Getty ‘No time to read ... I want it short’: Best of Washington Post’s forthcoming Trump book

Donald Trump has never found time to read a biography of a president; prefers quick, preferably oral briefings to detailed reports; relishes the Secret Service hoopla; and once said that you become iconic by seeking more publicity after people are tired of you. 

These and more are the highlights of "Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power,” written by Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher.  Trump gave more than 20 hours of interviews to the Washington Post reporters who worked on the 431-page book, to be published Tuesday by Scribner. 


A passage that hints at Trump’s likely style if he were to move into the Oval Office: “At Trump Tower, he kept no computer on his desk, and he avoided reading extensive reports or briefings.  He preferred to be told about issues orally, and quickly. 

“One day in June, he had a visit from a delegation of prominent executives from the oil, steel, and retail industries, and one of the CEOs told Trump that the Chinese were taking advantage of the United States. ‘ He said, “I’d like to send you a report,”' Trump recalled [in a June interview with the authors]. ... ' I said, "Do me a favor, don’t send me a report.  Send me, like, three pages." ...  I’m a very efficient guy.  I want it short.’” ( p. 346-7)

Perhaps the juiciest nugget, from an April interview with the authors: “He had no time to read, he said.  As the reality of the nomination had become clear, he’d thought about digging into a biography of a president – he hadn’t had a chance to read one – ‘but I don’t have much time.’” ( p. 347)

Other memorable moments:

--“Trump never sounded angry in the [Washington Post editorial board] meeting [in March]. ...  The editors who wanted more than anything else to figure out how much of Trump’s campaign manner was shtick and how much was real venom emerged thinking that they had seen the genuine Trump – a man certain of his views, hugely confident in his abilities, not terribly well informed, quick to take offense.” ( p. 11)

--During visit to Washington in March, when he held a presser at the under-construction Trump International Hotel: “He was the front-runner now, and for his next act, some people told him he should be presidential, and yet he knew he would be what he’d always been.” ( p. 15)

--Arriving at New York Military Academy in September 1959, “a stocky teenager bewildered by his new surroundings”: “To fellow cadets, Donald could be friendly, aloof, and cocky, once telling Jeff Orteneau, ‘I’m going to be famous one day.’  When meeting classmates for the first time, he liked to ask, ‘What does your father do?’” ( pp.  38, 41)

--“Trump was identified as ‘Ladies’ Man’ in his senior yearbook, posing for a photo alongside an academy secretary.” ( p. 41)

--“Reviewers trashed [‘Trump: The Art of the Deal,’ published in Nov. 1987] as shallow, pompous, and self-promotional. ...  It sold more than a million hardcover copies, in part thanks to a Trump publicity blitz that looks like a presidential campaign: taking out full-page newspaper ads calling for a tougher US foreign policy; giving a speech in New Hampshire at the cusp of the primary season ... But that campaign was not about running for office, just about selling books – and himself. ‘ It was all about being high visibility,’ said Peter Osnos, who edited the book for Random House.” ( p. 99)

--“As Trump’s empire spread, some of the people closest to him noticed a change.  He grew more distant, sometimes petulant, sometimes explosive.” ( p. 99)

--“He began drinking his diets sodas through a straw, and only when they came from Norma Foerderer, his executive assistant [who died in 2013], because he was too afraid of others’ germs.” ( p. 100)

--“For decades, Trump’s daily morning routine included a review of everything written or said about him in the previous twenty-four hours.  The clippings were usually culled by Norma Foerderer – for two decades Trump’s ever-present chief assistant – who also handed her boss a spiral notebook contain media requests, most of which he would handle himself.  As his celebrity grew, the daily pile of Trump related news coverage swelled; still, he diligently tried to review everything written or said about him.” ( p. 107)

--“He often handed the positive pieces to other visiting journalists as examples of how to do it right.  No matter how famous he became, no publication was too small for a kind word about Trump to go unnoticed.” ( pp.  107-8)

--“In Spy’s debut issue, Trump was included on a list of the Ten Most Embarrassing New Yorkers. ...  In 1989, ... [t]hat year’s Spy 100 ranked people by how much they were like Trump ... their ‘Trumpscore.’” ( p. 113)

--“Trump believed that the celebrity image he cultivated in the media did more to polish his reputation than any investigations by government officials or skeptical journalists might diminish it. ‘ You know,’ he said [in Esquire in 1991], ‘it really doesn’t matter what they write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.’” ( p. 153)

--“In his bestselling books, Trump cast himself as the irresistible lust object, never the groper, always the gropee.” ( p. 154)

--“As much power as women might wield, ... Trump rarely let the opportunity pass to proclaim his own virility.” ( p. 155)

--“[W]hen Donald and Melania were married [in 2005], [Howard] Stern asked if Trump would stay with his wife if she emerged from a car accident disfigured ... ‘How do the breasts look?’  Trump asked. ... ‘ That’s very important.’” ( p. 167)

--“Trump continued to act like the billionaire he still told people he was.  He failed to make payments on his yacht, yet he convinced the bank to pay for insurance. ...  Trump missed so many payments on his five helicopters that bankers clamored to claim them; he hid the choppers somewhere in New York for days ... The banks got the helicopters.” ( p. 197)

--“Trump took to his TV role as if he’d spend his life preparing for it. ...  What would become the show’s catchphrase, ‘You’re fired,’ was not scripted. ...  In the first boardroom scene, ... he blurted, ‘You’re fired.’  Backstage, the production crew immediately cheered the line.” ( p. 213-4)

--“When Elizabeth Jarosz, a second-season contestant who later became a brand strategy consultant, once ... sat with Trump at a bar as he explained his view that ‘all publicity is good publicity. ...  When people get tired of you is when you do more publicity, because that’s when you become an icon.” ( p. 215)

--“[N]ow, as he pursued the presidency, the self-described multibillionaire would need to convince voters that his value to the country was greater than his net worth, and that he could be a champion of more than himself.” ( p. 308)

--“Trump’s preference for big rallies rather than retail campaigning ... fit with his personal habits.  As a committed germophobe, he started out avoiding shaking hands with voters.”  He kept bowls of hand sanitizer in hi office and favored fast-food chains, which he believed were cleaner than restaurants.” ( p. 316)

--“The defeat in Iowa left Trump bitter.  Even months later, he could not let it go.” ( p. 321)

--“[O]f his life as a candidate, [he told the authors in a June interview], ‘I get into the car, ... [t]hey close the street and thousands of people form on the corner, waving, going crazy, and all this Secret Service.  And my wife gets in, and I get in, and she looks at me, and we’re in this car with windows that are THIS thick, with steel walls. ...  And she says to me, ‘Are you sure this is what you want for the rest of your life?’  He told her he was sure.” ( p. 331)

--“He had never really had close friends. ... [ In a June interview with the authors, h]e named – he put the names off the record – three men he had had business dealings with two or more decades before, men he had only rarely seen in recent years.” ( p. 340-1)