‘The deaths don’t matter to him’: Art of the Deal coauthor says Trump ‘has no conscience’

Donald Trump's coauthor of the 1987 book "Trump: The Art of the Deal" blasted the president for his response to the coronavirus pandemic during a Friday appearance on MSNBC.

Schwartz joined MSNBC chief legal correspondent Ari Melber on "The Beat."

"I'm curious what you see here on day when the president is again declaring victories he hasn't achieved," Melber said.

"This has been revelatory to me, Ari, the whole way he has responded has prompted me to really rethink Trump's motivation," Schwartz replied. "I've always assumed like most people have that the primary motivation is to be loved and admired and recognized and praised. That is a motivation, but the deeper motivation is domination -- is to win."

"And that is a function of the fact that he has no conscience," he explained. "So he doesn't make a distinction between right or wrong, nor does he feel a distinction between right or wrong. so when he is inventing stories and lies and a reality that is of his own making, he's doing it without any shame or guilt, and that is an enormous advantage in a situation where most people would be limited by their respect for the truth and by their concern for how they were going to have an impact on others."

"He doesn't care. The deaths -- I know this is extreme -- the deaths don't matter to him," Schwartz concluded.

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