to present a fact-based account of Trump's alleged financial mismanagement, drawing attention to the contradictions between his public persona and private failures. The book was met with highly positive critical reception, especially for its investigative depth and narration of Fred Trump's life and finances and how it bolstered his son's fortune.[39] Critics like Bethany Maclean of The Washington Post said "the news in their book lies not in one specific detail, but rather in the sheer accumulation of damning facts", while John Cassidy of The New Yorker praised Craig for making the argument that "he's a lousy businessman who only got as far as he did because of a series of lucky breaks that could paper over a litany of failure and still fund a lavish life."[40][41]

While praised for the pursuit of truth behind Trump's financial empire, Craig faced public criticism from Trump's camp. Campaign advisor Steven Cheung dismissed the book as a "desperate attempt to interfere" in the 2024 United States presidential election. Craig has defended the integrity of her work, pointing to the years of rigorous fact-checking and source verification involved.[38]

Awards

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Personal life

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Craig is the sister-in-law of former Calgary city councillor Ward Sutherland.[51]

References

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia
from Grokipedia

Susanne Craig is a Canadian-born investigative journalist and reporter for The New York Times, specializing in the nexus of politics, money, and government accountability.
Her career includes early work at the University of Calgary's student newspaper The Gauntlet, followed by coverage of Wall Street and service as the Times' Albany bureau chief before shifting focus in 2016 to the personal finances of Donald Trump.
Craig's reporting on Trump's wealth, tax strategies, and business dealings, often based on leaked documents and public records, garnered a shared Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2019 alongside colleagues David Barstow and Russ Buettner, as well as two George Polk Awards.
In 2024, she co-authored Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Nearly Destroyed His Empire and Created the Biggest Comeback in Business History with Buettner, drawing on years of financial scrutiny that Trump and his associates have publicly contested as inaccurate or incomplete.

Early life and education

Upbringing and family

Susanne Craig was born in , , , where she spent her early years and grew up before attending university. provide limited details on her , with no verified information available on her parents or siblings from reputable sources. Her upbringing in , a city known for its oil industry and conservative political leanings during the late , preceded her entry into through local outlets.

Academic background

Susanne Craig earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and government from the University of Calgary in 1991. During her undergraduate studies, she contributed to The Gauntlet, the university's independent student newspaper, marking her early involvement in journalism while pursuing her degree. This campus experience provided foundational reporting skills that complemented her academic focus on political science. No formal advanced degrees in journalism or related fields are documented in her educational record.

Journalistic career

Entry into journalism

Susanne Craig initiated her journalism career as a student at the , contributing articles to The Gauntlet, the institution's independent student newspaper. After earning a degree in 1991, she obtained a summer internship at the , marking her initial foray into professional newsroom operations. Craig subsequently secured full-time positions at major Canadian outlets, beginning with the and later , where she focused on business reporting. These early roles established her expertise in financial , building on her student experience with investigative approaches to corporate and economic stories.

Coverage of business and politics

Craig's early journalistic work emphasized business and finance, particularly at , where she reported on dynamics, corporate scandals, and regulatory actions. She contributed to coverage of the 2003 $1.4 billion settlement involving ten firms over analyst research conflicts, highlighting how investment banks prioritized deal-making over objective analysis. Her reporting also examined Enron-related analyst optimism amid mounting losses in 2001, underscoring persistent conflicts in financial research. In 2008, she led aspects of the Journal's reporting on the collapses of and Merrill Lynch, contributing to Pulitzer finalist recognition for the paper's coverage. Upon joining The New York Times in 2010, Craig continued as a business reporter, focusing on the internal culture of major corporations and institutions, including bond-trading declines and securities firm vulnerabilities in 2004. Her work delved into the intersection of finance and regulation, such as the 2003 NYSE penalties against five specialists for improper trading practices amid SEC probes into front-running. In 2014, Craig shifted toward political reporting by relocating to Albany, New York, to cover state government as the Times' bureau chief, examining legislative and executive actions under Governor . She reported on New York politics, including budget disputes, ethics reforms, and , before transitioning in late 2015 to lead coverage of , focusing on municipal governance, mayoral policies, and local fiscal issues. This phase marked her pivot to the nexus of and money at the state and local levels, setting the stage for later national investigations.

Focus on Donald Trump's finances

Susanne Craig's reporting on Donald Trump's finances began in , when she received an anonymous manila envelope containing three pages of his state returns, revealing a reported business loss of $916 million that allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for years. This disclosure contradicted Trump's public image of financial success and prompted further scrutiny of his tax strategies using publicly available records and legal filings. In collaboration with colleagues David Barstow and Russ Buettner, Craig conducted an 18-month investigation published in October 2018, which examined over 100,000 pages of documents including internal family records, and found that Trump received at least $413 million (adjusted for inflation) from his father through and gifts, often via questionable mechanisms such as undervaluing properties in tax filings. The reporting detailed instances of suspect , including the creation of entities to exploit loopholes and allegations of outright , such as inflating asset values for s while deflating them for taxes, though Trump denied wrongdoing and described the as a "small " of $1 million. This work earned the team the 2019 , recognizing its debunking of Trump's self-made wealth narrative through empirical analysis of financial records. Craig's investigations extended to Trump's personal and corporate tax returns in 2020, obtained by the New York Times team covering more than two decades, which showed chronic business losses exceeding $1 billion from 1985 to 1994, enabling income tax avoidance in 10 of 15 years before 2016. The returns indicated Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017, $0 in 11 of those years, and reported negative adjusted gross income in 12 years, amid ongoing IRS audits he has contested as politically motivated. Additional analysis highlighted how revenues from The Apprentice provided a $427 million tax lifeline through branding deals and deductions, sustaining his finances during periods of operational deficits. Subsequent reporting in 2022, drawing from congressional releases of Trump's returns, revealed he paid $1.1 million in federal taxes over his presidency (2017–2020), including $0 in 2020 due to losses, though he reported $4.4 million in income in 2018 and paid $133,445 that year. Trump maintained these figures reflected legitimate depreciation and tax laws he helped shape via the 2017 reform, rejecting claims of evasion. Craig and Buettner synthesized these findings in their 2024 book Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Nearly Destroyed His Empire and Created a Myth of Success, arguing based on tax data and business records that Trump's wealth derived substantially from inheritance and media myth-making rather than independent enterprise. While the investigations relied on leaked and subpoenaed documents verified through forensic accounting, critics including Trump alleged selective emphasis by the New York Times, a outlet with documented institutional bias toward narratives unfavorable to him, though core data points aligned with later public disclosures by Congress.

Book authorship

Susanne Craig co-authored Lucky Loser: How Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success with Russ Buettner, her colleague at . Published on September 17, 2024, by Penguin Press, the 528-page work chronicles the Trump family's empire across generations, focusing on 's inheritance of approximately $413 million (in 2018 dollars) from his father and his subsequent business decisions that led to financial losses exceeding $1 billion between 1985 and 1994. The book builds on the authors' prior investigative reporting, incorporating analysis of over 100,000 pages of documents, including Trump's tax returns leaked to Craig and Buettner in , court records, and interviews with associates. It argues that Trump's wealth stemmed largely from familial subsidies and tax strategies rather than independent entrepreneurial success, while detailing ventures like Atlantic City casinos and the . Craig's contributions emphasize her expertise in Trump's finances, honed through years of scrutiny at the Times, resulting in revelations such as unreported details and the role of Fred Trump's aides in propping up Donald's early projects. The volume has been characterized as a detailed financial , earning praise for its evidentiary rigor despite the polarized subject matter.

Awards and recognition

Pulitzer Prize

In 2019, Susanne Craig shared the for Explanatory Reporting with New York Times colleagues David Barstow and Russ Buettner for a series of articles examining the financial origins of Trump's . The award, administered by , recognized the team's reporting on how Trump and his family allegedly used "dubious schemes" to obtain at least $413 million in today's dollars from , spanning five decades and including tactics like creating entities to exploit loopholes on property transfers. The key investigative piece, published on October 2, 2018, titled "The Making of a ," drew on over 100,000 pages of confidential , interviews, and financial analyses to demonstrate how the Trumps minimized inheritance taxes and liabilities, such as by undervaluing for assessments while inflating values for loans. The Pulitzer citation specifically highlighted the reporting's impact, noting it "prompted a congressional investigation and new laws in several states" aimed at curbing similar practices, including measures in New York to close gaps in transfer taxes. Craig's contributions built on her prior work, including anonymous leaks of Trump's 1995 tax returns she received in 2016, which revealed a $916 million loss claimed to offset future income taxes. While the series faced criticism from Trump, who called it "" and disputed the characterizations of as "ill-gotten gains," the Pulitzer board, comprising journalists and academics, deemed the work exemplary for its depth and value. No other Pulitzer awards have been granted to Craig based on public records from the prize's official archives.

Additional honors

In 2021, Craig, along with colleagues Russ Buettner and Mike McIntire, received the George Polk Award for Financial Reporting from for their series on former President Donald Trump's tax returns, which detailed decades of financial practices including minimal federal payments in certain years. The same team earned the Prize for Investigative Reporting from the Deadline Club of New York that year, recognizing the depth of sourcing and public interest in exposing Trump's financial opacity. They also secured first place in the Investigative category at the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) Awards for the Trump tax investigation, highlighting rigorous and verification challenges. Earlier in her career, during her time as a reporter in , Craig was awarded a National Newspaper Award for , the Michener Award for public service reporting, and became the first recipient of the Goff Penny Memorial Prize for excellence in financial journalism. On December 29, 2023, Craig was appointed as a Member of the , one of the country's highest civilian honors, for her impactful contributions to and accountability in public figures' finances.

Controversies and criticisms

Defamation lawsuit from Donald Trump

In September 2021, Donald Trump filed a $100 million civil lawsuit in New York Supreme Court against The New York Times Company, his niece Mary L. Trump, and three of its reporters—Susanne Craig, David Barstow, and Russell Buettner—alleging that they unlawfully conspired to obtain and publish his confidential tax records from 2006 to 2015. The complaint accused Mary Trump of breaching a 1999 settlement agreement by leaking the documents to the reporters, whom it described as participating in an "insidious plot" funded by "the paper's financial and political motives" to damage Trump's reputation ahead of the 2020 election; it further claimed the resulting 2018 articles contained false statements about his tax payments, such as portraying $70,000 in consulting fees to his daughter Ivanka as a sham deduction. Trump sought damages, an injunction against further publication, and the return of the records, arguing the reporting violated New York law on confidentiality and unjust enrichment. The defendants, including Craig, moved to dismiss, contending the suit was a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) aimed at suppressing protected journalistic speech under the First Amendment and New York's anti-SLAPP statute. On May 3, 2023, Justice Robert R. Reed dismissed the case with prejudice against the Times and reporters, ruling that the tax articles constituted "newsgathering" protected by the U.S. Constitution and that Trump had not plausibly alleged fraud or breach sufficient to overcome journalistic privileges; the claim against Mary Trump for breaching the settlement was allowed to proceed separately but was later settled out of court. Reed emphasized that "the First Amendment prohibits [Trump] from seeking any recovery" for the publication itself, rejecting arguments that the reporters' sourcing methods negated public interest value. In January 2024, the same court ordered Trump to pay $392,979 in attorneys' fees to and the three reporters, including Craig, under New York's anti-SLAPP law, which shifts costs to deter meritless suits against free speech; Trump's appeal of the fee award was pending as of early 2024 but did not revive the underlying claims against the journalists. The ruling highlighted the suit's lack of viable claims, as Trump failed to show "" through falsity or reckless disregard, and courts viewed the tax reporting—premised on documents Trump himself did not contest as authentic—as core political speech. Separately, on September 15, 2025, Trump initiated a $15 billion action in federal court against , naming Craig and Buettner among other reporters, alleging "industrial-scale" libel in articles and an editorial pattern questioning his business finances and tax strategies, including claims of undervaluing assets for taxes while inflating them for loans. The complaint accused the outlet of coordinating with political adversaries to publish "malicious, " content lacking evidence, seeking compensatory and . A dismissed the initial filing for jurisdictional issues, prompting a refiling on October 17, 2025, which expanded accusations against and over related book content but retained focus on the reporters' contributions; as of October 26, 2025, the case remains active, with legal experts describing it as unlikely to succeed under New York Times v. Sullivan standards requiring proof of knowing falsity.

Allegations of reporting bias and selective narrative

Critics, including , have accused Susanne Craig of employing selective narratives in her reporting on Trump's finances, particularly by emphasizing alleged losses, tax maneuvers, and inheritance dependency while allegedly downplaying evidence of business acumen and successes such as real estate developments and brand licensing that generated substantial revenue. In the 2024 book Lucky Loser: How Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success, co-authored with Russ Buettner, Craig advanced a thesis portraying Trump as having inherited wealth but failed to multiply it independently, a framing Trump and supporters contend omits contextual factors like market downturns in the 1990s and Trump's diversification into media and politics, which culminated in his 2016 presidential election. These allegations intensified in Trump's September 2025 $15 billion lawsuit against , naming Craig among reporters accused of relying on "hopelessly or discredited sources" to construct antagonistic narratives driven by "baseless hate" toward Trump. The suit claimed deviations from journalistic standards, including insufficient time for Trump to respond to claims in articles tied to the book, and portrayed the coverage as part of a broader pattern of malicious, negative reporting intended to Trump's image rather than neutrally investigate facts. Trump's legal filings described —where Craig has focused nearly exclusively on Trump's finances since 2016—as a "full-throated mouthpiece" for partisan interests, amplifying concerns about institutional in outlets rated as left-leaning. Defenders of Craig's work, including The New York Times, maintain the reporting is grounded in leaked documents and , as evidenced by its 2019 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism, though critics counter that such awards may reflect prevailing institutional preferences in journalism circles prone to left-wing skews. The lawsuit was dismissed in September 2025, with the judge ruling the claims did not meet thresholds, but it underscored ongoing debates over whether Craig's selective emphasis on unflattering financial details constitutes or rigorous .

Personal life

Family and relationships

Craig is the sister-in-law of Ward Sutherland, a former Calgary city councillor who represented Ward 1 from 2001 to 2010. Little additional information about her , marital status, or children is publicly available, as Craig maintains a low profile regarding her personal relationships.

Residence and interests

Susanne Craig resides in Maplecrest, a rural hamlet in Greene County, upstate New York. Her social media presence reflects a preference for woodland living, with profile descriptions noting "living in the woods" and frequent posts featuring her dog, indicating personal interests in outdoor activities and pet companionship. Public details on additional hobbies remain limited, consistent with her professional focus on investigative journalism rather than personal disclosures.

References

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