Perhaps a guilty pleasure, but I really enjoyed this book. It's both very readable and very engaging. It serves as a good example of what it means to be proactive.

n  n

If you want to know President Trump why and how he thinks, I think that you should read this book. It was written a long time ago when Trump was a real estate business man. Still I found it quite interesting.

Lol. As the Trump Presidency isn’t even a year old yet it would be premature to have any real biography on him and his presidency so I thought I may as well read the book that is identified most with him. It’s a pretty mediocre read, besides the fact that it’s sometimes hilarious. It’s nearly impossible for me to read read this and not hear it in his voice and some classic Trump shines through. It’s clear that this was not written by Trump but probably comes through a series of interviewers that Schwartz (the guy who co-wrote it) did with him. I suspect Schwartz did all the actual writing because Trump supposedly uses words like “byzantine” and “lark,” which is impossible for me to believe given what I have heard and seen of him. Regardless, there are lots of Trumpian moments in here and it served as a fascinating insight into the guy and you certainly see early signs of policy and political thought creeping in.
Every chapter basically discusses a different “deal” that he made and how it worked out. Of course, in all of these scenarios he comes out on top even when he actually loses. I don’t care about real estate or finance in any meaningful way so I didn’t care about the deals themselves, what I really wanted was to see Trump shine through. Which happened quite a few times every chapter.
Some things that were discussed in this book actually helped broadcast some policies or stances that he would take while president. There’s a paragraph where he off-handedly discusses making deals with Japanese businessmen and you see his protectionism and “unfair deal” language creep through there. His chapter on his USFL debacle sets up very nicely his hatred of the NFL which came out big time during the whole kneeling during the national anthem controversy. To his credit, he really did get screwed by them and all sports leagues are monopolies in the US, but they are essentially the only monopolies allowed fo exist.
Lastly, there were some things that aged hilariously. Like his complimenting of various politicians of political thinkers that would go on to become his political rivals or enemies. Besides Ed Koch, it appears he and Trump never got along. These little things though demonstrate not only Trump’s fickleness, but the fickleness of many others involved.
Overall, I’m really only giving this book three stars because it made me laugh. If it wasn’t so funny in hindsight it would only be okay for the reason that it is an interesting character study and window into the future of Trump from 1987.

Our culture and our nation currently find themselves in a remarkably politically charged, volatile, angry, and sometimes utterly ignorant environment. So much so that one could potentially be labeled and stereotyped simply for reading this book and publicly posting same. With that said, I offer this brief review anyway.

Having been in the business world all my adult life, I don't know how I overlooked reading this book back when it was published. It's not really a biography; more like a dairy of some of Trump's bigger or more memorable business deals. Yes, he had the advantage of a father who was in the real estate business. Yes, Donald Trump has an ego. Yes, he can be arrogant, demanding, blunt, outspoken and much more. No one, absolutely no one, is lukewarm about him. Folks either voted for him, or they hate him beyond their ability to describe.

So just a quick word about the merits of this book. The man has clearly been a success in an incredibly tough city and industry. From the stories he recounts here, one can learn a lot about the challenges and rewards of commercial real estate and construction, the degree to which deals can be complicated and require patience, how to learn from the mistakes and overreaches of competitors, and much more. If a reader is able to put any personal prejudice aside, a lot can be learned about business in general from this book.

Interestingly, you'll also notice aspects of Trump's strategy and approaches to promotion that later served him well in the Presidential campaign. One example will suffice. When he set out to build Trump tower, there was an old existing building on the site, the Bonwit building, which had to be demolished. At the last minute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art expressed interest in saving two large Art-Deco sculptures on the exterior of the building. Trump was willing to donate them to the museum, but because the sculptures were so large and heavy, special scaffolding was required, and preserving them would've meant several weeks of costly delay. So naturally, Trump made a business decision and had them torn down.

What ensued was much public outrage and lots of bad press. But even the bad press still drew attention to the Trump Tower project, and caused an upsurge in demand for apartments when the Tower was completed. Notice Trump's take on the whole affair, which foreshadows his capturing of almost every news cycle in his Presidential campaign:

"I'm a businessman, and I learned a lesson from that experience; good publicity is preferable to bad, but from a bottom-line perspective, bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all. Controversy, in short, sells."

In spite of the constant controversy that swirls around Donald Trump, I found this book to be a worthwhile and interesting read, with much insight into both the business world and the man himself.

Source

Mr P and Mr T doing grown-up transactioning

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Look, Donald Trump on Donald Trump was never going to get a rave review from me. We all know this. But my gosh, this was probably one of the deadliest dull books I have ever read in my entire life. It's predictably boring in a way that defies even Fifty Shades of Grey to out-beige. I bet Trump thinks this is The Art of War for aspiring yuppies like Patrick Bateman, but it's really Mein Kampf for lazy, entitled trust fund babies.

The good news is that I have *plenty* of material on Trump as yuppie icon for the article on which I'm working.

This book provides interesting insights into the mind of Mr. Trump. The whole book is him explaining how great he is and how even when he failed, it was because other people had cheated him.

America's favorite, number-one con man expounds on how great he is. And, how easy it is to fool people.

It is no overstatement to call this book America's premier political tract of the 21st century; It embodies the heart of darkness that is the "fuck everybody but me" mentality carefully groomed into the populace by the Right-Wing machine and which drives today's rejection-of-the-commonweal politics. Trump one-ups Machiavelli.

It is truly the Bible of Fox News/Ayn Randian culture. And just because Trump is callow doesn't mean he's not honest. He tells you outright that he's out to screw you. But in America there is something ingrained in the citizenry that equates this kind of openly ballsy mercenary behavior with goodness, quality and substance. Moxie as an inherent good. The simple appeal of the loud strong man. Action over the cerebral. Thoughtfulness? Constitutional muster? Historical lessons? Screw all of that. Leave that shit to liberal philosophy professors. Trump voters love a con man. They would, of course, hate him if they'd found he'd hacked into their bank accounts directly and taken all their money. But they'll love him when he takes their money by perpetuating the present corporate mercenary system. Because they will be too stupid to know they've been robbed when it happens through the back door. Putting two and two together equals some number they can't quite calculate.

Let's give Trump credit for being the first politician to openly reveal the long-unstated view that the Republican Party has of its fact-challenged base: "I love the poorly educated."

There are some alternate titles for this book that would be just a valid:
* The Art of the Con, or
* The Art of Being an Asshole, or
* The Art of the Deal for People Who Have Millions of Dollars to Play Around With From the Get-Go, or
* The Art of How to Bully People, Exploit a Corrupt System, and Make a Bundle While Producing Nothing of Value in the Process.

Opening of the book, with my modest amendments:
"To my parents, Fred and Mary Trump..." who gave me millions of dollars the rest of you don't have, to pull myself up by my bootstraps with...

"I owe special thanks to several people...Ivana Trump, my wonderful wife..." who I will soon divorce when her trophy value has declined...

"And, [to] my three children..." whom I would bed in a heartbeat if they weren't my daughters, because, hey, they're hot; let's get real, people. But not the son, because, c'mon I ain't no homo.

Luckily, the Donald deigned to make time to share these kernels of wisdom with us, because, as he makes it known repeatedly, he is a very busy man, and thus hardly able to spend time on a book. We are to infer our privilege from this, and should be grateful that Trump dictated this to his ghostwriter, Tony Schwartz. And that's what this feels like: a piece of dictation. Trump could have talked into a tape recorder and had a transcriber write the book. Maybe that's close to how this actually happened. The book feels very much like a Donald Trump political speech: Full of braggadocio, flippant false sincerity, shallow statements lacking detail or justification, pandering provocative fear-mongering insults that trigger lizard-brain endorphins, and rambling jumps from one unrelated thing to another.

This is more or less the narrative of this book: "I got a call from *insert name of famous or powerful person* about *insert pending business deal* and I told *famous or powerful person* to: *(A: get back to my lawyer on it, or B.) I look forward to doing business on this, or C.) I'm gonna sue your ass*."

Valuable things I learned:
* I'm a winner.
* "I make deals, that's how I get my kicks." (at least he starts off honestly)
*If I weasel my way into an organization, people will pay to get rid of me.
*I will threaten you with lawsuits, even criminal ones that don't really apply, if you try to take actions I don't like. That always makes 'em nervous.
*I file a lot of lawsuits, and win them (except the ones I lose or withdraw, which I don't mention in this book).
*If your name is Donald Trump, everyone wants to sue you.
*It pays to sometimes be a little wild, and a bully.
*I'm a populist hero who helps little old ladies keep their farms against big bad cold-hearted foreclosing bankers (except when I do the same thing, which I have, but don't mention in this book).
*I use the word "ridiculous" a lot, as shorthand and in lieu of actually explaining my justifications.
*I know a lot of celebrities and business leaders who do me favors and give me free stuff. They're all very nice guys.
*Other people who are pompous... I don't like them so much.
*I'm such a micromanager that I even get involved in the Christmas decorations that are hung in Trump Tower. I hate all of the decorating options except for one really huge gold wreath because, as I say, "Less is more." [seriously]
*My son has my genes, because he won't take no for an answer. (But hey, neither do rapists. OK, I just threw that in for fun.)
*I love people who tell me things in 20 seconds because they don't waste my time.
*When I don't have a real answer, have no substance or no progress to report on a project I'll just call a press conference and (and I quote): "What the hell...I'll wing it and things will work out." [in other words, this will be the template for my future political speeches...and the dummies won't know the difference].

This gets three stars for unintentional laughs. If I were the Donald I would use some of my cash to get better hair, and then I would review my book thusly:

"Let me tell ya, folks, it's a mess."

(KevinR@Ky 2016)

Pretty interesting history of Trump

So this was actually really fun to read and I have to give it stars for being entertaining. Trump brags about being better than everyone else at everyone, humiliating inefficient governments, lying, betraying people who trust him, and loving gratuitous over the top fancy crap. And also about being generous- he is just the nicest guy! Sometimes he wants to do work for free, and people just won't accept it because they are so rotten. And the book ends on a note of that he will use his skills to make the world a better place in the future. No details, but he says he will. In each deal described, everything turns out as well as possible for Trump and very poorly for his enemies, and everything always happens just as he expected it to happen, so the whole thing reeks of rewriting history.

This book has a ton of great insights and shows the inner life of a strong, visionary American. It is especially interesting in light of Trump's new career--the President of the United States. We can tell from this book that Trump is well prepared for his new role. He has spent a lifetime in close contact with government officials, as he had to continually get approval for his development projects. He embarrassed Ed Koch, former mayor of New York City, by repairing an ice rink that the city could not fix in spite of years of effort and a lot of money. He has been in heated lawsuits, and has dealt with the press for many years as he sought to promote his work. At one point, Trump noted how powerful the New York Time was. An article on the architectural features of one of his projects could make or break them. Trump, at the end of the book, says that he is looking for creative ways to give back. It's not money he's interested in giving away, so much as time. Well, he's found that creative way by running for President!