As Trump’s one-time allies enter pacts with Robert Mueller, the president may be hoping they haven’t read his 1987 book

The Art of the (Plea) Deal. Well, Trump would surely approve

Given Donald Trump’s styling of himself as a master deal-maker, it must be quite galling for the president to see some of his former associates striking some rewarding deals of their own.

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Specifically, plea deals.

Five people close to Trump are now said to have struck deals with federal prosecutors, including some who have agreed to cooperate with Robert Mueller’s investigation into collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia.



As Trump spent the last few decades exhorting The Art of the Deal, he could surely never have imagined his former associates would so willingly take his advice.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Art of the Deal. Photograph: PR Company Handout

Trump’s longtime fixer Michael Cohen, former deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, tabloid executive and friend David Pecker and Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg have all picked up on the president’s zeal for the deal. Each has reportedly entered into pacts with prosecutors.

Trump has long praised dealmakers and berated those unable to make deals. He repeatedly criticized Barack Obama for not making deals. Unlike the five men above.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) President Obama & Putin fail to reach deal on Syria - so what else is new? Obama is not a natural deal maker. Only makes bad deals!

As well as wishing he hadn’t been so enthusiastic about advocating the striking of deals, Trump might be hoping his one-time allies didn’t read The Art of the Deal too closely.

Because in his 1987 book, Trump offered a wealth of deal-making advice.

“Leverage: don’t make deals without it,” Trump wrote, which sounds ominous for the president in the current climate.

“MY STYLE of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward. I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I’m after,” Trump once advised, while Cohen, Pecker et al could do worse than follow this suggestion, also from The Art of the Deal.

“The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you’re dead.”

Ironically at least one of Trump’s deal-making tips might offer hope to someone who did not make a deal: Paul Manafort, who this week was convicted of eight federal felonies. There have been reports that Trump is considering pardoning Manafort – if the pardon happens, then perhaps Trump’s words from March 2014 will have proved prescient.

“Remember,” Trump tweeted.

“Oftentimes the best deal you make is the deal you don’t make!”