The Art of the Steal: Ghostwriter comes clean.

Firstly, there is no debate that Trump did not write the "art of the deal". No biggy, lot's of people use ghostwriters and after all Trump is a busy man. Tony Schwartz breaks his silence on what few can claim, spending a substantial amount of time with Donald Drumpf.

DONALD TRUMP’S GHOSTWRITER TELLS ALL

If he were writing “The Art of the Deal” today, Schwartz said, it would be a very different book with a very different title. Asked what he would call it, he answered, “The Sociopath.”

What he thought would be easy money turned into quite an ordeal:

“Trump has been written about a thousand ways from Sunday, but this fundamental aspect of who he is doesn’t seem to be fully understood,” Schwartz told me. “It’s implicit in a lot of what people write, but it’s never explicit—or, at least, I haven’t seen it. And that is that it’s impossible to keep him focussed on any topic, other than his own self-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes, and even then . . . ” Schwartz trailed off, shaking his head in amazement. He regards Trump’s inability to concentrate as alarming in a Presidential candidate. “If he had to be briefed on a crisis in the Situation Room, it’s impossible to imagine him paying attention over a long period of time,” he said.

And in case you were wondering if The Drumpf is multifaceted and nuanced, wonder no more:

e then tried to amplify the material he got from Trump by calling others involved in the deals. But their accounts often directly conflicted with Trump’s. “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.”

Schwartz says of Trump, “He lied strategically. He had a complete lack of conscience about it.” Since most people are “constrained by the truth,” Trump’s indifference to it “gave him a strange advantage.”

As far as 'friendship' goes, It's no surprise that it's just business for the trumpster:

Trump describes Roy Cohn, his personal lawyer, in the warmest terms, calling him “the sort of guy who’d be there at your hospital bed . . . literally standing by you to the death.” Cohn, who in the fifties assisted Senator Joseph McCarthy in his vicious crusade against Communism, was closeted. He felt abandoned by Trump when he became fatally ill from aids, and said, “Donald pisses ice water.” Schwartz says of Trump, “He’d like people when they were helpful, and turn on them when they weren’t. It wasn’t personal. He’s a transactional man—it was all about what you could do for him.”

But hey, it's toughness you want right? How else could a 'self-made man' aquire such vast success?

He also lent Trump seven and a half million dollars to get started as a casino owner in Atlantic City; at one point, when Trump couldn’t meet payments on other loans, his father tried to tide him over by sending a lawyer to buy some three million dollars’ worth of gambling chips. Barrett told me, “Donald did make some smart moves himself, particularly in assembling the site for the Trump Tower. That was a stroke of genius.” Nonetheless, he said, “The notion that he’s a self-made man is a joke. But I guess they couldn’t call the book ‘The Art of My Father’s Deals.’ ”

I would like to think that Trump is smart enough to know that this would happen eventually.

I would like to think that.

I'm actually surprised Trump and this ghostwriter didn't have a better NDA.
This guy will probably never work as a ghostwriter again, so hopefully he gets lots of media deals or has another profession.

Edit: Nevermind, he was on the byline of the book. My bad.

a reply to: Atsbhct

He's set for life; the book deal was 50% of the royalties and advance which ran in the millions.

a reply to: SentientCentenarian

Where did you get your info? It's pretty hard to truly tally book salesthat result in income for the writer, considering some publishers account for books shipped out and don't subtract the books defaced and returned.


Here's a well done article about what the book might have tallied.

Link.

a reply to: kazanoom

Ghostwriting is a process that seriously pisses me off. I find anyone who uses one to be a complete fraud. They claim to have written a book, but really all they did was give a story to an actual writer, pay them pennies (usually the publisher pays them even), and then they collect the royalties on the book sale. It's an exploitative process that promotes a bunch of frauds who didn't actually do the work they claim to have done. That applies equally to Trump who ghost wrote his book (that he took credit for writing in a debate), to Hillary who ghost wrote hers, to Glenn Beck who makes a living off of hiring others to ghost write.

The entire process is indicative of a sham culture where no one has the actual skills they claim they have.

For me this seems the most honest assessment of Trump I've read to date.

It is still beyond my comprehension that anyone would consider Trump competent to be president.

Trump’s never read a book!

He hasn’t even read his own book!

Its a shame we only have Hillary against Trump


its Dracula or the werewolf

originally posted by: Willtell
Trump’s never read a book!

He hasn’t even read his own book!

Its a shame we only have Hillary against Trump


its Dracula or the werewolf

I have it on good authority that Trump has read a book of Hitlers speeches numerous times. That's at least one book the guy has read. I do wonder if he's read his own book though, I doubt it.

I don't even hold it against him that he probably hasn't read it. For all of his faults Trump is a pretty busy guy, it's much more effective to read bits and pieces of summaries of books as you need the information in them than to read the entire thing, hope to remember it all, and then reread it when you don't. Time is a limited resource.

a reply to: Aazadan

Regarding Trump reading habits the writer inferred Trump probably never has read a book.

I don’t really know


Interesting he did read the Hitler book

Just cause the guy said it, doesn't mean it's true. Sounds like he's looking for his 15 minutes.

originally posted by: Brooklyn01
Just cause the guy said it, doesn't mean it's true. Sounds like he's looking for his 15 minutes.

Sounds true.

a reply to: kazanoom

What I find most interesting are the fabrications about how he "negotiated his way out of bankruptcies." I read several articles on this, and it appears that it was difficult for them to get him to realize how dire his situation was - and as the article says, many other sources confirmed that he wasn't doing the negotiations. He was busy running around, trying to be famous.

He was put on an allowance ($400,000 a month? Something like that) and "sort of" held to the budget.

You know, I can't think of anything to spend that much on each and every month... unless I was supporting charities.

What was worse for me were the articles pointing out that Trump is using the presidency to shovel money into his accounts (all the events are held on Trump properties... for which he charges the campaign and the Republican Party.)

a reply to: kazanoom

I'm amazed at how little attention this is getting here on ATS. Either the Trump defenders are just hoping this information vanishes so they're refusing to even post in this thread thereby keeping in the list. Or the truth of it cuts them so deep they just can't handle it. I'm not sure which.

There are so many details in this that expose what many of us have been saying since this whole sham started about Trump as President.

Sure it's a bit long, but that's only because there is so much that is being revealed.

His supporters honestly do not care about sh*t if after reading this they would still support a guy like him. Any one of them who has read this and still supports him has zero credibility IMO. Zero.

originally posted by: mOjOm

His supporters honestly do not care about sh*t if after reading this they would still support a guy like him. Any one of them who has read this and still supports him has zero credibility IMO. Zero.

I think Trump supporters must have a part of their brain missing in the cognizant area.

I'm curious how many are actually voting FOR Trump - - not against Hillary, and not as defiance.

a reply to: Annee

What's sad is that I think lot's of people on both sides are simply voting for their side because they hate the other side. Many of Trump's votes are coming because they hate Hillary and Hillary's are coming from those who hate Trump.

This is why for the first time in I'm not sure when a third party is actually gaining some ground. Big ground too for a guy nobody has ever even heard of so far.

I think if Bernie would have stayed in as a third party you would see a massive change in polling numbers.

The Anti-Party vote is what is pushing both sides to the victory spot. Not the Pro-Party voting. IMO anyway.

originally posted by: Annee
For me this seems the most honest assessment of Trump I've read to date.

It is still beyond my comprehension that anyone would consider Trump competent to be president.

So you wrote a book for him to?? Heck of a bold statement to make consoder in you never met him. People make similar claims about Hillary as well I don't take them to heart either. Your letting hatref cloud your perspective. Discuss policies and leave psychological evaluations to doctors.

originally posted by: dragonridr

originally posted by: Annee
For me this seems the most honest assessment of Trump I've read to date.

It is still beyond my comprehension that anyone would consider Trump competent to be president.

So you wrote a book for him to?? Heck of a bold statement to make consoder in you never met him. People make similar claims about Hillary as well I don't take them to heart either. Your letting hatref cloud your perspective. Discuss policies and leave psychological evaluations to doctors.

Never met Donald?

Actually, I used to be a fan. Read a couple of his books. Watched him on talk shows etc.

Listened to him on Howard a lot, as he was a regular guest, and my office manager blasted Howard's show over the sound system every morning. (Howard hadn't even had his 3rd daughter yet).

I have stated, I would like someone to give Donald a job/position in politics to see what he can do. How would he perform in a mundane job where he wasn't #1 barking orders?

I do not think he is qualified for the position of president. And I think this ghost writer is accurate.

originally posted by: mOjOm

What's sad is that I think lot's of people on both sides are simply voting for their side because they hate the other side. Many of Trump's votes are coming because they hate Hillary and Hillary's are coming from those who hate Trump.

I'm gonna vote for Hillary, if I register (moved states).

I think she is probably one of the most qualified presidential candidates we've ever had.

I am a Globalist and very much against Libertarian thinking.

I see progression in Hillary's positions. I prefer progression over safe.

Well, I knew this was coming. I was actually wondering what was taking so long. But Trump, true to his character is now trying to go after his Ghostwriter who really wrote the book, "The Art of the Deal". Typical and expected.

Trump demands ‘Art of the Deal’ ghostwriter return all royalties since 1987