Donald Trump is coming up out with a new book filled with vintage content. Letters To Trump will feature the missives Trump has received from the rich, famous, powerful and celebrated throughout his decades in the public eye.
The book, which hopes to follow the success of his previous release, Our Journey Together, is a reminder to consumers that proximity to the powerful is expensive: the new book retails for $99. (With a signature, that price rises to $399.)
The changing nature of Trump’s relationships as he moves from real estate mogul to TV star and then into the political realm drives much of the curiosity implicit in the tome.
Letters from the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Princess Diana harken back to ancient times best illustrated by the fact that — unthinkable as it later became — Hillary Clinton, along with her husband, attended Trump’s third wedding. Talk about the changing nature of relationships.
Speaking of Oprah Winfrey, her letter to Trump in the book reportedly shows Winfrey suggesting that she and Trump would make a powerful team if they were to partner up as a political tandem. Axios quotes Winfrey’s letter to Trump: “Too bad we’re not running for office. What a team!”
Trump agreed with Winfrey’s assessment, later confessing that he took her idea quite seriously. When he first considered running for president, long before he actually did run, Trump said he had Oprah in mind as a running mate.
In The America We Deserve, published in 2000, Trump said:
“At that time I announced that my first choice for vice president would be Oprah Winfrey. Again the political elites chortled — Oprah Winfrey! They just don’t understand how many Americans respect and admire Oprah for her intelligence and caring. She has provided inspiration for millions of women to improve their lives, go back to school, learn to read, and take responsibility for themselves. If I can’t get Oprah, I’d like someone like her.”
Trump had moved on by the time he ran against Joe Biden in 2020, when Biden did pick someone like Winfrey, the first Black and first female Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris.
After Biden/Harris won, Winfrey herself brought attention the similarity, saying she was moved by Harris’s rise “because to see someone who looks like you in this role, you see what’s possible for yourself. Period.”
Trump and Winfrey eventually went very different ways — Winfrey was far more of a Barack Obama person politically.
The Trump-Winfrey relationship before the split is one of the elements of Trump’s reach the new book hopes to show off. Indeed, the two powerful celebrities were so different 20 years after Winfrey wrote her “what a team” note that Trump was forced to consider Winfrey as a potential opponent in a presidential race.
During his first term in the Oval Office — before Biden secured the Democratic nomination — Trump predicted victory over Winfrey were she to run against him, as many urged her to do.
“I’ll beat Oprah,” he said. “Oprah would be a lot of fun. I know her very well. I like Oprah.” His new book shows that, once upon a time, the feeling was mutual.
