The guy who ghost-wrote Trump’s The Art of the Deal is regretting having done so. He regrets having helped shape the Trump image that has brought him so terrifyingly far.
But the prospect of President Trump terrified him. It wasnât because of Trumpâs ideologyâSchwartz doubted that he had one. The problem was Trumpâs personality, which he considered pathologically impulsive and self-centered.
Schwartz thought about publishing an article describing his reservations about Trump, but he hesitated, knowing that, since heâd cashed in on the flattering âArt of the Deal,â his credibility and his motives would be seen as suspect. Yet watching the campaign was excruciating. Schwartz decided that if he kept mum and Trump was elected heâd never forgive himself. In June, he agreed to break his silence and give his first candid interview about the Trump he got to know while acting as his Boswell.
âI put lipstick on a pig,â he said. âI feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is.â He went on, âI genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.â
If he were writing âThe Art of the Dealâ today, Schwartz said, it would be a very different book with a very different title. Asked what he would call it, he answered, âThe Sociopath.â
So, that’s cheerful.
He had qualms about doing the book, but he needed money.
The book turned out to be harder to write than he expected, because Trump has a tiny tiny tiny
attention span. He couldn’t talk about his childhood at any length because he got bored and twitchy.
Week after week, the pattern repeated itself. Schwartz tried to limit the sessions to smaller increments of time, but Trumpâs contributions remained oddly truncated and superficial.
âTrump has been written about a thousand ways from Sunday, but this fundamental aspect of who he is doesnât seem to be fully understood,â Schwartz told me. âItâs implicit in a lot of what people write, but itâs never explicitâor, at least, I havenât seen it. And that is that itâs impossible to keep him focussed on any topic, other than his own self-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes, and even then . . . â Schwartz trailed off, shaking his head in amazement. He regards Trumpâs inability to concentrate as alarming in a Presidential candidate. âIf he had to be briefed on a crisis in the Situation Room, itâs impossible to imagine him paying attention over a long period of time,â he said.
Oh well. It’s only the planet.
This year, Schwartz has heard some argue that there must be a more thoughtful and nuanced version of Donald Trump that he is keeping in reserve for after the campaign. âThere isnât,â Schwartz insists. âThere is no private Trump.â This is not a matter of hindsight. While working on âThe Art of the Deal,â Schwartz kept a journal in which he expressed his amazement at Trumpâs personality, writing that Trump seemed driven entirely by a need for public attention. âAll he is is âstomp, stomp, stompâârecognition from outside, bigger, more, a whole series of things that go nowhere in particular,â he observed, on October 21, 1986.
Then there’s a section about how much Trump lies, and how cheerful he is about it – which makes him a psychopath.
In his journal, Schwartz wrote, âTrump stands for many of the things I abhor: his willingness to run over people, the gaudy, tacky, gigantic obsessions, the absolute lack of interest in anything beyond power and money.â Looking back at the text now, Schwartz says, âI created a character far more winning than Trump actually is.â The first line of the book is an example. âI donât do it for the money,â Trump declares. âIâve got enough, much more than Iâll ever need. I do it to do it. Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. Thatâs how I get my kicks.â Schwartz now laughs at this depiction of Trump as a devoted artisan. âOf courseheâs in it for the money,â he said. âOne of the most deep and basic needs he has is to prove that âIâm richer than you.â â As for the idea that making deals is a form of poetry, Schwartz says, âHe was incapable of saying something like thatâit wouldnât even be in his vocabulary.â He saw Trump as driven not by a pure love of dealmaking but by an insatiable hunger for âmoney, praise, and celebrity.â Often, after spending the day with Trump, and watching him pile one hugely expensive project atop the next, like a circus performer spinning plates, Schwartz would go home and tell his wife, âHeâs a living black hole!â
No doubt the presidency thing is more of the same. I’ve never thought it was anything else.
Schwartz told me that Trumpâs need for attention is âcompletely compulsive,â and that his bid for the Presidency is part of a continuum. âHeâs managed to keep increasing the dose for forty years,â Schwartz said. After heâd spent decades as a tabloid titan, âthe only thing left was running for President. If he could run for emperor of the world, he would.â
That’s what I mean.
Schwartz told me that he has decided to pledge all royalties from sales of âThe Art of the Dealâ in 2016 to pointedly chosen charities: the National Immigration Law Center, Human Rights Watch, the Center for the Victims of Torture, the National Immigration Forum, and the Tahirih Justice Center. He doesnât feel that the gesture absolves him. âIâll carry this until the end of my life,â he said. âThereâs no righting it. But I like the idea that, the more copies that âThe Art of the Dealâ sells, the more money I can donate to the people whose rights Trump seeks to abridge.â
Be careful what you ghost-write.
