Donald Trump is fond of calling his 1987 autobiography “The Art of the Deal” his second favorite book in the world, behind only the Bible, which he pretends he’s actually read, though he can never seem to recall a favorite passage from it. But now we have a better insight into the man who said, when he announced he would be seeking the GOP nomination in June 2015:
“We need a leader that wrote ‘The Art of the Deal.’”
In that case, perhaps the Republican delegates gathered in Cleveland this week should nominate Tony Schwartz, the person who actually wrote “The Art of the Deal.”
Schwartz was Trump’s ghostwriter, and now he’s telling Jane Mayer of “The New Yorker” that he deeply regrets ever writing a single word of the book:
“I put lipstick on a pig. I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is. I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.”
Mayer also asked Schwartz what he thought a more appropriate title for the book would be in light of what we now know about Trump. His reply:
“‘The Sociopath.'”
The ghostwriter also reports that he met with Trump on several occasions and came away with a very definite opinion about what kind of person the real estate mogul is:
“I was shocked. Trump didn’t fit any model of human being I’d ever met. He was obsessed with publicity, and he didn’t care what you wrote. Trump only takes two positions. Either you’re a scummy loser, liar, whatever, or you’re the greatest. I became the greatest. He wanted to be seen as a tough guy, and he loved being on the cover.”
Initially, Schwartz, a lifelong liberal, said he had second thoughts about even taking on such a project. He wondered if he wanted to write a book that would lionize a man he distrusted and disliked so intensely. Then his wife announced she was pregnant with their second child, and Schwartz began to worry about financial security for his family:
“I was overly worried about money. I thought money would keep me safe and secure—or that was my rationalization.”
He agreed to write the book for Trump on one important condition: He wanted half of the book’s $500,000 advance. He became attached to the project and spent 18 months of his life on it for a quarter of a million dollars.
One thing quickly became obvious about Trump, Schwartz says: He’s a pathological liar:
“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.”
In retrospect, Schwartz now sees that he helped create the image of a man who now stands on the verge of being President of the United States. And that scares him:
“Trump stands for many of the things I abhor: his willingness to run over people, the gaudy, tacky, gigantic obsessions, the absolute lack of interest in anything beyond power and money.”
In other words, Donald Trump is a prototypical Republican after all.
