I read the Art of the Deal about 30 years ago. As I recall it had essentially nothing to do with politics, although Trump was known as a Democrat at the time. I recall lots of lessons on how to market and promote yourself, combined with powerful lessons on persuasion and negotiation. As I remember, it was nearly universally praised, widely read and recommended.
It's actually a great book in that genre (business, marketing, persuasion and negotiation). Trump fans are certain to enjoy it, even though he wrote it while a Democrat. Even for those who dislike Trump greatly, it's interesting from a historical perspective, and to find out what techniques this young Democrat used to market himself from a local real estate developer, to morph into a multibillionaire, global celebrity and the first American President who was neither a politician or military general, while changing political parties in the process.
I certainly don't recall the book being "universally praised" though I was admittedly very young when it came out. FWIW however, this is the NYT book review when it came out in 1987.
www.nytimes.com
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TRUMP: The Art of the Deal. By Donald J. Trump with Tony Schwartz. Illustrated. 246 pages. Random House. $19.95. WHAT ''Trump: The Art of the Deal'' is about is how its author, the builder Donald J. Trump, is simply smarter than the rest of us. He's smarter than Barron Hilton of Hilton Hotels and Stephen A. Wynn of the Golden Nugget Hotel in Atlantic City and the people who run Holiday Inns and all the others he's beaten in the various deals he's made.
He's smarter than Mayor Koch, of whom Mr. Trump writes: ''Koch has achieved something quite miraculous. He's presided over an administration that is both pervasively corrupt and totally incompetent.'' He's smarter than the tenants of 100 Central Park South, who, by beating Mr. Trump in his attempt to have them evicted, forced him to make even more money out of Trump Parc than he would have had he succeeded in his original plans.
Well, maybe ''smarter'' isn't quite the word. He writes: ''More than anything else, I think deal-making is an ability you're born with. It's in the genes. I don't say that egotistically. It's not about being brilliant. It does take a certain intelligence, but mostly it's about instincts.'' Whatever it is, Mr. Trump has what it takes, and he's the first to say so.
In short, ''Trump'' is a display of the author's not inconsiderable ego. And he's got a lot to be egotistical about, particularly in the elemental terms he keeps track of such things. He's makes more money: ''. . . much more than I'll ever need,'' he writes. He builds higher buildings - the highest one in the world, if he can ever get approval for his development on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
Most impressively, he does these things with elegant simplicity. Mr. Trump's best-laid plans rarely gang agley, or so it would seem from the way he describes them here. In the opening chapter, ''Dealing: A Week in the Life,'' he recounts a typical week in his business routine. Monday consists of a dozen or so telephone conversations, two meetings, one deposition in a lawsuit and a request to his secretary for a can of tomato juice for lunch. Life at the top is uncluttered.
In later chapters, he describes his major deals - the West Side train yards he bought from Penn Central, the building of the Grand Hyatt Hotel on East 42d Street, Trump Tower, Trump Parc, his Atlantic City properties, his involvement in the United States Football League and his rescue of the Wollman Rink in Central Park. Mr. Trump makes it all sound so simple. Think big. Be persistent. Maximize your options. Have fun. Oddly enough, Mr. Trump's display of ego is not offensive to the reader. As one reads along, one takes inventory of certain qualities one might dislike about him, or at least the version of these qualities that appear in this book. He's more interested in the rich element of Manhattan than he is in the poor. He prefers new money to old. He lacks refined taste. He was unpleasant when young - a cocky, aggressive cutup who had to be sent to military school to learn discipline.
Yet for none of these qualities can you really blame Mr. Trump. He is the first to call attention to them. He makes no pretense to the contrary. He is proud to be at play in the fields of American free enterprise, looking for every loophole in the law and edge on his competitors he can possibly get.
True, his narrative falters now and then. He sounds disingenuous when he asserts that he never harassed the tenants of 100 Central Park South, but merely wanted to help the downtrodden when he threatened to move homeless people into the building's empty apartments. He sounds ungrateful to his father when, instead of thanking him for a solid enough apprenticeship as a builder to make the leap to Manhattan, he mildly denigrates him for operating in the outer boroughs.
He writes, ''I always take calls from my kids, no matter what I'm doing,'' as if this somehow made him remarkable. In a similarly patronizing vein, he observes of a woman who works for him: ''I like to tell her that she must be a very tough woman to live with. The truth is I get a great kick out of her.''
Yet such lapses are few and far between. The more important fact is that he arouses one's sense of wonder at the imagination and self-invention it must have taken to leap from his father's shoulders and reach for the deals that he did. Jay Gatsby lives, without romance and without the usual tragic flaws. The secret really seems to be hard work, thorough preparation, detailed knowledge, careful planning, tight organization, strong leadership, dogged persistence, controlled energy, good instincts and the genetic ability to deal.
Mr. Trump makes one believe for a moment in the American dream again.
It's like a fairy tale.
