TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald by Timothy L. O'BrienMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was an interesting look The Donald before he got serious about politics. In short he's been much about selling an image rather than an a tangible item. To paraphrase someone else he's the poor man's image of a rich man. A weak man's image of a tough guy. The late iconic movie star John Wayne did this as he became a character all his own in an almost self parody. Instead of Wayne playing a part, the part was Wayne. It was John Wayne the sailor. It was John Wayne the Marine and of course John Wayne the cowboy. In turn it was Donald the real estate mogul. It was Donald the airline owner. It was Donald owning a football team. It was Donald owning(and bankrupting) casino's. It was Donald the deal-maker and so on.
The book ends just as he is riding the initial success of "The Apprentice" which is said to reinvent and repair Donald's image after the 90's beat him up a bit. This is before his start with birther-ism and one could say his spiraling towards his more darker side in politics. Up to this he had been relatively harmless minor celebrity riding a wave of popularity due to his show. His legacy may have gone relatively untarnished had his celebrity peaked here but obviously it didn't.
It's not a bad book if you're looking for a relatively unbiased look at Donald before he became politically decisive and controversial. He was no angel up to this point but he wasn't the leader of the free world either. It doesn't have the feel of an overly serious look at Donald himself or any of his shadier business practices or his outdated personal beliefs that would later come to life. The book sort of treats him as a modern day(as of 2005) P.T. Barnum which isn't meant as a dig but it was pretty much where Donald was at that point in history as he was sort of taken as a joke. It seems the joke was on us.
View all my reviews
