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The Master of the Art of the Deal [1]

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Date: 2025-03-08

I’ve told this story before, but I remembered it again reading the diary about business expert David Honig’s remarks about Donald Trump’s style of negotiation (Negotiations Expert Explains Why Trump Fails To Get Deals Done). I left this as a comment on that diary, but it’s long enough that I decided to post it on its own.

One of the first times I ever heard of Donald Trump was back in the ’80s when a co-worker of mine who was a big pro-wrestling fan told me that Wrestlemania that year was going to be held at Trump Plaza and that “The Donald” himself would be in attendance. He regarded this as a high honor. Whether it was supposed to be an honor for the WWF or for The Donald, I was not sure.

But around that era, TIME magazine did a big profile on Trump. I think it was to correspond with the publication of The Art of the Deal. I read a good deal of TIME around then; this was before the Internet and it was probably my main source of news. That and I liked George Will’s bowtie. Yeah, I was a nerdy Republican back then. I didn’t read the piece on Donald Trump, though, because at the time I wasn’t particularly interested in New York real estate moguls, even ones who could pal around with Hulk Hogan.

I did notice a week or two later when a letter from Trump ran in TIME’s letters page, complaining about the article. Apparently, the article had mentioned a deal Trump had made selling a hotel property to Merv Griffin — (That got my attention; I liked Merv because he had a funny name) — and had suggested that Merv had gotten a Good Deal.

This, Trump said, was a base libel! Trump insisted that he had taken Merv to the cleaners and that Merv had way over-paid what the property was worth. Trump had destroyed him! Nobody got the better of the Master of the Art Of The Deal!

That letter stuck in my mind because I was amazed, not that anybody would boast about cheating people, but that anybody else would want to do business with such a guy. Even back then, when I was nerdy enough to think George Will was cool, I had enough common sense to understand that the best deal is one that makes both parties happy, so that the other guy will be open to doing business with you again.

As the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition reminds us: Good customers are as rare as latinum. Treasure them. — (Rules of Acquisition #57) Donald may think he’s the Grand Nagus, but he Ferengi would have him for lunch.

Back then I shrugged off Donald Trump. Back in the ‘80s I figured a big-mouthed New York real estate mogul could have not affect on my life, and so I ignored him. I was wrong about George Will too, but at least George had a cooler tie.

But I recently came across a quote from G.K. Chesterton which maybe puts it best:

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