The Art of the Donald: Lessons from America's Philosopher-in-Chief

by Christopher Bedford

Motivational self-help advice from President Donald Trump, covering everything from leadership and self-confidence to how to succeed in business.

President Donald Trump knows about living the good life and achieving success. With his election to the presidency, he added to a life that already includes billions of dollars, worldwide celebrity, and a beautiful family, despite legions of haters. In The Art of the Donald , Daily Caller News Foundation editor-in-chief Christopher Bedford takes you inside the new president’s unorthodox mind, unlocking the genius of his approach to everything in life and offering you insight into navigating life the Trump way.

Featuring personal campaign-trail anecdotes and lessons from Trump’s long career as a businessman and politician, The Art of the Donald offers you life-changing pieces of advice, including Keeping your message simple and delivering it effectively; Using competition to govern yourself and chaos to confuse your opponents; Cutting out the middlemen and getting directly to the deal-makers; Redefining conflicts and transactions on your own terms; Solving problems with ingenuity instead of money; and Believing in yourself, no matter what your opponents try to say .

Written in the style of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and The Tao of Warren Buffett, this is a must-read for every Trump fan (and even the haters).

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

Published October 10, 2017

About the author

Christopher Bedford is curator at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

Reviews

[Mary Aune · Rating 3 out of 5]

A journalist writes about Donald Trump—how he communicates, how he negotiates, how he fights, and how he wins. A fun read about Donald.

[Craig Rowland · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up The Art of the Donald: Lessons From America’s Philosopher-in-Chief by Christopher Bedford, thinking it was a humorous collection of the president’s infamous verbal idiocies, but discovered that it was a book of thirty rules that the president used to propel himself to the White House. The author is a supporter of the president and makes his feelings known about rivals, not only those who are from different political parties such as Hillary Rodham Clinton, but those from within the Republican party that the president had to battle against to win the nomination, such as Jeb Bush. Bedford in almost every single instance employed the annoying exclamation mark in referring to Bush (by first name only), based on the former Florida governor’s failed 2016 presidential campaign poster stylizing. Its effect was to mock Bush, especially in his performance at the Republican candidates debates.

This book was serious in tone but every time Bedford referred to Bush as Jeb!, with the exclamation mark, he brought the tone down a notch, cheapening the effect he wanted. One can’t really outline the rules that lead to greatness, or, in the president’s case, to the White House, while repeating a sight gag ad nauseam.

Bedford divided his book into seven chapters with a few rules within each. The book starts with Building Your Empire, Deal By Deal with rules such as “If You’re Doing Something New, the Old Rules Don’t Apply”, “You Don’t Need Most People, Even the Ones Everyone Says You Need” and “Be True to Your Brand”. Subsequent chapters are Embrace the Chaos; How to Keep Friends and Create Allies; Get Your Message Out; Dealing with Critics (and Other Haters and Losers); How to Win so Much, You’ll Get Tired of Winning; and ending with How to Live the Best Life. Various rules within these chapters include “Chaos Confuses the Enemy”, “A Sense of Crisis Creates Demand for Command”, “Chaos Communication Theory”, “The Difference Loyalty Makes”, “Own the Narrative (Attack, Attack, Attack)”, “Redefine Things on Your Terms” and “The People You Do Need, You Can Outsmart”. In 2017 these may have seemed novel points among the president’s modus operandi, but nine years later most people know this is how the guy works. In 2026, this is all old news. We all have copies, well-thumbed and dogeared, of the presidential playbook. As this was written by an author who favours the president I was put off by his fawning over Orange Glo but I can’t say I was surprised to encounter such ass-kissing.

A serious homophonic misspelling occurred on page 132, when the author wrote:

“…a real estate lord of New York’s working-class burrows…”

when the correct word is boroughs. No one caught this?

This book was published in 2017, barely one year into the president’s first term. Now that we have the hindsight of a full first term and a year and a half into the second, one’s perspective has changed about how the president deals with his own staff, including those he hand-picked. Surely Bedford is not blindered–now–by the president’s colossal failure to pick competent people to do his bidding? While the second term is staffed by more sycophants than in the first term, regardless of your position within the administration, as long as you are under the president, you are expendable. Bedford wrote that the president “has remained loyal to his vice president in return.” How quickly his opinion changed about Mike Pence on January 6, 2021.

[Rd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent - well worth the quick read for anyone looking for insight into Trump being Trump.

[Laurence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but a little repetitive...

Some keen insights on President Trump’s life and Presidential campaign, but needed an editor tor take out repeated anecdotes, fun to read for political junkies...

[Jeff Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written