'Ego made him an easy target': Trump said to be 'flabby' sucker in ex-airline CEO's book

A former airline mogul says he was able to manipulate Donald Trump into making a questionable business deal all while scorning the former president's physique, multiple reports show.

Trump is presented as a "flabby" sucker in former Continental Airlines CEO Frank Lorenzo's recently released book " Flying for Peanuts ," according to reviews from Forbes and industry news analysis site Leeham Company .

Both reviews focus on "The Shuttle Sale" chapter in which Lorenzo, seeking a non-airline buyer eager to make deals, meets Trump for a meal at the Plaza hotel in New York City on April 1989.

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“He was looking a little flabby, which I guessed was attributable to lack of exercise, although after we sat down to breakfast, I figured his diet was a factor too," Lorenzo wrote, according to Forbes.

"He ordered eggs and bacon and all the trimmings. I had my usual – hot cereal and fruit –and I don’t think the contrast was lost on either of us."

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The two men discussed health and nutrition and Trump appeared, according to Lorenzo, a little touchy about it.

"He was clearly sensitive to the fact that his diet and exercise habits left something to be desired," Lorenzo wrote, "particularly in the face of my avowed interest in nutrition – plus, he had heard about my marathon running.”

Lorenzo was owner at the time of Eastern Airlines and was fighting losing battles against two powerful unions, the Air Line Pilots Association and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, according to Leeham.

The battle forced Lorenza to sell Eastern's famous shuttle — which connected New York, Boston and Washington D.C. — but he was loath to hand it over to a major competitor, reported Leeham.

"Lorenzo set his sights on a wealthy real estate investor whose ego made him an easy target: Donald J. Trump," the review notes. "He played to Trump’s ego and manipulated him into taking four tired, old Boeing 727s when Trump wanted to renegotiate the price, rather than lowering the cash payment so desperately needed."

The deal resulted in the Trump Shuttle and saw the former president wasting millions of dollars adding gold trimmings to the interiors that left passengers unimpressed, according to the Leeham review.

"The airline failed, like so many of Trump’s other businesses," the review concludes. "Lorenzo’s manipulation of Trump is an entertaining read."

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