The release of a ghostwritten book in 1987 played a significant role in Donald Trump’s path to the presidency. Ghostwriter Tony Schwartz wrote the autobiography, “The Art of the Deal.” It propelled Trump into the public eye and solidified his image as a successful businessman in ways that real estate deals alone never could have.
I like thinking big. I always have. To me it’s very simple: If you’re going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big.Donald J. Trump
What Was Tony Schwartz’s Ghostwriting Deal?
This story pulls me in as a ghostwriter, whatever anyone thinks of the man or his politics, and I’m not going to argue either side of that here. What interests me is the craft and the consequence: a single ghostwritten book built a public identity strong enough to carry its author from real estate into the White House. Most people have no idea a book can carry that much weight.
The collaboration between Tony Schwartz and Donald Trump was lucrative for both. For more, see powerful ways to make money from a book. Schwartz received $500,000 and half of the book’s royalties, making him a millionaire. Unlike most ghostwriters, Schwartz was acknowledged for his work and featured on the front cover. For more, see advantages of a ghostwritten book.
Tony created Trump. He’s Dr. Frankenstein.Edward Kosner, the former editor and publisher of New York
The memoir covers Trump’s childhood, the development of the Grand Hyatt Hotel and Trump Tower, and lays out an 11-step formula for business success inspired by Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking. The Art of the Deal wasn’t, as Trump claimed, the second-best seller of all time, but there’s no doubt that it was widely read and frequently quoted.
Schwartz’s relationship with the book curdled over the years. The ghostwriter who put Trump on the map came to regret it publicly, and by the time a biographical film about Trump’s rise, The Apprentice, arrived in 2024, Schwartz was one of the voices weighing in on how accurately it captured the man he’d shadowed in the 1980s. He judged that the portrayal got most things right, and called it emotionally true to the person he knew.
A man driven by a need for validation and a compulsion to dominate the conversation, traits Schwartz traced to deep insecurity. His verdict was that Trump had changed unusually little across the decades, the same person at the center of the film as the one whose voice he’d manufactured for the book.
That arc is the part of ghostwriting the contract never mentions. Schwartz got the cover credit, the money, and the royalties, and he still spent years distancing himself from what the book helped create. A ghostwriter builds an author’s public self out of raw material, and once that self is loose in the world, the writer has no more control over it than anyone else. The words matter long after the invoice is paid, and that’s why the choice of what book to write, and for whom, matters as much as the writing itself.
I’ve written books whose politics I completely disagree with, and that’s part of the job. What I think every ghostwriter owes themselves is a clear look at what a book is built to do before signing, because any regret that follows lands on the writer for years.
How did The Art of the Deal shape Trump’s public story?
Within the book, Trump crafts a narrative of himself as an underdog who overcame adversity to achieve success, attributing his drive to a demanding father.
That’s why I’m so screwed up, because I had a father who pushed me so hard.Donald J. Trump
Because of this book, Trump became a household name, famous far beyond his role as a real estate tycoon in New York. In the late 1980s, The Art of the Deal was the book to read. Everyone seemed to be talking about it, and they all wanted to know about Donald Trump.
Who was he? How did he get so rich? The thought on everyone’s mind was that Donald must have the answers because he was obviously rich and successful. How did we know that? The book said so. That’s how we came to know Donald Trump. He was the hero, leaping like Superman from the pages of a book.
It seemed he could make anything happen with ease. He could make deals happen easily and quickly. He knew the answers, he knew how to negotiate, and he had everything that we wanted. He had wealth, people looked up to him, beautiful women surrounded him, he lived in luxury, and he knew what to do without any doubts. That’s the man we met in that book.
It doesn’t matter whether the book truthfully laid out Donald Trump’s life, philosophy, and talents. It’s irrelevant that much of it may be a work of fiction, springing from the mind of a ghostwriter. All that matters is that we, the general public, have a ferocious appetite for people who succeed at all costs and achieve the life and goals that we desire. That should make every ghostwriter careful. A persona on the page can become more real to readers than the person it describes, and the writer who built it gets no say in what happens next.
How did a ghostwritten book build the Trump brand?
In the years since, Donald cleverly used the fame generated by his book to appear in cameos in countless movies and to star in a reality show. I avoided The Apprentice like the plague. Trump didn’t impress me because I’ve worked for difficult bosses before, and it seemed to me that Trump was an expert at belittling and browbeating people into submission. But perhaps that level of arrogance is needed to make a good president of the most powerful country in the world.
Trump became the master of public relations. He appeared in movies, talk shows, interviews, and seemingly everywhere else. He was regularly in the news and knew how to manipulate the press to give him free publicity. He made sure that he kept his face and name in the public eye. That’s one thing no one can doubt he’s exceptionally good at: being heard and being seen.
Did The Art of the Deal help Trump’s presidential campaign?
On June 16, 2015, Donald Trump announced from the lobby of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue that he was running for president of the United States. He claimed that “We need a leader that wrote ‘The Art of the Deal.'” I don’t think his announcement surprised very many people.
Somehow, the man found a theme of rage that he could manipulate to his advantage and catapult his way into the presidency. The press, who love controversy and hated what Donald Trump stood for, happily and ironically helped this man become president. I think if they had just ignored him, for the most part, he wouldn’t have been elected.
And it all started with a ghostwritten book. If that book hadn’t been written, Donald Trump probably wouldn’t be who he is today.
What can anyone writing a book learn from The Art of the Deal?
The Trump story is the most dramatic example of what a ghostwritten book can do, but the principle scales down to every executive, entrepreneur, and expert sitting on a story they haven’t told yet.
A book changes how people perceive you. It creates an identity that exists independent of your day-to-day work. It gives audiences a narrative to attach to your name.
Trump became famous because a ghostwriter turned his life into a story that millions of people wanted to read. The deals were real enough, but the book is what made them matter to people who would never set foot in a Manhattan skyscraper. That’s the power of getting your story on paper.
Not everyone needs to become president. But everyone with decades of expertise has a story worth telling, and the right ghostwriter can turn that story into something that outlasts the career that created it.
It drives me crazy to watch accomplished people leave their story untold and let everyone else define them by default. Write the book, and hire a ghostwriter who’ll tell you what it can do for you once it’s out in the world. The New Yorker: Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All
Penguin Random House: The Art of the Deal Excerpt
