The man who made Trump

Tony Schwartz blames himself for Donald Trump. In 1985, Schwartz – then a young, left-wing journalist – went to interview Trump for Playboy. When the businessman, then 38, said he was thinking of writing his autobiography, Schwartz suggested instead penning a book called The Art of the Deal. Trump agreed, and asked him to ghostwrite it. Schwartz needed the money, and he got plenty: the book sold more than a million copies, with the royalties split 50:50. But by tidying up Trump’s chaotic ramblings, and giving him an air of sagacity, Schwartz helped create a golden aura of success around him. It led to Trump hosting The Apprentice for a decade – further burnishing his fame, and his image as a preternaturally gifted businessman – which gave him the platform for his presidential bid. But it wasn’t until Trump secured the Republican nomination, says Schwartz, that he finally understood what a monster he had created. “That’s when I thought: ‘Oh my God, I’ve contributed to creating the public image of this man who is sociopathic and people don’t realise it,’” he told David Smith in The Observer. The Trump he knows will be a “staggeringly dangerous” president. “He’s more out of control in the last couple of months than I’ve ever seen him. He doesn’t have any core beliefs beyond his own aggrandisement and power.” But, speaking before the US election, Schwartz warned that even a Trump loss would have been dangerous. Chances are, he’d have done everything he could to deflect blame onto others, “to insist it’s a rigged election and to try to mobilise the angry people who are his base to do something violent and crazy, which he’d then [have blamed] on the next administration”.