Trump's ghostwriter who spent 18 months with him: "Lying is second nature to him. He lied strategically. He had a complete lack of conscience about it."
In “The Art of the Deal,” Tony Schwartz helped create the myth that Trump is a charming business genius. Now he calls him unfit to lead.
Starting in late 1985, Schwartz spent eighteen months with Trump—camping out in his office, joining him on his helicopter, tagging along at meetings, and spending weekends with him at his Manhattan apartment and his Florida estate.
This was 1985. Trump was just a run-of-the-mill sleazebag back then.
I think we can give the ghostwriter a pass on this being "just a job". If anything, it's pretty damning to have the ghostwriter of your one bestselling book call you a liar, which he's been saying since 2016.
In 1985 I'm pretty sure that Trump was an already-famous billionaire known for his success with real estate. It wasn't necessarily earned but that is what people thought. I'm just pointing out that it kind of takes a sleazebag to take that job.
Okay so then we shouldn't really care what any ghostwriters say? We already knew trump lies as much as he breathes. WaPo had that database documenting his lies with tens of thousands of fact checked entries. Not normal, even for typical known liars.