Trump: The Art of the Deal

The Art of the Deal
Author Donald Trump
Tony Schwartz
Country United States
Language English
Genre Business
Publisher Random House
Publication date
 November 1, 1987
Media type Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages 372
ISBN 978-0446353250
Followed by Trump: Surviving at the Top (1990)

Trump: The Art of the Deal is a 1987 book credited to businessman and current President of the United States Donald Trump and journalist Tony Schwartz. Part memoir and part business-advice book, it reached number 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list, stayed there for 13 weeks, and altogether held a position on the list for 48 weeks.[1] It was the first book published by Trump[2] and helped to make him a "household name".[3][4]

The book received additional attention during Trump's 2016 campaign for the presidency of the United States. He cited it as one of his proudest accomplishments[5] and his second-favorite book after the Bible.[6] Schwartz expressed regrets about his involvement and he and the book's publisher, Howard Kaminsky, asserted that Trump had played no role in the actual writing of the book. Trump has given conflicting accounts on the question of authorship.[1]

Synopsis

The book tells about Trump's childhood in Jamaica Estates, Queens. It then describes his early work in Brooklyn prior to moving to Manhattan, whereupon he engaged in building The Trump Organization. It then describes his actions and thoughts in developing the Grand Hyatt Hotel and Trump Tower, in renovating Wollman Rink, and regarding various other projects.[7]

The book also contains an 11-step formula for business success, inspired by Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking.[8] Trump's steps are:

  1. Think big
  2. Protect the downside and the upside will take care of itself
  3. Maximize your options
  4. Know your market
  5. Use your leverage
  6. Enhance your location
  7. Get the word out
  8. Fight back
  9. Deliver the goods
  10. Contain the costs
  11. Have fun [9]

Development

Trump was persuaded to produce the book by Condé Nast owner Si Newhouse after the May 1984 issue of Newhouse's magazine GQ – with Trump appearing on the cover – sold well.[8][10] Schwartz was hired to work on the book, and began working with Trump in late 1985. He interviewed Trump and – with permission from him – listened in on his phone calls.

According to Schwartz in July 2016, Trump wrote none of the book, choosing only to remove a few critical mentions of business colleagues at the end of the process.[1] Trump responded with conflicting stories, saying "I had a lot of choice of who to have write the book, and I chose [Schwartz]", but then said "[Schwartz] didn't write the book. I wrote the book."[1] Former Random House head Howard Kaminsky, the book's original publisher, said "Trump didn’t write a postcard for us!"[1] The book was published in November 1987 by Random House, with the authorship given as "Donald Trump with Tony Schwartz".

Schwartz was the subject of a July 2016 article in The New Yorker in which Schwartz describes Donald Trump unfavorably and relates how he came to regret writing The Art of the Deal.[1] He also stated that if it were to be written today it would be very different and titled The Sociopath.[1] Schwartz repeated his self-criticism on Good Morning America, saying he had "put lipstick on a pig".[11] In response to these claims, Trump's attorneys have demanded that Schwartz cede all his royalties from the book to Trump.[12][13]

Publication

The Art of the Deal was published in November 1987 by Random House. A promotional campaign was undertaken in conjunction with the release of the book. This included Trump holding a release party at Trump Tower that was hosted by Jackie Mason and featured a celebrity-filled guest list.[8] There were a series of appearances by him on television talk shows.[14] Trump also appeared on a number of magazine covers as part of publicity for the book.[14]

Excerpts from the book were published in New York magazine.[8] The book has been translated into over a dozen different languages.[8]

Reception and legacy

At the time of publication, Publishers Weekly called it a "boastful, boyishly disarming, thoroughly engaging personal history".[15] People magazine gave it a mixed review.[2]

In 1988, Trump and Ted Turner announced plans for a television-film based on the book.[16] The plans had been largely abandoned by 1991.[17]

Three years later, journalist John Tierney noted Trump "appears to have ignored some of his own advice" in the book due to "well-publicized problems with his banks."[18] Trump's self-promotion, best-selling book and media celebrity status led one commentator in 2006 to call him "a poster-child for the 'greed is good' 1980s".[19] (The phrase "Greed is good" was from the movie Wall Street which was released a month after The Art of the Deal.)

Jim Geraghty in the National Review said in 2015 that the book showed "a much softer, warmer, and probably happier figure than the man dominating the airwaves today."[5]

John Paul Rollert, an ethicist writing about the book in The Atlantic in 2016, says Trump sees capitalism not as an economic system but a morality play.[20]

The book coined the phrase "truthful hyperbole" describing "an innocent form of exaggeration—and... a very effective form of promotion". Schwartz said Trump loved that phrase.[21][22] In January 2017, the phrase was noted for its similarity to the phrase "alternative facts" coined by Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway when she defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's false statements about the attendance at Trump's inauguration as President of the United States.[23][24][25]

Royalties

Trump and Schwartz had an agreement to split royalties from the book on a 50–50 basis.[26][27]

In 1988, Trump set up the Donald J. Trump Foundation to give away royalties from the book's sales, promising four or five million dollars "To the homeless, to Vietnam veterans, for AIDS, multiple sclerosis" in Trump's words.[26][28] According to a Washington Post investigation those donations largely did not happen: the paper said "he gave less to those causes than he did to his older daughter's ballet school."[28] The Washington Post asked Trump's campaign if Trump had donated the $55,000 Trump earned in the first six months of 2016 to charity, as he promised in the 1980s, and it did not respond.[27]

By 2016, Schwartz said he had received some $1.6 million in royalty payments.[26] In October of that year, Schwartz said the royalties he was still receiving for the book "suddenly became, for me, blood money. I didn't want to be anywhere near it. It just feels wrong."[27] As a result, Schwartz said he would be donating the prior 6-months of royalties worth $55,000 to the National Immigration Law Center which advocates for more undocumented immigrants to remain in the USA legally. Schwartz had earlier donated royalties he received in the second half of 2015, worth $25,000, to a number of charities including the National Immigration Forum. Schwartz said he wanted to help the people Trump was attacking.[27]

Book sales

Precise figures for the number of copies sold of Art of the Deal are not available because its publication preceded the Nielsen BookScan era.[14] It had a first printing of 150,000 copies.[8] Several magazine and book accounts state that it sold over 1 million hardcover copies[8] or 1 million copies.[1][9] A 2016 CBS News investigation reported that an unnamed source familiar with the book's sales placed the figure at 1.1 million copies sold.[26]

Trump asserted in his 2016 presidential run that Art of the Deal is "the No. 1 selling business book of all time."[29] In a detailed analysis by Linda Qiu in the Tampa Bay Times, other business books were found to have sold many more copies than Art of the Deal.[14] Qiu noted it was impossible to find exact sales figures, but gave a range of possibilities based on known claims and facts. Compared to six other famous business books, Art of the Deal ranked in fifth place according to her analysis; the first place book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, outsold it by a factor of 15 times.[14]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Mayer, Jane (July 25, 2016). "Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All". The New Yorker. Retrieved July 18, 2016.
  2. 1 2 Ralph Novak (February 29, 1988). "Picks and Pans Review: Trump: the Art of the Deal". People. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  3. ↑ Bernstein, Robert (2016). Speaking Freely: My Life in Publishing and Human Rights. The New Press.
  4. ↑ Ligman, Kyle (2016-05-18). "The Trump of Magazines Past". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
  5. 1 2 Jim Geraghty (September 24, 2015). "In The Art of the Deal, Trump Shows His Soft Side". The National Review. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Donald Trump reveals his favorite book". MSNBC. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
  7. ↑ Trump: The Art of the Deal Paperback
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Timothy L. O'Brien (2005). TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald. Grand Central Publishing. pp. 69–70. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
  9. 1 2 "Donald Trump's core business philosophy from his bestselling 1987 book 'The Art of the Deal'". Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  10. ↑ GQ. May 1984. Success Issue. Donald Trump, Sandra Bernhard, Bobby Short.
  11. ↑ Winsor, Morgan (July 18, 2016). "Tony Schwartz, Co-Author of Donald Trump's 'The Art of the Deal,' Says Trump Presidency Would Be 'Terrifying'". ABC News.
  12. ↑ Fandos, Nicholas (2016-07-21). "Trump Lawyer Sends ‘Art of the Deal’ Ghostwriter a Cease-and-Desist Letter". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-07-21.
  13. ↑ "Donald Trump Threatens the Ghostwriter of "The Art of the Deal"". The New Yorker. 2016-07-21. Retrieved 2016-07-21.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 Linda Qiu (July 6, 2015). "Is Donald Trump's Art of the Deal the best-selling business book of all time?". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Trump: The Art of the Deal". Publishers Weekly. December 1987. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  16. ↑ "Turner And Trump Team Up For A Film". Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  17. ↑ "Turner's Trump movie is on hold". Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  18. ↑ John Tierney (March 6, 1991). "'Art of the Deal,' Scaled-Back Edition". The New York Times. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  19. ↑ James Brian McPherson (2006). Journalism at the End of the American Century, 1965-present. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 101. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
  20. ↑ John Paul Rollert (March 30, 2016). "An Ethicist Reads The Art of the Deal". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  21. ↑ Mayer, Jane (25 July 2016). "Donald Trump's Ghostwriter Tells All". The New Yorker. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  22. ↑ Page, Clarence (January 24, 2017). "Column: 'Alternative facts' play to Americans' fantasies". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  23. ↑ Micek, John L. (22 January 2017). "Memo to Kellyanne Conway, there is no such thing as 'alternative facts': John L. Micek". Penn Live. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  24. ↑ Page, Clarence (24 January 2017). "'Alternative facts' play to Americans' fantasies". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  25. ↑ Werner, Erica. "GOP Congress grapples with Trump's 'alternative facts'". The Detroit Press. Associated Press.
  26. 1 2 3 4 "Donald Trump book royalties to charity? A mixed bag". CBS News. August 11, 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  27. 1 2 3 4 David A. Fahrenthold (October 4, 2016). "Trump’s co-author on ‘The Art of the Deal’ donates $55,000 royalty check to charity". Washington Post. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  28. 1 2 Farenthold, David A. (June 28, 2016). "Trump promised millions to charity. We found less than $10,000 over 7 years.". The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  29. ↑ Mark Krotov (July 27, 2015). "Should President Obama and the Iran negotiators have read Trump: The Art of the Deal?". Melville House Publishing. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  30. ↑ Zeitchik, Steven (February 10, 2016). "Funny or Die 'Donald Trump' filmmakers talk about making the viral parody with Johnny Depp". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 11, 2016.
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