Enron’s Ken Lay and Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski made headlines for living lavishly, basking in the money their corporations made. But no one seems to live larger than Donald Trump does. Host of the NBC series The Apprentice, real-estate mogul, celebrity magnet and all-around intriguing personality, Trump is the subject of Robert Slater’s No Such Thing as Over-Exposure: Inside the Life and Celebrity of Donald Trump. Yet, Trump differs from Lay and Kozlowski in one major way: the money he spends or loses is his own.
Trump inherited a nice sum and followed in his dad’s footsteps as a real estate developer, but kicked the marketing up a notch. His lifestyle is part of his marketing plan: he builds places for wealthy people to live and play. And that, Slater argues, is exactly how Trump makes it big in business: he maintains and polishes his celebrity mystique by perfectly timed media management. This is a hugely entertaining book that dispels a few popular myths about the Donald. Take his signature You’re fired phrase apparently Trump rarely fires anyone in his real-life work life; his execs have to beg him to let someone go.
