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A review by kair
Trump: How to Get Rich by Meredith McIver, Donald J. Trump
5.0
This gripping book is packed with insights. Not about getting rich of course, but human psychology. Behind the distorted gloat-stories where Trump pours sugar on himself you get a glimpse of the values and beliefs of this truly extraordinary person.
This book was written in 2004, right after The Apprentice had become a hit and rocketed Trump to new heights of popularity. The incoherent, often contradictory and plain ignorant thoughts leave no doubt that this book was genuinely written (or rather dictated) by the same man who is now trolling the entire world from The White House. Because of the timing and the supermanish indestructible feeling Trump must have experienced, I believe it’s also a pretty honest book. Here’s what I learned:
Trump has a binary world view that dictates his whole life and behaviour. You are either a potential means to an end, a useful person, or you are nothing. If you belong to the former (a business partner, journalist, investor etc), Trump will publicly shower you with praise, if you below to the not-useful-group (contractor, “unprofessional” journalist etc), he will make sure everyone knows he thinks you are scum. Interestingly, as we’ve seen, some people move from one group to the other and the effects of this are immediately visible (Omarosa, Cohen etc).
What does useful mean in Trump's context? Citing his own words, his purpose in life is “success with influence”, meaning power, which he considers to be far above money. Trump considers fame a key strategy to achieving this goal, hence the TRUMP brand, hence The Apprentice and now… the presidency. Your value in his eyes therefore EXCLUSIVELY depends on your ability to help him gain either more fame or more money, leading to more power.
Trump has an ultra-rationalization ability which shifts everything negative on external factors (mostly other people) and leaves his self-esteem untouched.
All in all, this book helps to see a primal strategy behind Trump’s seemingly dumb actions and surprisingly, convinces the reader that he indeed has pretty impressive influence skills. This, sadly, makes things even worse as the man has absolutely no regard for anyone else but himself.
This book was written in 2004, right after The Apprentice had become a hit and rocketed Trump to new heights of popularity. The incoherent, often contradictory and plain ignorant thoughts leave no doubt that this book was genuinely written (or rather dictated) by the same man who is now trolling the entire world from The White House. Because of the timing and the supermanish indestructible feeling Trump must have experienced, I believe it’s also a pretty honest book. Here’s what I learned:
Trump has a binary world view that dictates his whole life and behaviour. You are either a potential means to an end, a useful person, or you are nothing. If you belong to the former (a business partner, journalist, investor etc), Trump will publicly shower you with praise, if you below to the not-useful-group (contractor, “unprofessional” journalist etc), he will make sure everyone knows he thinks you are scum. Interestingly, as we’ve seen, some people move from one group to the other and the effects of this are immediately visible (Omarosa, Cohen etc).
What does useful mean in Trump's context? Citing his own words, his purpose in life is “success with influence”, meaning power, which he considers to be far above money. Trump considers fame a key strategy to achieving this goal, hence the TRUMP brand, hence The Apprentice and now… the presidency. Your value in his eyes therefore EXCLUSIVELY depends on your ability to help him gain either more fame or more money, leading to more power.
Trump has an ultra-rationalization ability which shifts everything negative on external factors (mostly other people) and leaves his self-esteem untouched.
All in all, this book helps to see a primal strategy behind Trump’s seemingly dumb actions and surprisingly, convinces the reader that he indeed has pretty impressive influence skills. This, sadly, makes things even worse as the man has absolutely no regard for anyone else but himself.