The Art of the Deal.
February 21, 2025.
"The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play
to people's fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can
still get very excited by those who do. That's why a little hyperbole never
hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest
and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It's an innocent form
of exaggeration, and a very effective form of promotion."
That quote is from the 1987 bestseller, “Trump: The Art of
the Deal,” by Donald Trump with Tony Schwartz. The book made Trump a household
name and cemented his reputation as a high flying deal maker.
Except Trump did not write that passage or any of the book,
according to Schwartz, Trump’s handpicked ghostwriter. Schwartz spent 18 months
shadowing Trump to write the book. As time went by, he came to regret his role
in boosting Trump’s brand.
“Lying is second nature to him,” Schwartz said. “More than
anyone else I have ever met, Trump has the ability to convince himself that
whatever he is saying at any given moment is true, or sort of true, or at least
ought to be true. He lied strategically. He had a complete lack of conscience
about it. It gave him a strange advantage.”
The ironic pair of co-author quotes presents an apt
miniportrait of Trump. The intersection is his passion for the deal and his
self-aggrandizement. The only rules that matter are his rules. There is nothing
he won’t do to win. And, according to Trump, he always wins.
Notes.
https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Art-Deal-Donald-J/dp/0399594493
https://bernoff.com/blog/donald-trump-art-deal-ethics-ghostwriting
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/us/politics/trump-alternative-reality.html
No comments:
Post a Comment