‘Art Of The Deal’ Should Be Renamed ‘The Sociopath,’ Says Co-Author

In an interview with CNN, the co-author of President Donald Trump’s Art of the Deal said that the book should be renamed The Sociopath, Newsweek reports.

Tony Schwartz, who has become a fierce Trump critic, went on CNN to discuss a New York Times report published earlier this week which — citing Trump’s tax returns — demonstrated that the president had lost more than $1 billion between 1985 and 1994.

Schwartz said that even he was surprised by the information, but when asked about the pressure Trump must be facing given that he has long claimed to be a successful businessman, the writer suggested that the president likely did not react to the uncomfortable situation like an average person would.

Trump “doesn’t experience the kind of overwhelm of pressure or tension at the level you or I would, or most people would,” Schwartz told CNN host Anderson Cooper, proceeding to describe the president as a “sociopath.”

“If I had to rename The Art of the Deal, I would call it The Sociopath. Because he has no conscience, he has no guilt. All he wants to do is make the case that he would like to be true.”

Cooper pressed the writer on the issue, asking him to re-state that he indeed believes that the commander-in-chief is a sociopath. Schwartz doubled down on his claim, suggesting that interested viewers google “sociopath,” and see for themselves whether Trump ticks the boxes of behavioral patterns mental health professionals typically ascribe to sociopaths.

“The first or second entry gives you nine or 10 descriptive words about what a sociopath is, and it always includes a kind of pathological narcissism, which is what many people describe him as being,” the author said, adding that apart from being a narcissist, Trump also lacks conscience, which makes him a sociopath.

President Donald Trump’s mental health was not the only issue Schwartz discussed with CNN. The Art of the Deal co-author also talked about the president’s business endeavors — which are now, in the wake of the New York Times report, being looked at more closely — stating that Trump’s business is essentially a “Ponzi scheme.”

We’ve learned a lot already from Donald Trump's old returns.

But what these scoops don’t tell us and what complying with congressional demands would: Who is paying Trump right now, and what, if anything, are they getting in return? https://t.co/0vQwqGCRet

— Vox (@voxdotcom) May 11, 2019

The Trump business is “thoroughly rotten to the core,” according to Schwartz, who also said that Trump has “never” paid taxes.

The author has been receiving a lot of media attention lately, not only because of new revelations about Trump’s business dealings, but because of the comments he had made about the president’s best-known book.

In a Twitter message published on Wednesday, Schwartz suggested that he would be comfortable with Art of the Deal being categorized as fiction.