Joe Barrett did a good job narrating his own book. This was interesting. ( )

Great writer! ( )

Here it is, October, 2016, one month before the U.S. Presidential election. During these election cycles, I generally try to read a book by or about the Presidential candidates. Last month, I finished Gary Byrne's book about Hillary Clinton, "Crisis of Character". Then I tried David Cay Johnson's book, "The Making of Donald Trump", and Michael Kranish's book "Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power".

None of the three offer glowing recommendations of the candidates, and as public opinion polls show, that's hardly surprising. The book about Hillary Clinton, "Crisis of Character", as the title implies, paints a negative portrait of Hillary's character. The author, Gary Byrne, was a former uniformed officer in the White House, and during his time there, had occasional interactions with George H.W. and Barbara Bush, and then later with Bill and Hillary Clinton. He clearly preferred the Bush family over the Clinton family.

The two books I picked up about Trump were remarkably similar in their portrayal of Donald Trump. The first, by David Cay Johnson, "The Making of Donald Trump", was the shorter of the two. As such, it contained most, but not all of the Trump stories told in the Michael Kranish book, "Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power". Both paint a near identical picture of Trump as being obsessed with his image, obsessed with wealth, egotistical, vindictive, a phony, unwilling to take advice from others, a flagrant liar, and a bully. Other than having a vision for major real estate projects and the skill to find banks willing to fund his projects, neither Johnson nor Kranish have much positive to say about the candidate.

So the next question I wonder about is how impartial any of these authors might be when writing their books. That's hard to judge. While Gary Byrne, author of the anti-Hillary book "Crisis of Character", hasn't established any credentials to my knowledge as an investigative reporter or a journalist, both authors for the Trump books have. David Cay Johnson, author of "The Making of Donald J. Trump", is an investigative reporter, and won a Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting in 2001. He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 and 2003, was board president of Investigative Reporters and Editors, and in addition, knew Trump for 28 years at the time he wrote his book. Winning a Pulitzer and being president of and industry group is no guarantee of impartiality, but it doesn't smack of being a partisan reporter with an axe to grind either. Michael Kranish, author of "Trump Revealed", has previously been involved in writing other similar books - including one about John Kerry, and one about Mitt Romney. So he's covered candidates from both political parties, and his books were generally considered fair and impartial.

If you're looking for a quick look into Trump's adult behavior and business practices, David Cay Johnson's "The Making of Donald J. Trump" should suffice. It's shorter than Michael Kranish's "Trump Revealed" and basically tells the same story. The longer Kranish book was completed by a team of over 20 Washington Post reporters, 2 fact-checkers, and 2 editors. That book covers more of Trump's life, from his childhood, schooling, early business endeavors, and then his casinos in Atlantic City, and his later business investments in Panama, Russia, and Azerbaijan, etc.

Johnson's book, "The Making of Donald J. Trump", concentrates more on the adult Trump,
and among other things, provides a nice description of how Trump has reportedly used money from his charitable foundation to help himself, things being confirmed in recent press reports. Reportedly, Trump has spent over $250,000 from the Donald J. Trump Foundation — a "charity funded almost entirely by other people's money" — to settle lawsuits involving his for-profit businesses, including one of his golf courses in New York and his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.​ Trump openly brags about using other people's money, giving it an acronym "OPM". ​​

In both of these books about the GOP Presidential candidate, Trump comes across as an entitled individual with a life-long dedication to being on top, building a real estate empire, obsessed with getting rich, surrounding himself with beautiful women, doing what's necessary to protect his image, and denying absolutely anything negative said or printed against himself. He files lawsuits at the drop of a hat to protect his status and intimidate opponents, punishing anyone who got in his way, and seemingly trusts no ones advice other than his own.

And given the Trump revelations which came out AFTER publishing of "The Making of Donald J. Trump" and "Trump Revealed", such as the extract from his old tax return showing huge business losses and likely paying no federal income taxes for almost twenty years, and then the release of his Billy Bush banter showing how he bragged about sexually abusing women, anything negative in the Trump books are relatively tame by comparison.

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An account of a bunch of sleazy and/or criminal activities in business by Donald Trump, primarily focused on his real estate dealings around the world and casino operations in Atlantic City. Lots of stuff which is distasteful, but nothing really outside what's expected in those businesses.

Interesting now in retrospect because it was published the summer before the 2016 election. ( )

I choose to avoid books about political candidates published in an election year. Most books tend to be written by hacks and are not worth the time to read them. However "The Making of Donald Trump" is written by a respected investigative journalist who has credibility for his integrity. If you are a supporter of Donald Trump who has no interest in hearing bad news about him, you will not like this book. If you do not like Donald Trump, this book will provide additional ammunition for you to dislike him further and work against his opportunity to be President.

I can't say that there were many surprises for me in the book, though I did not know the backgrounds of his father and grandfather or their motivations in life. To coin a phrase, looks like the apple didn't fall far from the tree. Basically Donald Trump is portrayed as a very selfish and vain man focused on making money at any cost. He has very few friends and his poor treatment of people is detailed in the book.

The book is well researched and documented. It is very depressing that this man has gotten this far in business, media and in politics. I think this says more about the deterioration of our culture and judgment then Trump himself. ( )