TRUMP

98 ANATOMY OF A MONSTROSITY
none of these qualities can you really blame Mr. Trump.
He is the first to call attention to them. He makes no
pretense to the contrary…He arouses one’s sense of wonder
at the imagination and self-invention it must have taken
to leap from his father’s shoulders and reach for the deals
that he did. Jay Gatsby lives, without romance and without
the usual tragic flaws…Mr. Trump makes one believe
for a moment in the American dream again. 362
The Times was not alone in seeing Trump as an ambassador for the
“American Dream.” Fortune magazine gushed with similar enthusiasm:
There is undeniably a Trump mystique. Some people love
him, others despise him, but everybody talks about him.
He has become a cult hero for many people around the
world who seem to regard this flamboyant billionaire as
the most heartening example of the American Dream
come true since Ross Perot. 363
Looking back over the coverage of Donald Trump in the 1970’s and
80’s, much of it is similar: Trump as role model, Trump as empire
builder, Trump as king. The fawning began early and never really
seemed to stop. The tenor of the coverage was set in the first Times
profile: “Donald Trump, Real Estate Promoter, Builds Image As He
Buys Buildings.” 364 The media then steadily built Trump into an icon.
At every stage, Trump was working behind the scenes to encourage
the coverage. Trump would feed his own mythology to the press, who
would dutifully treat Trump as precisely the character he fancied himself.
As Trump explained his methods:
Here’s how I work… I call the society editor [of one of the