Donald Trump, President of the United States, "My motto is: Always get even. When somebody screws you, screw them back in spades"
Years before returning to the White House, Trump explained why he believed striking back could deter future opponents
US President Donald Trump has never made much effort to hide how he responds when he believes he has been wronged.
Years before his political career transformed him from businessman and television personality into president of the United States, Trump laid out that philosophy in Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life, the book he wrote with Bill Zanker .
“My motto is: Always get even. When somebody screws you, screw them back in spades,” Trump wrote.
It's one of the more striking lines from Trump ’s business writing because it presents retaliation as something more deliberate than anger in the moment.
Trump ’s broader argument was that people are less likely to challenge someone who has established a reputation for responding aggressively when attacked. In his telling, fighting back could protect a person not only from the original adversary but from future ones as well.
Fighting back sends a message
The same theme appears elsewhere in Think Big, where Trump urged readers not to allow opponents to push them around.
“I go after people, and you know what? People do not play around with me as much as they do with others,” Trump wrote in another passage. “They know that if they do, they are in for a big fight.”
His advice wasn't simply to defend oneself. Trump also argued that the response should be memorable enough to influence people watching from the sidelines, presenting retaliation as a form of deterrence.
That philosophy fit naturally with the competitive persona Trump spent decades cultivating in business, which was aim high, push relentlessly and view disputes through the prism of winning and losing.
The words were written as advice about business and life, not as a presidential doctrine. Still, they inevitably attract greater scrutiny now that their author exercises the powers of the presidency.
A different weight from the Oval Office
Trump ’s supporters have frequently praised his instinct to fight back, viewing his unwillingness to absorb attacks quietly as evidence that he will not be intimidated by opponents.
Critics see a potential danger in precisely the same characteristic, particularly when the distinction between political disagreement, institutional conflict and personal grievance becomes important.
It also establishes how Trump chose to describe himself. His message was that retaliation could be useful, that reputation mattered and that allowing an attack to go unanswered risked inviting another one.
Nearly two decades later, the line remains notable because it requires little interpretation. It isn't an assessment from an ally or an accusation from an opponent.
It's Trump , in his own words, explaining how he believed a powerful person should respond when crossed.
