Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter of Donald Trump’s book “The Art of the Deal,” says he knew from the beginning he was selling out.
“Literally, the term was invented to describe what I did,” Schwartz said in a New Yorker profile.
Schwartz said he had doubts about writing the book from the beginning, but eventually agreed to do it for half of the book’s advance and half of the royalties. Trump agreed to those terms.
Now, Schwartz said he tries to redeem himself in 2016 by donating the royalties he still earns from the popular book to charities. Specifically, he donates to charities that directly contradict Trump’s political positions, such as the National Immigration Law Center, Human Rights Watch, the Center for the Victims of Torture, the National Immigration Forum and the Tahirih Justice Center.
But Schwartz said he still carries guilt for painting Trump in a more positive light than he felt the presidential candidate deserved.
“I’ll carry this until the end of my life,” Schwartz said. “There’s no righting it. But I like the idea that, the more copies that ‘The Art of the Deal’ sells, the more money I can donate to the people whose rights Trump seeks to abridge.”
In the profile, Schwartz calls the Republican presidential candidate a man with characteristics of a sociopath, no attention span and a need for public attention. He also calls Trump a habitual liar and says he “couldn’t care less” about the people who voted for him, or anyone but himself.
“I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is,” Schwartz said. “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.”