Trump to publish book of letters from Kim Jong-un, Oprah Winfrey and others
Donald Trump has not yet announced a deal to write a White House memoir but he will publish a second postpresidential book next month – reportedly including controversial correspondence with Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea.
According to Axios, which reported the news on Thursday, Letters to Trump will contain 150 private letters written over more than 40 years, and from figures also including Hillary Clinton, Richard Nixon and Oprah Winfrey.
Trump’s letters with Kim, the leader of a nuclear adversary, have been a source of considerable controversy.
In 2018, Trump told a rally in Virginia he and Kim were “really being tough… and then we fell in love, OK? No, really – he wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters.”
But Kim letters became a source of trouble when it emerged such documents were part of a trove of confidential material Trump took to Mar-aLago in Florida when he left the White House in disgrace in January 2021, after the Capitol riot.
Trump’s retention of classified documents is one subject under investigation by Jack Smith, a special counsel appointed by Merrick Garland, the US attorney general.
According to Axios, the Winfrey letter, sent in 2000, the year Trump flirted with a run for president with the Reform Party, says: “Too bad we’re not running for office. What a team!”
Winfrey says compliments Trump included in a book “made me a little weepy” and adds: “It’s one thing to try and live a life of integrity – still another to have people like yourself notice.”
Trump, Axios said, writes: “Sadly, once I announced for president [for the Republican nomination, in 2015], she
never spoke to me again.”
The new book is set to be published on 25 April by Winning Team, the same publishing company that last year put out Our Journey Together, a picture book covering Trump’s time as president.
That book caused controversy when it was revealed Trump blocked plans to publish a similar book by his chief White House photographer, then published himself.
A Trump spokesman said then: “President Trump has always had an eye for beautiful and engaging curation, which came alive through the pages of his book.”
Like Our Journey Together, Letters to Trump will not be cheap. It will cost $99 – or $399 for a signed copy.
The new tome will contain letters from “presidents, royals, celebrities and business titans”, each with photos and commentary from Trump.
According to Axios, correspondents also include “Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton,
Princess Diana, Ted Kennedy, Mario Cuomo, Arnold Palmer, Jay Leno, Liza Minnelli, Regis Philbin (salutation: ‘My Dear Trumpster’) and many more”.
Winning Team said: “No book offers a glimpse into history quite like Letters to Trump!”
dress. And the moment Sammy imagines himself capturing on film his family’s pain as Burt and Mitzi announce their breakup (which he ends up doing, of course, with the very movie you’re watching).
Judd Hirsch’s barnstorming monologue about selling your own grandmother if it makes you a better artist fits, too – but more than that, it’s just a fabulous five minutes of showmanship and syncopation.
The final third flags a bit: the location feels too close to too many high school dramas (the lockers, the prom). The central focus is lost. But it’s still a lot of fun; laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes.
It should win. It’s a film of smarts and sophistication, whose brilliance can only strike you properly on a second viewing. It won’t win. It’s too traditional. Its primary competition is too dazzlingly fresh and original; its Tumblr-bro humour and meme-y visuals speak of what’s to come, not what happened 60 years ago.
There’s something else, too. The Fabelmans is too Jewish, even for Hollywood. Spielberg spoke earlier this week about the rise of antisemitism, and there’s no doubt that sentiment may have affected the film’s reception.
For me, it wasn’t Jewish enough. I thought they should have leaned harder into that specificity: made it more accurate, more headily ethnic. That Spielberg chose the least Jewishlooking people of all time to play his parents is a distraction, no matter how committed their kvetching. Watch footage of his real-life family and fiction struggles to compete.
The Fabelmans isn’t perfect. But it’s human, humane, funny and vulnerable. It’s expertly assembled, scripted and shot brimful of feeling. It’s not the future, but it’s a past to be praised, enjoyed and learned from. Sometimes, the oldies should get the goldies.