‘Empires of New York’: How Trump pulled his ‘greatest charade’ by claiming he wrote ‘The Art of the Deal’
President Donald Trump, during his real estate tycoon days in the 1980s, was one of the biggest people who benefitted from New York's tabloid culture. His face was splashed on nearly every tabloid and magazine in the city at a time when developers had supplanted movie stars in the gossip columns. Nearly everything he did was newsworthy, but Trump wanted more. He went on to write and publish the book 'Trump: The Art of the Deal,' which became a massive hit and is credited with putting the tycoon on the map. The book gave him national recognition. However, the book was actually written at a time when Trump was losing money with every deal he was making, and it wasn't written by him at all, according to CNBC Documentary 'Empires of New York.'
"Trump was not involved in any aspect of writing the book. I wrote the book," co-writer Tony Schwartz has claimed. "And miraculously, he read the book." Schwartz explained how he attempted to interview Trump to do research on the tycoon's deals before writing the book but could not get him to sit still for an interview for long. He added that whatever version of the deals he did get from Trump clashed with other key players' version involved in the deals. Their narrative did not paint Trump as a winner, and Trump's was "inaccurate."
"Was the story that I told completely false? Yes, it was," Schwartz acknowledged in the documentary. "It was an invented story, invented at a level far beyond what I recognized at the time. It was never anything close to the reality of who he was."
A reporter in the documentary claims that Trump's book came out at a time when he was losing more money than any American in the country, amounting to a billion dollars, and the fact that he allegedly conned the country into thinking he was successful was the "greatest charade Trump ever pulled off." With all the publicity he was getting at the time, the real estate tycoon considered himself invincible, and gave multiple interviews allegedly touting his successes listed in his book, which was a lie to begin with.
Episode 103 of CNBC's documentary 'Empires of New York,' premieres Sunday, December 6, at 9 PM ET/PT. Narrated by Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Paul Giamatti, the six one-hour episodes, limited series, chronicles the meteoric rise of five icons who not only reshaped the city but contributed to the world we live in today: “Arbitrage king” of Wall Street Ivan Boesky; queen of New York real estate Leona Helmsley; audacious U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani; powerful organized crime boss John Gotti; and media-savvy business tycoon and future President of the United States Donald Trump.
Trump, now the president of the US in 2020, has refused to concede to President-elect Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential elections, despite the latter winning electoral and popular votes. The Republican and his campaign have alleged widespread voter fraud in the elections, without providing any evidence to support their claims.