Love him or hate him, real estate magnate and presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is the quintessential guilty pleasure of American politics.
To those on the left, his deeply offensive blowhard persona and elephant-sized ego are fodder for easy, endless comedy — hence St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman’s tongue-in-cheek tweet earlier this month “banning” Trump from the city for his anti-Muslim comments.
To those on the right — and we’re talking far, far right here — he embodies the contents of their collective id: racism, sexism, nationalism, xenophobia.
Centrists, meanwhile, are entertained, even if they’re a little scared about him actually making it to the White House.
So, to kick off this edition of CL’S Books Issue and its theme of Reading for Pleasure: Guilty and Otherwise, we thought we’d put together a list of the most delicious quotes from books either “written” by the Donald or of which he’s been the subject.
• ¨“My favorite part (of Pulp Fiction) is when Sam has his gun out in the diner and he tells the guy to tell his girlfriend to shut up. Tell that bitch to be cool. Say: Bitch be cool. I love those lines.” TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald, by Timothy O’Brien, 2005.
• “… the same assets that excite me in the chase, often, once they are acquired, leave me bored. For me, you see, the important thing is the getting, not the having.” Surviving at the Top, by Donald Trump, 1990.
• “I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts.” Trump: The Art of the Deal, by Donald Trump, 1987.
• “All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me — consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected.” How to Get Rich, by Donald Trump, 2004.
• “He is so smooth and effective a performer that he completely won over the American people. Only now, nearly seven years later, are people beginning to question whether there’s anything beneath that smile.” The Art of the Deal, 1987. Trump on Ronald Reagan.
• “For many years I’ve said that if someone screws you, screw them back. When somebody hurts you, just go after them as viciously and as violently as you can.” How to Get Rich, 2004.
• “It was the sort of place where you were likely to see a wealthy 75-year-old guy walk in with three blondes from Sweden.” On a “club” Trump joined in his 20s. The Art of the Deal, 1987.
• “If you don’t win you can’t get away with it. And I win, I win, I always win. In the end, I always win, whether it’s in golf, whether it’s in tennis, whether it’s in life, I just always win. And I tell people I always win, because I do.” TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald, 2005.
• “And while I can’t honestly say I need an 80-foot living room, I do get a kick out of having one.” The Art of the Deal, 1987
• “Oftentimes when I was sleeping with one of the top women in the world I would say to myself, thinking about me as a boy from Queens, ‘Can you believe what I am getting?’” Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life, by Donald Trump and Bill Zanker, 2008.