Trump books everywhere
Want to make a bundle?
Write a book about Donald Trump.
Trump books have been in high demand since he took office in 2017.
According to the British newspaper The Guardian – “there were more than 4,500 English language books about Mr. Trump that have been published since January of 2017.”
ThereĢƵ even been one book about the books about Trump, written by the Peruvian American journalist named Carlos Lozado titled, “What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era.”
A book about the books about somebody might seem to be a bit unusual. But I can’t knock it, since this is a column about the books about somebody.
If you followed that logic – congratulations.
I haven’t read any of the Trump books, including that one about the books about him.
I don’t have the time or the patience to sift through the finer points of a presidency that had so few fine points.
Instead, I wait for the “explosive” excerpts that take up so much oxygen on the 24-hour news channels, in advance of their authors breathlessly repeating what those excerpts already revealed.
It seems that every other week, I’m seeing Bob Woodward (the Washington PostĢƵ legendary investigative reporter) talk about the shortcomings of the Trump White House, with his latest book.
HeĢƵ written (or co-written) three so far, going back to 2018.
“Fear,” was followed by 2020ĢƵ “Rage,” and last month he and journalist Robert Costa published “Peril.”
ThatĢƵ three Trump books, compared to only two he wrote about Barack Obama during the entirety of his eight-year presidency.
WoodwardĢƵ 21 books have given him 13 No. 1 national best sellers.
I wonder when he’ll write a book about writing books.
HeĢƵ that prolific.
It started when he and fellow legendary Washington Post coworker Carl Bernstein penned that chronicle of the downfall of Richard Nixon, “All the PresidentĢƵ Men,” back in 1974.
“Peril,” though (judging from the initial excerpts, and the seemingly nonstop array of Woodward and Costa TV interviews) seems like they’re beating a dead horse.
But thatĢƵ just me.
Mary Trump, DonaldĢƵ niece, released, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the WorldĢƵ Most Dangerous Man,” in July of 2020.
SheĢƵ been called on to provide family gossip ever since.
Fact is, former Trump insiders who’ve felt they’ve been somehow wronged by him have written books that could fill the shelves of some bookcases.
Michael Cohen, TrumpĢƵ longtime attorney, wrote: “Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump.”
Trump dismissed CohenĢƵ book as sour grapes. But it still earned Cohen a legitimacy in the media – as a man who knew where “all of the bodies” of the Trump presidency were buried.
John Bolton, TrumpĢƵ onetime national security adviser, published “The Room Where It Happened,” in June of 2020.
HeĢƵ since gone public with the belief that his former boss was unsuited for the presidency.
Back when he performed his publicity rounds for his book, he made sure to drop little tidbits about TrumpĢƵ unsuitability.
“Trump did not know whether or not Finland is part of Russia,” he wrote and repeated in interviews.
The most recent Trump tell-all book (providing none has been published since I started writing this) comes from his former press secretary, Stephanie Grisham.
GrishamĢƵ time as press secretary was muted, because she never held a single press briefing – which is an oddity for that position.
Yet, sheĢƵ out front nowadays, revealing such odd information as to how there was somebody designated as the White House “Music Man,” who’d play a song from the musical “Cats” to calm down the president.
Grisham also dishes on former first lady Melania Trump.
She claims that Melania Trump didn’t believe her husbandĢƵ denial of an affair.
That she was quoted as saying, “He got himself into this mess. He can fix it by himself.”
And we all know that Trump once famously said, “Only I can fix it.”
Maybe somebody will write a book revealing if he has.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 40-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.