Diamond Donnie’s Greatest Hits

Back in the November 17, 1987 issue, Voice mob reporter Bill Bastone turned book reviewer. The Runnin’ Scared columnist read The Art of The Deal so the rest of us wouldn’t have to.

DIAMOND DONNY’S GREATEST HITS

For only $19.95 Trump Youth will soon be able to gobble up 288 pages worth of Donald Trump’s “full, fabulous life, ” as the book jacket calls it. Trump: The Art of the Deal is the developer’s Greatest Hits album, a tale of the millionaire’s big deals: Grand Hyatt (Chapter 6), Trump Tower (Chapter 7), Atlantic City (Chapter 8), etc. Trump wrote the book with New York magazine writer Tony Schwartz. As a public service for those who need their 20 bucks to help pay Decem­ber’s rent, here are a few highlights:

On Roy Cohn: ” … all Roy’s friends knew he was gay …. He felt that to the average person, being gay was synonymous with being a wimp. That was the last thing he wanted to project, so he almost went overboard to avoid it. If the subject of gay rights came up, Roy was always the first one to speak out against them.”

Rent control: “. . . a disaster for all but the privi­leged minority who are pro­tected by it.” Trump names Ed Koch as part of this mi­nority. Koch pays $350-a­month for a Greenwich Vil­lage apartment, Trump writes, that he “doesn’t even live in.”

On Koch: ” … he’s a bully, pure and simple. Bul­lies may act tough, but they’re really closet cowards.”