It was back a little more than 15 years ago that I heard this story from Dr. Larry Rosenthal, a prominent cosmetic dentist with offices just off Madison Avenue on Manhattan’s upper east side. I had gotten to know Larry when we worked together on the first Public Relations Committee of the AACD in 1994-95.
In one of his lectures that I attended, Larry told about Donald Trump coming to him for a smile makeover. Larry was famous as a “dentist to the stars,” doing many new smiles for famous models, actors, and actresses.
Dr. Rosenthal looked at Donald Trump’s teeth and then told him he needed a certain number of porcelain veneers for his smile makeover. I don’t remember the exact number. Let’s say it was ten. Trump said he didn’t want to do that many. Maybe he only wanted six. Again, I don’t remember the exact numbers here, only that he said he wanted to be significantly more conservative. Dr. Rosenthal was adamant that he didn’t want to do the case unless he could do it the way he wanted and insisted that he needed to do ten teeth or he didn’t want to take the case. So Trump walked out.
Donald called back later that day and scheduled an appointment
to get the work done.
When Dr. Rosenthal told this story, it gave me the impression that Donald Trump had actually thought over what Dr. Rosenthal had said and changed his mind about going forward. But knowing now what I know about The Donald, I am convinced that this was only a tactic that Trump had used to determine that Dr. Rosenthal was being straight with him. I’m confident, for example, that if Dr. Rosenthal had waffled and as Trump was getting ready to leave said, “You know, if you insist, we can do just the six teeth,” that Trump would not have gone forward. It was a negotiating strategy, walking out, to see exactly how strongly Dr. Rosenthal felt about it and if he was willing to lose him as a patient over it. Once he knew that, he trusted him.
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WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH 