12 Times Donald Trump Disagreed with the Sage Wisdom of Warren Buffett

By Jesse Koltes

Donald Trump has made his business record the centerpiece of his campaign. When he’s not talking about banning Muslims, building walls, or trashing war heroes, he’s usually talking about all the huge (Yooge!) success he’s had in business.

But what do we really know about this man’s business philosophy? To catch a glimpse, here are twelve times that Donald Trump disagreed with the Oracle of Omaha.

1. On Reputation

• “In the second grade, I actually gave a teacher a black eye—I punched my music teacher because I didn’t think he knew about music and I almost got expelled.” – Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal, p. 71

• “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” – Warren Buffett

2. On Billionaires

• “You have to be wealthy in order to be great, I’m sorry to say” – Donald Trump, 26 May 2016

• “Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.”— Warren Buffett

3. On Options

• “I keep a lot of balls in the air, because most deals fall out, no matter how promising they seem at first.” – Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal, p. 50

• “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”— Warren Buffett

4. On Debt

• “Leverage: don’t make deals without it.” – Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal, p. 54

• “I’ve seen more people fail because of liquor and leverage – leverage being borrowed money. You really don’t need leverage in this world much. If you’re smart, you’re going to make a lot of money without borrowing.”— Warren Buffett

5. On Work

• “I try not to schedule too many meetings, I leave my door open…I prefer to come to work each day and just see what develops…There’s rarely a day with fewer than fifty calls, and often it runs to over a hundred. In between, I have at least a dozen meetings. The majority occur on the spur of the moment, and few of them last longer than fifteen minutes.” – Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal, p. 2

• “I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business.” – Warren Buffett

6. On Employees

• “[My project manager] was one of the greatest bullshit artists I’ve ever met, but in addition to being a very slick salesman, he was also an amazing manager…the problem was that [he] wasn’t the most trustworthy guy in the world….”– Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal, p. 85 – 86

• “Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it’s true. If you hire somebody without [integrity], you really want them to be dumb and lazy.”– Warren Buffett

7. On Friends

• “I don’t kid myself about Roy [Cohn]. He was no Boy Scout. He once told me he’d spent more than two thirds under indictment on one charge or another….I said to him, “Roy, just tell me one thing. Did you really do all that stuff.” He looked at me and smiled. “What the hell do you think?” he said. I never really knew. – Donald Trump on Roy Cohn, Nixon’s legendary fixer, The Art of the Deal, p. 100

• “It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.”– Warren Buffett

8. On Losing

• “I’m not saying I would have a won, but if I went down, it would have been kicking and screaming. That’s just my makeup. I fight when I feel I’m getting screwed, even if its costly and difficult and highly risky.” – Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal,  p. 236

• “Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” – Warren Buffett

9. On Honesty

•  “[The Holiday Inn was] attracted to my site because they believed my construction was farther along than that of any other potential partner. In reality, I wasn’t that far along, but I did everything I could short of going to work at the site myself, to assure them that the casino was practically finished. My leverage came from confirming an impression they were already predisposed to believe.” – Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal, p. 54

• “Honesty is a very expensive gift, don’t expect it from cheap people.” – Warren Buffett

10. On Deal Making

• “My style of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward. I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing to get what I’m after. Sometime I settle for less than I sought, but in most cases I still end up with what I want.” – Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal, p. 45

• “I don’t look to jump over seven-foot bars; I look around for one-foot bars that I can step over.” – Warren Buffett

11. On Casinos

• “I’ve never had any great moral problems with gambling because most of the objections seem hypocritical to me. The New York Stock exchange happens to be the biggest casino in the world. The only thing that that makes it different from the average casino is the players dress in pinstripe suits and carry leather briefcases.” – Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal, p. 196

• “Gambling is a tax on ignorance… I find it socially revolting when a government preys on its citizens rather than serving them.” – Warren Buffett

12. On Each Other

• “I ask Donald Trump: ‘Have you no sense of decency, sir?’”– Warren Buffett

• “I don’t care much about Warren Buffett,” – Donald Trump

• Bonus Charlie Quote: “My attitude is that anybody who makes money running a casino is not morally qualified [to be president]” – Charlie Munger