The art of the deal

THE current election fever sweeping the United States is contagious as it is nail-biting. It is like a film script written in Hollywood. Only a month ago, it was a battle between two aging political gladiators in a jousting match not many wanted to see. Then Joe Biden had a brain freeze in a televised debate (which led me to ask, "What now, President Biden?" in a previous column). Donald Trump lost part of his ear, not to Mike Tyson but to a bullet from an inexperienced assassin that was promptly dealt with at the scene. Speculations were that this life-threatening event could boost his electoral chances.Donald was triumphantly proclaimed the Republicans' bet to return to the White House. Donald Trump lost part of his ear, not to Mike Tyson but to a bullet from an inexperienced assassin that was promptly dealt with at the scene. Speculations were that this life-threatening event could boost his electoral chances. Donald was triumphantly proclaimed the Republicans' bet to return to the White House.The plot thickened. President Biden finally listened to his advisers and withdrew from the race, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place. Then you know what hit the fan. For the Democrats, it was an opportunity they could not afford to miss. Most Americans did not know Kamala well. A massive campaign to introduce her and vice president hopeful Tim Walz, the current governor of Minnesota, to the electorate is under way. For the Republicans, they are now in a backstep. They have to redo their strategy and redefine their candidate who lost his last bid for the presidency to Joe Biden.But what more do we need to know about Donald Trump?In my search for an answer to this question, I came upon a lecture at the Oxford Union by American journalist Tony Schwartz. He was the ghostwriter of "The Art of the Deal," the autobiography of Donald Trump. The program was recorded before Trump was elected president in 2016. Schwartz renounced the book he wrote and proclaimed that a Trump presidency is a danger to the planet. The contradictions in a Trump presidency are due to conflicts between serving others and serving self.The author said he got to know Trump in 1985 when the real estate developer bought an existing apartment building in a prized location. He planned to turn it into a luxury condominium. The tenants resisted as they were in a zone that was protected by rent control legislation. The company Trump hired to take over the building committed acts of harassment to make the lives of the holdouts miserable. Trump enjoyed his tough guy image even as his management of the project became a case study on how not to vacate an apartment building.Schwartz spent a year and a half with Trump gathering enough information to write the book. The regular interviews revealed Trump's stunningly short attention span. He had no patience for the past. He was like a kindergarten kid whose attention span was not more than five or 10 minutes.Schwartz made a sobering, though unsurprising observation: "Trump has never read a book in his developed life." The possible exception, he added, were books written for him.To finish his book, Trump agreed that Schwartz be set up in his office with a telephone extension for him to listen to all conversations. Schwartz had access and got to know the real Trump. Aside from an abject inability to focus was an alarming and utter disregard for the truth and his lack of conscience about that fact. Schwartz realized that Trump was guided entirely by what he perceived as his immediate self-interest. He added that Trump was unable to admit that he was ever wrong about anything.Schwartz could not take anything that Trump said at face value even when empirical evidence is presented. Trump could convince himself "that it must be true, it must be sort of true, or ought to be true." Lying is second nature to Trump.Schwartz says he never saw any evidence that Trump had deep convictions or guiding core values. This, he says, explains why he can shift effortlessly and unashamedly from one day to the next. "Every belief is negotiable for the right price or advantage.""Trump's most abiding commitment, obsession and passion was proving to others that he was a winner. He had one-way conversations. No sustaining friendships except those that were functional. Friends, wives and girlfriends came and went."Trump's ideology: Whatever. So long as "I win" and people notice. He has become successful, in a way. His presidency has divided Democrats and Republicans and are now in a chasm not seen in the past three decades. He left office with the lowest approval ratings of his term. Post-presidency, he had faced many stormy battles in court. He is a convicted felon 34 times over.Can the Democratic Party's momentum be sustained? We all await the results knowing that future American policy can directly and indirectly affect us, whether we like it or not.