I started reading this book after Trump's 2020 election defeat, hoping to get a better grasp of the enigma that is Donald Trump, and his apparent appeal to so many people. I should have known that what four years of non stop media coverage can't do, a supposedly honest fake autobiography by the self proclaimed king of bluff also can't.

I can't say I did not enjoy reading this book though, be it for other reasons than I expected at first. This book can be a fun read if you take it for the piece of fiction that it is, especially when the cynicism and self aggrandising reaches Disney villain levels - which happens often. But just as often did I find myself skipping entire chapters. Especially the ones that go into detail on his real estate projects tend to get tedious.

Is this book entertaining? Sometimes. Is it hilarious? Sporadically. Is it hilariously bad? No doubt about it.

If you read this book hoping to find the secret formula to become a rich real estate mogul, you will likely be disappointed. Trump: The Art of the Deal by Donald J. Trump does present many examples of successful as well as failed deals he had put together and you can always glean ideas by studying why and how someone had accomplished something. But that was something that worked at that time with all of the circumstances as they were then. It may not be repeatable under any circumstances you will encounter. What may be helpful from this book is seeing the character and principles that are Donald Trump. Like him or not, he does explain certain personal rules he tends to follow. Some of these may be applied, even on a much smaller scale, in buying rental properties and businesses. The core of what Art of the Deal is about is that, for Donald Trump, making deals is basically a game; and the more complex it is, the more he sees it as a challenge. We have a few rental properties that we bought, repaired, and now rent out, all without reading this book. It does offer some higher level ways to look at potential deals and may expose you to some general strategies to use for your own deals...

Pretty much what you’d expect.

I had to put it down. This man's ego is really something. I did find it interesting however to draw the line from his thoughts in this book to how is like on the campaign trail.

I was prepared for a personal finance book by one of the most prolific figures of my lifetime. What I got was more of a villain origin story of how a man became obsessed with power and started on the path of dishonesty and greed. He tears down his friends and enemies alike all in service of himself. At the same time, he is unaware of his own decision making, thinking he might have acted differently in the past, only to continue to repeat his behavior.

Shortly after its release, I listened to a reading of The Mueller Report. I have no doubt in its validity now. The behavior Mueller describes is the same type of behavior Trump describes of himself in The Art of the Deal. The January 6 Report is on my stack of books to read, and I’m sure this book will give me context for that. Trump’s own skewed perception of his self is the only thing left to cast doubt on these large bodies of evidence against him in major controversies.

As a part of the larger Trump story that includes his presidency and countless controversies, The Art of the Deal has its place. As a finance book, it is trash. I give it 2/5 stars.

I was forced to read this, practically at gunpoint

Terribly uninteresting. Filled with mind numbing details of every deal he has ever done. Please don't read.

After reading The Art of the Deal, I found it to be much less business-oriented than I initially figured it to be. After all, with a title like The Art of the Deal, I expected to be bombarded with advice and anecdotes that only the most adept business people could interpret. Much to the contrary, this book acted more like Trump's memoirs about his personal life and earliest business ventures, only occasionally divulging in the oh-so coveted art of deal making. This was just up my alley; I am as inept at all things business as they come, and having to read a whole book on nothing but inapplicable business advice would have been quite off-putting to me. Throughout The Art of the Deal, Trump outlines his business dealings in a manner that is easy to comprehend so as not to alienate anyone unfamiliar with the world of business. Although I knew almost nothing about the world of business, I was able to keep up with the business aspects of the book thanks to this style of writing.

Interlaced with the logistics of his business deals were Trump's droll means of opining. Many of the Trump-tropes we all know and love (or hate) are clear and present in this book, but in a noticeably more primitive stage than that to which we have become accustomed upon his being elected as President. For one, he frequently criticizes politicians and their ineffectiveness, not unlike the Trump of 2017. In many of his dealings, Trump experienced some form of difficulty from the government due to the inept, and often corrupt, politicians that ran it. Trump, always the fighter, reveled in his victories over the corrupt bureaucracy that sought to hinder his success and made it abundantly clear that he was no fan of an incompetent government – though, unlike modern day Trump, he hardly uttered the term "loser" to describe his adversaries back then. Another recurring Trump-trope was his love for the extravagant. In detailing his desires in real estate, he made it known that he wanted everything he did to make a lasting impression, even if it was barely realistic. Whether it was building the lavish Trump Tower as a New York City landmark or proposing to construct the world's largest skyscraper, Trump always went into a project with the highest expectations and standards. Needless to say, he was wont to display his knowledge of the many synonyms of the words "huge," "great," and "best" when discussing his buildings and projects. These Trump-tropes made The Art of the Deal quite entertaining to read, and had the book been written more conservatively, devoid of his personal commentary, I do not think I would have enjoyed it all that much.

Whilst reading The Art of the Deal, I constantly found myself thinking about how different America would be today had some of his deals turned out slightly different. What if, for example, Trump's foray into the United States Football League had actually been successful? What if he merged with the National Football League and went on to own a successful New Jersey Generals team? Would he still have run for President, or would he have been content being a wealthy NFL team owner? What if one of his riskier deals ended up backfiring on him? If he lost his fortune and company, would he still have become a politician in some capacity? Would he have run for mayor or governor of New York instead? In retrospect, it was interesting thinking about how everything he has done in his life led him from his office in Trump Tower to the highest office in the United States, and how just a single minuscule misstep along the way could have changed everything so drastically.

To put it simply, if you are not a fan of Donald Trump, I do not think that The Art of the Deal is likely to change your opinions on the guy. However, if you do like Donald Trump and are interested in learning about how the President started out, then this is the book for you. Not only are you getting his greatest-hits of business deals up until 1987, but you are getting vintage Trump unabated. The Art of the Deal is a culmination of everything that made Donald Trump the person he is today, whether that be for better or for worse is up to you to decide.

Ok so. I did find this in one of those free sidewalk libraries. Thought it would be better in my well-intentioned hands et cetera. I also read this while so drugged out on mucinex that I had a fever dream where Trump was dancing to Sinead O’Connor in my closet and wouldn’t leave even after I started crying hysterically. Fun! It makes me feel better than he was as present during the writing of this book as I was mentally present while consuming it.

There was a whole picture section with him ranting about buildings he would have built better. And I am pretty sure he confessed to fraud? Like, a few times. Idk, all of my knowledge is coming from the Wolf of Wall Street and my dad’s subscription to the Economist (or like my degree or whatever LMAO). I still have no idea what this man does for work but I think he’s kinda like the Kylie Jenner of the free market economy. Technically I should be giving this 2 stars bc I did finish it BUT if a tree (business-advice memoir) falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it (the reader is dying of the plague and unsure which parts of the book she hallucinated), does it make a sound?

The last half of the book isn't as good as the first half but it's still a great read. Gets into a lot of the nitty gritty of some of Trump's deals and the motivations for doing so and it also part biography of his life and his family's life. And man, Trump really hated Ed Koch. Looking forward to him dismantling another democrat, Hillary, in a few months. Should be glorious.

Has some great quotes and advice too:

"I hate lawsuits and depositions, but the fact is that if you’re right, you’ve got to take a stand, or people will walk all over you."

"11:00 A.M.   I meet with a top New York banker at my office. He’s come to try to solicit business, and we have a general talk about deals I’m considering. It’s funny what’s happened: bankers now come to me, to ask if I might be interested in borrowing their money. They know a safe bet."

"You can’t con people, at least not for long. You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press, and you can throw in a little hyperbole. But if you don’t deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on."

"The point is that you can dream great dreams, but they’ll never amount to much if you can’t turn them into reality at a reasonable cost."

"I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what I should have done differently, or what’s going to happen next."

"It takes almost the same amount of energy to manage 50 units as it does 1,200—except that with 1,200 you have a much bigger upside."

"if you want to sell a car and you spend five dollars to wash and polish it and then apply a little extra elbow grease, suddenly you find you can charge an extra four hundred dollars—and get it. I can always tell a loser when I see someone with a car for sale that is filthy dirty. It’s so easy to make it look better."

"You can’t be scared. You do your thing, you hold your ground, you stand up tall, and whatever happens, happens."

"I don’t believe that you can ever be hurt by buying a good location at a low price."

"I announced, before a ton of reporters, that I could build my convention center for $110 million—or at least $150 million less than the city had estimated it would cost to build at West 44th Street. Not surprisingly, that raised some eyebrows and even got us some attention in the press. But there was scarcely an approving peep from the politicians. I discovered, for the first time but not the last, that politicians don’t care too much what things cost. It’s not their money."

"On one occasion, we found a bank that seemed ready to say yes. Then, at the last moment, the guy in charge raised some trivial technical issue that just killed the whole deal. This guy was what I call an institutional man, the type who has virtually no emotion. To him it’s purely a job, and all he wants to do is go home at five and forget about it. You’re better off dealing with a total killer with real passion. When he says no, sometimes you can talk him out of it. You rant and you rave, and he rants and raves back, and you end up making a deal."

"I was relentless, even in the face of the total lack of encouragement, because much more often than you’d think, sheer persistence is the difference between success and failure."

"My attitude is that you do your best, and if it doesn’t work, you move on to the next thing."

"You can budget building costs, but you can’t truly project revenues, because you’re always at the mercy of the market. The variables include how much you get per unit, how long it takes to sell out, and what your carrying costs are along the way. The less you commit to spend up front, the less you’re at risk later."

After watching him fire a bunch of people on a stupid TV show, I thought I'd seen the last of this bloke with a badger on his head, but NOOOOOOOOO...we now get US election updates here in Australia.

I was watching him make some sheila tug at his hair to prove that it WASN'T a dead badger after all and thought, "Hey! I remember reading a book written by this dude." It all came flooding back. If you're looking for a book on how to do deals - this is probably worth reading - but I just didn't get it. Perhaps it doesn't apply to us peeps outside of the USA. You've got to hand it to him, he has accumulated the dollars, and not from being a dummy. It seems his method is to beat his enemies into submission. Gotta hand it to him though, he managed to fix up Wollman Rink. I made a special trip to see it when I visited the Big Apple a few years ago. Not a bad job Donny.

Maybe my lowish score is because I have some sort of inferiority complex, or maybe I remember thinking, by buying his book, I was ripped off. Actually, I remember thinking it was just plain boring.

EDIT: I would add half a star in light of the author's obvious negotiating skills - getting him elected president and attempting to broker peace with North Korea. Maybe Donny read his own book again.

This book made me a socialist.