Trump This!

Love him; hate him, or love to hate him, the rise and rise of Donald J Trump in both popular culture and Presidential politics, is a salutary lesson in the possibilities afforded to the super wealthy by American society.

The Trump phenomenon has spawned a plethora of books all of which can be categorised as follows: how to be rich like Trump; congratulatory biographical or impenetrable semi-autobiographical works, and those works which aim to destroy the man by way of personal attack. What is lacking in this marketplace is a concise, and relatively balanced approach to the man.

This is where the Author enters the fray. What emerges is a concise; no punches - pulled account of Trump starting from his parents and his father's relative successes, through Trumps' childhood and adolescence, and all of the personal and financial highs and lows which were encountered long the way, concluding in his Presidential announcement and the first phases of the Primaries.

It is a gripping narrative; skilfully told by the Author, one which had been previously obscured by vitriol or sycophancy. By focusing upon Trump as a man as opposed to urban myth, it allows the reader to appreciate some of the brilliance and some of the controversy which Trump is prone to. A miraculous achievement considering the author's self-declared political disposition.

In summary, this is a fast - paced; accessible, and gripping insight into the man behind the myth. If you are looking for a balanced account of the man who is currently dominating the international air waves, this is the book for you. Highly recommended.

I have tried to read a book on both candidates for office before elections.

Unfortunately I am finding each book I have read on Clinton and Trump tend to the bias side. While there is a lot of published information about Trump I find a lot of the news bias. Appears that the author is a registered Democrat. Which could account for the slant of the book. I am not saying that Trump has said things appropriate in all cases, but many of his statement are being taken overboard or out of context, from my point of view.

Some good information about Trump from cradle to current election/nomination as the Republican candidate. Many of the comments we have already seen from the press.

Marc Shapiro sets out in this biography of Donald Trump not to just regurgitate the well known, but, instead, to present "the moments in his life, good and bad, large and small, that combined to make Donald Trump something special in a whole lot of different worlds and, currently have made him a legitimate candidate for one of the biggest jobs on the planet…President of the United States." Even so, there is not much in this biography that has not already been written about in prior Trump biographies or autobiographies. We know, for example, about Spy Magazine's 1988 article on Trump where it described Trump “as a short fingered vulgarian. A bombastic, self-aggrandizing un-self-aware bully with a curious relationship with the truth.” We also know about Trump's multiple marriages and affairs, his business successes and failures, as well as his numerous threats of lawsuits and his famous line: "If you hit me, I will hit you back 100 times harder.”

What sets this book apart from the others, however, is Shapiro's focus on the human being beneath the Donald Trump brand. While I find the Trump brand and Trump's bombastic personna distasteful, Shapiro still made me feel sorry for Donald the child who was exiled at 13 to a brutal military academy. It is this childhood, I think that will be of interest to sociologists, historians and others for generations to come, whether Trump wins the presidency or not.

Shapiro posits that the lack of hugs and kisses in Trump's childhood may have contributed to turning him into a bully. And a bully he was. As Shapiro notes: "The young Trump soon became a literal menace to the neighborhood. Parents had taken an immediate dislike to him and, in several instances, had forbidden their children from associating with him." Trump himself states in The Art of the Deal: "In the second grade I actually gave my teacher a black eye. I punched my music teacher because I didn’t think he knew anything about music. I’m not proud of that but it’s clear evidence, even early on, that I had a tendency to stand up and make my opinions known in a very forceful way.”

There are other interesting tidbits the book, such as the fact that Trump's family name was Drumph, not Drumf; and that it was Donald's father who set the record straight about his ancestry being German, not Swedish. Apparently, he had told people they were Swedish "because, at the time, he was renting apartments in a building he owned to predominantly Jews who he feared would not rent from him if they knew he was German." Shapiro also pulls no punches about the first business of Trump's grandfather during the 19th century gold-rush: brothels and bars.

At the end of the day, no one can deny that Trump is one most colorful personalities of the last fifty years. Whether you like Trump or not, Shapiro does an excellent job of presenting the real man behind that personality and this is a book worth reading.

short, and fairly unbiased, walk through the life of Donald Trump, from the cradle to his current presidential campaign. The author is a registered Democrat, but is not out to sway the reader in any particular direction regarding Trump. The book just presents the available information on Donald Trump in a somewhat chronological order, leaving the reader to form his or her own opinion.
Personally, I’m definitely not on the “Trump for President” bandwagon, but I was curious about the person and I really wanted to see if he’s really the mad bully he is every time he appears in public/on TV.

“Donald Trump has never met a person, place or thing he could not find something derogatory, nasty or unpleasant to say something about.”

It’s a fairly short book, but I’ve read it very slowly and carefully, letting everything that is said about Trump sink in. The author did his research and his sources are well documented throughout the book. So, as it turns out, Donald Trump has always been a somewhat athletic, aggressive bully who always got what he wanted and hasn’t changed much about his attitude over the years. If he doesn’t get what he wants, he just throws a childish tantrum until the other party caves. He has always felt superior to everyone else and (supposedly) wasn’t very smart in school. He has made loads of bad, impulsive decisions in his life, but somehow managed to always talk his way out of bad situations. He doesn’t play games, unless the game is played by his rules. During his presidential campaign he has proven himself to be a racist, anti-women, and prone to controversy. He has shown that he can’t answer an uncomfortable situation or question and it seems like he is just coasting on personality and bullying tactics. I honestly cannot think of any reason, except for maybe his money, as to why anyone would consider this megalomaniac to be a suitable candidate for the position of President of the United States of America. This book offers a good overview of Donald Trump’s life and what made him into the person he is today. Recommended for everyone curious about Trump and maybe also for the people who are still unsure whether or not to vote for him.

4stars

Good collection of available information about The Donald. While this is interesting to international readers (who probably can’t escape seeing Trump on the news), this is intended to inform American voters. It isn’t a smear piece—the author pretty much lets the stories tell themselves. He hasn’t had to dig up anything new.

As Shapiro states clearly in the Epilogue:

“If you did not get hip to the life and times of Donald Trump before discovering The Apprentice, the odds are good that you learned a lot. If you knew Trump way back in the day, the chances are good that you now know a whole lot more. But have you learned enough to walk into a voting booth and mark your X next to his name? . . . In the end, it’s all up to you.”

The introduction is about today. “Trump is a master manipulator, a P.T. Barnum who can make anybody believe anything at the drop of a hat.”

And “Marla Maples described her former husband as ‘the little boy that still wants attention.’ Ivana Trump [his first wife] was equally succinct in describing Trump, ‘He just wants to be noticed.’"

Then there are several chapters going back to his father’s parents in Germany, his father meeting his Scottish mother, their building a real estate business, and little Donald accompanying his father all around Queens and Brooklyn, New York, watching deals being made and buildings bought, repaired and rented. Donald was made to do some manual labour, but then when necessary, his father’s limousine would come and collect him.

He was a troublesome student, finally sent to military school, where an instructor said “He had a problem with being a cadet. He didn’t know how to take care of himself. . . He thought that he was Mr. America and that the world revolved around him. I had a lot of one-on-ones with him, some of which got physical.”

But he learned quickly how to take care of himself and follow a rigorous routine and make sure everyone else did too. He kept his military school uniform spotless and “there would be hell to pay if his classmates’ efforts were not up to Trump’s standards” when it was his turn to do room inspections. This could end in violence.

Getting physical seems to be in his nature, and as he was growing into a strong, 6’2” three-sport athlete (baseball, football, soccer), he was going to be an imposing figure. I would say ‘intimidating’.

Later in college, he favoured a ”burgundy suit with matching burgundy patent leather boots” when he unsuccessfully tried to date Candace Bergen, which must have presented her with a pretty frightening prospect!

I read the other day that he complains about the 6’2” statistic and insists he’s really 6’3”. No matter. He will shrink like the rest of us.

But I digress. Back to school.

He finished the academy and went to the prestigious Wharton School of Finance (and stayed out of the Vietnam draft). After Wharton, he got a medical deferment which he now says was because of bone spurs on both heels.

However, he likes to tell the story of how he luckily missed the birthday lottery because he had a high number. What he overlooked was that the lottery didn’t start until a couple of months after he’d already had his medical deferment. Here’s an unbiased FactCheck http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/...

Of course there’s heaps about his women, the pre-nuptial contracts, The Apprentice, his appetite for suing anyone in his way, his bankruptcies (all part of good business management, he says) and his ENORMOUS EGO.

He tried to sue a company called the Trump Group whose owners are brothers named Trump and who are in real estate development. Finally, the New York State Supreme Court ruled against The Donald. He doesn’t own the name.

This is easy to read and includes Trump’s successes and good ideas as well as his obviously questionable tactics.

To me, he seems so changeable that while he now says he is a pro-life, climate change denying, wall-building, Islam-banning, anti-Obamacare patriot, I can’t help but wonder if the right situation presented itself and it looked good for business, he would turn 180 degrees and argue against any one of these stands and convince people that’s what he meant all along.

He could do it, too. Have a read and see what you think.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an advance review copy. It’s an extremely timely collation of material.

All quotes are from the advance review copy and subject to change.

The book is mostly based on various other books published already on and by Trump, but it balances quite well the various images he has in the media with the real person. It does not make you feel better about the perspective of this character as a serious candidate for the US presidency, but at least you are better informed.

I enjoyed this well written book. Not flattering to Trump, but seemed to keep to the facts. I think it is up to the reader to decide, and I know it will depend on you political feelings. I found most of the information about the feud with Megyn Kelly followed the same information in her book, so I hardly think it was exaggerated.. Information about former wives and current wife was interesting, as was Trump's childhood. Book was well researched.

Well written, meticulously researched important book. Highly recommended for concerned about the state of democracy.