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You are here: Home / 2016 Campaign / Trump Laid Out His Game Plan 30 Years Ago

Trump Laid Out His Game Plan 30 Years Ago

January 25, 2016 at 2:18 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 12 Comments

Ben Jenkins: “Donald Trump’s six-month stay atop the Republican presidential field has confounded political pros. Rather than follow the playbook that has long guided campaigns through the arduous primary calendar, the bombastic billionaire is charting his own path, filled with insults and vainglorious preening that theoretically shouldn’t attract voters. But Mr. Trump laid out how he would run his campaign 30 years ago in his best seller The Art of the Deal. Perhaps if more strategists had read the book, this race would be tighter.”

A few choice quotes from the book:

  • “A little hyperbole never hurts.”
  • “Sometimes, part of making a deal is denigrating your competition.”
  • “Controversy, in short, sells.”
  • “Good publicity is preferable to bad, but from a bottom-line perspective, bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all.”
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Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Donald Trump

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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