He is still pudgy. His brown belt bites gently into soft flesh under a white polo shirt and white pants. His square pink face is widening bottomward like a baobab, slackening from chin to sternum, easing into Churchillian jowls. Blond eyebrows spray up on the famous low brow, over small pale-blue eyes. The famous world-by-a-string smirking playboy face has gained gravitas. Last June, the Donald turned 50. Wunderkind no more.

In The Art of the Donald, Mark Bowden takes us inside the Donald Trump’s private quarters (and private jet), painting an intimate portrait of the mogul at mid-life, a picture that includes lots of bacon, marble, and a morbid fixation with falling planes.

The Art of the Donald was originally published in Playboy, May 1997.

Cover design by Adil Dara.