The Myth Behind The Art of the Deal: How Trump’s Ghostwriter Came to Regret It All
Why the man who made Donald Trump look like a genius now calls the book a “work of fiction” — and a dangerous one at that.
In 1987, The Art of the Deal catapulted Donald Trump from flashy New York developer to national business icon. With its brash tone and tales of bold dealmaking, it cemented the myth of Trump as the ultimate tycoon — a man with the golden touch, unafraid to speak his mind and take big risks. But behind the scenes, that story wasn’t written by Trump himself. It was crafted by journalist Tony Schwartz, who now says the myth he created is not just misleading — it's dangerous.
Schwartz, who spent 18 months as Trump’s ghostwriter, now says the book is more fiction than fact. “I put lipstick on a pig,” he admitted in a 2016 interview with The New Yorker. He describes his role in creating Trump’s public image as “something I’ll carry with me until the end of my life.”
A Myth Made for Television
At the time, The Art of the Deal was a publishing sensation. It spent 48 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and made Trump a household name. Years later, it would become the foundation for The Apprentice — the reality TV show that propelled Trump into the living rooms (and psyches) of millions of Americans.
But behind the glossy cover and oversized claims was a very different story. According to Schwartz, Trump barely contributed to the writing process. He was uninterested in deep reflection, couldn’t concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time, and often couldn’t recall basic details of his own life. In desperation, Schwartz resorted to following Trump around his office, eavesdropping on his phone calls just to gather usable material.
What he discovered during that time was unsettling: Trump’s entire public persona was a carefully crafted performance, built on exaggeration, manipulation, and strategic dishonesty.
“Lying Is Second Nature to Him”
Schwartz says that Trump routinely lied about his finances, the details of his business deals, and even his own past. “More than anyone I have ever met,” he said, “Trump has the ability to convince himself that whatever he is saying at any given moment is true — or at least ought to be true.” The ghostwriter said Trump had a “complete lack of conscience” about misleading people and that most of the deals he boasted about in the book were either inflated or completely misrepresented.
One such example: Trump bragged about tricking Holiday Inn into a casino deal by staging a fake construction frenzy. Schwartz later learned that the story was vastly exaggerated — and possibly fictional.
Trump’s own publisher, former Random House head Howard Kaminsky, later laughed at Trump’s claims that he wrote the book himself, saying, “Trump didn’t write a postcard for us.”
A Self-Made Man? Not Quite.
Another central theme of the book — that Trump was a self-made success — has since been debunked by extensive investigative reporting. While The Art of the Deal gives a passing nod to his father Fred, it omits the crucial fact that Fred Trump’s political connections, financial guarantees, and direct cash infusions were essential to Donald’s early career. In fact, Trump’s first big Manhattan development deal was only possible because his father co-signed the loans and lined up favourable tax breaks through city officials.
As journalist Wayne Barrett later put it, “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.”
Behind the Curtain: Narcissism, Superficiality, and Chaos
During their time together, Schwartz says he never saw Trump read a book or show interest in learning. “He has no attention span,” Schwartz said, adding that Trump’s world revolved around “money, praise, and celebrity.” He noted that Trump’s office was more like a stage than a workplace, where everything was designed to impress visitors and dominate headlines.
The idea that Trump hides a more thoughtful, nuanced version of himself off-camera? “There isn’t,” Schwartz insists. “There is no private Trump.”
He kept a journal while writing the book, noting how exhausting and “deadening” it was to spend time with Trump. The experience left him feeling hollow, eventually prompting him to leave ghostwriting altogether and write a book about the search for meaning in life.
A Warning Too Late?
By the time Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015, Schwartz felt that the fictional persona he had helped construct had become dangerously real. When Trump proudly declared at his campaign launch, “We need a leader that wrote The Art of the Deal,” Schwartz was stunned — not just by the lie, but by how easily it was accepted.
“If he could lie about that on Day One,” he thought, “he is likely to lie about anything.”
Trump went on to tell voters that he never fails, that he’s the ultimate negotiator, that he wrote the best business book of all time. And people believed him — many still do. But Schwartz says they shouldn’t. Nearly every claim in The Art of the Deal was inflated, spun, or strategically edited. “I created a character far more winning than Trump actually is,” he said. “The truth is, I made him look better than he was. Much better.”
A Work of Fiction, Not a Manual for Success
Looking back, Schwartz no longer sees The Art of the Deal as a business memoir. He sees it as a piece of propaganda — one that helped unleash a man he now considers pathologically self-centred and deeply unfit for office.
In truth, the book is a masterclass in marketing, not dealmaking. It constructs an image, sells a persona, and disguises fiction as fact. Beyond a few insights into Trump’s personality — most of them troubling — the book offers little of genuine value. In Schwartz’s own words: “I created a myth. And I regret it deeply.”
Anyone who still believes The Art of the Deal as a serious guide to business or leadership is, frankly, being taken in by that myth. To all intents and purposes — apart from the truths about Trump’s character — it is a work of fiction. And taking it seriously is a mistake.
Original reporting by Jane Mayer in The New Yorker, 18 July 2016.
Read the full article here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all
Main Article Written by Jane Mayer, Chief Washington Correspondent at The New Yorker.
Nothing is as it seems.