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- Trump is unhappy with recent books and excerpts that reveal unflattering details about him, Politico reports.
- New books about Trump reveal shocking new details about the last months of the presidency.
- Trump sat for multiple interviews with authors Michael Bender, Michael Wolff, and others.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Former President Donald is experiencing buyer's remorse after books about his presidency – many of which he voluntarily gave interviews for – have steadily revealed one bombshell allegation after another about the dysfunction in his administration, Politico reports.
Axios reported in late June that Trump had sat for 22 individual interviews for 17 separate book projects, inviting authors to come to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida where he gave authors hours of material.
Authors who got multiple interviews include the Wall Street Journal's Michael Bender and author Michael Wolff, whose books "Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost" and "Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency" contain unflattering and downright shocking portrayals of Trump, the people around him, and their efforts to subvert the 2020 election.
The excerpts of the books published in advance of their releases have been chock-full of juicy nuggets about Trumpworld and the chaotic final months of the Trump presidency.
The anecdotes detail everything from the White House's haphazard response to the COVID-19 pandemic (and Trump's own brush with the illness), chaos surrounding the 2020 presidential race and the Trump team's outlandish efforts to overturn the election's results, the police killing of George Floyd and ensuing anti-racism protests in summer 2020, the January 6 Capitol riot, and even Trump saying Hitler "did a lot of good things."
More anecdotes about Gen. Mark Milley, the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his belief that Trump was a Nazi-like figure who could foment an all-out coup are also coming out of "I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year" by Washington Post reporters Phillip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, due for release on July 20.
Others books set for release starting in September include one by ABC News' Jon Karl's "Betrayal," and others by veteran journalist Bob Woodward, the Washington Examiner's David Drucker, and The New York Times' Jeremy Peters. A highly-anticipated but yet-to-be-titled book from Times reporter Maggie Haberman is also set for release in 2022.
Politico reported that Trump is particularly concerned, however, about forthcoming books by former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, to whom he gave an interview, and his son-in-law and former White House advisor Jared Kushner, who has reportedly distanced himself from Trump post-presidency.
There are also books written by conservative authors, specifically The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway and the New York Post's Miranda Devine, due for release in September 2021 that will paint a less damaging portrait of Trump.
But Trump may have an uphill battle trying to write a book of his own with a big publishing house. The former president boasted in June that he was "writing like crazy" on "the book of all books" and "turned down two book deals from the most unlikely publishers."
Politico reported in June, however, that none of the "big five" publishing houses have made offers for Trump's post-presidency memoirs, and that editors are wary of working with him because of his bad reputation in the publishing world, voluminous lies about the 2020 election, and the baggage from the January 6 insurrection.