Candidates running for president always releases dull books with dull titles on their policies and vision. Must be an FEC requirement. Their subtitles might as well be “Straight to the Bargain Bin.” For 2024 we’ve already got Mike Pompeo’s Never Give an Inch, Nikki Haley’s If You Want Something Done and Ron DeSantis’ The Courage to Be Free. (Really, Ron? The Courage to Be Free? Sounds like a self-help book or devotional. Great if it’s Sheila Walsh’s latest. But for a would-be president?)
So what’s Donald Trump do? He’s releasing a coffee table book called Letters to Trump. That’s nice. A collection of letters sent him while he was president? Sounds like something an ex-president would do. Oh, but not Trump. He’s going waaaay back. Back to the days of “The Donald.” He’s offering 40 years of letters sent to him from, as Axios puts it, “presidents, royals, titans, celebs.”
It’s a “flashback to the days when famous people frequently wrote chatty letters to each other — and when Trump was the toast of many bold-face names.”
We’re talking 150 letters — plus Trump commentary — from the likes of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, Mario Cuomo, Arnold Palmer, Jay Leno, Liza Minnelli, Regis Philbin, Joel Osteen, Princess Diana …
And Oprah.
Oprah wrote him in 2000 after he’d praised her in a book and said his “first choice for vice president would be Oprah Winfrey.”
“I have to tell you your comments made me a little weepy,” she wrote. “Too bad we’re not running for office. What a team!”
“Sadly,” Trump writes in Letters to Trump, “once I announced for President, she never spoke to me again.”
A Clever Move
Pretty clever of Trump to not only put out a book people would actually want to look at, but a book that emphasizes that Trump was in the international spotlight as Orange Man Awesome — before he was dubbed Orange Man Bad. That he had engaged for decades at the highest levels, with world leaders and influencers, before he came down that escalator at Trump Tower.
The book expands the portrait of Trump beyond his four tumultuous years as president. It will remind voters that the guy running in 2024 is the guy was also the toast of the town in ’84, ’94, ’04, ’14.
Amazing what Trump has done here in the last week. He’s laid out a book highlighting his fascinating past and he’s laid out a future vision of futuristic cities and flying cars. 2020 is just one spot on the timeline. Sure, he took part in that “Justice for All” single with the J6 Prison Choir, but he’s not fixated. Voters should not be fixated either. He’s looking forward, from a foundation built over decades.
Nobody can match his accomplishments as president. But that isn’t the problem for Trump, is it? Letters to Trump is a clever way to neutralize the “Mean Tweets” from Trump. Help knock out his real opponent in the 2024 race: Trump himself.
It’s a smart strategy.
Show your accomplishments, show off the man who made Oprah weepy with sweet words, show up like you did in East Palestine … and, we must add, show your reliance on God … and 2024 will be a cakewalk.
Letters to Trump will be out April 25 from Trump’s own Winning Team Publishing imprint. $99 for the picture book. $399 for the signed edition. You can pre-order now.