Lucky Loser

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters behind the 2018 bombshell New York Times expose of then-President Trump''s finances, an explosive investigation into the history of Donald Trump''s wealth, revealing how one of the country''s biggest business failures lied his way into the White House Soon after announcing his first campaign for the US presidency, Donald J. Trump told a national television audience that life ''has not been easy for me. It has not been easy for me.'' Building on a narrative he had been telling for decades, he spun a hardscrabble fable of how he parlayed a small loan from his father into a multi-billion-dollar business and real estate empire. This feat, he argued, made him singularly qualified to lead the country. Except: None of it was true. Born to a rich father who made him the beneficiary of his own highly lucrative investments, Trump received the equivalent of more than $500 million today via means that required no business expertise whatsoever. Drawing on over twenty years'' worth of Trump''s confidential tax information, including the tax returns he tried to conceal, alongside business records and interviews with Trump insiders, New York Times investigative reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig track Trump''s financial rise and fall, and rise and fall again. For decades, he squanders his fortunes on money losing businesses, only to be saved yet again by financial serendipity. He tacks his name above the door of every building, while taking out huge loans he''ll never repay. He obsesses over appearances, while ignoring threats to the bottom line and mounting costly lawsuits against city officials. He tarnishes the value of his name by allowing anyone with a big enough check to use it, and cheats the television producer who not only rescues him from bankruptcy but casts him as a business savant - the public image that will carry him to the White House. A masterpiece of narrative reporting, Lucky Loser is a meticulous, nearly-century spanning narrative, filled with scoops from Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago, Atlantic City, and the set of The Apprentice. At a moment when Trump''s tether to success and power is more precarious than ever, here for the first time is the definitive true accounting of Trump and his money - what he had, what he lost, and what he has left - and the final word on the myth of Trump, the self-made billionaire. ...

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Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig

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LONGLISTED FOR THE FT AND SHRODERS BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024

Inheritance. Fraud. Deceit. Lucky Loser is an explosive investigation into the truth behind Trump's wealth, drawing on decades' worth of confidential tax information, business records and insider interviews.

Soon after announcing his first campaign for the U.S. presidency, Donald J. Trump declared life has 'not been easy for me'. He spun a fable of how he turned a small loan from his father into a multi-billion-dollar empire, and argued this made him singularly qualified to lead the country.

Except none of it was true.

Born to a rich father, Trump received the equivalent of more than $500 million today.

The story of Trump's finances is one of rises and falls, of squandering fortunes on money-losing businesses to be saved by blind luck. He tacks his name to buildings while taking out huge loans he'll never repay. He obsesses over appearances while ignoring threats to the bottom line and mounting costly lawsuits. He tarnishes the value of the Trump name by allowing anyone with a big enough cheque to use it. He makes side deals to cut out the television producer who not only res­cued him from bankruptcy but casts him as a business guru - the image that carries him to the White House.

Here, for the first time, in a meticulous masterpiece of narrative reporting filled with scoops, is the definitive true accounting of Trump and his money - what he had, what he lost, and what he has left - and the final word on the myth of Trump, the self-made millionaire.