How useful are the lessons of The Art of the Deal to public governance and public goals?

By Catherine Waters, Director, Learning Design and Evaluation

June 4, 2025

In The Art of the Deal, published in 1987, its co-authors, Donald J. Trump and journalist Tony Schwartz, presented the lessons as surefire ways to succeed as a master negotiator in business and in life. It is part memoir, part business advice manual, and it played a significant role in shaping Trump’s public image in the years before he entered politics.

It is often cited by both supporters and detractors as a foundational text for understanding Trump’s approach to leadership and negotiation. This article aims to focus not on the merits of the policies or the leadership style of President Trump, but instead of the applicability of the ideas and lessons in The Art of the Deal for government and public sector governance.

The book opens with a week-in-the-life format, giving readers a glimpse into the busy and often chaotic daily routine of Trump at the height of his real estate career. Throughout the book, eleven principles of deal-making emerge and are summarized at the end.  Here is a breakdown of those principles, as Trump describes them:

1. Think Big – Trumpemphasizes aiming high and having ambitious goals. He believes that thinking big sets you apart and inspires both confidence and boldness in action.
2. Protect the Downside and the Upside Will Take Care of Itself – Always consider the worst-case scenario and have a strategy to minimize risk. Trump argues that being prepared for potential losses ensures long-term stability.
3. Maximize Your Options – Trump stresses keeping multiple paths open so you can adapt as situations evolve or negotiations shift.
4. Know Your Market – Trump claims deep knowledge of the market allows you to make better decisions and spot opportunities others miss.
5. Use Your Leverage – Trump believes that every deal has points of leverage and that identifying and using those is essential to gaining the upper hand in negotiations.
6. Enhance Your Location – In real estate especially, location is everything. Trump talks about improving the appeal of a location through marketing, design, and strategic positioning.
7. Get the Word Out – Publicity is a powerful tool. Trump emphasizes the importance of self-promotion and controlling the narrative in the media to shape perception and build momentum.
8. Fight Back – If someone attacks you or your business, Trump advocates responding aggressively. He argues that toughness earns respect and deters further challenges.
9. Deliver the Goods – Trump insists you must follow through and deliver a quality product or service to maintain credibility and repeat success.
10. Contain the Costs – Trump discusses the need for strict cost control. Overspending can derail even the best ideas, so maintaining efficiency is critical to profitability.
11. Have Fun – Trump concludes by saying that enjoying what you do is essential. He claims that enthusiasm and passion not only make the work enjoyable but also fuel success.

So what is the relevance of these lessons in The Art of the Deal, written nearly 40 years ago, to the US administration of President Trump? Can a private-sector business manual apply to public sector governance and the achievement of public goals?

The lessons contained in the book are highly personal; they project Trump’s character, business ethos, and style (though because it’s a ghostwritten work, it’s hard to know if Trump’s own approach is really this systematic). The eleven lessons emphasize intuition, aggressive tactics, ruthless use of leverage, and the importance of projecting confidence and certainty, even when the outcomes may be, at best, uncertain and, at worst, deceptive. The result is an approach to negotiation that only conceives of negotiations as a zero-sum game where, if one wins anything, it must mean the opponent lose something. As the title suggests, it underlines the deal (the outcome, the exercise of power) over the relationship. In this way, power is personal, based on arm-twisting leverage and some measure of fear and in-the-moment dominance.

In situations where the long-term viability of the relationship matters and there is a complex network of trade-offs, The Art of the Deal is of far less value. Relationships matter in the public sector. The health and wellbeing of public sector relationships create stability, trustworthiness, some certainty and confidence for citizens, businesses and international partners. These are not abstract notions. They underpin economic behaviours, investment, borrowing, security and trade. At both microeconomic and macroeconomic levels, these create wealth. 

As the past few months have shown, personal power in the exercise of public governance and international affairs is counterproductive if it means international friends and allies feel betrayed, targeted, and fearful. International power – through security, trade and values – is not achieved through transactional deal.  As the Russia-Ukraine negotiation have shown, chaotic, incoherent leadership, personal arm-twisting, and an abandonment of values have yielded nothing.  Likewise, trade deals, whether multilateral or bilateral, depend on relationships based on the rule of law, a recognition of the different interests of the parties, and an adherence to the terms of the trade deal.   

Now consider another approach to negotiation as presented in Getting to Yes, published in 1981. Getting to Yes advocates a depersonalized approach, interests-based negotiation and a win-win basis for mutual gain. In other words, it underlines relationships, respect for others’ interests, and a win-win outcome, recognizing that relationships in the public sector governance are paramount. Transactional deals based on aggression, exploitation of vulnerability, and ruthless leverage cannot achieve beneficial and lasting public sector goals.