The Art of the Deal

Peter Osnos, the founder of PublicAffairs Books, was interviewed on CSPAN’s Q & A program Sunday night. During his long career, Osnos has edited many prominent books, including Barack Obama’s Dreams of My Father and Donald Trump’s The Art of the Deal.

In the CSPAN interview, Osnos describes his contract negotiations with Trump, including the remarkable fact that Trump did not have a lawyer present to represent him: 

“So, the owner of Random House, at that time, was a man named S.I. - S.I. Newhouse who went to school in New York where his best friend was Roy Cohn, the lawyer. Roy Cohn and S.I. Newhouse were real buddies.

So, Roy Cohn said to S.I. Newhouse, ‘There’s this – there’s this fellow out there - a young man now - and he’s making a big wave here. He’s building this building on 57th Street. You ought to take a look at him.’ And, so, we did and put Trump on the cover of GQ. It sold like crazy off the newsstands.

So, in one of the very, very few times that S.I. Newhouse ever intervened at Random House, he said, ‘We’re going to do a book with this fellow.’ I had arrived at Random House with a mandate of doing books of this kind; biographies of high profile figures. So, I was - I like to put it - tasked.

I went to see Trump with S.I. and our then publisher, Howard Kaminsky. What I did was I took a big Russian novel that I had, Generations of Winter, wrapped black and gold paper around it, put Trump’s name on it, and brought it to Trump Tower and showed it to him. I said, ‘This could be you.’ Lo and behold, he agreed. Actually, he wanted the Trump name slightly larger.

We made a deal with him at that moment. This is extraordinary. No lawyers. We had no bargaining. We told him what we wanted to pay which is a lot of money, but not ridiculous - $250,000 for the - all rights in every conceivable way.

And then Tony Schwartz showed up. Tony was a journalist that worked at Newsweek and The New York Times. And his idea was The Art of the Deal. Now, he regrets it profoundly now. But he did, if I may say so, a hell of a job. He really channeled the Trump character in a way that Trump probably wouldn’t be able to do himself.

It wasn’t he was misrepresenting Trump. He was showing the Trump personality in the way Trump does things - in the way he makes deals. Published the book. And, in the first three months, it sold a million copies. . . .” 

But Osnos goes on to explain that Trump took a completely different approach to legal representation in his business ventures:

“Here’s a guy who’s been in New York real estate but [also] gambling, real estate, boxing, wrestling, beauty contests, television, construction - never been a target of a criminal investigation. That’s astonishing in New York City. And I used to say, you know, how is that possible? I’ll tell you how it’s possible. Trump instinctively creates a buffer around himself.

So, how does that relate to today? He didn’t sign the Stormy Daniels deal. Michael Cohen did. When The New York Times ran page after page on his taxes and finances much of which was very, very substantial, he said, ‘Oh, I had nothing to do with it. It was all the tax guys and the lawyers.’ That’s Trump. Trump has an instinctive sense of how to protect himself and how to - the people around him, by and large, are the ones who take the hit.”  

The full interview, which includes Osnos’s stories about working with other presidents including Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, is available here on the CSPAN website.   

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Michael Cohen was not a real lawyer...he was a hustler, a fixer. Trump should have said, "I don't remember having sex with her." "Lot's of people have their photos taken with me." "Now on to something my deplorables care about, CLEAN BEAUTHIFUL COAL. I LOVE Coal." He would have saved $130K and much more....