Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Trump Jr. wraps up book tour
Author defends father, attacks impeachment
Donald Trump Jr. finished his 10-day multi-city book tour on Friday the way he began, with a defense of his father and an attack on the impeachment investigation. There was one twist: The finale was in the most Democratic place in Florida, Broward County.
He found refuge from the South Florida majority on the 15th floor of a downtown Fort Lauderdale office tower, where he extolled the virtues of his book, “Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us,” and of his father, President Donald Trump.
Trump Jr. decried the impeachment inquiry as “100% partisan hackery.”
“Americans see this as the kangaroo court that it is,” he said. “This isn’t even American. If this was going on in any other country in the world, we’d be disgusted and we’d be writing outraged articles about it. But it is happening right here in this country in 2019.”
Asked by the host, Ed Pozzuoli, CEO of the Tripp Scott law firm, what Republicans can do to keep Florida Republican next year, Trump didn’t offer a specific strategy. “Watch the cheating. In all fairness, each and every time there’s a problem, it all stems right here.”
(While Florida elections, including last year’s, have experienced multiple problems, there hasn’t been evidence of or prosecutions for cheating. Since 2002, Florida elections have been overseen by secretaries of state, all of whom have been appointed by Republican governors.)
Trump brought up the controversy surrounding his book sales, bragging about landing this week at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. “I would have given any amount of money to be in the room when the New York Times had to make me No. 1.”
But the ranking is controversial because it comes with a notation that it includes bulk purchases, something the book world views as a shady way to make a book seem as if it’s doing better than it really is. Trump argued that even with the purchase of 10,000 copies by the Republican National Committee, his sales were double the number of the No. 2 book.
By Trump’s reckoning, things are going so well in the country and his father is doing such good job that “2020 should be over,” with a re-election.
Trump was at times in full-on attack mode during the 37 minutes he spoke and answered questions:
Congressional Democrats, he asserted, don’t want to do anything that could be seen as a Trump victory. “Do they dislike Trump or hate Trump so much more than they like America or Americans?”
Robert Mueller, the special counsel who led the probe into Russian meddling into the 2016 election, was too out of it to understand what was going on in the investigation he was ostensibly leading, he said. Pointing to Mueller’s sometimes halting congressional testimony, he described the former special counsel as “a couple of decades past his prime.”
The news media “is basically one in the same” as the political left. “The media are the marketing wing for the Democratic Party.”
Joe Biden’s use of a teleprompter (which President Trump sometimes uses) shows the former vice president isn’t up to running for president. “If he’s using teleprompters after being a 50-year career politician to talk to a group of 20 people, how are you going to do against Trump one-on-one for six months Joe? It’s going to be awesome.”
He was also, at times, funny, as when he described his inability to stop live tweeting when Mueller testified before Congress. “I have Tourette’s of the thumbs, which is an inherited trait I am told.”
Trump also showed some of the same fascination his father has with Elton John. The president has frequently compared his crowd sizes to John’s concerts. Trump Jr. described his book sales as “about the same as Elton
John did in his autobiography.”
Trump was accompanied by his girlfriend, the former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle. “I affectionately call her my Puerto Rican knife fighter,” he said.
“I said ‘princess’ too,” he added.
She stood by him when he signed books, bought by the law firm for many of the 170 or so people who attended. She picked up each one from the stack, opened it, slid it to Trump, who scrawled a signature — with his father’s favorite writing implement, a Sharpie pen.
Guilfoyle was outspoken during earlier book tour stops, including the two that generated the most attention, a combative appearance on the daytime TV show “The View” and an event at U.C.L.A. where conservative students shouted down the couple. On Friday she didn’t say much, though she joked that she’d actually written her boyfriend’s book.
Trump boasted that his appearances on “The View” generated outraged reactions that he said helped book sales. “I owned outrage last week. It was awesome.”
Friday’s invitation-only event was part of Tripp Scott’s “Politics & Sunshine” series. Though the firm was founded and is led by prominent Republicans, it includes Democratic attorneys and periodically brings in speakers from both sides of the political aisle.
Pozzuoli said Trump was invited to give insight to interested clients, attorneys and staff. “Look at the headlines,” he said. “It is timely.”
Rick Fairchild of Vero Beach said he found Trump interesting. “He’s a better communicator than I realized.”
Clarence McKee, a Coral Springs communications consultant, said Trump hit a home run. “As a communicator, a triple plus,” he said. “Passion, honesty — and we’re going to kick the hell out of you.”
“I would have given any amount of money to be in the room when the New York Times had to make me No. 1.” Donald Trump Jr., speaking Friday in Fort Lauderdale