I Think I May Have Foreseen the Coming of Trump Thirty Years Ago - Andrew Crofts

It seems I may have had some sort of visionary experience at the end of the 1980s and foresaw the whole Trump phenomenon.

In the course of filming an interview the other day, I rooted out a book I published in 1990 with Hutchinson Business Books titled “Hype – the Essential Guide to Marketing Yourself”.  

By today’s standards it was a pretty mild affair, although I did talk a bit about the advantages of self-publishing, which in those days was still called “vanity publishing”, and which I remember got me a ticking off from the fabulous Libby Purves in the Times. This was not only before the Internet took off, it was also before we were familiar with the term “reality tv” and before we started to sink into the celebrity culture swamp, which has since risen to our chins.

I guess if I was writing it today the publishers would suggest a title like “How to Build a Platform for Yourself”.

Anyhow, in a summary on the very last page of the book I find I wrote the following:

“Donald and Ivana Trump became king and queen of New York society because of their outrageously high profile success as property developers, financiers and hoteliers. Even those who don’t like their style have to admit that they are interesting at the moment, which means that they can make contacts at any level they like, which leads to them being even more successful and attractive to other achievers.”

Oh my days, what a lot can happen in thirty years. I can only plead that I was still very young, (as, I guess, were Mr and Mrs Trump), and that out of the mouths of babes ….