Donald Trumps Ghostwriter Tells All [View all]
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all?mbid=nl_Daily%20122917%20Nonsubs&CNDID=49165568&spMailingID=12653553&spUserID=MTg0MjkzMjg3NDExS0&spJobID=1302601045&spReportId=MTMwMjYwMTA0NQS2
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Schwartz says of Trump, He lied strategically. He had a complete lack of conscience about it. Since most people are constrained by the truth, Trumps indifference to it gave him a strange advantage.
When challenged about the facts, Schwartz says, Trump would often double down, repeat himself, and grow belligerent. This quality was recently on display after Trump posted on Twitter a derogatory image of Hillary Clinton that contained a six-pointed star lifted from a white-supremacist Web site. Campaign staffers took the image down, but two days later Trump angrily defended it, insisting that there was no anti-Semitic implication. Whenever the thin veneer of Trumps vanity is challenged, Schwartz says, he overreactsnot an ideal quality in a head of state.
When Schwartz began writing The Art of the Deal, he realized that he needed to put an acceptable face on Trumps loose relationship with the truth. So he concocted an artful euphemism. Writing in Trumps voice, he explained to the reader, I play to peoples fantasies. . . . People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. Its an innocent form of exaggerationand its a very effective form of promotion. Schwartz now disavows the passage. Deceit, he told me, is never innocent. He added, Truthful hyperbole is a contradiction in terms. Its a way of saying, Its a lie, but who cares? Trump, he said, loved the phrase.
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Schwartz can understand why Trump feels stung, but he felt that he had to speak up before it was too late. As for Trumps anger toward him, he said, I dont take it personally, because the truth is he didnt mean it personally. People are dispensable and disposable in Trumps world. If Trump is elected President, he warned, the millions of people who voted for him and believe that he represents their interests will learn what anyone who deals closely with him already knowsthat he couldnt care less about them. ?