Monday, February 24, 2025

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

The State of Marjorie Taylor Greene. April 16, 2025. "There's no reason for screaming, yelling, ridiculous outrageous protesting....