A skilful exposé, but no smoking gun

Book review: Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money and PowerTrump Revealed is a cut above the standard political biography, but the full exposé is yet to be written, says Matthew Partridge.

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He's a womaniser, but he's committed no act of gross illegality

Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money and Power

by Michael Kranish and Marc FisherPublished by Simon & Schuster (£20)(Buy at Amazon)

Polls suggest Donald Trump ismore likely to end up a footnote inAmerican political history than in the White House, but there is still a ready market for books about the real-estate tycoon turned reality-show host turned Republican presidential candidate.In Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money and Power, Washington Post journalists Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher look at Trump's life and career, from his childhood up to the present day.

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"Any voter who is not already devoted to Trump's cause will find plenty of reasons to think long and hard about whether to support him after reading this book," says USA Today's Ray Locker. It is "crammed with court records, financial data, anecdotes and interviews about Trump's unscrupulous business practices, his liberal use of truthful hyperbole' and false promises to make himself rich, usually at the expense of others". Overall, this "compelling narrative", compiled from "the work of dozens of Post journalists", ends up delivering "enough devastating details to disqualify virtually any other candidate".

The "lurid detail" of Trump Revealed shows him to be a "showman, womaniser, and a business partner who quickly ditches failing schemes", agrees Dan Roberts inThe Guardian. However, the most interesting aspect of the book is "Trump's parasitic, and at turns downright bizarre, relationship with the press", including a mixture of threats, inducements to individual journalists and cases where Trump leaked information about his first divorce under a false name. His attitude to the media reflects a man obsessed with shaping his own public image. "For decades, Trump's daily morning routine included a review of everything written... about him in the previous 24 hours."

Trump Revealed confirms that Trump is "unconcerned by ethics", with his supposed "success" mostly the resultof "constant lying and exaggerationand occasional egregious bullying of journalists and analysts", says David Aaronovitch, writing in The Times. Still, it's disappointing that this "skilful and meticulous stitch-together of what has already been put on the record" fails to find a smoking gun. At the end of the day it confirms that Trump "has had no one rubbed out, participated in no wild sex parties and committed no obvious act of gross illegality". Ultimately, one emerges with a picture of a man who "is not unintelligent and possesses an instinct for what people enjoy".

MoneyWeek's view

Trump Revealed

Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri