Trump: How to Get Rich

Overview
Published in 2004 at the height of The Apprentice’s early popularity, Trump: How to Get Rich is a brisk, anecdote-driven guide to making money and managing a high-profile career. Co-authored with Meredith McIver, it mixes short chapters of maxims, behind-the-scenes snapshots of Trump’s daily routine, and case studies from real estate, branding, and television. The through line is a persona of relentless deal-making, showmanship, and attention to visible quality, paired with a hard-nosed insistence on legal and financial protection.

Core Principles
Trump urges readers to think big while rigorously protecting the downside. He argues that ambition without discipline courts disaster, so every bold move should be hedged by contracts, contingencies, and cash buffers. Momentum matters, but so does patience: know your market, do the homework, and move fast only when the numbers and leverage point in your favor. He treats publicity as oxygen, advising readers to cultivate media, stay on message, and turn attention into tangible opportunity.

Negotiation and Deals
Negotiation is framed as an exercise in leverage and perception. Trump recommends asking for more than you expect, creating competition between counterparties, and being ready to walk away. Details drive outcomes: terms, deadlines, repair clauses, financing, and approval rights often matter more than headline price. He repeatedly stresses the value of a great lawyer and accountant, the importance of clear contracts, and the need to verify everything yourself. Speed and certainty can be powerful bargaining chips; delay can be used to fatigue the other side.

Management and Work Habits
The book sketches a CEO who prizes brevity and responsiveness. Keep meetings short, calls focused, and memos concise. Hire the best people, reward loyalty, and remove underperformers quickly. Trump presents himself as constantly on the phone, inspecting properties, reading legal documents, and watching costs. He advocates decisiveness over consensus drift, with a bias for visible excellence: lobbies, entrances, and finishes shape customer perception and justify premium pricing.

Money, Risk, and Real Estate
On real estate, he emphasizes location, timing, and design that commands attention. Spend where customers see it, economize where they do not. Build in conservative financing, maintain liquidity, and avoid overleveraging in hot markets. He endorses long-term value creation through quality and brand, not quick flips. The book highlights turnarounds and large-scale projects as proof points, framing setbacks as tuition in risk management and due diligence.

Branding and Media
Trump treats brand as an appreciating asset and a moat. He describes how licensing, television, and public appearances amplify deal flow while keeping capital risk low. Image and presentation are strategic: the look of a building, the sheen of a lobby, and the consistency of a public persona all feed pricing power. Media engagement is not an afterthought but a core business function.

Personal Rules
Discipline shows up in habits and boundaries. He champions punctuality, direct communication, and relentless follow-through. He advises against alcohol and drugs, credits family experience for that stance, and argues for legal foresight in private life, including prenuptial agreements. Golf is presented as both leisure and networking platform, where character and competitiveness reveal themselves.

Tone and Takeaways
The voice is brash, confident, and aphoristic, leaning on quick chapters that read like memos from a corner office. The advice blends common-sense business hygiene with showman’s flair: be tough but fair, overprepare, spotlight quality, and make the deal feel bigger than the numbers. It is less a step-by-step blueprint than a collection of habits, attitudes, and cautionary guardrails, unified by a central claim: disciplined ambition, amplified by brand and media savvy, is a reproducible path to wealth.