‘Art of The Deal’ Ghostwriter To America: I’m Sorry
Tony Schwartz is dubbed "Dr. Frankenstein" for creating mythical image
Tony Schwartz wants people to know how sorry he is.
As the ghostwriter for Donald Trump’s “The Art of The Deal,” Schwartz has been sickened by the rise of his former partner and the role he played in creating the myth of success that surrounds Trump.
In a New Yorker article published Monday, Schwartz said that “I put lipstick on a pig,” referring to Trump. And if he could, he said he would change the original title to “The Sociopath.”
[
Special Coverage: 2016 Republican National Convention
]
Schwartz noticed over the decades that Trump was claiming sole credit for writing the book. “If he could lie about that on Day One — when it was so easily refuted — he is likely to lie about anything,” Schwartz told New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer .
On how much Trump contributed to the book, Howard Kaminsky, former head of “The Art of the Deal” publisher Random House, said, “Trump didn’t write a postcard for us.”
Schwartz even went as far as to warn that a potential Trump presidency could be Kubrickian in its aftermath.
“I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization,” Schwartz said.
Edward Kosner, the erstwhile editor and publisher of New York magazine where Schwartz previously worked as a writer, was quoted as saying, “Tony created Trump. He’s Dr. Frankenstein.”
In a small way to right a wrong, Schwartz is dedicating all royalties in 2016 from “The Art of The Deal” to charities like the National Immigration Law Center, Human Rights Watch and the Center for the Victims of Torture.
“I’ll carry this until the end of my life,” Schwartz said about his guilt over writing the book. “There’s no righting it. But I like the idea that, the more copies that ‘The Art of the Deal’ sells, the more money I can donate to the people whose rights Trump seeks to abridge.”
“The Art of The Deal ” was a huge hit that spent almost a year on The New York Times’ best-seller list. Trump said last year that it was his second favorite book behind only one other: The Bible. He estimated that the book has sold about one million copies .
