By DOUG IBENDAHL • February 25, 2016
I recognize that most pompous pundits have little use for homework. Why let a little due diligence get in the way of the next horribly wrong prognostication about Donald Trump’s candidacy, right?
But spare us your babble unless you’ve read The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump’s first book.
Published in 1987, The Art of the Deal remains one of the top selling business books of all time. It’s a must read – especially for anyone serious about truly understanding the likely Republican nominee.
It’s amusing to see pundits still befuddled over the way Trump has changed the rules of the political game, when a book written nearly 30 years ago contains a remarkable template for exactly how Trump is running his campaign right now.
Actually, let me make this even easier for the wags. You don’t even have to read the whole book.
If the Trump haters can’t be bothered with significant research, they should at least read the last page of The Art of the Deal before spouting off in the future. Doing so might mean less egg on their faces.
“In my life, there are two things I’ve found I’m very good at: overcoming obstacles and motivating good people to do their best work,” Trump writes in the book’s second to last paragraph.
The rest of the book is filled with numerous concrete examples backing up that statement.
There in a nutshell is why Trump’s campaign is generating unprecedented energy across the country, and it’s why the man is running away with this race.
Most everything else this election season is just noise.
Donald Trump is a doer and that’s what most Americans are demanding this year in a candidate. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio love to talk about doing things, but the simple fact is that despite most of their working lives spent on a government payroll, neither can point to a single significant accomplishment.
And neither Ted Cruz nor Marco Rubio has ever created a single job.
Trump on the other hand has created tens-of-thousands of good jobs at numerous companies. And of course he’s a builder whose work stands tall across the country.
While he’s never held public office, in order to accomplish what he has and build the things he’s built, Trump had to bring people together and work with government officials at all levels.
Trump is a proven master at getting even the laziest and most inept public officials off their behinds and forcing them to do their jobs.
The final page of The Art of the Deal contains another great quote, and one which foresaw the future:
“One of the challenges ahead is how to use those skills as successfully in the service of others as I’ve done, up to now, on my own behalf.”
That’s yet another theme Trump expressed in 1987 which is a core component of his campaign today.
One thing people love about Trump is that here is a billionaire who is astonishingly honest about how he spent his life in the private sector aggressively trying to rake in as much money as he could for himself. At rallies he regularly pledges to now be “greedy” on behalf of America.
His supporters get it. Even the ones who haven’t yet read the book understand intuitively that this is a man who is serious about giving back. Trump could spend the rest of his life flying to exotic vacation destinations in his private Boeing 757 with his beautiful wife if he wanted.
Trump’s instead stepping up to serve because he looked around and saw the job wasn’t getting done.
Voters of all political stripes are sick and tired of the all-talk-and-no-action politicians. And the smartest of them all recognize America needs a tough negotiator on numerous serious matters facing our country.
Donald Trump literally wrote the book on how to get even the most hopeless public officials to do their jobs. It’s easy to understand why he’s headed to the White House.
Doug Ibendahl is a Chicago Attorney and a former General Counsel of the Illinois Republican Party.
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