Who actually wrote the art of the deal
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Executive summary
Tony Schwartz, a professional journalist, ghostwrote and is widely acknowledged as the principal writer of Trump: The Art of the Deal, even though the published cover credits the book to "Donald J. Trump" with Tony Schwartz [1] [2]. Schwartz spent months interviewing Trump, was paid an upfront fee and royalties, and later publicly disavowed the political consequences of the book while Trump has at times claimed credit for writing it [1] [2] [3].
1. The byline versus the work: who the book credits and who produced the prose
When Random House published Trump: The Art of the Deal in 1987, the cover listed Donald Trump as the named author with Tony Schwartz as co‑author, but contemporaneous and later reporting, and Schwartz’s own account, attribute the actual writing and shaping of the manuscript to Schwartz after extensive interviews with Trump [1] [2]. Schwartz has described spending hundreds of hours with Trump, conducting interviews and turning those conversations into the narrative and chapters that became the book, a process consistent with ghostwriting even though the public face of the book was Trump [4] [2].
2. The deal behind The Art of the Deal: payment, credit, and the publishing record
Reporting and Schwartz’s own statements detail that he was recruited after writing a critical New York Magazine piece about Trump and was paid an upfront fee and a share of royalties to write the book, arrangements that reflect an accepted ghostwriter role while still assigning public credit to Trump [1] [5]. Random House executives have noted the practical reality that Trump did not submit written material to the publisher himself, underscoring that Schwartz carried out the substantive writing even as the book served to magnify Trump’s public persona [1].
3. Conflicting memories: Trump’s later claims versus contemporaneous testimony
Donald Trump has offered conflicting statements about authorship—at times asserting he wrote the book himself and at other times acknowledging Schwartz’s role—but multiple third‑party accounts and Schwartz’s detailed recollections make clear that Schwartz wrote the text based on interviews with Trump [1] [2]. The distinction between “authorship” as public branding and “authorship” as the act of writing is central: the published work was marketed as Trump’s voice while the craft and composition were performed by Schwartz [1] [2].
4. Aftermath and motive: Schwartz’s regrets and political consequences
Decades after publication, Tony Schwartz has publicly expressed regret for having written the book, arguing that his work helped build a persona that later had significant political consequences; he has written essays and given interviews that criticize Trump and reflect remorse over lending his writing to that project [3] [6] [5]. Schwartz’s change of tone and active denunciation of Trump are well documented and form part of the public record about the book’s legacy [3] [4].
5. How journalists and historians treat the authorship question
Major journalistic outlets and documentary projects consistently present Schwartz as the book’s co‑author/ghostwriter and the individual responsible for the prose and narrative construction, while noting that the book is credited to Trump and played a pivotal role in constructing his public image [2] [4]. Scholarly and media treatments therefore generally draw a distinction between the credited byline and the person who actually wrote the manuscript, assigning primary writing responsibility to Schwartz based on his own testimony and publisher records [1] [2].
6. Caveats and limits of available reporting
Public sources document Schwartz’s central role and Trump’s variable statements, but specifics such as the exact manuscript drafts, line‑by‑line revision history, or private communications between Schwartz, Trump, and Random House beyond what has been publicly disclosed are not available in the provided reporting; judgment rests on Schwartz’s account, publisher statements and contemporaneous reporting [1] [2] [5].