Playing to Peoples Fantacies Trump Art of the Deal
What Donald Trump's "The Fine art of the Deal" Reveals About His Surprising Sustained Success in the 2016 Presidential Race
"I play to people's fantasies..."
Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal is a popular volume. It has sold somewhere between hundreds of thousands and millions of copies since it was first published in 1987. Trump considers information technology not most as good equally the Bible, merely a distant 2nd for all-time book ever. Like most of what Trump has talked virtually on the 2016 presidential trail, he has mentioned The Fine art of the Deal over and over and over over again.
I decided to read it and come across if anything tin can be gleaned related to how Trump has seen such incredible and surprising success in this election cycle. Far exceeding virtually pundit predictions, Trump jumped into the race in June, quickly took the lead and, for the most part, hasn't looked dorsum. Now we're less than a month away from the Iowa conclave, and a potential Trump presidency is inching closer. How is this possible? Looking for an explanation for his success, and an idea of what might come up should he win, from the pages of The Art of the Deal:
[pages correspond to the paperback version]
"We had one major reward: the fact that we are not a bureaucracy…In our organization, anyone with a question could bring information technology straight to me and get an answer immediately." (pg. 2o9) - A handyman recently came to my house and nosotros got to talking politics. He said he's planning to vote for Trump, and I asked him why. "I might vote for Trump just to piss off the Democrats and the Republicans at the same fourth dimension," he said. "Is Trump an asshole? Sure, but I know a lot of assholes." I retrieve people underestimate how much a Trump vote may just be a vote of no confidence in our two-party system, an extreme vote against the status quo. There is a palpable feel that, while Trump may have his flaws, he will get rid of ruddy tape, and at least he's not lying to me. Trump's brashness may not exist a strength or a weakness to some voters — it may just be a side issue they hands dismiss for what they feel is the greater good.
"My way of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward. I aim very loftier, and so I just continue pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I'k later on." (pg. 45) - Trump details several specific deals he worked on in great detail in The Art of the Deal. Some were successful, some weren't, but he always puts a positive spin on them, and more chiefly, they all evolved from the starting point - from the initial offer. At that place'due south reason to believe that his rant, his hardline stances, are simply the commencement of the negotiation for what he ultimately will consider a successful deal in the finish. Accept immigration (a big wall, United mexican states will pay for it, deport all illegal immigrants, pause on all Muslims entering the U.S.) — what if it'southward all a negotiating tactic? A style to haggle and compromise and eventually country at a pretty good spot for what he wants? This also translates to what might happen should he somehow make information technology through the GOP master and face Hillary Clinton in the general election. It'southward conceivable Trump may swing back to the middle, and do then convincingly.
"I play to people's fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, only they can nevertheless get very excited by those who do. That's why a little hyperbole never hurts. People desire to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I telephone call information technology truthful hyperbole." (pg. 58) - Possibly my favorite quote in the entire book, Trump's "truthful hyperbole" line is largely what gives him then many Pinocchios and Pants on Fires from the fact checkers, but what allows him to claim he's basically telling the truth. But more interesting is the idea that he's setting out to play to people'south fantasies. He can be their cipher, voters can live and affect modify vicariously through him. It'south what most politicians aim to convey, and the most effective ones — similar "hope and change" Barack Obama in 2008 — are quite successful using that method.
Y'all can't con people, at least non for long…If you don't deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on.
On the press:
"I like to be accommodating. As long equally they want to shoot, I'll shovel." (pg. 23) - The offset of several interesting quotes nigh the press that I'll bear on on. Here, he's referring to his work on the Wollman Rink in Fundamental Park, where he says he was surprised then much of the press wanted to come up and take pictures after a press briefing. He claims he didn't sympathise the press fascination, merely if they wanted to take pictures, he'd pretend to shovel some cement onto the rink. It's this exercise with the press that has extended nearly thirty years later during this election cycle — if the press is going to follow his every motion, Trump volition give them a testify.
"Contrary to what a lot of people think, I don't relish doing press…Yet, I understand that getting press can exist very helpful in making deals." (pg. 33)
"If there's one thing I've learned from dealing with politicians over the years, it'due south that the only thing guaranteed to force them into activeness is the press — or, more specifically, fear of the press." (pg. 305)
"About reporters, I find, have very little interest in exploring the substance of a detailed proposal for a development. They look instead for the sensational angle." (pg. 340) - Recall the press accept changed much, either in reality or in Trump'south mind? He knows minutia doesn't bulldoze ratings, and detailed policy isn't easy for the reporter or the viewer/reader. They want the "sensational angle" — and with Trump's campaign for the concluding half-dozen months, they have it.
Perception is reality:
"I…told him to make it appear that we'd spent a huge sum of coin on the drawings. A good-looking presentation goes a long manner." (pg. 124) - Trump said this to his architect on an early hotel project he was working on. You could say this sentiment is the crux of a successful politician — the wrapping is even more important than the present, the packaging more important than the production. With Trump, his packaging is that of an anti-politician, making for an even more attractive starting indicate, and an fifty-fifty less of import, for many voters, product.
"If most malls succeed in part because they're then homogenous and safe, I'm convinced that the Trump Belfry atrium succeeds for just the contrary reasons. It's larger than life, and walking through it is a transporting experience, almost as if you're in a wonderland." (pg. 178)
"What the bulldozers and dump trucks did wasn't important, I said, so long as they did a lot of information technology." (pg. 214) - When Trump was trying to secure a partner for his Atlantic Metropolis casino, he wanted to appear like it was a lot further along in construction than information technology actually was. So he instructed his site supervisor to bring in equipment from all over the state to merely appear busy, even if that meant earthworks a hole and filling it in once more. This method worked, and the master persuader got what he wanted. Scott Adams' (the Dilbert creator) has written some incredible pieces almost Trump'south persuasion techniques. This anecdote shows Trump has been working at a high level for a long fourth dimension.
Who Trump really is:
"I have an virtually perverse attraction to complicated deals, partly because they tend to be more interesting." (pg. 200) - I'g not sure what these four quotes tell us about his run, other than they requite an insight into who Trump, the person, is — and also convey elements of a personality that would very attractive to a voter. He describes an allure he has as "perverse," but the attraction is to complication.
"I fight when I experience I'one thousand getting screwed, fifty-fifty if information technology's costly and hard and highly risky." (pg. 236) - He fights on principle, fifty-fifty if it's smarter non to.
"If in that location's one thing I've learned about the rich, information technology's that they have a very low threshold for even the mildest discomfort." (pg. 261) - He is rich, just he holds his fellow rich people in adequately depression regard.
"Committees are what insecure people create to put off making hard decisions." (pg. 281) - He is decisive, secure in his decision-making. (I should note these character traits are not what I necessarily believe well-nigh Donald Trump. Merely they are what he portrays of himself in his 1987 autobiography, and they are traits he continues to portray on the trail in 2016.)
In conclusion:
"What I admire nearly are people who put themselves directly on the line." (pg. 367) - Trump concludes The Art of the Deal wondering what he might do next. Politics doesn't enter the fray, just he makes a stardom between rich people giving abroad their ain money — existence philanthropic — which he says should exist a given, and something greater. Information technology'due south not plenty, he posits, to but requite — yous should give back. Put yourself on the line. And this election, whichever way it ends upward, he has.
"You can't con people, at least non for long. You can create excitement, yous can do wonderful promotion, y'all can get all kinds of printing…but if you don't deliver the goods, people will eventually take hold of on." (pg. 60) - Finally, to those who say this Trump election is just a facade for some other hush-hush purpose, people like me who jokingly suggest he might be a Manchurian candidate for Hillary Clinton or Vladimir Putin…the Trump in The Art of the Deal would agree. Yous tin't con people for long. You must deliver the goods, or they will take hold of on. We're a month abroad from votes being cast. It seems more and more like Trump views the presidency equally his biggest bargain ever, and he's looking to shut.
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