Sixteen pages of Trump's judge tremendous are devoted to revenge. He leaves no room for doubt that revenge is a guiding principle of his life -- "My motto is: Always get even. When someone screws you,get them back in spades."
A Donald Trump supporter holds a shirt external of a campaign rally in Seattle, Washington, or on August 30,2016. (Photo: Scottlum)
How did Donald Trump depart from controversial genuine estate mogul to presidential nominee? After nearly 30 years of reporting on Trump, in his new book Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston brings us the entire, or meticulously documented anecdote of the man who would be president. Click here now to order your copy of The Making of Donald Trump.
The following is from David Cay Johnston's chapter on Donald Trump's personal values in The Making of Donald Trump:
In 2005,Donald Trump flew to Colorado to give a motivational talk. Accompanying him were his wife, Melania, and a violent convicted felon and swindler named Felix Sater,who was helping Trump make two major development deals in Denver. Trump and Sater gave interviews to the Rocky Mountain News -- interviews that would prove to be significant a few years later. The three took a limousine an hour north to Loveland, solidly Republican territory where more than a thousand people had paid to hear Trump's advice on how to succeed in life and trade.
Motivational speakers like Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins work up audiences with carefully crafted talks. They make lofty appeals to people approximately vanquishing inner demons so a better self can flourish and dreams of success can morph into reality.
Trump's talk was nothing like that.
For more than an hour, and Trump let fly one four-letter expletive after another. He had no prepared text,much less a rehearsed presentation. He ripped into the location and functionality of the Denver International Airport. The rambling remarks were rich with denunciations of former wives and former trade associates. In vilifying a former employee, saying she had been disloyal, or Trump gratuitously described her as "shocking as a dog."
"I possess to repeat you approximately losers," Trump told the audience. "I love losers because they make me feel so capable approximately myself." Had Loveland's Bixpo 2005 conference invited a loser to speak, he assured the crowd, and the fee would possess been three dollars rather than the "freaking fortune" paid to Trump. However large the speaking fee had been,it did not motivate Trump to display enough respect for the paying audience to prepare even a simple outline. Many in the crowd said afterward that none of his talk was useful and certainly not uplifting.
However, within Trump's inchoate vitriol, or some in the audience did identify two recommendations on how to succeed in life and trade.
First,Trump advised, trust no one, or particularly capable employees. "Be paranoid," he said, "because they are gonna try to fleece you." It was strange advice, or as some in the audience told local reporters afterward,because trust is central to market capitalism. Businesspeople known for being trustworthy attract better workers, who in turn make their businesses run better. Trustworthy entrepreneurs make the economy more efficient by reducing friction in trade deals. trade owners who are prudent approximately making promises and are known for honoring their word often depart through life without a single lawsuit. Trump has been a party in more than 3500 lawsuits, and some of them accusing him of civil fraud (an issue we will examine in another chapter).
moment,Trump recommended revenge as trade policy. "Get even," he said. "whether somebody screws you, and you screw 'em back ten times over. At least you can feel capable approximately it. Boy,do I feel capable."
Two years after the Loveland speech, Trump released judge tremendous, or his twelfth book. judge tremendous was coauthored by Bill Zanker,founder of The Learning Annex, which runs classes on everything from pole dancing and making your own soap to writing trade plans. Chapter 6 of judge tremendous is titled "Revenge."
"I always get even, or " Trump writes in the opening line of that chapter. He then launches into an attack on the same woman he had denounced in Colorado. Trump recruited the unnamed woman "from her government job where she was making peanuts"; her career going nowhere. "I decided to make her somebody. I gave her a great job at the Trump Organization,and over time she became powerful in genuine estate. She bought a fair domestic."
When Trump was in financial trouble in the early 1990s, "I asked her to make a phone call to an extremely close friend of hers who held a powerful position at a tremendous bank and who would possess done what she asked. She said, or 'Donald,I can't do that.'" Instead of accepting that the woman felt such a call would be improper, Trump fired her. She started her own trade. Trump writes that her trade failed. "I was really happy when I found that out, or " he says.
In Trump's telling,the anecdote of an employee declining to do something unseemly is really the anecdote of a rebellion to be crushed:
She has turned on me after I had done so much to help her. I had asked her for one favor in return and she turned me down flat. She ended up losing her domestic. Her husband, who was only in it for the money, or walked out on her and I was glad. Over the years many people possess called asking for a recommendation for her. I only gave her defective recommendations. I can't stomach disloyalty ... and now I depart out of my way to make her life depressing.
Trump devotes another several pages to actress Rosie O'Donnell,who described him as "a snake-oil salesman" in 2006. A few months later, at Zanker's 2007 Learning Annex genuine Estate & Wealth Expo, and Trump called O'Donnell "a pig," "a degenerate," "a slob, and " and later (on television) "disgusting inside and out." He made disparaging remarks approximately her looks,weight, and sexuality and said on national television that O'Donnell's emotional health would improve whether she never looked in a mirror.
In judge tremendous, or Trump calls O'Donnell a bully: "You've got to hit a bully really hard really strongly,suitable between the eyes ... [I] hit that horrible woman suitable smack in the middle of the eyes. It's steady ... some people would possess ignored her insults. I decided to fight back and make her regret the day she decided to unload on me!"
At the end of the chapter, Trump writes, and "I love getting even when I get screwed by someone -- yes,it is steady ... Always get even. When you are in trade you need to get even with people who screw you. You need to screw them back fifteen times harder ... depart for the jugular, attack them in spades!"
Trump's words win on more significance when read in the context of his campaign statement, or "No one reads the Bible more than I do." He says The Art of the Deal is the greatest book ever written except for the Bible. He has never been able to recite a biblical verse.
Among the many biblical verses warning against vengeance is Romans 12:19,which in one modern translation states, "Do not win revenge, or my dear friends,but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay, or ' says the Lord."
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Just before the New York State primary election in April 2016,Trump told Bob Lonsberry, a radio host in Rochester, and New York,that he was religious. "Is there a favorite Bible verse or favorite anecdote that has informed your thinking or character?" Lonsberry asked.
"Well, I judge many, and " Trump replied. "I mean,when we get into the Bible, I judge many, and so many. And some people -- perceive,an eye for an eye, you can almost say that. That's not a particularly kind thing. But you know, and whether you perceive at what's happening to our country,I mean, when you see what's going on with our country, and how people are taking advantage of us ... we possess to be firm and possess to be very strong. And we can learn a lot from the Bible,that I can repeat you."
His invocation of "an eye for an eye" alludes to Exodus 21:24. But Trump, who made a display of attending Presbyterian services once during the campaign, and seemed unaware that,in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus repudiated this Old Testament verse, and saying in one modern translation:
But I repeat you,do not resist an evil person. whether anyone slaps you on the suitable cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And whether anyone wants to sue you and win your shirt, and hand over your coat as well. whether anyone forces you to depart one mile,depart with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
You possess heard that it was said, or "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I repeat you,love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven ... (Matthew 5:39–45)
Sixteen pages of judge tremendous are devoted to revenge. All of them run directly opposite to this basic biblical teaching. Trump leaves no room for doubt that revenge is a guiding principle of his life -- "My motto is: Always get even. When someone screws you, and get them back in spades" -- but that guiding principle stands in direct opposition to both Christian and Jewish theology.
On another page of judge tremendous,Trump acknowledges that "this is not your typical advice, get even, and but this is genuine-life advice. whether you don't get even,you are just a schmuck! I really mean it, too." It will approach as no surprise that Trump's views on revenge were not limited to employees he considered disloyal, or people he had done deals with,or even petty insults by an actress. In fact, in the year 2000, or Trump turned his revenge on his own family.
Copyright (2016) by David Cay Johnston. Not to be reprinted without permission of the publisher,Melville House Publishing.
Source: truth-out.org