Donald Trump: Master Apprentice [Hardcover]

Gwenda Blair (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2005

On the hugely successful hit reality TV show The Apprentice, Donald Trump tells his contenders that location and pricing are supremely significant. But in his own life, there have been other maxims: Do whatever it takes to win. Don't spare the chutzpah. Always use the superlative. Make everything into an advertisement for yourself. Whatever happens, always claim victory. Following these personal commandments, he has turned bragging, self-inflation, and showing off into competitive advantages that have brought him national and international renown.

In Donald Trump: Master Apprentice, best-selling author Gwenda Blair recounts a true-life history with more twists and turns than any television producer could possibly imagine. Towering skyscrapers and glittering casinos, a luxury airline and a football-field-size yacht, steamy affairs and bitter lawsuits, near bankruptcy and stormy feuds -- all this and more are part of the life of Trump.

An adaptation and update of her definitive biography, The Trumps, this new book provides fresh material on Donald Trump's brushes with bankruptcy, mammoth construction projects, and ever-expanding place in American life. Drawing on recent interviews with the celebrated real estate magnate, his associates, his rivals, and contestants from his television show, Blair offers new insight into the man who seems to have it all. For the first time, we also get a glimpse of the person who will ultimately decide the fate of the Trump brand: Donald Trump, Jr., the real-life apprentice who hopes to put his own imprint on his father's empire.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Rich, detailed, and informative, not only for those interested in business but also those who follow celebrity TV shows and gossip columns."

-- The Ottawa Citizen

"Blair does an admirable job of showing us a slice of America through this one family....The book has the scope and depth of an excellent historical read."

-- Rocky Mountain News (Denver)

"A fine, highly informative, and respectable book about a despicable subject."

-- The San Diego Union-Tribune

"Blair does a superb job explaining how Donald succeeded."

-- The Philadelphia Inquirer

"It really is a helluva story, and it's ably told by Blair."

-- New York Daily News

"Blair neatly captures Trump's uncanny business instincts, as well as his competitiveness, chutzpah, cruelty, vulgarity and hucksterism. And she catches him in his lies, or what Trump himself calls 'truthful hyperbole.'"

-- The New York Times Book Review

"Blair is relentless in examining and anatomizing Donald Trump's business dealings -- she has the assiduousness and grasp of Robert A. Caro....She's also convincing on Donald Trump's private life."

-- Robert Gottlieb, The New York Observer

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Gwenda Blair is the author of the bestselling Almost Golden and has written for The New York Times, New York, Newsweek, the New York Daily News, Esquire, Smart Money, The Village Voice, and other newspapers and magazines. She lives in New York City and teaches at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743275101
• ISBN-13: 978-0743275101
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,675,683 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #19 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( T ) > Trump, Donald

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Re-packaged and updated, in order to ride the wave March 11, 2005

By Corinne H. Smith TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Everybody and his brother wants to ride along on Donald Trump's current wave of popularity. During the past year, we've seen books appear by Apprentice-candidate Amy Henry, first Apprentice winner Bill Rancic, board-room colleagues Carolyn Kepcher and George Ross, and naturally, several business / autobios by Trump himself. Now in early 2005, we have two new Trump biographies: this title, and "No Such Thing as Over-Exposure," by Robert Slater. But this one isn't entirely new. It's based on a longer book that Gwenda Blair released in 2000.

"The Trumps: Three Generations that Built an Empire" was a much thicker volume, divided into three equal sections: the first for grandpa Friedrich Trump's immigrant story, the second for father Fred Trump's rise in New York real estate, and the last for son Donald's takeover. Several glossy pages of photos were included so that we could see the family grow and change along the way. In "Master Apprentice," Blair used her previous work as a foundation. She stripped the Friedrich and Fred sections away, condensing more than 200 pages into an interwoven 6-page introductory backstory. She eliminated the photos. She kept the same chapter titles and structures for Donald's section and added a final 16-page chapter that covers the last five years, chronicling the Atlantic City bankruptcy and the tremendous fame surrounding "The Apprentice" TV show. The last four pages turn the reader's attention to Don Jr. and predict his own beginning success. While much of the original text remains the same, Blair should be given credit for retooling and refining some of the initial writing and adding new details where they are pertinent. The final outcome doesn't look or read like a slapdash piece, and it's not a carbon copy of "The Trumps."

Blair's work stands apart from the other books mentioned because of the substantive detail she's gleaned about every Trump deal ever made. (It's appropriate that many negotiations hinge on the Atlantic City properties, because the facts read like a never-ending Monopoly game gone tremendously awry.) Her research is exhaustive and her bibliography, extensive. She spoke to hundreds of individuals, though seemingly, not to Donald Trump himself. The result isn't a glowing account of its main subject but is about as neutral as it can be. The reader is left to decide whether Donald will ultimately ride off into the sunset with a white hat or a black one covering that signature coiffure. Given his drive to be the best and to have only the best, we know at least that the horse would be the fastest, the Stetson would be the largest, and they would both cost more than the average American's annual salary.

Read this book (or its predecessor) first. It will provide perspective for the rest of the titles in the Trump / Apprentice canon.

4.0 out of 5 stars A Look In To The Donald March 6, 2008

By JB Capital management Co

Format:Paperback

Master Apprentice provides an eye opening view for Trump first timers in to the life "The Donald". Trump appears more a master "salesman" than "apprentice" in his legendary efforts for power, prestige and notoriety in Manhattan real estate. A good read.

Jeremy Hill
JB Capital Management

3.0 out of 5 stars Mostly just retreads from her wonderful trilogy of the Trump family January 4, 2007

By Mary Ellen Quinn

Format:Hardcover

I enjoyed her book on the Trump family history especially about the grandfather. This book however disappointed me. I found it to be a knockoff of the original trilogy with very little new material. Just being honest. I'm a true Trump devotee so I read everything out there on him, whether written by him or someone else.