As we approach the 2016 presidential election, more and more information about Republican nominee Donald Trump is rising to the surface.One medium for this information in particular is Brad Thomas’ book, "The Trump Factor," which takes a business approach to Donald Trump’s rise to the top of the corporate world. Thomas joined Thursday’s edition of PreMarket Prep to discuss what went into the book and what to expect when it is released.
'The Trump Factor'
"The Trump Factor" was not written overnight; Thomas noted how it took years to complete after first coming up with the idea.
“Believe it or not, I started this book three years ago. I still can’t believe looking back that it’s taken me three years, but I walked into Mr. Trump’s office just about three years ago. And I cover the real estate sector, and I think he had some deal going on that I was interested in.
“As time went by, I finally came to a realization that nobody had ever really written a book from a third party that was not paid by Donald Trump to really find the true value of Donald Trump’s real estate portfolio, as well as [the true value of] Donald Trump.
“So, I started this three years ago. I have now visited every single real estate property that Donald Trump owns in the world. That’s one reason it took me time.”
Expected Reception
Thomas believes the release of the book just a few months before the 2016 presidential election bodes well for his readers.
“I think the timing is really good,” he noted. “I think a lot of people want to know what he’s really worth. Obviously he's holding back on the tax returns.”
“I think my book it going to be a lot more detailed. It’s certainly no substitute for a tax return, but it's going to have a lot of detail with Trump’s real estate holdings.”
Thomas added how he told Donald Trump that "The Trump Factor" will be more successful than "The Art of the Deal," Trump’s most successful book.
“[I said to him] ‘I need to two things from you. I don’t need your money, but I need access to your people and access to your properties. And if you give me those two things, then I will produce a book that I think will be in high demand.’ And I said, ‘Mr. Trump, my book will be better than your book ["The Art of the Deal"].’ I looked at him, he smiled and he said, ‘Good luck.’ And I walked out. Let’s see if my book is better than his.”
Business Sense And Cents
He added his business takeaways from the book, including how Trump’s properties helped lead him to his current financial status.
“From a business perspective, I probably know more about his portfolio than anyone in that company. Maybe even some of his buildings I may know more than he does.
“For example, the Washington, D.C. hotel property that’s going to open here in September — that’s the old post office building on Pennsylvania Avenue. We’ve got a whole chapter dedicated to that particular property, and that includes the competition and evaluation and long term how this property should perform in D.C.,” he said.
“When you break down all these individual components and how we come up with evaluations for these properties, you can see that Donald Trump is, from a business perspective— this guy knows how to create value. He knows how to create billions of dollars of net worth. When you buy his book, you will know exactly how many billions this guy is worth.”
Who's Thomas?
Thomas, a Trump supporter himself, noted how Trump’s skills in the corporate world would successfully carry over to the Oval Office.
“For the record I support Donald Trump. I don’t support all of his items on his ticket, but again from a business perspective I certainly believe he has the credentials to be the CEO of the United States of America. I think he knows how to manage risk.
“My job [...] is to look at the pros and the cons. And that means with Donald Trump the successes and the failures. What I’ve really been attracted to during the course of this project is that Donald Trump has pivoted away from a lot of the failures, which are widely known and quite frequently seen in the newspaper and television.”
Thomas admitted that Donald Trump has had failures in his past, but that the Republican nominee is not alone in that territory.
“I went through this whole process of looking at all of the failures — from the casinos to the airline to the NFL team, there are a number of failures — but there are number of failures, too, with Warren Buffett. When Berkshire Hathaway started as textile company that he closed down when the stocks went south, and so you name a billionaire who has failed [...] Every one has failed.
“What I can honestly tell you — and I’ve been around Mr. Trump quite a bit and his family quite a bit over the last three years — is he is a more disciplined investor today, and you’re seeing that with the deals he’s doing. He’s got a very conservative balance sheet. So I don’t think he’s going to be making any of the same mistakes he made two decades ago.”
While there are many things that the general public does not know about Donald Trump, perhaps "The Trump Factor" by Brad Thomas will fill some of the holes in the story.
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