Discussion: 'Art Of The Deal' Ghostwriter Regrets Trump Book: 'I Put Lipstick On A Pig'

[jcbarrett]

True, Trump didn’t sue his ghost writer but he did try to cheat him. From the New Yorker:

Trump informed Schwartz that, as his ghostwriter, he owed him for half the event’s cost, which was in the six figures. Schwartz was dumbfounded. “He wanted me to split the cost of entertaining his list of nine hundred second-rate celebrities?” Schwartz had, in fact, learned a few things from watching Trump. He drastically negotiated down the amount that he agreed to pay, to a few thousand dollars, and then wrote Trump a letter promising to write a check not to Trump but to a charity of Schwartz’s choosing. It was a page out of Trump’s playbook. In the past seven years, Trump has promised to give millions of dollars to charity, but reporters for the Washington Post found that they could document only ten thousand dollars in donations—and they uncovered no direct evidence that Trump made charitable contributions from money earned by “The Art of the Deal.”

[planetx]

I expect him to make Sarah Palin look like Winston Churchill.

Any Clinton - Trump debate won’t look like any debate anyone has ever seen, except maybe for mothers who have two-year olds. It will be ugly and an utter embarrassment for the US around the world.

[ralph_vonholst]

“It’s impossible to keep him focussed on any topic, other than his own self-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes,” Schwartz said. “If he had to be briefed on a crisis in the Situation Room, it’s impossible to imagine him paying attention over a long period of time.”

As I’ve speculated a few times, because I’m ADD and have had to live with it since childhood, whatever else Trump is, he’s also ADD.

[matthew1961]

Caring about the continuation of civilization is so politically correct. Go Trump!

[538liberal]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CiTYVvdUoAIW6x1.jpg

I had to chase that down with a shot to clear my mind…now, what was I saying?
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee34/Smashfrog/brainbleach.jpg

[originalbob]

Please have this author speak at the Democratic National Convention.

[feathered_head]

I am hoping one of the speakers at the GOP convention might have a twinge of conscience and just read the article verbatim instead of their prepared remarks. Wishful thinking.

[canadachris]

“It’s impossible to keep him focussed on any topic, other than his own self-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes,” Schwartz said. “If he had to be briefed on a crisis in the Situation Room, it’s impossible to imagine him paying attention over a long period of time.”

The above really jumped out at me. It’s why I’m most looking forward to what I think will be the first and only debate this year. He will be completely unable and unwilling to study and prep for it. I expect him to make Sarah Palin look like Winston Churchill.

It will be interesting to see if the debate tone is any different from the Republican primary. It certainly should be, what with a broader audience that doesn’t entirely live and breathe by right wing talking points, and presumably at least one debate moderated by actual journalists. However his primary opponents had plenty of opportunity to do this, and singularly failed to engage him. I think they were all caught off guard, to some extent, by the way he would simply ignore contradictions he was caught in, and steamroll straight ahead. By the time they started adjusting, the race was effectively over. Hopefully the Hillary camp have been studying those debates carefully, with an eye to where he did and did not respond effectively (“effectively” in this context meaning cases where he brought the audience to his side with charisma over substance). Hillary, sadly, is not the most charismatic candidate, so this will be important…

[feathered_head]

Probably one of the most disturbing political cartoons I’ve ever seen – and its completely accurate.

[mywag]

Donny Toddler says:
“I hired that putz Scwartz to TYPE my book, not write. My little sausage fingers don’t work well with keyboards.
And Scwartz will probably also tell stories about me sitting in my own mess during his typing. Yes, well a toddler does occasionally make #2 in his pants.
What Scwartz won’t tell you is that part of his contract included cleaning my messes. That’s right, Scwartz had to literally ‘kiss my ass clean’.”
This is 100% honest, signed
Donny Toddler

[mames5]

Why would Trump need a ghost writer? He went to the “best school(s)” and he has “the best words.”

[dbutch]

And the two (or more) of him keep changing places!

[feathered_head]

He might decide he has much more important things to do than suffer a boring debate with Hillary. One of his properties might need attending or something…

[jinmichigan]

trump really doesn’t seem capable of writing a book, even if it’s all about him.

[ralph_vonholst]

Don’t be so sure. Remember the Gore v. Bush debates. Arguably, by any rational, objective criteria, Gore won all of them. But we don’t have rational, objective criteria. We have the MSM with their ridiculous on-screen “emotion” tracking detectors, snap polling, vacuuous debate moderators, ridiculous questions, etc. Trump just has to show up and be capable of breathing. We will be looking at redoubled standards for Hillary of whom it will be said that her wonky, measured factual responses have peoples’ eyes glazed over. And a single Trumpism directed toward Hillary will be flogged as the greatest rejoinder since Thomas Huxley put down Bishop Samuel (Soapy Sam) Wilberforce.

At the risk of pissing off the MSM, she shouldn’t debate him. It’s not necessarily a win for her.

[jinmichigan]

I’ve been saying for months trump will run as far and fast as possible from any debates with Clinton. He may be forced to do one, but no way he does all three.

[quax]

“I could have sued you, but I didn’t.”

That’s also Trump’s definition of generosity.

[quax]

And a really good brain, an excellent brain. A brain so sharp you won’t believe it.

[katscherger]

That is the line that struck me, too. And he is right. It scares the living shit out of me.

[katscherger]

What an ass.