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Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters behind the 2018 bombshell New York Times exposé of then-President Trump’s finances, an explosive investigation into the history of Donald Trump’s wealth, revealing how one of the country’s biggest business failures lied his way into the White House
Soon after announcing his first campaign for the U.S. presidency, Donald J. Trump told a national television audience that life “has not been easy for me. It has not been easy for me.” Building on a narrative he had been telling for decades, he spun a hardscrabble fable of how he parlayed a small loan from his father into a multi-billion-dollar business and real estate empire. This feat, he argued, made him singularly qualified to lead the country—except none of it was true. Born to a rich father who made him the beneficiary of his own highly lucrative investments, Trump received the equivalent of more than $500 million today via means that required no business expertise.
For decades he squandered his fortunes on money-losing businesses only to be saved yet again by financial serendipity. He tacked his name on every building while taking out huge loans he’d never repay. He obsessed over appearances while ignoring threats to the bottom line and mounting costly lawsuits against city officials. He tarnished the value of his name by allowing anyone with a big enough check to use it, and he cheated the television producer who not only rescued him from bankruptcy but also cast him as a business savant—the public image that carried Trump to the White House.
Drawing on more than twenty years’ worth of Trump’s confidential tax information—including the tax returns Trump tried to conceal—alongside business records and interviews with Trump insiders, New York Times investigative reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig track Trump's financial rise and fall—and rise and fall again.
Soon after announcing his first campaign for the U.S. presidency, Donald J. Trump told a national television audience that life “has not been easy for me. It has not been easy for me.” Building on a narrative he had been telling for decades, he spun a hardscrabble fable of how he parlayed a small loan from his father into a multi-billion-dollar business and real estate empire. This feat, he argued, made him singularly qualified to lead the country—except none of it was true. Born to a rich father who made him the beneficiary of his own highly lucrative investments, Trump received the equivalent of more than $500 million today via means that required no business expertise.
For decades he squandered his fortunes on money-losing businesses only to be saved yet again by financial serendipity. He tacked his name on every building while taking out huge loans he’d never repay. He obsessed over appearances while ignoring threats to the bottom line and mounting costly lawsuits against city officials. He tarnished the value of his name by allowing anyone with a big enough check to use it, and he cheated the television producer who not only rescued him from bankruptcy but also cast him as a business savant—the public image that carried Trump to the White House.
Drawing on more than twenty years’ worth of Trump’s confidential tax information—including the tax returns Trump tried to conceal—alongside business records and interviews with Trump insiders, New York Times investigative reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig track Trump's financial rise and fall—and rise and fall again.
528 pages, Hardcover
First published September 17, 2024
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October 11, 2024
I have been reading about and following Donald Trump's disastrous financial decisions and schemes designed to con banks and individuals out of their money since the early 1980s. I thought I knew enough--maybe far too much-- about Trump.
I was wrong. This unique review of Trump, his father's own deceits, and Trump's absolute absence of self-awareness and inability to admit error or defeat was far beyond my expectatons.
This is what I learned about Trump, aspects of who he is, that this book clearly illustrates:
1. Donald Trump lies, often without knowing why or having to do so, and he lies so much that someone who wants to know the facts or the truth shouldn't believe anything he says.
2. Trump acts impetuously and without doing due diligence, probably because he is lazy and dislikes having to deal with details, even in making substantial financial decisions.
3. Trump is lazy.
4. Trump issues personal attacks against people to who tell him something is not working as Trump believes it should or who disagree with Trump's assessments.
5. Trump wages opposition by filing suit, even when there are no facts to support the allegations he makes in the lawsuit. As a consequence, virtually all the lawsuits he's filed in business matters have been dismissed.
6. Trump, the person the public sees, is the product of illusions Trump specifically creates or those who create illusions that benefit him: reporters who declined to challenge his assertions of wealth, property ownership, political matters. Television hosts who acted as sycophants rather than interviewers.
7. Trump engages in behaviors that are self-destructive, mostly in the long-term but just as frequently in the short-term.
8. Whatever wealth Trump claims is the result of the wealth built by his father, Fred Trump, over Fred's 40 or so years building apartments in Queens and Long Island with government-guaranteed loans or outright loans.
9. Trump has had tremendous luck that often salvages his disastrous financial decisions, but before he was able to develop product endorsements or licensing deals because of the huge popularity of the Apprentice, Trump was routinely bailed out by his father.
10. Trump has failed (by metrics we commonly use to judge failure in business) at virtually every business venture he has undertaken.
11. Trump may owe 100 Million Dollars or more in back taxes because of the illegal deductions he took and tax strategies (and undervaluations) he's engaged in.
12. Today, bankers decline to do business with Trump or lend him money.
13. If the authors are correct, any small, seemingly insignificant adverse event in the financing arrangements he made for his few remaining businesses will cause the collapse of what's left of the Fred Trump-Donald Trump empire.
14. Illusion. Trump is built and exists on illusion. The irony of his business success, the lie, really, became real when the producers of the Apprentice realized that Trump was not operating a worldwide property business, as he proclaimed, but a family-run business, which operated in offices that were cramped, cluttered, and not suitable to the image the producers wanted to portray. They spent millions creating a boardroom, which Trump did not have, and an image that attempted to portray Trump as an imaginative, tough businessman.
15. Trump deceives his business partners and others for no apparent reason. The authors cite an example of the German owner of 40 Wall Street, an entrepreneur who made a vast fortune in shipping and real estate, visiting Trump at his Trump Tower apartment to discuss Trump's intent to buy 40 Wall. Hanging in the apartment were what Trump stated were original French impressionist paintings which the owner carefully scrutinized. As the visitor positioned a camera to capture a photo of one of the paintings, Trump stuck his hand in front of the lens and said, "please, no photos." The visitor apologized and put the camera away. Later, he told the person who escorted him that the paintings were faked, forgeries, and that he had seen the original in a museum in Hamburg.
16. Those who do business with Trump are screwed by Trump. He does not live up to contracts, deals, or conditions of loans. Whatever promises he makes, he breaks.
One of the funnier anecdotes the authors reveal is one involving Mar-a-Lago. Trump bought MAL after visiting it, but, as was his habit, refused to do any due diligence and ignored obvious problems because he was so enamored of his decision to own the property. Trump bought the property and moved in. Once he had moved in, he began to notice the noise from jet aircraft flying over or near the property throughout the day and part of the night. MAL was in the flight path of a local airport. Trump was furious and demanded that the flight path be changed. He was told that was not going to happen and he sued. That case was quickly dismissed.
There are example after example of this sort of deceit by Trump, all designed to make him appear to be something he isn't. Donald Trump has had luck on his side, but he now has exhausted what business people--outside television--value most: trustworthiness and integrity.
My personal opinion is that the lies and the lack of integrity in all that Trump does will bring him down. He literally has no chips left to play with and reserve of goodwill to ease the pain. As the gods in ancient Greek mythology decreed, those who act with hubris-those humans who act as gods when in fact they are merely mortal-will inevitably meet their downfall because of their own deeds and misdeeds. Trump surely is a candidate for the gods' punishment of hubris.
I was wrong. This unique review of Trump, his father's own deceits, and Trump's absolute absence of self-awareness and inability to admit error or defeat was far beyond my expectatons.
This is what I learned about Trump, aspects of who he is, that this book clearly illustrates:
1. Donald Trump lies, often without knowing why or having to do so, and he lies so much that someone who wants to know the facts or the truth shouldn't believe anything he says.
2. Trump acts impetuously and without doing due diligence, probably because he is lazy and dislikes having to deal with details, even in making substantial financial decisions.
3. Trump is lazy.
4. Trump issues personal attacks against people to who tell him something is not working as Trump believes it should or who disagree with Trump's assessments.
5. Trump wages opposition by filing suit, even when there are no facts to support the allegations he makes in the lawsuit. As a consequence, virtually all the lawsuits he's filed in business matters have been dismissed.
6. Trump, the person the public sees, is the product of illusions Trump specifically creates or those who create illusions that benefit him: reporters who declined to challenge his assertions of wealth, property ownership, political matters. Television hosts who acted as sycophants rather than interviewers.
7. Trump engages in behaviors that are self-destructive, mostly in the long-term but just as frequently in the short-term.
8. Whatever wealth Trump claims is the result of the wealth built by his father, Fred Trump, over Fred's 40 or so years building apartments in Queens and Long Island with government-guaranteed loans or outright loans.
9. Trump has had tremendous luck that often salvages his disastrous financial decisions, but before he was able to develop product endorsements or licensing deals because of the huge popularity of the Apprentice, Trump was routinely bailed out by his father.
10. Trump has failed (by metrics we commonly use to judge failure in business) at virtually every business venture he has undertaken.
11. Trump may owe 100 Million Dollars or more in back taxes because of the illegal deductions he took and tax strategies (and undervaluations) he's engaged in.
12. Today, bankers decline to do business with Trump or lend him money.
13. If the authors are correct, any small, seemingly insignificant adverse event in the financing arrangements he made for his few remaining businesses will cause the collapse of what's left of the Fred Trump-Donald Trump empire.
14. Illusion. Trump is built and exists on illusion. The irony of his business success, the lie, really, became real when the producers of the Apprentice realized that Trump was not operating a worldwide property business, as he proclaimed, but a family-run business, which operated in offices that were cramped, cluttered, and not suitable to the image the producers wanted to portray. They spent millions creating a boardroom, which Trump did not have, and an image that attempted to portray Trump as an imaginative, tough businessman.
15. Trump deceives his business partners and others for no apparent reason. The authors cite an example of the German owner of 40 Wall Street, an entrepreneur who made a vast fortune in shipping and real estate, visiting Trump at his Trump Tower apartment to discuss Trump's intent to buy 40 Wall. Hanging in the apartment were what Trump stated were original French impressionist paintings which the owner carefully scrutinized. As the visitor positioned a camera to capture a photo of one of the paintings, Trump stuck his hand in front of the lens and said, "please, no photos." The visitor apologized and put the camera away. Later, he told the person who escorted him that the paintings were faked, forgeries, and that he had seen the original in a museum in Hamburg.
16. Those who do business with Trump are screwed by Trump. He does not live up to contracts, deals, or conditions of loans. Whatever promises he makes, he breaks.
One of the funnier anecdotes the authors reveal is one involving Mar-a-Lago. Trump bought MAL after visiting it, but, as was his habit, refused to do any due diligence and ignored obvious problems because he was so enamored of his decision to own the property. Trump bought the property and moved in. Once he had moved in, he began to notice the noise from jet aircraft flying over or near the property throughout the day and part of the night. MAL was in the flight path of a local airport. Trump was furious and demanded that the flight path be changed. He was told that was not going to happen and he sued. That case was quickly dismissed.
There are example after example of this sort of deceit by Trump, all designed to make him appear to be something he isn't. Donald Trump has had luck on his side, but he now has exhausted what business people--outside television--value most: trustworthiness and integrity.
My personal opinion is that the lies and the lack of integrity in all that Trump does will bring him down. He literally has no chips left to play with and reserve of goodwill to ease the pain. As the gods in ancient Greek mythology decreed, those who act with hubris-those humans who act as gods when in fact they are merely mortal-will inevitably meet their downfall because of their own deeds and misdeeds. Trump surely is a candidate for the gods' punishment of hubris.
September 18, 2024
The definitive guide to Trump’s monetary endeavors. As someone who read “All in the Family,” “Apprentice in Wonderland,” and “Tired of Winning,” I think I’m well positioned to posit that this is the one to read for enlightening the faces of his finances in 528 detailed pages.
September 21, 2024
Fascinating and eye opening
This book illuminates in detail everything you need to know about Trump the businessman. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors, shades of the emperor's new clothes. The details about Fred Trump were new to me, I had not realized how wealthy Fred was and how often he bailed out his son. The discussion of his tax returns explains a lot, no wonder Trump didn't want them released.This book is well written and well researched and it is chilling to think such a fraud, A very dangerous fraud, could be elected again. We should be very worried.
This book illuminates in detail everything you need to know about Trump the businessman. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors, shades of the emperor's new clothes. The details about Fred Trump were new to me, I had not realized how wealthy Fred was and how often he bailed out his son. The discussion of his tax returns explains a lot, no wonder Trump didn't want them released.This book is well written and well researched and it is chilling to think such a fraud, A very dangerous fraud, could be elected again. We should be very worried.
October 12, 2024
Uggghhh.
If only Trump voters would read books like this…..
Well-researched and well written, eye-opening. All the usual things. Sometimes I lost focus when they described certain financial, tax and real estate machinations, but it was still well done and should be read by all voters.
If only Trump voters would read books like this…..
Well-researched and well written, eye-opening. All the usual things. Sometimes I lost focus when they described certain financial, tax and real estate machinations, but it was still well done and should be read by all voters.
November 6, 2024
I've stopped after finishing chapter 21 only because of the results of 11/5/24. For me there's just no point in reading this kind of stuff anymore.
I had always been morbidly curious about Trump's actual background and I think the authors did a good job of presenting his history. Any book on this subject that isn't a hagiography has the same guy at the center. This is no different. But what it also brings is the story of how his father, Fred, built the business and created a pathway for his second son's success. Once that's established the authors detail his many business failures. It's quite remarkable in the worst ways.
My only nitpicks were a number of typos throughout along with the several times the authors unnecessarily dunked on Trump for some stupid thing or other. It seemed gratuitous.
I felt the book largely delivered an interesting background that felt different from much of the rest of the books I've read on the subject. If you have the stomach for this kind of thing I'd recommend it but I'd more highly recommend for readers to find a book about something else altogether.
I had always been morbidly curious about Trump's actual background and I think the authors did a good job of presenting his history. Any book on this subject that isn't a hagiography has the same guy at the center. This is no different. But what it also brings is the story of how his father, Fred, built the business and created a pathway for his second son's success. Once that's established the authors detail his many business failures. It's quite remarkable in the worst ways.
My only nitpicks were a number of typos throughout along with the several times the authors unnecessarily dunked on Trump for some stupid thing or other. It seemed gratuitous.
I felt the book largely delivered an interesting background that felt different from much of the rest of the books I've read on the subject. If you have the stomach for this kind of thing I'd recommend it but I'd more highly recommend for readers to find a book about something else altogether.
October 4, 2024
Okay, so. Anyone who knows me, is very aware that I despise Trump. Even so, my knowledge has been limited to watching reports and exposes of the last ten years or so of his abominable entry into American politics. However, after reading this book, I feel very enlightened, and seeing how much of his image was built on sand, if not clouds, really makes me angry that it wasn't called out earlier. The man is a narcissist who lies without compulsion, with confidence, and reacts aggressively to being called out. He has no conscience, and the amount of lives he has ruined through his utterly callous actions devoid of empathy over the course of his life can be counted in tens of millions, if not more. The man is, and always was, a fraud, a failed builder, an attention-hog, and yes; a Lucky Loser.
October 1, 2024
I listened to the book on Trump called Lucky Loser. It added a lot of detail to what I already know of his family life and wildly played business games. There is a lot of coverage of his father Fred, a hard driving apartment complex developer, who was a detailed planner and tough, tight-fisted director of his construction projects. Turns out Donald Trump was anything but a detail manager but preferred relying on his first instincts rather than the advice of any kind of expert. Donald was a schemer and liar from an early age. In military school for the yearbook picture, he borrowed another cadet’s jacket because it had a lot more medals than his. As businessman he jumped into a lot of businesses that failed, but his father always bailed him out. He took credit for his father’s considerable success, often bragging they were his own projects. He benefited by his father’s good relations with lenders and New York politicians. He ventured into casino management, with calamitous results and had to sell his yacht, mansions, sports team, airline, etc. to service loans and prevent forced bankruptcy. His appearances on the Apprentice TV show saved him from complete financial collapse. For the Apprentice, Mark Burnett, the producer who invented the wildly popular show Survivor, portrayed Trump for the national audience as America’s most successful businessman—setting the stage for his entry into national politics. The show flourished and made a lot of money for Trump. The timing was fortunate for Trump because the inflow of new money helped stave off creditors after him for past business failures.
Throughout his life he was always boastful, an exaggerator and habitual liar. Roy Cohn helped to harden his personality with advice never to admit mistakes and always seek revenge for slights large or small. Accordingly, his habit of suing became his modus operandi in thousands of cases. It instilled fear into those victims who didn’t have the time or money to slug it out in the legal system. Trump University was described in detail as an example of where a sleazy venture of his failed and for which he had to pay a 25-million dollar fine. There were many examples of Trump chiseling on deals to get more money or some other advantage out of them. There were examples of him shortchanging working men and women to whom he owed wages or payment for services. He was, it seemed, constantly probing the boundaries of legality and custom to punch through and gain some kind of advantage for his lifelong drive to make money—whether by tawdry schemes and grifts e.g. sneakers, bibles, baseball-type cards, political memorabilia or by grander schemes such as running golf courses, clothing branding or housing construction.
A central driving force throughout Trump’s life has been to be in the public eye and adulated, but short of that, to be frequently noticed in the media, even if not adulated. He always wanted to dominate or claim to dominate “like never has been done before,” at whatever he was up to.
The title Lucky Loser refers to several lucky breaks in Trump’s life of ill-fated ventures in the business world and political world that were saved by something outside of his ability to manage these ventures. For example, the authors cite Fred Trump’s largess in several cases that bailed out son Donald’s money-losing activities and consequent economic collapse. Also, with timely coincidence, The Apprentice TV show provided needed cash flow when Fred faded from the scene because of age—another stroke of good fortune. Fox News and social media are portrayed as perfectly suited for a conspiracist and aggressive liar such as Trump to hammer away continually misinformation to denigrate the press, government, and his enemies, and by so doing build a MAGA army capable of getting him elected president once—and then rising in insurrection with an assault on the nation’s capital when he failed to be elected the second time.
At the end of the book that was published in September 2024 the Trump drama is not completely played out. Not known is what the future holds. Will Trump win the election and have destiny smile on him again, with an opportunity to void federal criminal cases against him? Will the large civil penalties levied against him be reversed on appeal? Will the newest grifts continue to keep him in the black, the 100,000-dollar watches, the NFTs, the crypto scheme? Who knows? Looks to me like the upcoming election is the key. Winning could get him out of a lot of legal trouble and supercharge his grifts. Not winning could make him The Big Loser.
Throughout his life he was always boastful, an exaggerator and habitual liar. Roy Cohn helped to harden his personality with advice never to admit mistakes and always seek revenge for slights large or small. Accordingly, his habit of suing became his modus operandi in thousands of cases. It instilled fear into those victims who didn’t have the time or money to slug it out in the legal system. Trump University was described in detail as an example of where a sleazy venture of his failed and for which he had to pay a 25-million dollar fine. There were many examples of Trump chiseling on deals to get more money or some other advantage out of them. There were examples of him shortchanging working men and women to whom he owed wages or payment for services. He was, it seemed, constantly probing the boundaries of legality and custom to punch through and gain some kind of advantage for his lifelong drive to make money—whether by tawdry schemes and grifts e.g. sneakers, bibles, baseball-type cards, political memorabilia or by grander schemes such as running golf courses, clothing branding or housing construction.
A central driving force throughout Trump’s life has been to be in the public eye and adulated, but short of that, to be frequently noticed in the media, even if not adulated. He always wanted to dominate or claim to dominate “like never has been done before,” at whatever he was up to.
The title Lucky Loser refers to several lucky breaks in Trump’s life of ill-fated ventures in the business world and political world that were saved by something outside of his ability to manage these ventures. For example, the authors cite Fred Trump’s largess in several cases that bailed out son Donald’s money-losing activities and consequent economic collapse. Also, with timely coincidence, The Apprentice TV show provided needed cash flow when Fred faded from the scene because of age—another stroke of good fortune. Fox News and social media are portrayed as perfectly suited for a conspiracist and aggressive liar such as Trump to hammer away continually misinformation to denigrate the press, government, and his enemies, and by so doing build a MAGA army capable of getting him elected president once—and then rising in insurrection with an assault on the nation’s capital when he failed to be elected the second time.
At the end of the book that was published in September 2024 the Trump drama is not completely played out. Not known is what the future holds. Will Trump win the election and have destiny smile on him again, with an opportunity to void federal criminal cases against him? Will the large civil penalties levied against him be reversed on appeal? Will the newest grifts continue to keep him in the black, the 100,000-dollar watches, the NFTs, the crypto scheme? Who knows? Looks to me like the upcoming election is the key. Winning could get him out of a lot of legal trouble and supercharge his grifts. Not winning could make him The Big Loser.
October 12, 2024
Ross Buettner and Susanne Craig worked for years to uncover the story behind the mirage of Donald Trump's financial acumen. Employees and institutions working with Trump were obliged by NDAs or firmly warned not to divulge any information to The NY Times reporters. Even the banks who had been repeatedly defrauded stayed mum. Buettner and Craig persisted, and at last discovered a gold mine. Mary Trump and her brother had sued the survivors of Fred Trump Sr., including her aunts Marianne and Elizabeth, and her uncles Robert and Donald, for their fair share of the family estate. With the help of Craig in particular, Mary began to understand that the discovery given to her during the lawsuit was now her property. She was not under any legal obligation to keep it secret. She took possession of the "receipts," hauling the papers out of his office in a truck, and eventually turned much of the material over to the authors to help them explain the Trump organized crime syndicate.
This is a story of the family dysfunction, the particular psychopathologies of Fred Jr and Donald Trump, and the multi-generational crime spree perpetrated by them since Fred Sr arrived from Germany with his wife, Elizabeth. Senior died a young man, and Elizabeth became the genius behind the first generation of Trump fraudsters. Her right hand man was son Fred Jr., who could not refrain from defrauding everyone from the lowliest laborer to the federal government. He was the kind of guy who would pick up nails from a construction site so they could be re-used. His library had no books. When the kids came for dinner (a command appearance on Wed. nights), they ate dinner and went home after an hour. Table talk always resulted in arguments, with Marianne playing the part of nosy buttinsky and Donald the jokester. The rest of the family was of little account and got little notice. Fred Jr was headlong into fraud in every business realtionship he had. He chose to partner with men who small enough not to interfere, or even always understand, what he was up to. Those who did understand were paid off, in kind so it could be hidden from Uncle Sam. I would love to see an estimate of how much money the Trump crime family has stolen from the US governments (states and federal) since WWI. If any body tells you Trump crimes. had no victims, just think of the millions they didn't pay in taxes. They stole that from all of us. I don't care if Deutschebank would rather not o into it. I'd like my money back.
Donald was the mini-me to his criminal father. He began building with loans from his Dad, put into effect all the illegalities he was taught growing up, and eventually spent not only his part of Fred Jr's estate, but also stole very liberally from the shares of his siblings, and all of the money bequeathed to his niece and nephew by Fred Jr. . He bought off his siblings by including them in the profits of criminal schemes. Marianne finally broke with Donald, but only after a lifetime of participation in his crimes.
Trump survived his first wave of banruptcies thanks to the theft of his father's life's work. He survived the second wave courtesy of Mark Burnett and The Apprentice, from which he derived big money, but perhaps more importantly, was also able to build a facade of competency that obscured his real nature and still has people believing he is fit for anything but hawking cheap sneakers and bibles.
This is not a book I loved reading, but one I think is important.
This is a story of the family dysfunction, the particular psychopathologies of Fred Jr and Donald Trump, and the multi-generational crime spree perpetrated by them since Fred Sr arrived from Germany with his wife, Elizabeth. Senior died a young man, and Elizabeth became the genius behind the first generation of Trump fraudsters. Her right hand man was son Fred Jr., who could not refrain from defrauding everyone from the lowliest laborer to the federal government. He was the kind of guy who would pick up nails from a construction site so they could be re-used. His library had no books. When the kids came for dinner (a command appearance on Wed. nights), they ate dinner and went home after an hour. Table talk always resulted in arguments, with Marianne playing the part of nosy buttinsky and Donald the jokester. The rest of the family was of little account and got little notice. Fred Jr was headlong into fraud in every business realtionship he had. He chose to partner with men who small enough not to interfere, or even always understand, what he was up to. Those who did understand were paid off, in kind so it could be hidden from Uncle Sam. I would love to see an estimate of how much money the Trump crime family has stolen from the US governments (states and federal) since WWI. If any body tells you Trump crimes. had no victims, just think of the millions they didn't pay in taxes. They stole that from all of us. I don't care if Deutschebank would rather not o into it. I'd like my money back.
Donald was the mini-me to his criminal father. He began building with loans from his Dad, put into effect all the illegalities he was taught growing up, and eventually spent not only his part of Fred Jr's estate, but also stole very liberally from the shares of his siblings, and all of the money bequeathed to his niece and nephew by Fred Jr. . He bought off his siblings by including them in the profits of criminal schemes. Marianne finally broke with Donald, but only after a lifetime of participation in his crimes.
Trump survived his first wave of banruptcies thanks to the theft of his father's life's work. He survived the second wave courtesy of Mark Burnett and The Apprentice, from which he derived big money, but perhaps more importantly, was also able to build a facade of competency that obscured his real nature and still has people believing he is fit for anything but hawking cheap sneakers and bibles.
This is not a book I loved reading, but one I think is important.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 26, 2024
Please Read this book!!
For anyone who has not yet made a decision on the 2024 US election- a lot of this info was readily available pre 2016, but mainstream media didn’t bother to emphasize it.
Here is the book that tells you everything you need to know about trump- backed up by pages and pages of pre-internet FACTS. (For those fake news, must be AI fans. Nope, I saw a lot of this with my eyes when it was happening. Yes. I’m old…)
Please read this book. Thank you!!
For anyone who has not yet made a decision on the 2024 US election- a lot of this info was readily available pre 2016, but mainstream media didn’t bother to emphasize it.
Here is the book that tells you everything you need to know about trump- backed up by pages and pages of pre-internet FACTS. (For those fake news, must be AI fans. Nope, I saw a lot of this with my eyes when it was happening. Yes. I’m old…)
Please read this book. Thank you!!
November 4, 2024
Will the real Donald Trump please stand up? Who is the real Donald Trump? Is he, as Churchill might say, an undecipherable riddle wrapped in an enigma? OR is he
• the über-businessman he presents in The Art of the Deal (1987) and Think Like a Billionaire (2004)?
• the clever geopolitical strategist of his ghostwritten election year books Save America (2024) and Great Again (2016)?
• the cruel and vengeful creature seen by his niece Mary L. Trump in Too Much And Never Enough (2020) and Who CouldEver Love You (2024), and by her cousin Fred C. Trump III in All in the Family (2024)?
• the mentally unstable figure seen by psychologists and psychiatrists in the volume The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump edited by Brandy X. Lee (2017)?
• the reprehensible, venal and duplicitous autocrat seen by investigative reporters in Maggie Haberman's Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America (2022), Bob Woodward in Fear (2018) and Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune And Created the Illusion of Success (2024) by Russ Beutner and Susan Craig?
• the recently emerged babbling idiot seen by millions as he does "the weave" to spice up his rhetoric?
Two observations jump out from the above list. First, Donald Trump inspires long subtitles. Second, he seems to enjoy hurting people, either by acts of petty revenge or by anti-social acts like cannonballing guests at his club's swimming pool. One wonders if he also tears the wings off flies or focusses the sun's rays on ants.
Oh! You haven't read Lucky Loser? Perhaps that's because it was just released. So, let's look at this very meaty addition to the Trump story.
Among its other contributions, Lucky Loser subtly suggests a new interpretation of the Trump psyche as a split personality. When Trump wants to mask his identity or to shift blame, he occasionally uses an alter ego – a fictitious employee named "John Baron" who gums up the works. Donald John Trump is a good man, a man of honor devoted to helping humanity through his political skills and economic savvy; John Baron is a devious liar bent on amassing personal wealth and power. Buettner and Craig report that on occasion, when Trump has been accused of doing something inappropriate, he's responded "I didn't do that. That was John Baron."
The unsettling question is whether "John Baron" is just Trump's conscious convenient foil – a fictitious character to divert blame onto another – is an alternative Trump personality, a subconscious character capable of coming out to do harm, then sliding back into Trump's neural network. In the latter case, we should be very afraid of Trump – rather than the adoration he so obviously needs, he should be receiving psychiatric treatment.
Donald John Trump's behavior has clearly been despicable by any moral standards outside of Russia. He is a confidence man and a manipulator, who once drove prospective investors around a completed housing development to show them the quality of his work. They were so impressed that they became investors, never knowing that The Donald had nothing to do with that development.
Trump is also a convicted felon many times over, a probable rapist found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, a financial engineer who manufactured his success by downplaying his father's role in seeding The Donald's wealth, and a "great businessman" who never pays income taxes because the losses in value of his enterprises more than offsets his income –for decades Trump has been eating his buildings to finance his image as a successful businessman.
He is a man who proudly announces his degree from Wharton and his expertise in economic matters, but fails to mention that it was a bachelor's degree and that he was admitted because of his father's wealth and because the then new Wharton School needed student (his entering class was just 21 students). His frequent claim that he was at the top of his Wharton class is not consistent with the record: he was never on the Dean's List, much less the Honors list.
What appears to me to be the value-added portion of Lucky Loser – in addition to its hint about Trump's split personality – is its early chapters about growing up as the son of Fred C. Trump Sr. There we see how Donald J. Trump/John Baron came to be today's über-confidence man. There we rediscover that the apple never falls far from the tree.
Fred Crist Trump Sr. was a New York home builder of single-family homes and, later, of apartment buildings. Born in 1905, he began his career in the 1922 as an apprentice and became a reputable builder of affordable housing units, both single-family and apartment buildings. His success derived largely from an astute eye for New York property and creative application of new and efficient assembly-line construction methods. An honorable beginning, indeed.
That success was threatened by the arrival in 1930 of the Great Depression, when median real estate transaction prices per square-foot in the Trump territory of Manhattan fell sharply, by 58 percent from the late 1929 peak to late 1932 (Tom Nicholas, Harvard Business Review, 2013). Because mortgage instruments are fixed-price obligations, a median property purchased in late 1929 for $10,000 and financed with an $8,000 mortgage was valued at $4,200 in late 1932, with a mortgage not much less than $8,000. A property owner would be far better off by defaulting on the loan and turning the house over to the bank ,than by selling it in the market. The natural result was massive defaults on home mortgage loans, followed by bank foreclosures and resale of the homes by the banks.
This drove home prices down farther and created even more defaults. Commercial banks and savings institutions – the primary mortgage lenders –failed en masse, and the disease spread to other sectors of the U.S. economy. Among the many responses to the Great Depression was the 1934 creation of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The FHA made no loans to either home builders or buyers; its role was to provide insurance for the mortgage loans made to home buyers: a bank would make a mortgage loan and buy an FHA insurance policy protecting itself against default.
This was a promising approach to the housing finance crisis – it shifted the burden of declining home prices from the overstressed financial institutions and credit markets to the federal government, and it inhibited the snowball effect of deflation on the broader economy.
But Fred C. Trump Sr. gamed the system. Among Trump Sr.'s tricks was the systematic overvaluation of the budgeted costs of homes constructed. Because the amount of FHA mortgage insurance was based on the construction budget, not on actual construction costs, this practice allowed Trump Sr. to borrow more money from private lenders than would be needed to complete the project, pocketing the difference between the budgeted and actual construction costs. The results were an immediate fattening of the Trump wallet, excessive lending by banks, and ultimately an increase on bank failures. In short, Fred Trump's construction budget practices reduced the value of the FHA as a bulwark against defaults, and it increased the economy-wide tailspin in the first two years of the Depression.
To compound the felony, Fred C. Trump Sr. then reported the fictitious "saving" in construction costs (the difference between budgeted construction costs and actual sale value) as capital gains rather than as ordinary income, allowing the fictitious income to be taxed at the favorable tax rate for capital gains. This odd practice was endorsed by corrupted officials at the FHA, and it became the core of a major corruption scandal at the FHA during the 1930s.
This was what Donald J. Trump/John Baron learned at his adoring father's knee. This was the cauldron that skewed The Donald's moral compass and gave birth to John Baron. It's no surprise that the young Donald was a boy who took delight in cannonballing guests at the family's country club, or that the young Donald grew into a towering narcissist unable to behave with the minimal empathy expected by society, a man who delighted in harming those he saw as opponents.
Donald's frequent misbehavior in his teens resulted in his relocation to the New York Military Academy, a military school from which he graduated with no academic accolades but with the high rank of Captain, a triumph spurred by his father's generosity to the school. The Donald was then admitted to an easy-to-enter undergraduate program at Fordham University, and after two years he transferred to UPenn's new undergraduate business school (Wharton), from which he received a B.S. in Economics. Those two initials described his style well.
And so, Donald Trump grew to become the man we see today: a man whose sole concern is himself, a man who automatically reverses the finger of blame (John Baron did it!) and blindly meets criticism by viciously blaming his critics for the same faults they attribute to him; a man for whom not getting re-elected in 2020 was a clear sign of electoral fraud because, well, in a truly just world he simply couldn't lose; a transactional leader who never gives unless he receives a personal favor in return, a man whose sole response to a request is, "What can you do for me?"
Trump's transactional behavior is the source of his well-known opposition to assisting Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. In 2019 then-President Trump had a phone conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine. Russia had annexed Crimea in 2014, an act of war that violated a number of past Soviet and post-Soviet assurances of Ukraine's autonomy. The West turned a blind eye, thus encouraging continued aggression. In 2019 the common bet was that Russia would grasp for more of Ukraine – which it did in 2022.
On that phone call, Zelensky asked President Trump to provide military assistance to Ukraine to help it prepare for further Russian aggression. Trump's response was to ask Zelensky to ask for a quid pro quo – an investigation by Ukraine of the business activities in Ukraine of Hunter Biden, son of Joseph Biden who was Trump's likely opponent in his 2020 campaign for reelection. Zelensky properly demurred, noting that it would violate international understandings about interfering in another country's elections.
Trump demurred on the military assistance, and since then he has consistently resisted U.S. assistance to Ukraine. When Trump and Zelensky later had another phone conversation, Zelensky remarked that he hoped the U.S. and Ukraine would have a good relationship going forward. Trump's reported response was "It takes two to tango." In other words, if you want me to help you maintain our autonomy, you have to help me win an election. Apparently, Trump believes that the importance of his personal stature as President trumps the importance of world peace.
It should be no surprise that one of DJT's most vocal supporters is Elon Musk, a business figure whose aura of success is earned by his wide range of winning innovations, from electric cars to electrical grid management to space exploration. In his biography of Elon Musk, titled simply Elon Musk, Walter Isaacson notes that Musk is a man without empathy, a man who cares only about results and the impact on him. Musk and Trump appear to compete for last place on the global empathy thermometer; this is a hallmark of narcissism. The only difference between Musk and Trump is that Musk has actually created something real, while Trump's sole creation appears to be himself.
• the über-businessman he presents in The Art of the Deal (1987) and Think Like a Billionaire (2004)?
• the clever geopolitical strategist of his ghostwritten election year books Save America (2024) and Great Again (2016)?
• the cruel and vengeful creature seen by his niece Mary L. Trump in Too Much And Never Enough (2020) and Who CouldEver Love You (2024), and by her cousin Fred C. Trump III in All in the Family (2024)?
• the mentally unstable figure seen by psychologists and psychiatrists in the volume The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump edited by Brandy X. Lee (2017)?
• the reprehensible, venal and duplicitous autocrat seen by investigative reporters in Maggie Haberman's Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America (2022), Bob Woodward in Fear (2018) and Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune And Created the Illusion of Success (2024) by Russ Beutner and Susan Craig?
• the recently emerged babbling idiot seen by millions as he does "the weave" to spice up his rhetoric?
Two observations jump out from the above list. First, Donald Trump inspires long subtitles. Second, he seems to enjoy hurting people, either by acts of petty revenge or by anti-social acts like cannonballing guests at his club's swimming pool. One wonders if he also tears the wings off flies or focusses the sun's rays on ants.
Oh! You haven't read Lucky Loser? Perhaps that's because it was just released. So, let's look at this very meaty addition to the Trump story.
Among its other contributions, Lucky Loser subtly suggests a new interpretation of the Trump psyche as a split personality. When Trump wants to mask his identity or to shift blame, he occasionally uses an alter ego – a fictitious employee named "John Baron" who gums up the works. Donald John Trump is a good man, a man of honor devoted to helping humanity through his political skills and economic savvy; John Baron is a devious liar bent on amassing personal wealth and power. Buettner and Craig report that on occasion, when Trump has been accused of doing something inappropriate, he's responded "I didn't do that. That was John Baron."
The unsettling question is whether "John Baron" is just Trump's conscious convenient foil – a fictitious character to divert blame onto another – is an alternative Trump personality, a subconscious character capable of coming out to do harm, then sliding back into Trump's neural network. In the latter case, we should be very afraid of Trump – rather than the adoration he so obviously needs, he should be receiving psychiatric treatment.
Donald John Trump's behavior has clearly been despicable by any moral standards outside of Russia. He is a confidence man and a manipulator, who once drove prospective investors around a completed housing development to show them the quality of his work. They were so impressed that they became investors, never knowing that The Donald had nothing to do with that development.
Trump is also a convicted felon many times over, a probable rapist found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, a financial engineer who manufactured his success by downplaying his father's role in seeding The Donald's wealth, and a "great businessman" who never pays income taxes because the losses in value of his enterprises more than offsets his income –for decades Trump has been eating his buildings to finance his image as a successful businessman.
He is a man who proudly announces his degree from Wharton and his expertise in economic matters, but fails to mention that it was a bachelor's degree and that he was admitted because of his father's wealth and because the then new Wharton School needed student (his entering class was just 21 students). His frequent claim that he was at the top of his Wharton class is not consistent with the record: he was never on the Dean's List, much less the Honors list.
What appears to me to be the value-added portion of Lucky Loser – in addition to its hint about Trump's split personality – is its early chapters about growing up as the son of Fred C. Trump Sr. There we see how Donald J. Trump/John Baron came to be today's über-confidence man. There we rediscover that the apple never falls far from the tree.
Fred Crist Trump Sr. was a New York home builder of single-family homes and, later, of apartment buildings. Born in 1905, he began his career in the 1922 as an apprentice and became a reputable builder of affordable housing units, both single-family and apartment buildings. His success derived largely from an astute eye for New York property and creative application of new and efficient assembly-line construction methods. An honorable beginning, indeed.
That success was threatened by the arrival in 1930 of the Great Depression, when median real estate transaction prices per square-foot in the Trump territory of Manhattan fell sharply, by 58 percent from the late 1929 peak to late 1932 (Tom Nicholas, Harvard Business Review, 2013). Because mortgage instruments are fixed-price obligations, a median property purchased in late 1929 for $10,000 and financed with an $8,000 mortgage was valued at $4,200 in late 1932, with a mortgage not much less than $8,000. A property owner would be far better off by defaulting on the loan and turning the house over to the bank ,than by selling it in the market. The natural result was massive defaults on home mortgage loans, followed by bank foreclosures and resale of the homes by the banks.
This drove home prices down farther and created even more defaults. Commercial banks and savings institutions – the primary mortgage lenders –failed en masse, and the disease spread to other sectors of the U.S. economy. Among the many responses to the Great Depression was the 1934 creation of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The FHA made no loans to either home builders or buyers; its role was to provide insurance for the mortgage loans made to home buyers: a bank would make a mortgage loan and buy an FHA insurance policy protecting itself against default.
This was a promising approach to the housing finance crisis – it shifted the burden of declining home prices from the overstressed financial institutions and credit markets to the federal government, and it inhibited the snowball effect of deflation on the broader economy.
But Fred C. Trump Sr. gamed the system. Among Trump Sr.'s tricks was the systematic overvaluation of the budgeted costs of homes constructed. Because the amount of FHA mortgage insurance was based on the construction budget, not on actual construction costs, this practice allowed Trump Sr. to borrow more money from private lenders than would be needed to complete the project, pocketing the difference between the budgeted and actual construction costs. The results were an immediate fattening of the Trump wallet, excessive lending by banks, and ultimately an increase on bank failures. In short, Fred Trump's construction budget practices reduced the value of the FHA as a bulwark against defaults, and it increased the economy-wide tailspin in the first two years of the Depression.
To compound the felony, Fred C. Trump Sr. then reported the fictitious "saving" in construction costs (the difference between budgeted construction costs and actual sale value) as capital gains rather than as ordinary income, allowing the fictitious income to be taxed at the favorable tax rate for capital gains. This odd practice was endorsed by corrupted officials at the FHA, and it became the core of a major corruption scandal at the FHA during the 1930s.
This was what Donald J. Trump/John Baron learned at his adoring father's knee. This was the cauldron that skewed The Donald's moral compass and gave birth to John Baron. It's no surprise that the young Donald was a boy who took delight in cannonballing guests at the family's country club, or that the young Donald grew into a towering narcissist unable to behave with the minimal empathy expected by society, a man who delighted in harming those he saw as opponents.
Donald's frequent misbehavior in his teens resulted in his relocation to the New York Military Academy, a military school from which he graduated with no academic accolades but with the high rank of Captain, a triumph spurred by his father's generosity to the school. The Donald was then admitted to an easy-to-enter undergraduate program at Fordham University, and after two years he transferred to UPenn's new undergraduate business school (Wharton), from which he received a B.S. in Economics. Those two initials described his style well.
And so, Donald Trump grew to become the man we see today: a man whose sole concern is himself, a man who automatically reverses the finger of blame (John Baron did it!) and blindly meets criticism by viciously blaming his critics for the same faults they attribute to him; a man for whom not getting re-elected in 2020 was a clear sign of electoral fraud because, well, in a truly just world he simply couldn't lose; a transactional leader who never gives unless he receives a personal favor in return, a man whose sole response to a request is, "What can you do for me?"
Trump's transactional behavior is the source of his well-known opposition to assisting Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. In 2019 then-President Trump had a phone conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine. Russia had annexed Crimea in 2014, an act of war that violated a number of past Soviet and post-Soviet assurances of Ukraine's autonomy. The West turned a blind eye, thus encouraging continued aggression. In 2019 the common bet was that Russia would grasp for more of Ukraine – which it did in 2022.
On that phone call, Zelensky asked President Trump to provide military assistance to Ukraine to help it prepare for further Russian aggression. Trump's response was to ask Zelensky to ask for a quid pro quo – an investigation by Ukraine of the business activities in Ukraine of Hunter Biden, son of Joseph Biden who was Trump's likely opponent in his 2020 campaign for reelection. Zelensky properly demurred, noting that it would violate international understandings about interfering in another country's elections.
Trump demurred on the military assistance, and since then he has consistently resisted U.S. assistance to Ukraine. When Trump and Zelensky later had another phone conversation, Zelensky remarked that he hoped the U.S. and Ukraine would have a good relationship going forward. Trump's reported response was "It takes two to tango." In other words, if you want me to help you maintain our autonomy, you have to help me win an election. Apparently, Trump believes that the importance of his personal stature as President trumps the importance of world peace.
It should be no surprise that one of DJT's most vocal supporters is Elon Musk, a business figure whose aura of success is earned by his wide range of winning innovations, from electric cars to electrical grid management to space exploration. In his biography of Elon Musk, titled simply Elon Musk, Walter Isaacson notes that Musk is a man without empathy, a man who cares only about results and the impact on him. Musk and Trump appear to compete for last place on the global empathy thermometer; this is a hallmark of narcissism. The only difference between Musk and Trump is that Musk has actually created something real, while Trump's sole creation appears to be himself.
November 19, 2024
He's dumber than I thought, wow. It's very...sad, anger inducing, frustrating, infuriating, unbelievable, that he was able to con soooooo many people. It's more a statement of how gullible people can be than it is about his stupidity. These other people have no excuse! They actually had a brain, maybe still do, and went against their better judgement to get in business with him. There are stories of people refusing and letting their better sense take the lead and say no, while too often people threw money into losing propositions. He had no idea what he was doing and just assumed things would work out, which they didn't. People lost so much in his schemes!!!
His father didn't correct him when he made mistakes, that cost millions! If Fred had just explained the concept of buy low, sell high, things would have turned out differently. Instead, Fred patted D Trump on the back when he bought high, lost everything, and had it foreclosed on. And when The Apprentice went to his office, the condition was so awful! It was in terrible, TERRIBLE, condition with mildew smells, and damaged furniture. They had to construct a fact office set on a different floor. Everything was on one floor, the elevator rides were fake according to the book. Never seen the show, so now idea.
I started this before the election results, and was so sad while I worked to finish it. Read this if you want to be more depressed about who will be in the White House.
His father didn't correct him when he made mistakes, that cost millions! If Fred had just explained the concept of buy low, sell high, things would have turned out differently. Instead, Fred patted D Trump on the back when he bought high, lost everything, and had it foreclosed on. And when The Apprentice went to his office, the condition was so awful! It was in terrible, TERRIBLE, condition with mildew smells, and damaged furniture. They had to construct a fact office set on a different floor. Everything was on one floor, the elevator rides were fake according to the book. Never seen the show, so now idea.
I started this before the election results, and was so sad while I worked to finish it. Read this if you want to be more depressed about who will be in the White House.
November 3, 2024
While I give the book 5 stars, the subject matter gets 0. Kudos to Buettner and Craig for going in depth into Trump's history to write this easy-to-follow and coherent book about Trump's fortune and his work as a "businessman." The people who should read this book won't, but here's the gist: Donald Trump has lied all of his life. Small things, large things, it doesn't matter. Donald's ability to join the real estate development world strictly came from his father and his father's fortune, although Donald will tell you he is self-made and his father gave him barely anything (the hundreds of millions he did indeed get as a result of his father are apparently peanuts.) Although Fred Trump did many fishy things to save money and become successful, he did become successful on his own and through much hard work, with some political connections thrown in. This allowed Donald Trump to start with a leg up in the business world. As the book says, Donald Trump was lucky because he was born to Fred Trump. Fred, much to my chagrin, believed Donald was a wunderkind who could do no wrong, which I believe gave Donald his grandiose sense of self that has never abated.
Just about everything Donald Trump has touched has lost money. Donald believes that his "instinct" is all he needs to be successful, and because of that he does not do due diligence before making a real estate deal. In addition, he wildly overpays and leverages himself to a level he cannot pay back. This has resulted in bankruptcy after bankruptcy after bankruptcy. The only way he's made money is by appearing on the Apprentice, raking in money on sponsorship deals incorporated into the show, and by accepting endorsement deals that paid him upfront, because many of those deals turned out to be for companies and products that went bust. He's also engaged in questionable practices to take as much money out of projects as he can while leaving others to deal with the debts.
Donald really did become successful, whatever you believe that success is, based on luck, and we're all reaping the consequences today. I truly believe both the publicity Donald brought for himself, not all of it good, that the press so readily bought into and promoted in the 80s and 90s, and Donald appearing on the Apprentice as a successful businessman, which he was not, led to 2016 and beyond. Donald has always believed that anything bad that has happened to him is someone else's fault, never his, and Donald's appeal is telling others that anything bad that happens to them is not their fault, either, which they believe.
Just about everything Donald Trump has touched has lost money. Donald believes that his "instinct" is all he needs to be successful, and because of that he does not do due diligence before making a real estate deal. In addition, he wildly overpays and leverages himself to a level he cannot pay back. This has resulted in bankruptcy after bankruptcy after bankruptcy. The only way he's made money is by appearing on the Apprentice, raking in money on sponsorship deals incorporated into the show, and by accepting endorsement deals that paid him upfront, because many of those deals turned out to be for companies and products that went bust. He's also engaged in questionable practices to take as much money out of projects as he can while leaving others to deal with the debts.
Donald really did become successful, whatever you believe that success is, based on luck, and we're all reaping the consequences today. I truly believe both the publicity Donald brought for himself, not all of it good, that the press so readily bought into and promoted in the 80s and 90s, and Donald appearing on the Apprentice as a successful businessman, which he was not, led to 2016 and beyond. Donald has always believed that anything bad that has happened to him is someone else's fault, never his, and Donald's appeal is telling others that anything bad that happens to them is not their fault, either, which they believe.
November 17, 2024
Perception is reality.
The quote above is not from this book. It's the long-standing name of the poker group I'm a part of (which slowly morphed into a poker/board games group). It feels like a pretty good name when the context is an imperfect information game.
For me, it feels equally apt to describe what Donald J. Trump is great at. There are many things he's not good at, as this book shows in detail. There are also quite a few negative qualities this book portrays, like being a lazy, impetuous, and shameless liar. But he seems to understand at least one thing - that reality might not be as important when you can manage perception.
I found the book to be well-written and well-researched. It takes the history of Fred Trump and his son, the 45th and 47th President of the USA, and weaves it into a narrative that I found enthralling.
The quote above is not from this book. It's the long-standing name of the poker group I'm a part of (which slowly morphed into a poker/board games group). It feels like a pretty good name when the context is an imperfect information game.
For me, it feels equally apt to describe what Donald J. Trump is great at. There are many things he's not good at, as this book shows in detail. There are also quite a few negative qualities this book portrays, like being a lazy, impetuous, and shameless liar. But he seems to understand at least one thing - that reality might not be as important when you can manage perception.
I found the book to be well-written and well-researched. It takes the history of Fred Trump and his son, the 45th and 47th President of the USA, and weaves it into a narrative that I found enthralling.
October 24, 2024
This is a great book to read right before Halloween: horrifying and compelling at the same time. Trump's business history is now largely a matter of public record thanks to these great reporters, the same ones who uncovered Trump's tax returns during his presidency. Trump pulls off con after con on his business associates, relatives not by cunning, treachery, or some master plan. He wins because he's a lucky loser. Just a great read from start to finish.
October 22, 2024
Well-researched book on the whole of Trump's life, starting with dad. Fred Trump was the son of a immigrate who taught himself how to build and ended up making millions in real estate. Donald was chosen by Fred to take over the business, yet Donald didn't practice the cost/benefit analysis and risk analysis of his father. Instead, Donald bought too much with no research and declared bankruptcy multiple times. Very little of his deals made any money. This on top of not paying employees and contractors what he owed them. This and more in the book explains why Trump became the narcissist we endured during his presidency and really every time he's in the public. The hardest part of reading the book is having to hear about him over and over again.
October 1, 2024
I've read more than my fair share of Trump presidency books and honestly was growing a little bored by the rehashing of his antics (as insane as they were). this was a really interesting look at the whole Trump "dynasty" and the finances side of things—a really fresh take on this baffling man that I can't stop reading about and his whole family.
the ending dragged a little bit for me; weirdly, I found the section on The Apprentice to be the least interesting. definitely still worth a read this October for spooky season as we approach election day
the ending dragged a little bit for me; weirdly, I found the section on The Apprentice to be the least interesting. definitely still worth a read this October for spooky season as we approach election day
October 26, 2024
Really good insight into trump and whether or not he’s as successful as he claims and how did he become rich.
Yes, he’s obviously successful and rich BUT there is much more to the story.
The book shows the true side of him and how he’s been this way all his life.
It’s very frustrating to read at times but a good book. It’s frustrating because it shows how the rich manipulate laws and policies to benefit them at our expense.
Yes, he’s obviously successful and rich BUT there is much more to the story.
The book shows the true side of him and how he’s been this way all his life.
It’s very frustrating to read at times but a good book. It’s frustrating because it shows how the rich manipulate laws and policies to benefit them at our expense.
November 9, 2024
This is the book you give to people who say ‘But he’s a successful businessman!’ He never ever was. He was a failure bailed out by a rich father and so much luck. The book does credit him with charisma and the ability to absorb lots of detailed information through oral presentations.
But he lies and fails. Buckle up; it is going to be a challenging four years.
Besides the extraordinary research, it’s an absorbing read. It is worth your time.
But he lies and fails. Buckle up; it is going to be a challenging four years.
Besides the extraordinary research, it’s an absorbing read. It is worth your time.
September 24, 2024
Insightful, lots of new information
Long, but very detailed story of Donald Trump’s journey from early days starting with his grandfather to the present. Based on detailed facts, with the end not yet in sight, it certainly shows how he, and we, have arrived to where we are. I hope it’s widely read and accepted. It certainly pierces Trump’ firehose of untruths, lies and misinformation.
Long, but very detailed story of Donald Trump’s journey from early days starting with his grandfather to the present. Based on detailed facts, with the end not yet in sight, it certainly shows how he, and we, have arrived to where we are. I hope it’s widely read and accepted. It certainly pierces Trump’ firehose of untruths, lies and misinformation.
November 12, 2024
This is a book I think everyone who voted for Trump should have to read. Unfortunately, those are the exact people who either won't read it, or say it's bias even though it is all factual information that can be checked.
September 25, 2024
The most comprehensive and well-sourced of the 15 or so opuses de la Trump I have swilled like bad moonshine full of liquid regret. Susanne Craig and Russ Buenttner pull back the curtain to reveal with evidence what we instinctually knew was always true—this emperor indeed has no clothes.
Seriously, this really is the best of the Trump genre. It will serve as THE primer for future historians and retain its relevance after most Trump books are long forgotten.
Seriously, this really is the best of the Trump genre. It will serve as THE primer for future historians and retain its relevance after most Trump books are long forgotten.
November 7, 2024
We live with this loser every day.. no need to spend any more time with him. 😩
November 9, 2024
Well researched and presented.
Subject matter is distasteful.
Subject matter is distasteful.
November 10, 2024
Failing upward at every turn.
November 16, 2024
Wanna know where our country is headed? The same as everything detailed in this book.
October 28, 2024
3.5. Exhaustive and exhausting. It would be nice to have an appendix with a summary timeline. He is the biggest believer in his own persona, fraudulent though it has always been. And his “believers “ either don’t believe in facts. Or. Just. Don’t. Care.
November 19, 2024
Very well done. Don’t know why I added to my already significant PTSD from him by reading this. I guess I wanted to support truthful reporting.
November 3, 2024
Many thanks to the authors for all their research.
I already had Trump pegged as a total fraud, but didn't fully realise how many government and professional people served as his enablers.
I already had Trump pegged as a total fraud, but didn't fully realise how many government and professional people served as his enablers.
September 24, 2024
Great reporting! Teflon Don never paid taxes, never served in the military- why do so many patriots in this country love him? I'll never get it!
He even used a mental illness with delusions as a shield to get him out of jail on the Trump University deal. His life is like a porn movie, never able to keep his mushroom member in his pants.
Thank you Russ and Susan for laying out the facts!
He even used a mental illness with delusions as a shield to get him out of jail on the Trump University deal. His life is like a porn movie, never able to keep his mushroom member in his pants.
Thank you Russ and Susan for laying out the facts!
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