Press: Donald Trump, Confidence Man, then and now – The Hill

Billed by Axios as the book Donald Trump fears most, Maggie HabermansConfidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America debutedlastweek asNo. 1best-seller on Amazon and the New York Times. At 508 pages, its a challenge. But its worth the slog: the best book yet on the mystery man whostill remains, two years after being rejected for a second term, the most dominant force in American politics.

The most striking thing about the book is its title. Consider: For the New York Times, Haberman covered Donald Trump full-time for six years. During his four years in the White House, she averaged more than one Trump story a day. She was the Timess most-read reporter. Shes interviewed Trump dozens of times. Hescalled her a third-rate reporter,but he gave her three interviews for this book alonethefirst onerequestedby himbefore she even asked.

Haberman knows Trump better than any other reporter. Yet, after all that access and all that time, what words did she choose to describe Trump? TheConfidence Man,which is hardly a compliment.Merriam-Webster defines a confidence man as a person who tricks other people in order to get their money. And that, my friends, as Haberman skillfully and exhaustively relates, is Donald Trumpin a nutshell.

Habermansgreat insight, and her bookscentral premise,is that you cant understand Trump unless you track him from the beginning of his professional career, when he, somewhat reluctantly,joined his fathers real estate firm. (He originally wanted to become an actor.)Fromthat point on, she argues, hes frozen in time.Recounting countless episodes from his New York developer days, she concludes: He was interested primarily in money, dominance, power, bullying and himself. He treated rules and regulations as unnecessary obstacles rather than constraints on his behavior He sought anendless stream of praise His thirst for fame seemed to grow each time he tasted more of it.

Donald Trump the developer was Donald Trump the president. HisM.O. never changed.

Filing countless, worthless lawsuits? It didnt start in the White House, it started in Queens, when he sued every reporter, contractor ordeveloper who wouldnt accede to his demands. Notbecause he expected to winjust to intimidate them. Or, as he admitted after suing his biographer, Tim OBrien, just to make his life miserable.

Telling lies? It didnt start with the size of the crowd at his Inauguration. As a developer, he allegedlylied aboutmany things, according to Habermans and others reporting:his net worth, the value of properties, his ties to the mafia, his prowess with women.

Haberman opens her book with a string of lies an 18-year-old Donald Trump apparentlytoldabout the dedication of the Verrazano-Narrows bridge, which he attended with this father.

Haberman reminds us that, essentially, Donald Trump believes in nothing but hisown greatness. Everything about him is transactional.He was a Republican before joining the Reform Party before becoming a Democrat before becominga Republican again. Hesupported abortion rightsbefore he was anti-abortion. He was for universal health care beforetrying to killObamaCare. According to Haberman, he wasnt even convincedabout building a wallasapolitical issueuntil he saw the enthusiastic responseitgenerated at campaign rallies.

Trumpisnot the first confidence man weve encountered. As chronicled by Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Thomas Mann and others, theyre a peculiarly American phenomenon. The only difference is, to our eternal regret, we elected this confidence manpresident of the United States.

Pressis host of TheBillPressPod. He is the author of From the Left: A Life in the Crossfire.

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Press: Donald Trump, Confidence Man, then and now - The Hill