Rudy Versus Trump: Any Difference?

From the title of his book, Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America’s Mayor by Andrew Kirtzman, you might believe you’ll be reading about how Rudy Giuliani went from being the best-known non-President of all time to a pathetic drunk who may wind up in jail because he’s missed too many payments to his ex-wife.

But despite its title, this book is as much or more about Donald Trump and the reasons why he might also end up going to jail.

I always found it strange that Giuliani claimed to be Trump’s ‘personal’ attorney but wasn’t getting paid. It turns out that Rudy was much more Trump’s most ambitious and active salesman whose work for Trump had little, if anything to do with legal issues at all.

It also turns out that when Rudy found himself with nothing to do after he left the New York’s City Hall less than three months after the Trade Center towers came down, he was also able to reinvent himself as an international deal-maker because his reputation and media presence after 9–11 opened doors for him which otherwise would have been shut tight.

I’ve never understood exactly how and why someone who has a recognizable name is somehow seen as an asset when it comes to getting one company to do business with another company, but it happens all the time. We call such people ‘rainmakers’ because after they shake hands with everyone sitting around the conference table, some kind of deal gets done.