Lucky loser

Soon after announcing his first campaign for the US presidency, Donald Trump told a national television audience that life “has not been easy for me.” Building on a narrative he’d been telling for decades, he spun a story about a small loan from his father which he turned into a multi-billion-dollar business and real estate empire. That background, he argued, made him qualified to lead the country. Except: None of it was true. Drawing on files of confidential tax and business records and interviews with scores of Trump insiders, Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig unravel the untruth of his tale. They track Trump´s financial rise and fall, and rise and fall again, as he squanders his fortunes on money-losing businesses. He tacks his name above the door of every building, while taking out huge loans he’ll never repay and cutting into his family members’ inheritances. For decades, he carelessly tarnishes the value of his name by allowing anyone with a big enough check to use it, and cheats the television producer who not only rescues him from bankruptcy but casts him as a business guru – a public image that will carry him to the White House.