Two prominent ghostwriters of Donald Trump books blasted the president in recent days in the wake of the latest reports that his businesses lost $1.1 billion in the decade between 1985 and 1994.
Tony Schwartz, who co-authored the 1987 book “The Art of the Deal,” which many credit with securing Trump’s reputation as a masterful negotiator, has long been a critic of Trump and is dismayed by his role in helping to promote him as a self-styled dealmaker.
In the wake of a New York Times story on the losses, Schwartz reportedly urged the publisher to take the book out of print.
“I’d be fine if Random House simply took the book out of print. Or re-categorized it as fiction,” Schwartz tweeted.
There was no comment from Random House on Thursday on the proposal to scrap the book that sold millions — or to reclassify it.
Meanwhile, the sequel, “Surviving at the Top,” was written by Charles Leerhsen at a time when Trump’s casinos were hurtling toward bankruptcy — though it was not revealed until after the book hit.
Donald TrumpGetty Images“What was it like for him to lose more than $1 billion in a decade? Was he perpetually ashen-faced with fear? Or smirking at the thought of outwitting the IRS for sport, as he tweeted Wednesday morning?”
“Except for an occasional passing look of queasiness, or anger, when someone came into his Trump Tower office and whispered the daily win/loss numbers at his Atlantic City casinos, he seemed to be bored out of his mind,” Leerhsen wrote in a story for Yahoo.
“There was a stretch of months when everything he touched turned into a deal,” said Leerhsen. “The banks seemed to accept the version of him depicted in his first book, which we now know from his previous ghostwriter, Tony Schwartz, was entirely invented.”
Trump tweeted that the Times report of losses of $1.1 billion was highly inaccurate.
