Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America

by Maggie Haberman

What do you need me to say? In some ways, it was the question that informed all Trump had done as a businessman, where success had made him a recurring character in New York City’s tabloid newspapers. Young Donald Trump had been athletic as a teenager, and then aspired to a career in Hollywood. He ultimately fulfilled his father’s desire for a successor in the family business: real estate. But what the son really always wanted was to be a star.

Without understanding how the federal government worked, and with little interest in learning, he recreated around him the world that had shaped him.

Among his most consistent attributes are a desire to grind down his opponents; his refusal to be shamed, or to voluntarily step away from the fight; his projection that things will somehow always work out in his favor; and his refusal to accept the way life in business or politics has traditionally been conducted.

A core tenet of the Trump political movement has been finding publicly acceptable targets to serve as receptacles for preexisting anger.

For Trump, however, the timing was essential. The prenuptial agreement he had negotiated set a horizon of five years, after which Marla would be entitled to more money in a divorce. Separating before then would leave her with a paltry fraction of what she would get if he let another year pass. Through anonymously placed quotes in news stories about the split, Trump and his lawyers made plain his primary motivation: leaving his marriage when he did was simply smart money.