Trump to publish letters from the rich and famous
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Due for release in April, the 320-page Letters To Trump book spans four decades of correspondence between the former US president and people such as Kim Jong Un and Oprah Winfrey.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
WASHINGTON - Mr Donald Trump is releasing more than 150 letters from giants of world history such as Mr Richard Nixon, Mr Kim Jong Un and Ms Oprah Winfrey, the former US president and his publisher said on Thursday.
The Letters To Trump collection captures “incredible, and often times private” correspondence between Trump and foreign leaders, media personalities, athletes and captains of industry.
“What do presidents, royals, celebrities, and business titans have in common? They all love Donald Trump,” Winning Team Publishing founder Sergio Gor said in a statement to AFP.
“Long before entering politics, Donald Trump lived an extraordinary life. No book highlights his iconic relationships like Letters To Trump, and we are thrilled to be able to share it with our readers.”
Due for release in April, the book spans four decades of correspondence, revealing that Ms Winfrey told the now-76-year-old Republican leader back in 2000: “Too bad we’re not running for office. What a team!”
The TV mogul had written to Mr Trump – who is running to be the next president – after he sent her an excerpt from his book The America We Deserve, in which he said she would be his ideal vice-president.
Ms Winfrey, 69, reportedly tells Mr Trump his comments made her “a little weepy”, according to United States politics website Axios.
“It’s one thing to try and live a life of integrity – still another to have people like yourself notice,” she reportedly gushes.
‘Incredible letters’
Each letter is accompanied by commentary from Mr Trump, who writes that he considers Ms Winfrey “amazing,” according to Axios, but complains that “she never spoke to me again” once he announced his bid for the White House in 2015.
Many of the missives, hand-picked by the billionaire, come from fellow titans of pop culture at a time when he cut a more glamorous, less divisive figure as a property magnate and reality TV star in Manhattan.
Mr Michael Jackson, Mr Clint Eastwood and Mr Shaquille O’Neal all loom large in the 320-page hardback, as does Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September 2022.
Other letters come from past presidents Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and there is never-before-seen correspondence with China’s President Xi Jinping and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un.
Mr Trump’s exchanges with Mr Kim
Mr Kim’s messages were among a cache of confidential government papers found in Mr Trump’s Florida mansion an ongoing criminal investigation.
“Letters from Trump” – retailing at a whopping US$99 (S$134), or US$399 for a signed copy – comes out on April 25.
Mr Trump took to his microblogging platform Truth Social on Thursday to tout the collection as “the most incredible letters that I have received over many years”.
In 2022, Winning Team Publishing, co-founded by Mr Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr, released the Republican firebrand’s coffee-table photo book, Our Journey Together, which chalked some US$20 million in sales. AFP
