Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success
Sep 2024 · Sold by Penguin
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An Instant New York Times Bestseller • A Washington Post Notable Book • A Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year
“A first-rate financial thriller . . . Lucky Loser is one of those rare Trump books that deserve, even demand, to be read.” —Alexander Nazaryan, The New York Times
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning reporters behind the 2018 bombshell New York Times exposé of President Trump’s finances, an explosive investigation into the history of Donald Trump’s wealth, revealing how one of the country’s biggest business failures lied his way into the White House
Soon after announcing his first campaign for the U.S. presidency, Donald J. Trump told a national television audience that life “has not been easy for me. It has not been easy for me.” Building on a narrative he had been telling for decades, he spun a hardscrabble fable of how he parlayed a small loan from his father into a multibillion-dollar business and real estate empire. This feat, he argued, made him singularly qualified to lead the country. Except none of it was true. As his wealthy father’s chosen successor, Trump received the equivalent today of more than $500 million in family money. He collected a second windfall thanks to Mark Burnett, the revolutionary television producer who made Trump a star. In truth, Trump’s empire was underwritten, and at times saved, by the equivalent of more than $1 billion that came his way without any of the business expertise he claimed.
Drawing on more than twenty years’ worth of Trump’s confidential tax information, including the tax returns he tried to conceal, alongside business records and interviews with Trump insiders, New York Times investigative reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig track Trump’s financial rise and fall, and rise and fall again. A masterpiece of narrative reporting, Lucky Loser is a meticulous examination spanning nearly a century, filled with scoops from Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago, Atlantic City, and the set of The Apprentice. Here for the first time is the definitive true accounting of Trump and his money—what he had, what he lost, and what he has left—and the myth of Trump, the self-made billionaire, exposed.
“A first-rate financial thriller . . . Lucky Loser is one of those rare Trump books that deserve, even demand, to be read.” —Alexander Nazaryan, The New York Times
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning reporters behind the 2018 bombshell New York Times exposé of President Trump’s finances, an explosive investigation into the history of Donald Trump’s wealth, revealing how one of the country’s biggest business failures lied his way into the White House
Soon after announcing his first campaign for the U.S. presidency, Donald J. Trump told a national television audience that life “has not been easy for me. It has not been easy for me.” Building on a narrative he had been telling for decades, he spun a hardscrabble fable of how he parlayed a small loan from his father into a multibillion-dollar business and real estate empire. This feat, he argued, made him singularly qualified to lead the country. Except none of it was true. As his wealthy father’s chosen successor, Trump received the equivalent today of more than $500 million in family money. He collected a second windfall thanks to Mark Burnett, the revolutionary television producer who made Trump a star. In truth, Trump’s empire was underwritten, and at times saved, by the equivalent of more than $1 billion that came his way without any of the business expertise he claimed.
Drawing on more than twenty years’ worth of Trump’s confidential tax information, including the tax returns he tried to conceal, alongside business records and interviews with Trump insiders, New York Times investigative reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig track Trump’s financial rise and fall, and rise and fall again. A masterpiece of narrative reporting, Lucky Loser is a meticulous examination spanning nearly a century, filled with scoops from Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago, Atlantic City, and the set of The Apprentice. Here for the first time is the definitive true accounting of Trump and his money—what he had, what he lost, and what he has left—and the myth of Trump, the self-made billionaire, exposed.
An Instant New York Times Bestseller • A Washington Post Notable Book • A Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year
“A first-rate financial thriller . . . Lucky Loser is one of those rare Trump books that deserve, even demand, to be read.” —Alexander Nazaryan, The New York Times
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Ratings and reviews
10 reviews
Larry Brown
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September 18, 2025
Duplicitous Don needs a very thorough examination by third-party observers. I'll support that 100% of the time. Accountability was never controversial before the modern digital era. His constituents might see their shadows within the pages of this book. Real Americans will welcome you back to the fold in the end, but reconciliation starts with self reflection and personal accountability. DD has taken our country for fools. Prove him wrong. Kudos to the author for writing. It's dangerous times.
Zenida Secore
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December 23, 2025
Ohhh I really wish this book was written in 2015. Once you strip away all the lies and carefully crafted narratives he runs with, what you find is a very weak, self-centered, incredibly selfish, cruel, corrupt, and greedy psychopath obsessed with money, young girls, and fame. Well done.
Bobby Brown
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September 22, 2024
Disgraceful, pathetic, becoming the President of the United States twice is no illusion...smdh
About the author
Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig are investigative reporters at the New York Times. Since 2016, their reporting has focused on the personal finances of Donald J. Trump, including in-depth articles that revealed the fortune Trump inherited from his father and the record of business failures hidden in twenty years of Trump’s tax returns. Their articles on Trump’s inheritance were awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2019. Buettner joined the Times as an investigative reporter in 2006. He was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2012. He previously worked on investigations teams at the Daily News in New York and New York Newsday. Craig previously covered Wall Street and served as Albany bureau chief for the Times. Prior to joining the Times in 2010, Craig was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper.
Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig are investigative reporters at the New York Times. Since 2016, their reporting has focused on the personal finances of Donald J. Trump, including in-depth articles that revealed the fortune Trump inherited from his father and the record of business failures hidden ...
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