Donald Trump shouldn’t expect a bump in sales of his “Our Journey Together” memoir that he is currently hawking in emails and at his rallies after Washington Post book critic Ron Charles took a torch to it in a recent book review.
According to Charles, the “$74.99, plus shipping” coffee table book published by Winning Team Publishing, run by Don Trump Jr and former campaign aide Sergio Gor, was supposed to have been available for Christmas but was delayed and no one really missed anything important.
As he notes, it loaded with photos from Trump’s only term as president with some highlighted by his “Sharpie scrawl” for captions. It is also loaded with bitter recriminations and ugly comments lodged against his enemies, real and perceived.
Pointing out, “It’s remarkable how effectively this presentation captures Trump’s wandering mind and self-sabotaging bitterness,” Charles notes that a picture of Trump with the late Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and his wife Cindy is accompanied by a caption reading, “John McCain visited me in the White House, asking for a job for his wife. I am smiling, but I didn’t like him even a little bit.”
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Under a photo of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Trump, wrote, “Mark Zuckerberg would come to the White House and kiss my ass,” while a photo of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) negotiating with the former president led Trump to write, “f—ing CRAZY – hence the name Crazy Nancy!”
According to Charles, “In short, this is a memoir spun from the thin gruel of musty propaganda and cherished grudges. Turning these pages is like watching an old man dust his Hummel figurines and whine about the neighbors.”
“Appropriately, his nominations of Supreme Court justices are highlighted, but for some reason, the book includes four pages of Japanese sumo wrestlers, a nod to Trump bankrolling the United States President’s Cup, awarded to ‘the number one sumo wrestler in the world,'” the critic reported. “The omissions elsewhere are breathtaking. Trump says little about his two impeachments, except for a photo of him holding up a copy of The Washington Post with the headline ‘Trump acquitted.’ The deaths of 400,000 Americans from covid during his administration goes unmentioned, aside from noting that he enjoyed ‘a quick recovery’ after he caught the virus.”
“What’s most striking, though, is the book’s sterility, its determined lack of intimacy. Although many photos feature his family, the majority of pictures appear to have been drawn from official ceremonies, public appearances and work duties,” Charles observed. “Only a handful of photos across more than 300 pages show Trump without a tie. He notes a celebration of his birthday by showing a full-page photo of the official dinner menu. Trump closes the book with three double-spreads in a row of large crowds of fans. The last photo is a close-up of Trump alone, looking solemnly to the side. Then there’s a Sharpie note: ‘America, our journey continues. Together we will take our country back. We will WIN!'”
You can read his whole review here.