Trump's Ghostwriter Summarization Of Devious Donald: "Lying Is Second Nature To Him"

Trump’s ghostwriter: ‘Lying is second nature to him’

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/297259/donald-trump-tony-schwartz-new-yorker/

One of Donald Trump’s go-to lines when bragging about himself is to mention his 1987 bestselling autobiography “The Art of the Deal,” which he didn’t actually write. Tony Schwartz, the book’s ghostwriter, seems to have spent most of the last three decades trying to forget/absolve himself of his participation in the book, which he credits as at least one of the seedlings that eventually resulted in Trump’s rise as a (serious?) political candidate. The New Yorker spoke with Schwartz to get an inside perspective on the process of writing the book and his feelings about the Republican nominee, which are laid bare in the article’s introduction:

“I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.”

In Trump's words: “I play to people’s fantasies. . . . People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration—and it’s a very effective form of promotion.”

It’s just one such passage that has left Schwartz with a lousy taste in his mouth. “It’s a way of saying, ‘It’s a lie, but who cares?'” he told the New Yorker. Trump reportedly loved the phrase. It legitimized his modus operandi.

“Lying is second nature to him,” Schwartz continued. “More than anyone else I have ever met, Trump has the ability to convince himself that whatever he is saying at any given moment is true, or sort of true, or at least ought to be true.”