A Trump coffee table book detailing his presidency with tweet-style captions has brought in $20 million, report says
- A coffee table book on the Trump presidency has brought in $20 million, CNN reports.
- Trump himself annotated photos with tweet-style captions. Some are handwritten with Sharpies.
Former President Donald Trump, unlike most ex-presidents, hasn't yet inked a multimillion deal for post-presidential memoirs. But he has signed his name on a coffee table book documenting his presidency that's bringing in millions, CNN reports.
The coffee table book, titled "Our Journey Together," has drawn in $20 million in gross revenue since Winning Team Publishing released it in November, CNN reported.
Winning Team Publishing was founded by Trump ally Sergio Gor, also a business associate of Donald Trump Jr., for the purposes of publishing "Our Journey Together," and now has additional conservative writers' projects in the works.
"Our Journey Together," CNN said, includes about 300 pages of official White House photographs and other snapshots from the Trump presidency. They all come with captions written — some with Sharpies — by Trump.
Trump annotated the photos with colorful commentary reminiscent of his Twitter missives, peppered with insults and slights at his political foes. Twitter permanently suspended Trump's account in the wake of the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol.
"Attempting to listen to crazy Nancy Pelosi in the Oval Office — such natural disagreement," Trump wrote alongside a photo from a contentious December 2018 Oval Office meeting with former Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic congressional leaders over the federal government shutdown taking place at the time.
"She was screaming and shaking like a leaf, she's fucking crazy, hence the name 'Crazy Nancy,'" Trump said in another handwritten caption, according to CNN.
The book is now literally flying off the shelves, with Gor struggling to keep up with the demand and recently putting in a request for 300,000 more copies to be printed. The few copies available online are being sold at a massive upcharge by third-party resellers.
"We still can't keep up with the customers," Gor told CNN.
Since leaving office, Trump has been the subject of many dishy books by top journalists and tell-all memoirs written by some of his former aides, like former press secretary Stephanie Grisham. The former president has also offered up copious amounts of his time to authors, voluntarily sitting for interviews for at least 17 book projects at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
But Trump hasn't had any known offers from any of the major publishing houses for his memoirs, Politico reported in June. Publishing industry insiders told the outlet that the lack of interest from big publishing houses is due to Trump being "radioactive" following the Capitol riot. There are also concerns that his book will being "a fact-checking nightmare," they told Politico.
One industry source told Politico that Trump "has screwed over so many publishers that before he ran for president none of the big 5 would work with [him] anymore" on top of the baggage from January 6.
"If my book will be the biggest of them all, and with 39 books written or being written about me, does anybody really believe that they are above making a lot of money? Some of the biggest sleezebags [sic] on earth run these companies," Trump said in a statement to Politico, adding that publishers care about "no morals, no nothing, just the bottom line."