From the NS archive: The man who would be Christ

17 June 1988: Donald Trump, the US property billionaire, recently came to London to check the place out for possible deals. Patrick Wright saw him coming.

By Patrick Wright

Developer Donald Trump answers questions of reporters about his divorce from wife Ivana at a news conferencein New York on December 11, 1990. A Manhattan judge granted a divorce to the Trumps citing the millionaire's "cruel and inhuman treatment" of his ex-wife. AFP PHOTO TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

As a 1980s property tycoon and billionaire, Donald Trump already had ambitions of being in the White House. In this comprehensive, skeptical essay, Patrick Wright investigates the already powerful Trump through his newly published autobiography, “The Art of the Deal”. In a chillingly prophetic statement, Wright concludes that, in 1988, Trump styles himself “as a man who has broken all the limits but who has also reinvented morality”.

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