TrumpNation Timothy L. O'Brien
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TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald
Timothy L. O'Brien
Warner Business Books
Hardcover
288 pages
October 2005
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“You’re fired! Now get out of my office.”
I’m sorry. I simply couldn’t resist the urge to throw out the “your fired” line. If you’ve watched The Apprentice, you are familiar with the catchphrase. Even if your eyes haven’t perused an episode, The Donald’s now-infamous phrase is such a part of pop culture that you’ve no doubt heard someone mimic it or seen it spoofed on Saturday Night Live.
Written by New York Times journalist Timothy L. O’Brien, Trumpnation is everything that you’d expect a book about The Donald to be. It is filled with Trump’s audacity, bravado, and overall chutzpah as O’Brien chronicles everything from his poor judgment with the USFL to his former wives (and impending marriage, at the time of the writing) to his casinos, buildings, and line of Trump suits – and, of course, the beloved reality show The Apprentice.
The book is not only O’Brien’s prose but also quotes from The Donald and others on The Donald and his decisions. But what’s great about it, whether true or not, is that you can imagine Donald Trump saying what is written on the page. His tone and delivery are captured perfectly.
“On still another occasion, when he called me at the New York Times from George Steinbrenner’s box at Yankee Stadium during the World Series, I mentioned that the cell phone number he was using was different.
‘That’s because I’m borrowing someone else’s phone,’ he said.
’That way you don’t have to pay for the call, right?’ I replied.
‘You know me too well,’ he chuckled.
And when I told him about this book he invited me to the Trump Suits premiere, accelerating into high-octane promo speak without blinking. It will be the biggest, the best, the very, the unique, in the whole world, very, very, very, very special, gotta come, it’s really amazing, and when you think about it, stupendous, it’s another example of how I, and you may not believe this but, really, really, fantastic, and it’s quite something because people tell me that it’s never been done, just all over the world, the entire world, and really, really something, so unbelievably successful, and I mean really big, like the new golf course I’m building in, and the new building I own in, fantastic, a new standard, and I mean, nobody’s seen anything so fabulous, the sheer quality of, so you’ve really got to be there, man. Okay, man? Are you coming?”
At just a little over two hundred and thirty pages, it’s just the right amount of Donald back-story and current story to fill up a book without it reaching to the point of overkill. Overall, this is a fantastically fun read as we learn about The Donald and his surprising choices in favorite movies and his snacking on Oreos and hamburgers. It’s one of those guilty pleasure books that you read in one or two gulps, and is very satisfying – like a box of Oreos.
Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Bobby Blades, 2005
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